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September 13, 2005
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Headline
News
Crete to Pay Drivers Practical Route Miles
TCA member Crete Carrier Corp., one of the largest trucking companies in the country, will start paying its drivers Practical Route miles, according to Tonn Ostergard, company president and chief executive officer.
Crete Carrier Corp. owns and operates Crete Carrier, Shaffer Trucking and Hunt Transportation Inc. Collectively, the group offers a full range of transportation services and ranks as one of the 20 largest trucking companies in the country.
The change to Practical Route miles will take effect at the start of Crete Carrier's fiscal year on Oct. 1. Currently, the company pays its drivers industry-standard Short Route miles. Ostergard said the switch to Practical Route miles was made to more accurately reflect Crete Carrier's commitment to its drivers. The change will affect the 5,600 drivers who are either employed by or contract with Crete Carrier.
“Even though paying Practical Route miles is not the standard in our industry, we made this change with the best interests of our drivers in mind,” Ostergard said. “When we say ‘there are no shortcuts' at Crete Carrier, we mean it.”
Crete Carrier provides dry van service, Shaffer Trucking offers temperature-sensitive service and Hunt Transportation has flatbed and specialized transportation. The company operates 5,348 power units and more than 12,435 trailers, serving customers throughout the United States , Canada and Mexico .
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American Trucking Associations Calls on Congress to Address Skyrocketing Fuel Prices, ATA Requests Single National Diesel Fuel Standard
The American Trucking Associations has called upon Congress to address the skyrocketing price of fuel as part of ongoing efforts to limit the negative effects of fuel prices on the trucking industry, and ultimately, the national economy.
“Rapid escalation in the price of diesel fuel, like we've seen in 2005, is devastating to the trucking industry and will result in failures, lower capital investment, and negative employment trends,” ATA President and CEO Bill Graves said. “The trucking industry is primarily a small-business industry with relatively slim profit margins yet is the backbone of the U.S. economy.”
In written testimony submitted to the Senate and House Energy Committees, ATA asked Congress to increase U.S. investment in refining capacity as well as to amend the Clean Air Act to restore a single national diesel fuel standard so as to limit the magnitude and duration of fuel price spikes.
ATA said the United States for years has underinvested in refining capacity even as oil refiners operated at 95 percent capacity. As a result, when hurricane Katrina crippled Gulf refineries, other facilities were unable to increase production to make up the difference. This made price spikes more extreme than necessary, ATA said.
At the same time, the lack of a single national diesel fuel standard generates regional price disparities and heightens localized supply shortages and price spikes. Varying state diesel fuel requirements, for example, typically prevent diesel fuel from being transported from one jurisdiction to another in times of shortage. The fact that region-specific fuels also tend to be produced by only a handful of refineries results in less competition and higher fuel prices.
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NATSO Urges Fuel Card Companies to Reduce Fees in Katrina Aftermath
NATSO President and Chief Executive Officer Lisa Mullings is urging all fuel card companies to reduce or suspend their fuel card transaction fees in the wake of a national crisis and record-high fuel prices brought on by Hurricane Katrina.
Last week, Mullings sent a letter to Commercial Fueling Network, Comdata, EFS Transportation Services, Fleet One, LLC, T-Chek Systems, and TCH, LLC on behalf of NATSO members. “The Gulf Coast tragedy and recent rising fuel costs have greatly increased the cost of fuel in this country,” Mullings said in the letter. “Truckstops and travel plazas are working to supply product and to control prices so that they can keep America 's truckers on the road and protect our economy. As an important partner to the nation's truckstops, we urge the fuel card companies to help them keep America moving by reducing card fees for the entire industry.”
Mullings said that because of the rising costs of fuel, transaction fees hit independent operators particularly hard because they are paying fuel card companies a percentage of the fuel transaction amount. As fuel costs increase, a location's costs increase as well, which they have to pass on to the consumer, she said, adding that NATSO was hopeful that reducing or suspending transaction fees as the nation responds to Katrina would benefit fleets, consumers and hurricane victims. NATSO said it would send updates to its members as the fuel card companies respond to its request.Top
American Transportation Research Institute Issues Report Highlighting Role of Trucking in National Security
The American Transportation Research Institute and the University of Minnesota jointly issued a report highlighting the role of trucking in national security and how security technologies can be incorporated into the trucking industry.
