10-19-13

Halloween is our favourite time of year. So yesterday I put aside all thoughts of work and anything related to work and spent the day getting started on preparation for the big day by weaving a web. Plenty more decorating to do before the 31st but we have a theme to work around. Lol.

Spending all that time yesterday put my work schedule  under the gun this weekend, but that's just too bad isn't it?

10-15-13

This morning at 06:45 I rolled on to the shippers scale in Breckenridge Minnesota. When I walked in to the shipping / receiving office I was greeted with a joyful, "Hey, I was hoping it was going to be you this morning ".

I've been so wound up over my tight schedule this past couple of days I completely forgot to take into account the great individual relationships I've developed over the years and how valuable they can be when you get in a bind.

It's easy to feel like a very small cog in a big machine these days. You may feel like you have little or no influence over the events that unfold over the course of your day. I've been feeling that lack of control a lot lately. But the truth is that when a small part breaks down it usually  effects the operation of the whole machine. We often take our influence for granted.

That wonderful greeting I received from Tara this morning resulted from being generous with my time and practicing a little generosity of spirit. Put another way, I've never rushed individuals I deal with when I'm picking up or delivering freight and I've always acted as if I was a guest in their house deferring to the rules of conduct they have to follow in their workplace. So these time vampires ( shippers & receivers ) that truckers love to hate become an asset rather than a liability. But you need to take the first step and be patient.

Does this approach work with everyone? No. But most people will respond in a positive way and over time your life will get easier. Of course if one of the few fools that drive for your company show up for the next load with a me first attitude they'll undermine your efforts somewhat but not totally.

Other names for this extension of generosity and kindness? Exceptional customer service, respect, friendliness, kindness, empathy, camaraderie, goodwill, just to name a few.

This approach extends beyond the dock. You know, attitude, that word you hear at safety meetings when our interactions with other drivers, compliance officials, our dispatchers & support staff comes under discussion. :)

It's so easy to feel like you have a target on your back when you're a trucker. That's how I felt when I wrote yesterday's post, and it showed.

10-14-13

It's Thanksgiving day. It's Monday. It's a rainy day. It's been a stressful day. It's been a day that started and ended in Fargo.

The stress grew out of Saturday. The plan was to leave the yard early. But upon arrival at the yard my load was not there. It arrived just before the lunch hour. The plan called for me to switch trailers in  Grand Rapids Michigan then head to our  Winnipeg yard, switch trailers again, then head down to Breckenridge Minnesota and load at 1 pm today.

I was pretty certain logging 2800 km (1700 mi ) 3 border crossings and a couple of switches in 51 hours on an EOBR was pretty much impossible. I was right. But that didn't stop me from trying.

I attended a drivers meeting this past Friday that addressed issues of communication, attitude, and stress. Seems a few drivers have come unglued of late. I have to admit that I've been on that knife edge a few times myself this past year. More regulations, driver shortages, customer demands, juggling Canadian and American HoS rules, speed limiters, and all the time shooting for your incentive bonus. I'm surprised more drivers & dispatchers don't come unglued on a regular basis.

So you're starting to see the irony in this little story? You're dispatched on a load with little if any window allowing for fuck ups or delays and the first trailer you're supposed to hook to is late. That leaves you to explain to a shipper why you can't make it to your dock appointment, in fact you can't even make it to their dock before they close for the day, and at the same time you're  begging for an appointment first thing the following morning.

I started coming unglued last night. Today I'm giving thanks that I have a wife that is understanding and loving even after dealing with almost 35 years of my bullshit. The trucking industry should be giving thanks for our families. That's the only glue that keeps my head together out here of late.

Driver Wages - Feeling Squeezed?

A couple of interesting articles out over the past week that you may have seen circling around. The first from Overdrive Online titled 'ATRI:Cost of Trucking Fell in 2012 Due to Driver Pay Decrease'. View it here. The second from 'The Globe & Mail titled Trucking Companies:Stocks for the Long Haul'. View it here.

