Letters: All Things Safety, Trailer Tracking, The American Dream

These Letters to the Editor appear in the April 13 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

All Things Safety

Here we go again — the safety freaks filing yet another challenge to the current hours of service, led unfortunately by my illustrious leader, James Hoffa (3-16, p. 1; click here for previous subscriber-content story). I think he needs to pull his head out of the sand on this one.  

It’s not a coincidence that the safety record of the industry continues to improve significantly since these new, more commonsense hours-of-service rules went into effect.

Let’s try to explain this for those who think they know what they’re talking about. In exchange for one — and I repeat, only one — extra hour of driving time, from the old 10 hours to the new 11 hours, the Department of Transportation reduced from 15 hours available on duty in a 24-hour period to 14 hours available and increased by two hours the off-duty time from eight hours to 10 hours. It’s a sensible compromise — more rest in exchange for only one extra hour of driving time. 

They also instituted a 34-hour restart, another commonsense idea. Under the old rules, you were better off working seven days a week to make sure you always had hours coming back from the previous seventh or eighth day. God forbid you had a zero on your log a week prior: “Sorry, boss, I can’t work today because I didn’t work a day seven days ago.”

Personally, I think the hours-of-service rules should allow 12 hours of driving in a 14-hour on-duty period, with 10 hours off and a 48-hour restart. But the 12 hours would give both Jim Hoffa and Joan Claybrook heart failure, and the truckload carriers would surely goberserk if they had to give their drivers two full days off at home.

Should we use electronic onboard recorders? I’m all for them. It should have been done a long time ago. Will they instantly level the playing field? You had to love the initial comments awhile back from John Hill of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration about going after  only the “habitual bad offenders.” If they’re such continued bad actors, why are they still allowed in business? Probably because it’s usually more about the collection of revenue through fines and penalties than truly about safety.

Should we use speed limiters? Absolutely. There’s no need for heavy trucks to have to travel faster then 68 mph. But why is there never any talk from the kings of safety about governing the speed of autos at, say, 75 mph or 78 mph maximum? Supposedly, according to statistics, more than 40,000 people die on the highways every year. Why is the auto industry allowed to produce vehicles that go so fast? I know voters will tell you it’s somehow their constitutional right to drive like a maniacal wing nut, but that’s really not the case.

Congressman? Senator? Sorry — I forgot you’re too busy with the agendas of truck-hating “safety” groups.

Keith St. Louis

Driver

ABF Freight

Johnston, R.I.

Trailer Tracking

Installing tracking devices will help increase trailer efficiency (“Fleets Struggle to Achieve Productivity Gains,” 3-23, p. 1; click here for previous subscriber-content story), which is critical in these times. For companies that cannot make the investment right now, however, I offer an alternative.

A return to a “back to basics” approach in dispatching is critical. A comprehensive freight-management system should make dispatchers aware of idle trailers. These trailers then either can be put into use or decommissioned, saving costs on licenses and insurance.

The key is having the alert in your system to notify the dispatcher, who then must follow through with an action for that trailer — knowing that idle trailers cost transportation companies a lot of money. Saving that money is a must in today’s economy.

Ken Weinberg

Vice President

Carrier Logistics Inc.

Tarrytown, N.Y.

The American Dream

I want to hold someone responsible for the mess our economy is in. It makes my teeth hurt to know that the very stewards of our banking industry walked away with huge bonuses even after driving the stock market and the housing industry to its knees. The resultant fallout from their excesses of questionable loans and iffy assets is that other enterprises, like trucking, are being locked out of lines of credit that bridge the gap between invoices and payments.

The “American dream” is not dead, but it sure is taking a butt-kicking these days. Between the foreclosures and disappearing retirement accounts, it is enough to make you want to opt out until it is all over. Unfortunately, in the trucking business there is no place to hide.

The average truck driver is expected to wait 30, 60, sometimes 90 days to receive payment for a delivered load. If a carrier cannot wait, a negotiation for an 8% to 10% discount for quick payment is often reached, forcing the driver into smaller and smaller paydays. Call it survival of the fittest if you want, but I think it is taking advantage of the small carrier during this credit squeeze.

Factoring is a real alternative and a simple financial solution for the trucking industry (3-9, p. 1; click here for previous subscriber-content story). In practice, a driver sells his freight invoice to a factoring company that advances the money quickly, minus a fee as low as 1%. With an immediate advance on invoices, profits accumulate quickly and allow the trucker to get ahead of payments, take advantage of discounts, negotiate for higher-

paying loads and extend credit terms.

No, the American dream is not dead, but we cannot wait for Washington to solve our problems or fix what is broken. We might like to identify who is responsible, but we do not have that luxury because there are loads to deliver, bills to pay and no matter what, we keep on truckin’.

John Downing

Vice President

Freight Capital

Carlsbad, Calif.