Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/1002866
Voices 6 | Overdrive | July 2018 The suggestion in this title will be self-evident to any owner-operator who's sat at a grocery warehouse for eight hours or has been rebuff ed when hours run out at the dock and … "Well sir, you can't park here. Mind your speed on the way out." Mark White runs his family's Old Time Express dry-van-hauling small fl eet out of Hartsville, Tennessee. The company is doing many things right by its drivers, with moves toward boosting base pay, as well as detention pay. White and company now are picking up 100 percent of health-in- surance premiums that are part of their drivers' benefi ts package, rather than the typical split. But White says such eff orts go only so far when parties along the supply chain seem hellbent on making things diffi cult for drivers. He cites as one example the willingness of an in- creasing number of truck stops to go beyond paid parking reservations to simply charging for parking "regard- less of any reservation." What's worse: White has been dealing with a shipper customer that's posted signs threatening any hauler who parks there with a $500 fi ne. The customer also has been referring drivers to a warehouse location next door that has a newly instituted pay- to-park policy. Nickel-and-diming of the driver and carrier is "just getting ridiculous," he says. White fi gures the situation at the customer facility is partly opportu- nistic, partly a response to a growing problem of drivers running out of hours there. "It's just in poor taste. Everyone wants you to be safe and be legal on your hours, but just 'get the hell out of here,' " the customer seems to be saying. White declined to name the cus- tomer, noting ongoing negotiations. "The customer has tried to bully us a little bit on rates," he says. "We bucked them back a little bit. Now's not the time to be screwing with your carriers, particularly the small ones." The shipper wanted Old Time Express to "take on more responsibil- ity at more risk — and to pay us less for it," he explains. "I'm not doing it. I've got too many other things I can go do for more money and get paid quicker." The shipper may be on the verge of learning the potential value of being a "shipper of choice" the hard way. For now, perhaps the title here might be the best description. At least drivers won't be in violation when they wave goodbye, thanks to new personal conveyance guidance from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Todd Dills " I don't see anything new except the tracking. If you used a reputable broker before and checked in when you arrived at the shipper/receiver and when you left, there really was no question as to the time involved. I see where guys who really are no more than company drivers leased to carriers – and see the brokers as the enemy – would not call with updates. [Blockchain] probably would help their lease company collect. But to owner-operators who are in the business mode of thinking, it's likely to be really just an added cost for no valid reason. " — Phil Killerlain, via Facebook, responding to Overdrive Editorial Director Max Heine's June column about the promise of blockchain to mitigate supply-chain finger-pointing around issues of dock detention and more Bucking the blockchain hype machine 'Shipper of last resort'? Some shippers are pushing their luck by forcing truckers away from their premises and into paid parking situations.