Kevin, Thank you for mentioning me in your blog albeit negatively. I guess you and Ray only require(d) mediocrity and therefore there has NEVER been any nor will there ever be any favortism. Good luck motivating people if they have nothing to strive for.

Kevin, when your dispatcher is looking for the favor and there's two drivers available which of the two will be chosen? Of course the driver that consistently produces will be asked first because it's simple. You only have to instruct the driver once as to what is required, you won't be subjected to a barrage of non-relevant questions and it will be done in half the time and you will look BETTER in the eyes of the favour recipient. Ray, if dispatch is to treat ALL drivers the same (again as you and Ray both profess) then ALL drivers should of equal talent and calibre and be equally equipped. Impossible in my estimation but yourself and Ray are the experts. Guess you had better send a new directive to recruiting hadn't you? I'd love to see your next recruiting advertisement in Truck news. "Wanted, Mediocre Drivers As Those That Out Work And Out Perform Their Co-Workers Will Receive Zero Additional Earnings, Call Ray @ 1-800-We're Not Motivated"

Hey Kevin..Ralph the trucker is right, you can't treat everyone the same because no 2 drivers are the same! Some guys can have problems hauling 20 pallets of pampers in a 48' van and others can successfully haul multi-axle lowbeds carrying million dollar oversize loads all over the continent for years without any troubles at all. It seems that each blog writer here is referring mostly to drivers that haul van freight, so maybe I'm a little out in left field, but even take a few drivers who all drive identical company trucks pulling 5 axle freight vans, hauling the same loads to and from the same places and there will still be quite a difference in the level of success between them. Unions try to use the seniority plan to decide who will get to do what and when they will get to do it and how much they will get paid but this doesn't work. You can have a guy in his early 20's who can easily do his job and also have 55 yr old drivers with 25 - 30 years under their belt who has problems every trip. I once worked at a company where the oldest dispatcher had a system where he would allow the drivers who had the least problems performing their job ( loading, hauling, delivering, clearing customs, backing into tough spots without crunching the fenders on the adjacent trucks, etc.) to float to the top of his list where the revenue was better and you could get some nicer loads to nicer places. The drivers who always had trouble at the border, who couldn't get their axle weights right, who had to ask someone else to back their truck into the dock, etc. would float downward and he was not afraid to tell them why! If you wanted to be treated better, you had to do a better job! There were some whiners working there who would run to the owners of the company and cry about the way they were being treated and if the owners came to the dispatcher and tried to intervene, the dispatcher quite often told them that if they wanted to get the freight delivered on time and claim free they were welcome to have his chair and he would clean out his desk! Most of the trucks were O/O's but he treated the company drivers the same and the people who could not do a good job soon quit which was a good thing for everyone concerned. Another thing he used to do that impressed me was the fact that if a load was too cheap, he would ask a couple drivers or O/O's who were close to where the load was to be picked up if they were interested, and when each of the drivers had turned down the load, he would get up from his desk, walk over to the salesman's desk and say "sorry, but nobody will load this load for this rate" and he would set the sales order/dispatch sheet on the salesperson's desk and walk away. I was witness one time when the salesman said "I can't back out of the load now, we'll have to deal with it!" The dispatcher looked at the order, picked up the phone and called the customer and politely told them that none of our trucks were willing to haul that load for that rate. Maybe it is time that this type of system was used and we could clean up the industry a bit! I'm thinking that dispatcher has long since retired, but that company still runs a bunch of trucks and has been since the 70's.

Ralph and Stephen... you are wrong! Honesty over nepotism every time! Ray and Kevin are right! They are talking about the foundation for building a great company not a mediocre one. If the driver dosn't perform to the company standard, express it to them and if they don't change let them go. Just think Ralph... a company filled with high performers! What your describing is a company that accepts and even fosters inferior work performance... a philosophy that breeds a mediocre reputation and commands mediocre margins.

Stephen (part two of your post)it sounds like you admire the dispatcher/owner for their honesty not their nepotism. It appears even in your explanation that nepotism produced conflict... which it does. Only when the person was pushed and they became honest that the problem appeared solved (which of course it wasn't because feeling of injustice and contempt still exists). Ray and Kevin are talking about building a great company culture not just a mediocre one whose primary claim to fame is that they can survive for 40+ years.

