BY CLIFFORD F. LYNCH
fastlane
My annual letter to Santa Claus
DEAR SANTA,
Well, the election has finally come and gone. With luck, things
will settle down and something can be accomplished in Congress,
particularly on those issues that affect our supply chain. During
the campaign, we heard a multitude of promises from both candi-
dates, and now it is time to see which promises will be kept.
I realize I always ask you to resolve the hard problems and sometimes request the same things two or three years in a row, but this
year, in particular, supply chain managers need your help. The
truck driver hours-of-service controversy continues, and Public
Citizen has filed a suit seeking to reduce daily driving limits to 10
hours. The suit has been challenged by the
National Shippers Strategic Transportation
Council (NASSTRAC) and the American
Trucking Associations (ATA) and is now before
the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington. I hope
you will bring the court stockings full of wisdom to get this resolved once and for all.
Enough is enough. I dare say you already have
reindeer keeping two sets of log books. You can’t
get a lot done in 10 hours on Christmas Eve.
Just a week after you finish your deliveries for
the year, economists and others are predicting
some pretty dire circumstances as we hit the
“fiscal cliff,” where taxes, tax breaks, and spending cuts all intersect.
Naturally, a lot depends on where the economy goes from there,
but I’m becoming increasingly concerned about the “supply chain
cliff,” the point at which the cost of providing the kind of service
that consumers demand becomes so high that they’re no longer
willing to pick up the tab. Hours-of-service restrictions, driver
shortages, capacity constraints, fuel costs, and infrastructure issues
all are contributing to higher transportation costs and, I believe,
will continue to do so. The e-commerce people have it right: If you
want your order overnight, you pay a premium price. If you don’t
care when it gets there, you pay less. These options are not always
available with other kinds of shipments. How about contacting a
couple of our more forward-thinking academics or consultants
and asking them to develop a cafeteria plan for freight pricing? We
will not be able to provide perfect service with such an imperfect
supply chain.
The last thing on my list is a repeat request. In spite of all the
conversation about our crumbling infrastructure, little is being
accomplished, at least not for the overall good.
We need to rid ourselves of the notion that
this is all about jobs. Legislation must focus on
our roads and bridges and a broad network of
highways that will allow for the smooth movement of goods while at the same time providing for national defense. Much of the stimulus
funds were squandered on so-called “shovel
ready” projects that did little, if anything, to
boost the efficiency of interstate commerce.
My fervent hope is that you can convince our
leaders they must develop a
firm plan for improving
our infrastructure and,
along with the states, provide the resources to
accomplish it. The jobs will
follow. We need to look no
further than the interstate
system conceived in 1956
for a model. This system,
mandated by the federal
government, provided not
only for efficient transportation, but thousands of construction and
roadside business jobs. But this system is old
and tired. It needs help.
I can’t think of anyone better than you to
influence our leaders to work toward this goal,
keeping in mind that you will be dealing with
a relatively unchanged Congress. But, as long
as you control the toys, you’re the man. ;
Merry Christmas!
Cliff Lynch
Clifford F. Lynch is principal of C.F. Lynch & Associates, a provider
of logistics management advisory services, and author of
Logistics Outsourcing – A Management Guide and co-author of The
Role of Transportation in the Supply Chain. He can be reached at
cliff@cflynch.com.
