With the advent of electronic logging, stricter logging rules, the ability for the DOT to check Qualcomm GPS statistics, and increased DOT enforcement nationwide in recent years, it has become more and more difficult for drivers to cheat the logbook and run the miles they used to be able to run. Instead of just “fudging a new story and driving on”, drivers actually have to stop now when their time is up. But trucking is all about efficiency, and trucking companies push their trucks to perform more efficiently every moment of every day. But these days, cheating the logbook is going away as an option for better performance. So what will companies do in the coming years to get more productivity out of their trucks, and how much of it will come at the expense of the driver?

Getting Better Fuel Mileage

Better fuel mileage is critical to the bottom line of any trucking company. How do you get better fuel mileage? One way is to cut back on idling time. Companies are monitoring truck idling more closely than ever, but unfortunately most companies have not yet installed APU’s to keep the driver comfortable while sleeping. Instead, they’re simply asking drivers to suffer being uncomfortable while trying sleeping at night. Yap, the company will save money at the driver’s expense.

The other way to increase fuel mileage is to cut back the speed the truck will run. Trucks in recent years have been governed back more and more. It’s not at all uncommon to see trucks set at 60 or 62 mph, far below the legal speed limit in most states. This is just going to force the driver to run that much longer to get to where they’re going, and since they’re getting paid by the mile, the extra time put in will not equate to more money.

Companies used to pay “fuel mileage bonuses” – and some still do. But many companies have gone from paying a bonus to making it a requirement to reach certain fuel mileage statistics, or else be fired. This was also unheard of up until a few years ago, but fuel mileage minimums are getting to be more and more commonplace.

Staying On The Road Longer – Less Home Time

Well, if you can’t run as many miles as you could before, then you’ll just have to stay out on the road longer and away from home to make up for it, right? Well, not exactly what any driver wants to hear. One time I was running in a regional fleet and after two years of getting home every weekend the company suddenly decided we could only go home every other weekend. We got a Qualcomm message out of the blue one day that basically said “Sorry, but we’re not making enough money so you’ll have to go home half as often as you used to starting immediately”.

In the past few years with the economic downturn I’ve watched as companies have expected drivers, especially new drivers to the industry, to stay out for longer and longer periods of time. It’s not uncommon for a new driver to go 2-3 months without being allowed to go home in the beginning. This was unheard of even five years ago, but now it’s becoming commonplace.

Team Driving

Another practice that has recently come into vogue throughout the industry is to force new students to run team or lease a truck from the company. Some companies weren’t even giving you the option of running solo straight out of school. The vast majority of drivers out there would rather choke themselves than run team for even five minutes, but in the coming years you may see more and more of this type of thing, especially when it comes to brand new drivers to the industry.

Leasing and Owner-Operators

Trucking companies can certainly make more money with owner operators on the payroll than with company drivers much of the time. Companies make a clean profit on being truck financiers, freight brokers, parts salesman, and repair service centers to their owner operators and more and more companies are pushing to extend their owner operator base.

One recent tactic that has really come into vogue is for companies to train students with owner operators and have them run team for up to several months at a time at a very low rate of pay. So instead of using a company truck to train people, they put a very low paid student in a truck with an owner operator. This allows the owner operator to turn miles like a team truck while hardly paying out anything in wages to the other driver. The owner operator squeaks out a living, the company makes a nice profit, and the student gets the shaft. Not good.

Running At Night

Traffic backups cause a ton of problems in the trucking industry. With the advent of the 14 hour rule, once that clock starts ticking you can’t stop it. So you only have so many hours to get your driving each day before having to shut down, regardless of what you’ve been doing. But anytime you run in the middle of the night you find there’s almost no traffic. It’s quite possible that you will see companies trying harder to utilize that open road at night to increase the efficiency of their drivers, meaning that more and more drivers will be up all night and asleep much of the day.

What Should Be Done?

In my opinion, one of the biggest ways that the trucking industry is losing efficiency is in waiting times at the customer. It’s now become commonplace for drivers to sit 4-8 hours (or way more!) when they load or unload. Because of the 14 hour rule and the lack of a reasonable way to split sleeper berth time, drivers are wasting their day away sitting at the customer instead of driving.

If trucking companies could cut back on the time their trucks are sitting at customers they could definitely get more productivity out of each truck. Unfortunately, the only way that this can be done on a large scale is through legislation of some sort. Trucking companies simply don’t have the leverage with their customers to force them to get the trucks in and out faster.

The Bottom Line

As has always been the case, the trucking industry is incredibly competitive and companies are going to continue to squeeze every last ounce of productivity they can out of their trucks. Unfortunately most of their methods will likely come at the expense of the driver, making the burden of being a trucker even heavier than it is already. Some things never change, do they?