Hey Robert, I know that everyone is allowed to have thier own opinions about things, but I assume that people like yourself, Kevin and Ray are in a position of running some kind of a company that involves trucks or trucking, so maybe you guys can explain how, in the last 15 years, truckers have gone from being 'heroes of the highway' and were looked up to and respected by nearly all travelling public to being thought of as a bunch of fat lazy morons who don't know how to drive? It seems that peopled like you guys with all your new 'rules of proper company policy' have driven away most of the heroes and replaced them with zeroes!

I fail to see the logical link between "defending the respectful communication to all drivers and the replacing of heros with zero's". I believe our position is clear... respect ALL drivers by not deceiving or manipulating them. As we believe (though I can't directly speak for Ray and Kevin) respectful behaviour breeds respectful hero's... however, it's YOUR attitude of DISRESPECT that logically breeds zero's in the industry. Where is my (our) logic wrong? Let me try it again... When trucking companies (dispatchers) disrespect drivers, drivers disassociate with pride in their work, distance themselves from a team attitude, become less involved in their work... stop caring... become zero's! Building hero's requires LEADERSHIP of management... integrity... pride in their work... It is management's job to set the standard. Dishonesty breeds zeros, honesty breeds hero's. One more time...if the mentality of industry management is "fat lazy morons" the industry will propogate fat lazy morons.

They just dont get it.
If in doubt look in the drivers manual.
There is a procedure for that, DO NOT make a decision
your self it will be wrong..
You are robots behave.
Understand with speed limiters, EOBRs and auto trans. they no longer have
to compete with motivated companies and their drivers.
All they want is warm bodies that follow orders.

meslippery

Dispatch has to walk a fine line. We as Managers or Owners have to walk a fine line. We have to ensure all staff are treated fairly. So I am not quite sure where that ends. Because you are a good driver, not treat you the same. HMMM! How does the bar ever get raised?
As for meslippery and his comments again about EOBR's and robots, I think it is about time you found something constructive to say or just plain move on. This is 2010 and we are moving forward in this INDUSTRY with or without you. If you cannot change or adapt get out. Pretty simple really.
It is electronics that require everyone to be on the cusp of readiness. Customs on both sides of the border are changing and we as companies have to change as well. Meslippery you have missed the big picture on every occasion other than to complain about EOBR's and SPEED LIMITERS. It's the law now and or will be soon, if you cannot change with the times, then I suggest you Try a different industry.

How do we treat drivers the same, with the same respect, and the same dispatch. TRY to not show favortisim, I know it is difficult but all dispatchers, have to try. No dispatch in any company will ever be successful if they are perceived as showing favortisim, to certain drivers. As for when things started to go downhill, that is the easiest answer there is. WHEN DEREGULATION CAME INTO EFFECT. No rates, guaranteed, just more problems. No so called regulations, but really that was more referring to rates than anything else. What we really have is more DOT /MTO/POLICE/SAFETY/MAINTENANCE and of course Insurance requirements and the list goes on.

Perception is everything. If we all try to do better and try to be better we all raise the level. If we accept medicority than we are already go down that slippery slope/

I think we need to step back and look at the big picture. Let's just think outside the box and wonder who really writes the rules 'NOT DISPATCH" It is the customer! They want the freight delivered YESTERDAY. Their number one question do you have a fresh driver on that load? If, I am operating out of the west and I have a driver in the east, DO YOU THINK HE/SHE IS FRESH? Lets face it, driver's get tired the longer they are on the road the more irritable they get (we can all agree to that!) It is proven the first day back on power after time home is high risk for incidents and once that week of sleepless nights battling the cold or the heat that fatigue bank builds up and you have one misjudged miserable driver who just wants to get home and will do anything to get to that haven of rest.

I believe the big thing is honesty and full communication from all parties involved. The truth sometimes hurts, but it is appreciated in the end. Effective comunication works, tell it like it is, " you are going for that load of watermelons, but you could be there for 5 hours , their picking them out of field" Then the customer needs to understand the longer the driver is loading the shorter his window of opportunity for the day will end allowing only a certain amount of time to service the load. But as in any business FAVORS PROMISES AND GIT R DUN attitude is what happens and that's when the favor turns the other way, the promises become broken and GIT R DUN is delayed because of paperwork, delayed loading, roadside inspection and those stupid little tanks on the truck that keep requiring fuel to get down the road. " This does not include food, water and sleep for that robot" (batteries still need to be recharged)

When EOBR's are mandated for all carriers that is when we will see loads pre-planned, picked and on the order floor before the truck shows up for the load. This will in turn allow dispatch to do their pre-planning and have drivers powered up for their next dispatch more in advance than (yesterday). The driver will be accountable for his/her time throughout the day. This will give better time management to the driver, dispatch and all parties involved until that day, we have to all try to work together to make our lives a little easier because if we bought it! a truck brought it!

