Perspective

The logistics industry in the United States is rapidly evolving. Thirty or 40 years ago, we worked within our own borders to manufacture and produce many of our own goods. In the 1980s and 1990s, this quickly shifted to China and India, because production costs and labor were much cheaper overseas. Even with the costs of transportation, the United States could manufacture goods much easier in China than in our own homeland.

The trucking industry is notorious for pre-buying trucks before each Environmental Protection Agency-mandated change in heavy-truck engines. Many fleets do so because they are concerned about the reliability of the new technology, or they are trying to avoid the increased cost of new technology. Both are valid concerns.

Truck drivers, for the most part, don’t stay with one company for long. They go elsewhere quicker than they can be replaced.

Many years ago, when I was new to transportation safety, our team crafted five tenets for safety success:

As chairman of the American Truck Dealers, the challenge for all of us — truck manufacturers, trucking companies and dealers — is to build relationships with members of Congress and federal regulators so that we have a voice in shaping the environment in which our businesses operate.

The Food and Drug Administration’s new rules on sanitary transportation of human and animal food products have many third-party logistics providers concerned about liability. With the rules defining brokers as shippers, many 3PLs may soon become responsible for requirements tied to equipment, training and record keeping — all things they haven’t been accountable for in the past.

While it is true that even the best dedicated-carrier fleets have been late at one time or another, most quality fleets deliver high-quality performance over time. The quality of the service is generally not the key reason that severs ties between buyers and sellers. For this text, we’ll just focus on three drivers for change.

In the trucking industry, we’re fond of calling ourselves the lifeblood of the American economy — delivering the goods that our stores, hospitals and restaurants need to maintain our quality of life.

Expectations this year are for the U.S. economy to grow moderately, fuel prices to stay at historic lows and truck capacity to remain tight for a healthy rate environment. However, growing faster than the competition will require more than opportunities.

If you had an extra $2 million to spend on your fleet, what would you do with it? I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that most fleet owners would earmark the cash for capital expenditures or personnel development.