Last week we had an important appointment at our office and took the afternoon to do a long overdo clean-up and used that same opportunity to reorganize the office to make better use of our space. As I looked on, I must admit I felt a great deal of pride in seeing everyone working together towards a common goal. In this case the goal was simple and achievable. No one doubted the outcome. Everybody contributed and felt part of the change.

How do we (meaning everyone managing a department or business) translate that type of co-operative spirit into meeting the daily change and challenge we face in our day to day business? My thoughts follow and hopefully some of you will share yours as well.

Don’t compromise on talent.  There just isn’t room for weak links or rotten apples. The recession gave this weeding out process a kick start and we all need to be careful as we add new members back to our team.

A common goal. This is a big one. Even at the highest levels of management we see a disconnect and lack of clarity when it comes to long term objectives and vision. This is multiplied by 10 as it goes down through the ranks.

Share the victories. It is never what “I” did; it is what “we” accomplished. Remember to check “ego” at the door and genuinely share the glory.

Switch from fire fighters to wedding planners. There is bound to be some fire fighting with business but if it’s all you’re doing there are some fundamental processes that need addressing. It’s a much better feeling planning your day vs. chasing your tail...less stressful and much more productive.

Rewards. Money is great and appreciated but kind words have power too.

Lee’s quote for the day

“What’s better than feeling like a valued part of a winning team? Absolutely nothing!” :)

Lee Palmer is the President and Creative Director at Palmer Marketing, a company that specializes in creative marketing and advertising solutions for the transportation industry.

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Anyone on the sales side of the equation knows how hard it is to turn a single transaction into a repetitive one and a business contact into a customer. Screwing up and subsequently how you handle a screw up is one of the defining moments in establishing lasting supplier and customer relationships.

As much as we strive for perfection the fact is we are all going to mess up occasionally. When we do, we need to correct the immediate problem and figure out how to stop it from happening again. Thus the birth of processes and standard operating procedures... but then if you’re not careful, the rigidity of these quality standards can put you into a situation where you cannot be as responsive as you once were. Like many things, it’s all about striking balance.

Food for thought...

1. Know who you are and what you are trying to accomplish. We are only as good as our weakest link. We need a conquerable level of quality across what we produce as a company and how our supplier/partner network performs too.

   “It’s been my experience that most small business is better positioned to perform miracles then they are to run a solid day to day operation. A few years ago we beefed up our supplier base to get the best of both worlds and through a trial and error basis, established an improved network of suppliers. Suppliers that owned up when they made an error and worked closely with us to proactively manage each project consistently, in a quality manner and to specific timelines.”

2. There are lots of grids that show the relationships of bad customer/ good business, good customer/ bad business and ultimately good customer/good business. It’s important to identify this grid and find the right fit for you and your customer...across the board.

   “We’re a mature company of 22 years and through a process of learning everything the hard way, we’ve come to know what makes us a fit for a customer. We’re not order takers... so today we shy away from situations where the customers wants to micro manage from the directors chair and is looking for technicians, not thinkers. Our best fit is where we are dealing with the senior executive of a company who needs someone who can take the ball and run with it. That is our make up, we understand it. I believe it’s important to know what your value is and promote it to the appropriate market".

3. If you have a good customer with good business treat them accordingly. Never take them for granted. “It’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease” and sometimes you can spend too much time on “squeaky” customers. It’s time to fire them when they are interfering with your ability to spend the time you need with your “good/good” customers.

   “I would say we have an extremely high percentage of great customers... suppliers too. But we fired one this past week. After 2 months of going back and forth on a service failure they let process and procedure get in the way of making a fair and equitable decision to satisfy a legitimate customer complaint. We credited the order for our customer and after several attempts to mediate the problem, fired the supplier of 20 odd years. Circling back to the top, how well you handle a problem is a critical factor in building business relationships that last.”

Lee’s quote for the day

“Know your product and your market. Don’t get frustrated unnecessarily by trying to sell your Grade A Beef to Vegetarians. The fact that they don’t buy it doesn’t mean you’ve priced it wrong or there is something wrong with it, you’re simply talking to the wrong audience.” :)

Lee Palmer is the President and Creative Director at Palmer Marketing, a company that specializes in creative marketing and advertising solutions for the transportation industry.

