Perspective

Remember that feeling when a teacher sat you in the corner after wrongly accusing you of something? I believe this nation’s truckers have been placed in the proverbial corner by the state of Rhode Island.

Truck drivers are often away from a motor carrier’s physical buildings — where everyone else is located — so they don’t always develop as strong an attachment to the company as other employees do. So if a company doesn’t regularly reach out to drivers and involve them in its culture, that company runs the risk that drivers may look elsewhere for work, to a carrier that they perceive as better.

A recent survey of heavy-haul truckers determined the three factors that would have the biggest impact on their business were receiving a higher rate per mile, getting paid faster and spending less time finding their next load.

According to The National Safety Council, vehicle accidents are among the most costly of injury claims for businesses. The average cost of a loss related to a vehicle accident is nearly twice as much as the average workplace injury.

The American Truck Dealers’ top legislative priority is to repeal the federal excise tax, and truck dealers and automotive trade association executives will converge on Capitol Hill this month to support this important effort.

Trucking fleets work every day to draft, negotiate and execute contracts with suppliers, employees, subcontractors and customers that maximize revenue and produce efficiencies for all involved. But in a heavily regulated industry such as trucking, compliance issues related to federal, state and local laws must be directly reflected in these contracts, and that can get burdensome.

As 2018 hits its midpoint, fleet owners face an expanding obstacle course of challenges to keep their businesses running smoothly.

For decades, America’s roads and bridges were paid for by the users of transportation systems through modest fuel taxes. The system worked well for years, but as vehicles became more fuel efficient and cars that use little or no fuel at all became more prevalent, less revenue from this user fee flowed into the Highway Trust Fund. It's time to forge a new path forward.

Fleet executives want technology that can solve their problems today — and in the future. They want to grow revenue while improving service levels and reducing cost, as doing so will produce better service for customers and generate better results. Anything that threatens these things is bad for business — especially unplanned downtime.

It’s no secret that technology is rapidly changing the business of trucking. Electronic logging devices, automation, electric power and advancements in telematics are or may soon affect the way transportation companies plan, execute, compete and succeed.