Mark Solomon joined DC VELOCITY as senior editor in August 2008, and was promoted to his current position on January 1, 2015. He has spent more than 30 years in the transportation, logistics and supply chain management fields as a journalist and public relations professional. From 1989 to 1994, he worked in Washington as a reporter for the Journal of Commerce, covering the aviation and trucking industries, the Department of Transportation, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to that, he worked for Traffic World for seven years in a similar role. From 1994 to 2008, Mr. Solomon ran Media-Based Solutions, a public relations firm based in Atlanta. He graduated in 1978 with a B.A. in journalism from The American University in Washington, D.C.
Turnover among truck drivers has become as big a problem as finding qualified ones.
In the first quarter, turnover at large truckload fleets hit 97 percent, up from an annualized rate of 90
percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to the American Trucking Associations (ATA). Turnover at
less-than-truckload (LTL) fleets—historically much lower than in the truckload sector because of shorter
driving distances that result in a better work-life balance—has reached the highest level in more than seven years,
increasing to 15 percent in the first quarter from 10 percent in the prior quarter. Most of the truckload and LTL turnover is caused by driver "churn," the practice of jumping from
one fleet to another.
Now a new driver satisfaction study has found that driver defections are not due to any one specific factor such as
pay, benefits, more home time, or the respect of their employers or colleagues. Rather, they are caused by the failure of
trucking companies to deliver on promises made during the recruitment or the orientation process.
The study was conducted by Stay Metrics, a South Bend, Ind.-firm that helps fleets with driver retention. Stay Metrics
interviewed 1,000 drivers at 10 truckload and expedited truckers. Those responses were then analyzed by researchers led by Dr. Gitta Lubke at the
University of Notre Dame 's Mendoza College of Business. The study concluded that new drivers felt
a major disconnect between what they were told during recruitment and orientation and what they experienced once behind the wheel.
These unmet expectations surfaced quickly, according to the study. Half of the drivers surveyed left within nine months of
being hired. Of those who quit within that nine-month period, most left within six months, even before they could be fully
integrated into the corporate culture, according to the report.
"Somehow drivers feel as if what they are experiencing isn't what they signed up for," said Tim Hindes, CEO of Stay Metrics.
Hindes said there isn't a single inflection point for driver angst. It could be that a driver was promised a new rig and
instead got a used one. Or that a driver was told he'd drive a certain route and was dispatched on another, less-attractive route,
he said.
Hindes said the respondents were comprised of drivers normally away for days, sometimes weeks at a time.
Experts say such behavioral patterns are symptomatic of an industry where critical labor is in short supply. Estimates
of the shortage of qualified drivers range from 30,000 to as high as 180,000. The July 1 enforcement of the new driver "Hours of Service" rules, which reduce a driver's workweek and cut the number of truck miles driven, has further increased
demand for available drivers.
Good drivers know that opportunities will be abundant amidst a buyer's market for their services. As a result, they are
more likely to jump at the first sign of disillusionment.
"Drivers do not perceive the 'change penalty' as very high," said Gordon Klemp, founder of the Kansas City-based
National Transportation Institute (NTI), a firm that tracks driver employment and compensation trends. "I can quit this
morning, have a tentative job offer this afternoon, and be in orientation next Monday."
The disconnect begins with the recruiter, which is paid to get drivers to commit and show up for orientation. A tight labor
market may prompt more recruiters to "overpromise" in order to land drivers, according to Klemp. A positive orientation program
can build a driver's motivation, but the first months behind the wheel can be a difficult learning and adjustment process and
lead to driver frustration. Klemp said a carrier that effectively manages those expectations can minimize the frequency of driver
turnover during that transition period.
Lana R. Batts, a long-time trucking executive and co-president of Tulsa-based Driver iQ, which provides fleets with detailed
information about potential hires, said part of the problems rests with the recruits themselves. "I think drivers hear what they
want to hear in the hiring process more than they are misled," she said. "They hear about total wages without fully comprehending
how many miles [they] will need to drive and how many weekends, special days, birthdays, and kids' activities they will miss."
Batts said the "realities of life on the road hit after six to nine months," especially for entry-level drivers confronting a
new lifestyle and home pressures.
In this new environment, trucking companies need to "re-imagine what recruiting could look like, tailored around delivering on
and addressing driver expectations" instead of simply modifying their recruitment and orientation programs, said Hindes.
Stay Metrics, an 18-month-old product of the incubation program at the Innovation Park at Notre Dame, isn't standing still.
Hindes said the company is working on building a composite profile of the ultimate truck driver, one who will be qualified,
capable, stable, and a perfect match for the fleet he or she engages with. "It would sort of be like the eHarmony of truck
drivers," he said, referring to the popular personal online matchmaking service.
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.