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I was seated at the same table as a bunch of truck insurance people during lunch at the OTA convention, and the issue of ice and snow on trailer roofs came up. One man acknowledged this is a big time problem in terms of claims and public safety, while another thought there doesn't seem to be a solution, or if there is no one's found it yet.

If we have a mild winter here in southern Ontario, I think a lot of transport companies just ignore the problem. They might clean off the odd roof during the season, or hire a couple of acrobats to do so. As drivers pulling out of a snowy dock, we've all watched plumes blanketing the roads and the drivers behind us. It's actually quite a beautiful sight (from the rearview mirror). What's really cool is braking on a tight turn and shucking off cascading sheets of ice into a ditch with the accompanying sound effects.

Snow cleaning machines can do some of the job. The best one appears to be the Yeti, and among the most expensive, but even it won't take off ice, which is a bigger problem than snow when it comes to public safety. Ice from trailer roofs can kill or seriously injure, and it's happened too often.

Some companies provide platforms where drivers can get tethered and shovel off the roofs. Others don't do anything and just hope the snow will go away by itself, or no one will notice, or at least not make a report. A few supply mechanical snow clearing devices, and those get mixed results. It's also necessary to provide some means to clear away the snow that accumulates on the ground from the cleaning, too.

Putting cleaning stations at inspection stations, as they do in the Maritimes, doesn't make sense either. The snow-laden vehicle has to take the highway to get to the scales in the first place. Part of the responsibility should at least be the shipper's. If the trailer has sat in a dock all weekend because they requested a dropped trailer, that snow then belongs to the customer and they should be obligated to clear it. But try telling that to a customer and sending them a bill!

And when is it all right to pull a snow-covered trailer? Surely it's OK to move one that has an inch or two of light powder. The problem is we drivers can't even see what's up there, and even if we could, few would risk life and limb to scale a trailer with a shovel. Until someone figures out how to solve this problem we'll just keep dropping snow and ice on the roads. So have a nice winter. Let it not snow, not snow, not snow.

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I have been very fortunate for the past number of years to be part of the great team of folks at ATBS Canada Inc. During this period of time, I have been busy working with Owner Operators trying to assist them in becoming successful with their businesses. I believe that success does not happen as easily as Hollywood would like us to believe. In fact, I believe the old saying “Success comes disguised as hard work” is more to the point. I would even add to this idea by saying “Success comes disguised as hard work and good planning. “

Using ATBS as a benchmark for how a successful Owner Operators should ‘operate’, success begins with an in-your-face reality check in the form of a personal/business cash flow statement. This document does nothing more than tell the Owner Operator where they stand on a monthly basis in regards to the cash that is coming into the business compared to the cash going out. Simple, right? It is simple and, if done correctly, most Owner Operators will know within an hour where they stand. If you have a good handle on what your revenue per mile is along with your fuel cost and other expenses, you can find out rather easily how many miles per month you need to run to break even.

Think about that last statement. You own a truck, or are at least making payments on a truck…you’re paid by the mile…therefore wouldn’t knowing how many miles you need to do on a monthly basis to cover all your personal and business obligations seem like something that you should know? Once we put that on paper we then move on to a budget. Budgeting sounds like a nasty subject, doesn’t it? Well it is, but remember that success comes disguised as hard work and this is necessary stuff. A budget tells you what you plan on achieving for the next year and how you’re going to do so. Some of what is contained in a budget includes fixed expenses like truck payments as well as variable expenses like fuel and maintenance costs that are dependent on the age of the vehicle. We budget for three month’s worth of operating costs, in case there is an interruption in cash flow.

The next step is the production of the monthly receipts that get mailed into a P&L (Profit and Loss) Statement. This document looks very much like the budget; in fact it’s the document that we compare the budget to on a monthly basis to ensure the numbers are staying on track with your one-year plan. You cannot manage what you do not measure and you need to manage your way to success, not try to stumble into it. Believe me; your chance of success will increase 10-fold when you do your planning and paperwork before turning your wheels.
There are other things that make up good practices as an Owner Operator. Once again, using ATBS as a benchmark; a good program should include general business consulting relating specifically to an Owner Operator’s business; and includes things like the production of a cash flow statement and an annual business budget. It should also include monthly contact with a business advisor to review and compare your P&L to your budget, and it all HST/GST returns and annual tax returns for your business.

