John A. Gentle

Shippers Under Attack - Justly or UnJust #1

From November's issue of OOIDA's Landmine magazine an article on page 27 from their Government Affairs Committee on their key strategies for 2009.... The OOIDA plan will target operational efficency, pushing for greener docks by streamlining logistics/shipping practices and extending shipper's hours to 'get trucks in and get trucks out'. Our current system capacity is way inter utilized said [Howard ]Hart (board member from Spokane). Truckers work 24/7. But the places where we pick up and deliver have never worked on that schedule, so the industry is totally out of step. To make trucking a cleaner, more efficient, more profitable place, that boondagle has to get better. It is our position to push for those changes.

So here we have OOIDA's Goverment Affairs Committee planning to seek governmental support to force shippers to staff operations 24/7 to accomodate the drivers when they arrive. 

While there is no doubt that some shipping operations could clearly do a better job in getting drivers in and out and that waiting is a waste of America's productivity, attempting to regulate the market place in this manner is clearly unwarranted, unreasonable, and a prohibitively expensive approach to solving this problem. In addition, HOS regulations preclude drivers from arriving whenever they want.

If drivers are unhappy with how a shipper or receiver acts, they should refuse the load and force the market place to change....

I would hope that OOIDA would seek a different approach to solving this problem.

Posted by John A. Gentle on November 19, 2008 | Comments (3)