DC Velocity - May 2012

It is no secret that drivers have historically been taken for granted. But as demand continues to grow, rig counts shrink, and government programs like CSA 2010 remove unsafe drivers from the highways, qualified drivers are well-positioned to work wherever they want. Shippers must pay heed to the changing environment and end their cavalier treatment of drivers, executives said.

“If you call me and say ‘I need my load picked up at 3:00’ and I get there at 3:00, don’t screw me around and load me at 4: 30 or 5:00,” said Clowdis of IHS.

With drivers constrained by federal hours-of-service rules, each minute they sit idle waiting for loading or unloading is one minute of lost income. It also creates operational headaches for carriers whose drivers are running shorter lengths of haul per day than ever before and have more daily stops to make as a result.

Kohl of Marten said as U.S. commerce and distribution becomes more regionalized, carriers like Marten find themselves operating over shorter distances and making multiple stops. Each stop involves loading and unloading, and ups the risk of delays that could derail an entire workday, Kohl said.

“Our typical loaded length of haul
today is about 550 miles,” he said. “It used
to be 1,000 miles.”
If a driver arrives early or is on time but
the load isn’t ready, a shipper should be
prepared to give him or her a comfortable
rest place with something to eat or drink,
rather than have the driver leave the facil-
ity and drive around looking for a truck
stop, carrier executives said.

Van Alstine of Schneider said the carrier was pleasantly surprised when a large customer—a big-name retailer that Van Alstine would not identify—consulted Schneider on the development of a dedicated rest area for drivers while designing a distribution center.

“They wanted to know what would be an appropriate space for drivers to get easy access to their docks, and to rest and wait, if need be. They wanted to make sure they designed a driver-friendly distribution center,” he said. “We were thrilled.” The anecdote is an example, albeit a

small one, of what could become a
new and positive chapter in the
long-contentious yet necessary rela-
tionship. The consensus among car-
rier executives is that shippers
understand the situation and are far
more receptive than in the past to
the idea of treating carriers as part-
ners rather than adversaries.