May 18, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (9)

I drive a big vehicle. My everyday “car” is a 2001 F-150 SuperCrew pickup truck. I don’t get great gas mileage in it, but for all of the driving I do with my kids I know that this vehicle will protect them and gives me as a driver a better view of the road, and the “fine” drivers out on the roads today.

Yesterday one of the SmartFor2 cars by Daimler almost pulled out into my traffic lane. The driver was busy yacking on the phone and thought that it would be OK to pull a running right on red. I was very happy that the fool decided that it would be wise to stop, since I am sure that I would have punted him and his roller skate of a car into the next township.

I kept thinking of how much damage would have happened, and who&rsq...Read More

April 20, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

There is something to be said for tenacity, and then there is just plain old stubbornness.

The Hours of Service (HOS) Rule is back on the argument table. You remember that one, it's there were four key changes to the rule: changed the legal driving hours from 10 to 11 hours, reduced the drivers work day from 15 hours to 14 hours, allowed a driver to reset the “week” by taking 34 hours of “off duty” time and the biggest change removing the ability of a driver to “stop the clock” and mark himself off-duty for a chunk of time in the middle of his workday.

The “Stop the clock” change had the biggest impact on the way that the truckers operated, perhaps removed the driver fatigue issue from the table and impacted driver pay in a r...Read More

March 25, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

While outwardly logical that building a relationship of trust between the customer and the 3rd party logistics (3PL) operator is key, many "engagements" between the client and the 3PL fail because the client does not trust the 3PL operator.

Truly successful outsourcing relationships depends on a high level of trust between both parties in the business relationship. Rather than being "engaged" and in effect withholding trust until proved, the successful players in this arena start with an "Open Kimono" approach to all joint operations, including internal costs of the provider and the client. By operating where there is open transparency between the two, the client and the pr...Read More

March 7, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

One of the places on the Internet that I spend time at is LinkedIn. If you know about it and use it, great. If not, you need to think about using this great professional networking tool.

A section on the site is called “Answers”. Members can post a questions, or a thought provoking statement, and other members can post answers or comments. There are other places on the site that have somewhat the same function and are much freer about what you post, but this area is reserved for professional questions and answers.

The title of this posting is the title of a question that caught my eye last month. I wanted to share it and my answer with you. I think that the question is very appropriate to our current times and the forces that are shapin...Read More

February 16, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

In the past month I've been to the ProMat material handling show and the RILA Logistics conference. In each conversation that I had with attendees and exhibitors I'd ask them how their business was. Typically every one reflected that business was not good. But when pressed to think beyond the gloom and doom in the press some people responded that actually business isn't all that bad.

Elsewhere in the blogs here on the LM website you can read about how Michael Reagan has made the decision not to participate in the recession. When I would ask people at ProMat or RILA about the stimulus package being extruded through Congress the same people that said business wasn't all that bad also voiced concern how the stimulus package really wasn't very stimulating.

As part of my ongoin...Read More