The report, titled Homeland Security and the Trucking Industry, documents developing trends in commercial vehicle operations pertaining to various economics and technology investments, and their requisite impact on preparedness and homeland security. For example, the report provides an in-depth review of smart-card applications, biometric verification systems and cargo management devices. It also documents the security implications of such industry trends as the driver shortage as well as rising fuel and insurance costs.
“The trucking industry has instituted numerous precautions and taken the lead on various national freight security programs,” said Greg Owen, CEO of Ability-TriModal Transportation Services. “But this report will help the trucking industry better target limited resources.”
The American Transportation Research Institute and the University of Minnesota were contracted by truck manufacturer International Truck and Engine Corp. to analyze commercial vehicle operations and determine how new technologies and post-9/11 security programs and policies impact the operational environment of the trucking industry. To accomplish the task, ATRI and the University of Minnesota 's Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute conducted a series of interviews, literature scans and analyses on security programs, industry trends and technology systems.
Prior to 9/11, security in the trucking industry equated to crime, cargo theft, trucking safety or personal protection for drivers. In the United States , only one or two isolated cases exist in which commercial trucks were used as weapons, with neither incident being associated with an organized campaign. However, considerable attention has been paid in recent times to the trucking industry as a potential vehicle for terrorism because it possesses some important attributes associated with terrorism, including access, sizeable volumes, and its open operational environment.
The trucking industry remains extremely sensitive to the consequences that might arise from a truck-based terrorist attacked. As a result, motor carriers have researched, analyzed, developed and implemented a host of programs, strategies and technologies that directly or indirectly address security concerns.
A copy of the report is available on ATRI's website at http://www.atri-online.org/research/results/index.htm .
ATRI is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit research arm of the trucking industry. It is engaged in critical research relating to freight transportation's essential role in maintaining a safe, secure and efficient transportation system.
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FMCSA Working to Address Gray Area of HOS Regulations
Since the Hours of Service regulations were released on August 19, TCA has received numerous calls from carriers concerned about gray areas in the regulations most notably dealing with the sleeper berth provision and the effects of the regulations on team drivers. TCA was notified that FMCSA has a team in place that is addressing these gray areas. This team will release clarifications and log book examples on the FMCSA website at an unspecified time. TCA will alert you when this information becomes available.
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HOS Transition Period for Compliance
The hours-of-service final rule published on August 25, 2005 (70 Fed. Reg. 49978) becomes effective on October 1, 2005. FMCSA recognizes that neither the motor carrier industry nor enforcement agencies will be able to implement every provision of the new hours-of-service regulations immediately. Therefore, the Agency will provide a transition period for compliance and enforcement from October 1, 2005 through December 31, 2005 .
This period will give industry and State law enforcement officials time to adjust to the new hours-of-service rules . Motor carriers will need to modify their hours-of-service educational materials and train their employees on these changes. States will need to revise their enforcement manuals, reprogram their computers, and retrain roadside personnel. The Agency believes it is particularly important that drivers be aware of the new hours-of-service rules, and so encourages States during the transitional period to educate drivers about the new hours-of-service rules, just as the Agency has developed outreach materials and is undertaking efforts to assist the public, motor carriers, drivers and the enforcement community.
During this transitional period FMCSA will monitor carriers for egregious violations of the new hours-of-service rule and pursue enforcement action when necessary. Egregious violations are those that show a clear disregard for safety by the motor carrier or operator. We strongly encourage our State partners to show comparable enforcement discretion.
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It all Begins with Selection
It is not exactly breaking news that the trucking industry is dealing with two pressing problems: driver shortages and high turnover rates. The driver shortage, without serious efforts to recruit and train from new or unconventional applicant pools, will continue to grow. The trucking industry is not the only major industry facing shortages and the smart companies are the ones who take the initiative to go after those populations first.
It is not unusual to talk to trucking companies with 90% to 120% or even higher turnover rates. If a company has 400 drivers and 120% turnover rate, that's a lot of hiring in one year. That doesn't mean, of course, that all drivers in a given company are replaced every year. A good portion of the driver workforce is there year in and year out. That means that there is a smaller portion of that work force that is really churning during the year at rates much higher than 120%. That high turnover rate in the industry is both a curse and a blessing. A curse because companies are constantly having to recruit and hire new drivers and a blessing because there is somewhat of an applicant flow from which to choose. That applicant flow can sometimes be as high as 20 to 30 to one. Companies with better reputations tend to attract better and more applicants.