I believe firmly in the Owner Operator model in North America. These are some of the hardest working and most dedicated, value-based folks to ever hit the highway and we need them. When an Operator feels the pinch they work harder; what they should be doing so they don’t get into that pinch in the first place is work smarter - and we have the tools to help them do just that. Smarter not harder… that's the key…always has been.

All one has to do these days is pick up any trade magazine to become distracted and lose track of one’s priorities. Electronic On-Board Recorders, the Hours of Service being re-written once more, Speed Limiters, the almighty CSA coming down the tube, and new procedures for customs entry into Canada are all over the news these days. All of these items need to be monitored and all Owner Operators need to know what is coming at the legislative level, but nothing comes before the business of operating your business profitably and successfully. If you don’t have this as your focus then the rest means nothing.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a piece that applies to many Owner Operators in our industry, “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” Each day is a new day, and you may not be doing the things that I have told you that you need to do in order to be successful. Perhaps because your fellow Owner Operators don’t do them, or perhaps because a family member who is an Owner Operator doesn’t have a cash flow, or a budget, or regular P&L’s so why should you? You should because there is a better way, and just because mediocrity is fine for those around you, it should not be good enough for you and your family. There is a better way to live than from statement to statement and for many of you, the future can be bright and bring the peace of mind that you deserve.

But remember “Success comes disguised as hard work and good planning. “

On that note, I wish you all a safe and Merry Christmas!

Ray J. Haight

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Just as I warned in my column “Face Reality” a few months ago, the US government is done skirting around with reducing greenhouse gas emisisons from trucks. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) division are calling for an improvement in overall fuel efficiency on class 8 long-haul vehicles of up to 20% by 2018, using 2010 as a baseline. Expect Canada to follow suit.

Heavy truck engines will have to be tweaked to contribute a 3% improvement in fuel consumption by 2014, but the remaining gains in efficiency will have to be found through decreased tire rolling resistance, lower tare weights, reduced idling and one thing some drivers won’t be happy about: improved aerodynamics. That’s right, more of those “slippery” trucks as some of you like to call them.

If the high fuel prices we saw earlier this decade and the low rates we are seeing now were not enough to kill the classic long nose conventional, over the next decade this legislation certainly will. This classic design, which is the hands down choice of many owner/operators (and company drivers if they could convince management to get into one) used to account for 25% of Class 8 sales back in 2000 but has now dropped to less than 6% of the North American market.

But that’s a very vocal 6%, as I found out this year after penning a couple of columns predicting the end of the long nose conventional in our industry. The folks that drive them just don’t want to let them go. Many have bought into the image of a long haul trucker as being behind the wheel of this classic design. And they were not too happy when I suggested they should perhaps think otherwise. I’m still getting angry calls about those columns.

Well, folks, this new legislation is a sharp dose of reality. The long nose conventional is doomed. It really is the dinosaur everyone outside North America thinks it to be, and will not make it past the next decade without significant redesign. But don’t take my word for it, read what Automotive World had to say in a recent article: “Those iconic flat-fronted, long bonneted heavy trucks, often dripping with chrome, which are beloved of many North American drivers and other transport traditionalists, are set to be outlawed by US fuel efficiency/CO2 emission standards. Or listen to what Bill Kozek, general manager of Paccar's Kenworth division, believes: He told the American Trucking Associations recently that 'long and tall cowboy trucks will go away', citing as an example his own company's W900 tractor range. Why? Because their aerodynamic drag would incur unacceptable penalties under the new CO2/fuel-efficiency rules.

The outward appearance of the traditional long nose conventional has not changed much since the 1950s; it’s too much of a sacred cow. As a result they are heavier, carry less payload, and suck up more gas.

Killing this sacred cow has nothing to do with disrespect for image or tradition. It has everything to do with coming up with an efficient design most likely to give fleets and owner/operators a chance to improve their bottom lines.

And at the end of the day, that’s what smart business decisions should be about.

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