Well Les I know we all have are dreams,but really now.....EBOR's will do all that!!! I thought the new HOS (14 hr rule) were going to change all those same things.....and we all know how well that worked out!!!
Most shippers,receivers and yes dispatchers to, never have and never will get to concerned about wasting a drivers time!Until their attitude changes everything will stay the same. It is nice to dream though!!

Good points Les, it appears that you get it and hopefully you are right about EOBR's forcing the industry to smarten up a bit and manage time better than they do now, however, paying drivers and charging customers by the hour would also do the same thing and we wouldn't have to fool with the EOBR's and the money saved by not having to install them and have someone to fix them and someone to download the information from them could go toward improving the driver's pay!

Robert, I didn't say that it was industry management that thinks that we are fat lazy morons! I said that people in general, you know, the people in the cars, the people in the warehouses and the people trying to dart across three lanes of traffic to get to Tim Horton's but there is a Kenworth in their way, are the people that think we are morons. It was not that way until the last decade or two, so what has happened to make the general population go from thinking that truck drivers were the knights of the highway to thinking we are pieces of crap? I assume that you are much smarter than myself or perhaps all truck drivers, so I was asking if you could tell us what changed public perception? And while you are at it, maybe you would read my post again and see that I am not disrespecting anyone, especially truck drivers! Did I forget to say that I own and drive some trucks? I am a truck driver and I am fat, but not very lazy. The biggest changes in the industry in the last decade or so have been the push for more policy and procedure but no more pay and this has driven some of the best truck drivers (The guys who used to be able to install tire chains or change a flat tire for a stranded motorist or even change their own truck tire and could drive for years without running over or into something) away from the industry and now we seem to have plenty of inexperienced drivers and lots of drivers who crunch into things on a regular occurence and people who couldn't even adjust their brakes if they came across an older trailer without automatic slack adjusters. According to the idea that all drivers must be treated equal and thou shalt not point fingers or place blame, then these problem drivers are getting a free ride on the backs of the others who aren't running into stuff and such. Then, there is no incentive to do a good job because you'll be treated the same as those who don't. In my opinion, treating all drivers the same is direspectful to the drivers who do a much better job than those who don't. So like you said, disrespecting the good drivers makes them distance themselves from the 'team', stop caring and apparently become zeroes.

Stephen: I re-read your post and I may have misunderstood your primary point (difference of driver quality in the industry). I somehow understood you were commenting about dispatcher attitudes towards drivers. I'm still a little fuzzy about the context and content of your post but if all you were wanting to say is that some drivers deserve more than others I guess I agree to the extent that quality drivers should drive for quality companies who demand quality margins. It would be counter productive for low cost underperforming drivers to be hired by high service oriented companies. However, we must remember it’s the company that ultimately hires the drivers, it’s THEIR choice what standards to set. If you weren't implying management thinks drivers are fat lazy morons I'm sorry for the misunderstanding.

Kevin: Interesting perspective... let me follow your logic. Speed limiters are "...law so just get used to it..." Deregulation is law... but should be repealed. If you’re pro-speed limiters than just say you are using your own reasons rather than implying laws cannot or should not be repealed. Otherwise when you imply deregulation should be repealed your arguments are marginalized because you appear illogical and driven by a Socialist mindset (government regulates everything). Since Canada is primarily a socialist country you are safely in the majority. However, owner operators (I assume such as Stephen) and company owners tend to be more free market (capitalist) thinkers. Your perspective should initiate stimulating debate.

Robert, thank you for reading my post again and commenting accordingly. Liner, I share your doubt that EOBR's will change the way that shippers or anyone else will treat truck driver with resapect to time management. I have been around the block for 25 years and I worked in several areas of this industry for good companies and bad ones and for big ones and small ones and none of them were much different than the others until I started to pull loads for a heavy haul company (who also hauled LTL like single pieces of pipe or a single pump or a single engine or anything at all) and when I asked how to bill them for the work that I did with my own truck with my own license and insurance, the owner's wife told me to charge them by the hour for everything that I did and get the bill in asap so she could be sure to charge each customer accordingly. That was the only place I have ever worked in the trucking industry where I almost never had to wait or get otherwise screwed around. If there was waiting time, for any reason, the trucks and the drivers got paid for ALL the time that they worked-no exceptions! The customers always treated us with respect and so did the office people! Unfortunately, that company was sold to a huge company about 3 or 4 years ago and I have not had any dealings with them since then. However, I decided to do the same thing with my own business and it works extremely well. Customers either happily work with you in a prompt manner, or ,they refuse to hire me because of my non-negotiable hourly rates. Either way, I will be better off in the end. When all trucking companies pay their drivers and O/O's for all the hours that they work and charge the customers accordingly, we will see change for the better, but until it costs the customer money, they will NEVER, EVER quit abusing driver's time!