Whether a given trucking company is going after new populations from which there has been very little recruiting in the past or whether they are trying to sort and sift from the roving band of existing drivers to fill their vacancies, the key is selection. Typically, companies have sizeable budgets for training and comparatively little for selection. Indeed, the amount of money spent every year trying to train people to be something that they are not and never will be is staggering. Productivity, performance, turnover, and safety all begin with selection and it is money well spent to beef up the selection process with tools that will help identify drivers with the right stuff.
One way to do that is to identify the specific job behaviors of truck driving which have the greatest impact on performance, i.e., the actual job behaviors which account for the most variance in productivity outcomes. This approach will identify the behaviors which define the whole job not just the driving skills. Truck driving skills for a truck driver are genuine minimum qualifications for those who want to get in the cab of an 18 wheeler and most training programs focus on those skills. Having those skills is important and necessary for a career in trucking. But the actual process of being able to drive an 18-wheeler is only part of the job and only part of what makes a successful, productive, and safe truck driver. The skills associated with actually driving a truck constitute maybe 30 to 40 percent of the total job and even if one had a perfect measure of those truck driving skills one would still only be measuring 30 to 40 percent of the job. It is very difficult to predict over all job performance based on only 30 to 40 percent of the job. There would still be 60 to 70 percent of the job left unaccounted for and this unaccounted for percentage can and does have a huge impact on performance, turnover and safety.
The best way to identify all of the behaviors which make up the job and account for variances in productivity is to begin with a thorough job analysis with a panel of drivers who are considered to be overall superior in their performance. Such a job analysis will produce somewhere between three and five hundred job specific behaviors which make up the job and its responsibilities. That same panel of superior drivers will then rate each of those behaviors using criteria that are related to job success. An analysis of their ratings will identify the specific job behaviors, including but not limited to driving skills, which account for the differences between the best and the worst drivers. The selection process then focuses on those behaviors which differentiate between the two groups, i.e., the high performance behaviors. Here's the logic: if you could hire people like your very best, would you be happy? If the answer is yes, why not go to those exact drivers and find out from them how they do their job and how they do it so well. Build your selection process around the way your best drivers do their job so that the way your best drivers do their job is now the standard against which you measure your applicants. This approach can be used to hire the best applicants available and, in tight labor markets, to keep you from hiring from the bottom quartile of applicants, those most likely to be low producers and high liability risks.
By Richard F. Scheig Ph.D. He can be contacted at 800-999-8582 / rscheig@scheig.com.
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Hurricane Katrina - Mississippi and Louisiana Trucking Update
In the past week TCA has continued to work to keep you informed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. As the clean up effort gets underway there have been nearly daily updates to www.truckload.org including requests for trucks, updates to road closings, and new emergency management contact information. Please note our latest Hurricane Katrina information pertaining to Mississippi and Louisiana and also available on our website:
MISSISSIPPI TRUCKING SERVICES UPDATE:
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) continues to deliver pre-sorted relief supplies from Jackson, MS to damaged coastal areas from a 17-door staging area/warehouse. Destination sites are manned with unloading crews and/or fork lifts.
As electrical power and telephone service has been restored, carriers wishing to participate in the Jackson-based relief supplies delivery system should now contact Steve Boudreaux at the Mississippi Trucking Association, 601-354-0616 (from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM CT) or the distribution warehouse, 601-969-6155, after hours. As a backup, MEMA Volunteer Coordinator Blake Wilson is available via cell phone, 601-940-2877.
Donors only of goods or trucking-related services may also continue to contact the Governor's emergency hotline, 1-866-230-8903, to exchange information and to receive instructions. Contractors and vendors should deal directly with MEMA, 601-352-9100—although information may be sparse at this time.
LOUISIANA TRUCKING SERVICES UPDATE:
There are three donated goods warehouse distribution centers now open. They still need bottled water, baby food, MRE (Meals Ready to Eat), individually wrapped snacks, diapers, etc. No used clothes or shoes, preferably non-perishable commodities. Only a few centers are accepting non-perishable commodities. All goods should be palletized, need manifest of load, and call in advance so they can make sure they have volunteers to unload the goods. Trucks should have a final destination, contact person and contact number before they enter the state.
There are three donated goods warehouse distribution centers: Alexandria, New Iberia, Baker and Hammond in Louisiana. Call VOAD at 225-922-0772 and they will tell you the best warehouse for delivery depending on the goods you are transporting. Or call Louisiana Motor Transport Association, (225) 928-5682, and they will help coordinate the load.
Some companies will pay for freight but since there is little opportunity for a backhaul, they are not able to find trucking companies to transport the load to Louisiana.
To visit truckload.org's Hurricane Katrina transportation update area click here.
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