With all the talk of driver shortages, the need for better training, the fact that drivers are still classed as unskilled labour, and a continuing trend of saddling drivers with greater accountability in meeting safety & compliance standards that do little to improve the quality of working conditions that a driver faces each day, we now see evidence that drivers are doing what they do for less money while others reap the benefits of their hard work. I raises many questions that drivers should be asking themselves.

The industry is forecasting that mergers & acquisitions will continue at a strong pace in 2014. How will consolidation of the industry effect the driver on the front line? Will pressure on wages continue? Will we see any investment in training and education or will "safety through enforcement" continue to be the trend?

Will consolidation and the push for short term financial gains for investors see the push for drivers to become owner operators continue. As pointed out in the Globe article this "asset light" model allows large companies to respond quickly to market conditions. In other words the operating costs have been largely passed on to the individual owner operator and if there is a downturn in the market or loss of a major contract guess who absorbs the bulk of the financial pain.

It was pointed out while discussing this on my twitter feed that there are successful owner operators out there. It's not surprising that a successful O/O also has a strong set of business skills and has aligned themselves with a company that recognizes long term success is built from the ground up. But is that the focus of the large publicly traded corporate trucking sector?

There are many factors to consider but it looks to me like the trend does not bode well for the average driver busting his ass out here on the front lines pretty much 24/7. Nor does it speak to a safer and healthier environment for drivers to work in.

What do you think?

New U.S. Hours of Service Rules Create More Stress For Drivers

This post appears in the September 2013 edition of Truck News

From the driver reaction I've witnessed on social media recently, the half hour compulsory break included in the FMCSA hours of service rule changes that came into effect this past July 1 seem to have released a whole bunch of pent up frustration within the driver pool. I think it is the most foolish rule to be imposed yet. Why? Because how many drivers in North America were not taking at least a half hour break once per day either in the form of a meal break or off duty time at the dock? I've heard the word “stress” used more by drivers since July 1 than ever before.

Stress has been on my mind a lot in the past few years. If your a driver perhaps it has been on your mind too. I've been feeling stressed out despite experiencing many positive things in my life. This had me concerned to the point that I was even perusing mental health websites at one point checking the warning signs for depression. I just seem to be in a funk, a general feeling of fatigue and frustration. I'm generally not unhappy although that pops up from time to time. In a way I've been glad to hear more drivers voicing their concerns over stress on the job. I'm obviously not alone.

As I look back over the columns I have written the issue of time spent on the job comes up quite frequently, and I usually relate that to feelings of stress. I've called it the difficulty in finding a balance between work and home when the scale is always tipped towards the amount of time spent on the job. So obviously I haven't found a solution to resolve the feelings of stress. So I've been asking myself, what gives here? My wife and I have a loving relationship that strengthens with each passing year. We have a wonderful daughter and two beautiful grandchildren. The relationship I have with my employer is built on honesty and integrity and provides well for my family. When I look around at the state of the world I recognize how lucky I am and I am truly grateful.

Despite all those positives I still find myself asking the question: Is this trucking lifestyle really for me? I find myself thinking about the many things I'm missing out on as I cruise down the road. Thoughts of family, of play, of hobbies, and of relaxing and doing nothing at all. As a driver do you find yourself asking similar questions? When you get to your home time is it frenzied and rushed and does that suck some of the enjoyment out of that time?

Here's an example from my own life. Home renovation is something my wife and I enjoy doing together. Our home is somewhat of a playground for us. My wife has a flare for design and can visualize changes in her minds eye. I can make it happen. Our skills compliment one another and we really enjoy that time together. We are just finishing up a major kitchen renovation we started in the fall of 2010! Because of my recent push to see this project finished up I have not been getting to the gym on a regular basis or getting out for my regular runs. A regular exercise regimen has become an important part of my life over the past decade. I'm missing it. That limited home time has seen me sacrifice one thing I enjoy doing for another. That frustrates me. Situations like this arise time and again for me.