Dear Robert D Scheper

No body brought up nepotism.
Must be a issue where you are.

Stephen, good point on EOBR’s. By your business choice you have personally circumvented the future pressure EOBR’s will have on both time management and paychecks of drivers all across Canada. Unfortunately I believe most companies will not pay until enough of their drivers scream and quit. Then it comes down to competitive costing. Can the company offload the additional costs to their customers? You provided a perfect example of what will have to act out in the marketplace. If they don’t like how you bill they don’t call you. If enough companies bill like you do customers will eventually have to pay (same way as they eventually had to get used to fuel surcharge).

Just recently a speaker was noted as saying that driver pay structure may need to be changed. Unfortunately I misplaced the article and don’t have the time to find it today but it was a very bold statement. If someone can recall who said it I would appreciate the reference. Anyway if driver pay (and equipment) changes to hourly rates it would dramatically change the industry… however we will see if companies change. In the end, however, everything boils down to productivity and service (paid by mileage or by hourly).

Robert, is this what you were looking for?

http://www.todaystrucking.com/news.cfm?intDocID=24310

I'd love to comment on this but I don't want to take over Kevin's blog.

COPIED FROM TODAY'S TRUCKING WEBSITE

OTA Chair: Time to deep-six pay-per-mile
07/14/2010

TORONTO -- The current per-mile system of paying truck drivers is outmoded and has to go -- or at least change drastically.

That’s the word from Ontario Trucking Association Chairman and Kriska Transportation President Mark Seymour, who made the remarks as a guest speaker at a TransCore Link Logistics industry event this week.

Seymour, always candid, was suggesting to the assembly that as truckers climb out of the recession, they must focus on profitability and include all their costs into their prices. And the looming staffing shortage will mean that truckers must find ways to compensate their staffs appropriately.

"Pay and benefits need to be consistent with time and effort," he said. "Paying by the mile is something that’s going to have to change.

“Every time you see a driver in gridlock, the only thing that he or she is thinking is ‘how am I going to make this [time] up?’

“If a person loses an hour or two a day, it really is going to weigh heavy on them when they lay their head down at night.”

The industry's drivers have been a
standstill for quite some time: Seymour

Seymour says the average driver at Kriska makes about $58,000 a year, and, he added, that’s not enough. And a three or four-percent increase is not enough.

And now’s the time to do it.

Truckers, he said, must limit their capacity in the coming years if they want to create a sustainable model for years go come, and he appealed to the 3PL members of the audience to "align yourselves with people you feel will be there longer."

To that end, fleets must get a realistic sense of their costs and extend those costs into their prices.

“When we take stock at the end of the day,” he says, “profitability is going to allow us to so sustain what we can do.

"So many of our employees and contractors have been a standstill for quite some time and in many cases we’ve had to retract those costs.”

It’s time, he said, to “be responsible for our internal investments.”

Ah! Yes! that's the one! Look's like drivers are going to be having to think through their futures like never before!

Thank's for the help.

I've seen all kinds of dispatchers good and bad. Nepotism certainly has been a big part of the problem at some of these places. Worst thing about it is that a good deal of those practicing it could not tell you what the word meant.

That being said honesty is the best policy, be honest and treat drivers with the same respect you would like to be treated and don't micro manage. I have had to tell more than one dispatcher that I'm in charge of the big blue office on wheels and he is in charge of the one that doesn't move, hopefully we can work together but most things on the road are my call. Weather, traffic and what have you, I make the choices how and when to deal with them so if I feel I need to shut it down it's my choice for instance.

It really wouldn't hurt for drivers to realize that the dispatcher has a thankless task. The customer wants this, safety wants that, upper management may have a different view and then there is the driver's point of view about it. It can be quite a balancing act. Things change too, many a time I used to question why a dispatcher would send me back and forth but appointments or some reason the driver might be aware of require things that can be an inconvenience amd make no sense. Unless you have all the facts that is.

