and what keeps them from accomplishing the task
within the number of hours in a day they can operate. The good news is that both sides now have
increased visibility into the problems and their
causes, and that’s a key step toward achieving solutions, according to Kohl of Marten Transport.
Kohl contended that as technology becomes
more pervasive in fleet operations, the standard
shipper demand of lumping accessorial charges
into the base rate rather than breaking them out as
individual line items should be tossed over the side.
Unless the items and charges are listed separately,
Kohl said, carriers will never be fairly compensated
for the actual cost of the individual services, and the
specific issues that slowed the trucks down and
warranted the accessorial fees in the first place
won’t be identified and corrected.
In a business where time is money and driver
delays cause real-time cash burn, “it’s critical that
drivers get paid for the ‘down’ time that they don’t
control,” Kohl said.
However, shippers should not blindly accept all
accessorials without first understanding what they
mean and then negotiating any appropriate
changes with the carriers, according to Charles W.
Clowdis Jr., a long-time trucking executive and
head of supply chain advisory services at consul-tancy IHS Global Insight. “Most carriers will be
more than willing to discuss and negotiate,”
Clowdis said.
To pre-empt the aggravation of having to work
things out across a bargaining table, Clowdis has
advised that, when appropriate, shippers compensate truckers and drivers for going—sometimes literally—the extra mile upon request.
“If you need a driver to go into a residential area
to make a delivery, give him a few extra bucks for
doing it,” he said.
4Show a little love. For years, there has been mounting evidence showing that drivers jump
companies and leave the industry not because of
inadequate pay or benefits, but because of lifestyle
issues and the shabby treatment they receive from
shippers and even from their employers.
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 high-
ways, qualified drivers are well-positioned to work
wherever they want. Shippers must pay heed to the
changing environment and end their cavalier treat-
ment of drivers, executives said.