Okay, so as drivers we know we can't have it all. This profession requires that you commit a large block of your time to the job. That's why it is so important that we maintain the ability to decide for ourselves how we use that time. I think the mandatory imposition of the half hour break has hit a sore spot in this regard. It's politics, not common sense. It's window dressing to satisfy the strong safety lobby that exists out there but does nothing more than place an additional burden of compliance on the driver.

As far as the stress I feel goes, I know that for the most part it is self imposed. When I stop thinking about all of the things I want to do when I get home and bring my mind into the present moment I enjoy every minute I am out on the road. When I am at home and put aside thoughts of the limited time I have available and of all of the things I won't get done and simply enjoy the present moment, again, I am able to enjoy every minute of that time. That advice I give to myself appears to be a simple and sensible solution. It's anything but.

Why We Do What We Do

This post appears in the August 2013 edition of Truck News

A Week in the Life

Despite being passionate about what you do and the enjoyment you may derive from your work, there are times when you ask yourself why it is you do what you do. It's a question that usually arises after an unusually busy or challenging time. Sometimes I experience a week on the road like this. You would think that doing a dedicated route week in and week out life would be somewhat predictable. But when you choose truck driving as a means to earn a living 'predictable' is a word that you quickly learn to treat with a good deal of skepticism.

My work week starts every Saturday morning at my home terminal in Ayr, ON. The week before my vacation in July was like most weeks for me. A bit of a scramble to get out of the house, then an hours trek to the yard, then pack my gear in the truck, then a thorough pretrip, and then hit road. I typically find myself in Wawa on Saturday nights with a 1000 kilometers under my belt. But the trucking gods had other plans. I hit fairly heavy rain showers as I headed through Toronto and the heavy weekend traffic was playing stop and go across highway 401 and then north up highway 400 to the highway 89 interchange. By the time I got up to Sault Ste. Marie I was a couple of hours behind my normal travel time and fighting fatigue. I ended up stopping short of Wawa and sleeping the night away parked in a snowplow turn around.

Waking up refreshed on Sunday morning I was raring to go but the day was going to be filled with fog and rain. The rain I don't mind but the fog is another issue. This was patchy fog rolling in off Lake Superior. At times it was so thick you couldn't see much past the front of your hood then it would thin out to a mist for a few kilometers teasing you with the expectation that you were driving out of it. That's the way it was for over 600 kilometers until I cleared Thunder Bay, then it was just misty rain that cleared up as I approached Dryden. The clouds parted just in time for me to drive into a blinding sunset.

The traffic and weather had added a couple of hours of drive time to my trip on this week. When I stepped out of my seat at the end of the day on Sunday I experienced that lightheaded mental fatigue unique to the world of driving. It's a feeling that comes with almost 13 hours of straining to see beyond and through the fog. I hate fog. I'd rather spend a week driving in blinding snow. I'd better be careful what I wish for.

Monday morning found me just east of Winnipeg with 8 drops to do. The first was a simple drop in Arborg, MB about 100 kilometers north of the Peg. After completing my drop in Arborg I headed down into Winnipeg and banged of 4 drops then headed east to Portage La Prairie. So far things had been pretty smooth. It was a beautiful sunny day and my drops were going well but that was about to change. I had some store fixtures to drop at a small retail outlet in Portage La Prairie. It turned out that it was just one man and myself to unload these blanket wrapped store counters. It was 28 Celsius outside but in the nose of my black trailer with a fiberglass roof the temperature was well into the 40's. A solid 90 minute workout. Time for a clean dry shirt.

From Portage La Prairie it was off to MacGregor, MB to drop off a single skid. This delivery was to a Hutterite colony off the beaten path south of MacGregor so it took a little time to navigate the gravel farm access roads. That was drop number 7, just one more to go.

