words from the wise
Charles “Shorty” Whittington, chairman of
the American Trucking Associations (ATA),
is known for his folksy play-it-straight commentary. And that’s just what he delivered in
his address at NASSTRAC’s 2009 Logistics
Conference and Expo last month in
Orlando, Fla. The genial, white-haired
Whittington kept the audience laughing
even as he described in painful detail the
challenges facing motor carriers today.
Among his observations:
Motor carriers are putting everything
they have into opposing the Employee Free
Choice Act, which could greatly increase
union penetration of the trucking industry.
“Millions of dollars are being spent in
Washington to explain the problems EFCA
would cause to congressmen and senators,”
Whittington said.
Trucking companies are also concerned
about attempts by public safety groups to
overturn the current hours-of-service
(HOS) rule, which was updated in 2003.
During the ATA’s winter board meeting,
Whittington said, some 275 trucking executives called on legislators from 44 states to
urge them to resist calls to roll back the regulations to the pre-2003 standard. Safety
records have greatly improved under the
new regime, the carrier executives told lawmakers, and the current regulations should
remain in force.
The trend toward distribution networks
with more DCs and warehouses—thus
reducing distances from DCs to destinations—may save shippers money but it’s
costing drivers. “Drivers get paid by the mile,
and these shorter runs affect their ability to
make a living,” Whittington said.
The driver shortage is over—for now.
One large carrier Whittington knows of
received 5,000 applications for 90 positions
recently. Carriers will have to redesign their
training programs for new hires as states
place more restrictions on who can handle
what types of cargoes, he predicted.
Alabama recently began requiring drivers to
be tested and certified to tie down steel coils
on flatbeds, Whittington said, and other
states will likely start issuing training
requirements of their own.
inbound
where politics and ports collide
You might not think of seaports and airports as beacons of social
responsibility, but Tay Yoshitani believes they have the same obligations to society as any other business. The Port of Seattle CEO has
established an Office of Social Responsibility, and he’s made accountability and earning public trust two of the port authority’s guiding
principles. He’s also challenged his staff to adopt the “faster, better,
cheaper” mantra and added “safer and cleaner” to their mission.
Running an environmentally responsible operation is the right
thing to do for a lot of reasons, Yoshitani said in a keynote speech
at the Coalition of New England Companies for Trade (CONECT)
Northeast Trade and Transportation Conference in Newport, R.I.
But a “sustainable” business model is not just about the environment, he said. “The other two ingredients are economic impact
and social justice.”
In today’s political atmosphere, the environment, the economy,
and society are tightly connected, Yoshitani noted. One result is that
port operations are coming under increased environmental scrutiny by local citizens. “The days of getting immediate environmental
impact approval because projects create jobs are over,” Yoshitani
said. “Ports that work successfully with their surrounding communities and manage their facilities in an environmentally responsible
way will be successful. Those that don’t risk local stakeholders’
shutting down ports and blocking international trade.” That would
hurt local, regional, and national economies, he added. “Make no
mistake—when cargo disappears, it translates into job losses.”
membership has its privileges
Chemical transportation is different from your run-of-the-mill
shipping operation. Products require special protective packaging,
and they often move as bulk solids and liquids instead of in tidy
cardboard cartons or on pallets. And oh, yeah—there’s that little
matter of danger. The fact that some of this stuff can blow up,
burst into flames, or corrode whatever it touches means that
chemical shippers face unique challenges when it comes to shipping, handling, and regulatory compliance.
To help simplify the process for its members, the Society of
Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates (SOCMA) has teamed up
with ChemLogix LLC, a provider of logistics management and
technology services for the chemical industry. SOCMA members
can choose to have ChemLogix develop a customized tariff for
their domestic and/or international shipments. The tariffs will feature all-in-one rates that include the line-haul or ocean rate, related accessorial fees, and a margin for providing a host of additional services. These services include coordinating and tendering
loads, providing shipment status updates and alerts, performance
reporting, and freight bill auditing and payment. Freight services
are available for LTL, truckload, bulk, intermodal, and international hazardous and non-hazardous liquid and dry materials.
