Letters: Risk Control, Success in Logistics, Hours of Service

These Letters to the Editor appear in the Aug. 9 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

Risk Control

First of all, I would like to commend op-ed writer Steve Silverman for his “Opinion” contribution in Transport Topics’ July 12 edition:

“Boosting Safety to Control Risks, Cut Losses” (p. 9; click here for Opinion piece). I agree with him that the value a solid risk-management program can supply is priceless.

In his article, Silverman wrote, “Carriers must identify and analyze the full range of risks and take action to mitigate them.”

I believe sleep apnea is certainly one of those risks.

A 2002 study by University of Pennsylvania sponsored by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the American Transportation Research Institute of American Trucking Associations documented that 28% of CDL holders participating in the study had some degree of sleep apnea.

If untreated, the disorder can increase the risk that a company assumes with its drivers — not to mention the increase in health-care costs, which a study published in 1999 by researchers at the University of Washington found to be more than double that of subjects’ treated counterparts.

“Among cases studied, mean annual medical cost prior to diagnosis was $2,720 versus $1,384 for age and gender matched controls,” the researchers wrote in the paper.

Fortunately, some companies are slowly waking to the fact that untreated sleep apnea presents higher risks for their organization, and they are creating proactive programs to address the issue.

Furthermore, ATA co-sponsored the Sleep Apnea and Trucking Conference with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration this past spring.

I applaud ATA for being in the forefront to help the industry better manage this driver health and wellness concern.

In the interim, however, companies and their drivers need to realize that sticking their heads in the sand is not a suitable option. Granted, programs that address the sleep apnea issue will reduce risks and health-care expenses — and therefore save money — but companies need to realize that this also is a moral issue and they are obligated to help eliminate preventable accidents and unnecessary deaths on our highways.

Greg Hughes

Executive Director

Occupational Sleep

Apnea Solutions Inc.

Charlotte, N.C.

Success in Logistics

I am writing to comment on the article “Fleets Raising Driver Pay, Recruiting Challenges Spur Sharp Increases,” on p. 1 of the July 26 print edition of Transport Topics. (Click here for previous article.)

More and more often, we are seeing articles like these expressing concerns over recruiting challenges. The logistics industry has been rocked by the recent, very severe economic downturn, and much has been written about the increased scarcity of drivers, maintenance technicians and capital.

As we have seen in the past, nations, industries and even families have faced extremely challenging situations throughout history. I believe that severe situations, in some instances, can bring about transformation into a much better future.

It is with this belief that I ask company owners in the logistics industry to look at a critical component needed to yield a successful future of our logistics industry — leaders and great leadership. With great leaders and leadership, we can aim not only to seek employees in this time of decreasing capacity but also to retain and build the capacity that already exists within our organizations.

The words “leaders” and “leadership” mean various things to various audiences. Many today believe there are a lack of quality leaders and consequently a lack of high-quality leadership in government, industry, civic organizations and even families. If that is true, future generations will suffer and pay a high price for this lack of a much talked-about asset. What’s lacking and why is there not enough? Why is this asset so important?

Positive leadership is about moving organizations from where they are to a better future. Leaders must put together the right combination of vision, passion, skills, resources and action plans, but no one person can embody all of these traits. The most successful leaders are able to assemble a team of leader/managers who together embody all of these traits. In simple terms, great leaders understand the concept of synergy.

Developing team synergy is not easy, but loving your team members enough to get their very best is even more difficult. A great leader sees his team as his responsibility — a gift given to him to develop, care for and improve.

Great leaders spend time getting to know their people, listening to them and challenging them to achieve. They are open and honest, even when the news is not good. Great leaders are hopeful and always see a way to a better future.

People know when leaders value them. Loving leadership creates passion, extra effort, pride and ownership of the cause within and among team members. Loving your team in the ways described requires sacrifice and demands that leaders put their followers, their team members ahead of themselves. This is extremely difficult and rarely seen today.

At my company, we believe in developing great leaders and great leadership. We believe our people deserve great leaders. We are humbled by the requirements to become great leaders but not put off from the journey.

We do not believe we have arrived, nor do we say, “Look at us, we’re great leaders.” We simply say great organizations are made up of great people who deserve great leadership.

We see the vision, we are committed to the objective; we are on the journey of developing great leaders. We want our company to become a great company.

A critical need for our logistics industry’s future success is great leaders providing great leadership. We are at a pivotal point in our industry’s future.

The leaders of our industry will answer questions and make decisions that will shape the next 10 to 20 years. How do we make this an industry that attracts great people? What’s needed to make this a financially healthy industry? How do we continue to create value for our customers, our team members and our shareholders? What are the things we need to stop doing that are devastating for our people and our balance sheets?

There’s an old saying, “Heat and pressure produce dust or diamonds.” This is the time for the leaders of our industry to rise up and shine.

Reggie Dupré

CEO

Dupré Logistics LLC

Lafayette, La.

Hours of Service

Have any of these know-it-alls ever driven a truck from one coast to the other (8-2, p. 3; click here for article)?  No.

Do they know how tired you get when it’s impossible to sleep but just because you’re out of driving hours, you have to sit around and wait for the next set of hours you can drive? No.

This is the worst law possible for the entire industry because:

1. You cannot go to sleep at the drop of a hat.

2. It causes a driver to become more anxious to gain miles when he is driving during his allotted time, which can result in the driver either speeding or becoming reckless and agitated.

Drivers should be allowed to drive until they are tired and then stop and sleep whatever hours they need as an individual. No two drivers will need the same amount of sleep time.

Congress seemingly hasn’t grasped the notion that, whenever goods are shipped in, air-lifted in or railroaded in, the good old truck drivers have to get the items to their destinations. Otherwise, we would be without food, medicine, clothing, furniture, cars — you name it. It all has to have a truck driver to complete the delivery.

Everyone in Congress should have to get into a truck and travel for a couple of weeks under the stupid hours-of-service rule as it stands now. They then would have a switch turned on in their brain, whereby they would understand the whole trucking industry.

Just keep messing with the hours-of-service rules, and when all the trucks on the road decide to shut it down for days or weeks, the United States of America will be totally crippled.

L. Knight

Owner

CDL Logistics

Chatsworth, Ga.