$58 000.00 (40 hrs x 52weeks = 2080 hrs per year)
$58 000.00 div by 2080 hrs = $27.88 per hour.(Not bad)
They dont work more than 40 hrs per week do they ?

Kevin,

Interesting article. I have been a dispatcher for 15 years and would like to respond to some of your rules:

1)Honesty is the best policy. Really? Driver has no hours and is off duty, but the customer calls and says it needs to be delivered now. My ops manager or owner tells me "it has to get there". Thanks for putting me in that enviable position. And it has happened numerous times and at every company I have worked.

2)Safety meetings. I go to every one as do most dispatchers. As for driver complaints, you have got to be kidding. Most drivers today can't open their mouths without complaining about something. Pay, hours, equipment. What to know something, as a dispatcher I can basically do nothing about any of those things. Drivers have an abundance of complaints and bravado when they are talking to dispatch, but very rarely follow up on their boasts of quitting or not showing up, etc. Stop complaining to dispatch and complain to who can fix it.

3)Most recruiting departments over promise what they can deliver to a driver. Then when the driver finds out he is angry or sullen or whatever. Thanks recruiting department, now I have to deal with this.

4)"Dispatchers, if always honest, will always at the end of the day receive cooperation from the drivers." Seriously, what were you smoking when you wrote this gem? When was the last time you were in operations because this doesn't logically fit Point 6.

5)"If any dispatcher every talks to a driver, and says "I NEED A FAVOUR" be prepared to return the favour and do it soon. Every body has a long memory, especially when they did you a favour." You just said that if I am honest with the driver they would cooperate. If that were true then I would never need to ask for a favour. As a driver your job is to drive for the company, so I never have and never will ask for favours. Mind you when I ask a driver to do something honestly they fall over themselves to do the job. Right?

Finally, driver pay. I have a rule in my office that drivers don't complain about pay. Why? Because you generally make more than I do, so I really don't care how much do or don't make. If you don't like your pay, join the club.

Ive seen that myself HRS of service are just a guide to management.
To the driver they are rule of law.
No matter how many years a driver has under his belt and knows first
hand how tired he is, He is in no position to make that call.
The Company owner is however better able to figure this out.
If the driver makes the call to run over hrs to get home, and the
company owner did not weigh in on that plan.
Watch out.

I guess to respond would be pointless. If you continue to break the law, dispatching and delviering but dispatching anyways, then why bother. HERE IS WHY?
Ever since the government changed the laws, it now ROLLS UPHILL INSTEAD OF DOWN. YOU can be held accountable not just the driver. If you dispatched them and they were out of hours, you are as much responsible for any accidents damge etc, as the driver is. Welcome to Gov't 101. As for what I ahve been smoking and last ime I am in Operations . I don't smoke but I am inovled in Operations everyday.

I know we all have to work a very fine line. However if you do not tellthe owner it canot legally be done, how else will they change either. All you need is one accident and the company gets sued. A smart lawyer, holds everyone in the compnay legally responsible. Lousy postion to be put in but it is the law. As for drivers pay and what you get paid.They have every right to cocmplain. As do you. If you are not happy with the pay you receive go to the same owner who forces you to run loads illegally and request better pay. The ddrivers think by complaining to you you can do something.

Kevin I am not sure where you work or who you work for, but you sound very bitter about the job and the industry. Try to change within and it may get better. If all you do is complain ythe same as the drivers but do nothing about it to change the situation, then wha thave you accomplished, other than going home bitter every day.

Where people I know, in the industry, work, drivers cooperate, work legal hours, Some drivers say well I am at 10 hours, in CANADA and the dispatch says yes but you have 13 in Canada Legally. What does it take, It takes the knowledge o9f doing your job properly, knowing the Management stands behind you, or in front of you, 100%, pride in ownership of your job and understanding the law. All facets of which, we try to instill in people in the industry. YOU have to be able to stand up to owners and say sorry I will not break the law, IF you get fired for that then do you really want to work there in the first place. Recruiting, sometimes sure they oversell the job. Meet with the recruiting departmen. Explain the problems to them, NEVER ASSUME that they are aware of what is going on. If you wish contact me and I will gladly explain more in detail. I do not belive this is the venue.! P.S. READ RAY'S RULES AS WELL BOTH OF US STATE BASICALLY THE SAME THING

Nepotism... opps... in my circles the word has morphed into "favoritism" rather than family favoritism. I meant favoritism, not nepotism. Sorry about that.

Nice concluding position Snobel.