The Trucking Yo-Yo

Posted By marketing on May 24 2010
Filed In: Business

Downturn in the economy – downturn in the trucking and freight industries.  Economic upturn – the road is far less pothole-filled over the 500 billion miles driven by truckers every year.  As the industry goes, the hand goes, no matter what – the yo-yo is a perfect barometer.

Last year, a good friend of mine in the industry commented that his firm was running at 30% of what they usually do.  “It’s the worst I’ve ever seen it,” he said.  He also mentioned that he had been doing this since the mid-1970s.

On a daily basis, Riley Life Industries deals with no less than three, and often as many as six or seven of these trucking and freight companies.  Taking small-package out of the mix, we correspond regularly with three LTL carriers for our various needs.

All of this to set up the point of this entry: freight companies are, for the most part, terrible.  To be more specific, the major gripes I have are as follows:

  1. It is absolutely impossible for a company to give you a time that they will pick up or delivery.  Think the cable company, “Our driver will be there between noon and 6:00PM”.  So, trucking companies, you’ve never heard of GPS or dispatch-routing systems?  When you are the backbone of the American economy, shouldn’t you bother to know _where_ your employees are during regular business hours?
  2. “I don’t know” is the preferred standard response from customer service reps.  “Is our pickup scheduled?” “I don’t know.”  “Should I process the paperwork, or will the driver have a copy?” “I don’t know.”  It’s either a lack of training, a lack of intelligence, or a lack of giving a crap.  In any case, it’s unacceptable (see above “backbone of the American economy” comment).
  3. There absolutely, 100% is a black art behind pricing LTL and truckload runs.  Between “fuel surcharges”, “shipping lanes”, “available trailers”, and “duties, taxes, and fees” you’d think the quote writers were quantum physicists.  Let me give you a piece of advice: if you mess around with people on price, you will lose clients on price.  And, as we all know, there is always someone out there willing to do the job for less than you.  And I do this for a living.

Enough complaining.  Tomorrow, I’ll tell the companies how to fix their deficiencies.

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