My last delivery of the day was a 2 hour drive from MacGregor in Altona, MB. This was a delivery of home furnishings to a small retail store only accessible after hours due to its central location in town and lack of a truck level dock. Hand bomb time again, a sweaty end to the day.

I arrived at the truck stop in Morris, MB with 5 minutes left to go before my 16 hour window closed. It was almost 10:00 PM. With over 400 miles driving and 8 deliveries completed it was another exceptionally busy day. I was just shy of 38 hours total on duty time in three days. That's when I found myself asking the question, “why do I do what I do”? The really scary thing is that after 2 weeks of vacation I know I'll be itching to get back on the road.

Drivers Need to Participate in the Rulemaking Process

This post appears in the July 2013 edition of Truck News

We're now into our sixth year since the amended Canadian Hours of Service regulations came into effect on January 1, 2007. Remember those heady days? I remember being impressed by the sleep research that had been done leading up to those changes. I felt at the time that they were much needed changes and they made a lot of sense. A driver would be able to operate based on their circadian rhythm and reduce fatigue by getting a better quality of sleep/rest. It was a good plan on paper. But even though the intent was to benefit the driver I can remember twisting myself in every direction that first year to accommodate the movement of freight. It fell to drivers (and safety departments) to adapt the new rules to the existing business model. I can remember the general sentiment being, “Well, you can't expect shippers and receivers to change how they do business overnight. They're our customers after all.”

As a consequence of how these rules were implemented we (drivers) continue to love to hate them. The one size fits all application doesn't work for all drivers. The rules often hinder the efficient use of a drivers time which ends up adding to their level of fatigue. Is it fair to say we were victimized by a piece of legislation that was originally proposed to make life better/safer for the commercial driver and for the public we share the roads with? I think it probably is. In fact more and more drivers are endorsing the use of electronic recorders to enforce these rules in order to bring the rest of the industry in line. Now this is only my opinion based on my experience and feedback from other drivers, but I think it paints a fairly accurate picture.

So what happened? Why did we not benefit from all the years of research focused on the driver? Why do we continue to struggle with this legislation today? I think it is because of the lack of driver feedback at the planning stage.

For the last three years or so I have been participating in a couple of transportation health & safety groups. I've been attending monthly meetings as much as I possibly can and offering a drivers perspective on the topic(s) being discussed. One thing quickly became obvious to me. I am often the only driver in the room. So when it comes to raising driver concerns about pending legislation or rule changes that affect them, drivers are often represented by proxy only, in the form of a company’s safety & compliance department. So despite the best effort and intentions of all the other parties involved in putting forward and implementing rules that effect drivers those rules usually come up short in the eyes of the commercial driver.

There are over 300,000 active commercial drivers in Canada. That's a big number. With so much at stake am I the only one that finds it unusual that drivers are grossly underrepresented when it comes to how they are governed? How would the hours of service rules look today if drivers were represented in the planning stage in the same proportion they are represented in the industry? I think things would be different in a very positive way. But we'll never know. What a shame.

By being involved in the planning and implementation process people usually take ownership of the final product which helps to insure a positive outcome. By standing apart from the process people tend to feel the final product has been foisted on them. So it's not surprising that rules originally intended to empower drivers have left them feeling victimized.

So what is going to happen as the collection of data is expanded to in cab monitoring? Is this the direction telematics is headed in? Is this how high risk drivers will be identified as technology rolls out? How will it effect the morale of the existing driver pool and does it matter to the next generation of drivers or will monitoring technology simply not be a big deal to a new generation of drivers brought up living openly online? I think it's very important to the industry as a whole that we find a way to include a high level of driver feedback about data collection. If drivers don't buy into this expanding technology that monitors their behavior it could present another roadblock in the recruiting and retention of professional drivers.

I don't have a ready made solution to resolving this communication problem but it is becoming more important than ever that drivers be involved in the planning process. If drivers truly want to feel like partners in the process rather than victims of circumstance they need to step up and take a seat at the table.