Europe has much the same problem as the US when it comes to a driver shortage for logistics.
And the problem made it into consciousness for a similar reason– a new regulation that required drivers to take 45 hours of rest outside their truck, and other work rules. The rules were made for safety reasons, and they make a lot of sense.
But the effect was to prevent drivers from using extra hours to earn money from firms that pay too little. ‘Make it up on volume’ is possible only if you have enough hours to do it.
So drivers increasingly are simply walking away from driving jobs, or quitting and looking for jobs from those few companies that pay more fairly.
The speakers in the article make it plain that trucking firms themselves brought this shortage on, by not paying drivers fairly and not providing fair working conditions.
This story has legs. Now the office staff of HMM are involved, and there are sympathy strikes by other Korean line seafarers. Seafarers have been severely hurt by the Covid stress, some not seeing shore for long periods. Ocean carriers such as HMM are now making bundlesofmoney becauseofvast shortages of container carryng capacity and ports that can’t deal with the increased flow, and workers on the ships recognize that now is the time to throw a wrench into the money-making shipping lines’ projections.
One of the big problems owner-operators have is waiting to load and unload at warehouses. that is dead time for them. They are only earning their fee if they are rolling; they aren’t paid for waiting time.
Uber Freight has designed a service called Powerloop, which offers to place leased trailers at shippers’ premises so that they can load or unload when it suits them. When a trailer is ready for pickup, the Uber Freight system finds an owner-operator driver who can come to the premises, and simply hook up to the trailer and leave. And on the other end, the owner-operator simply drops off the trailer. It’s then up to the receiver to unload the trailer on their own time.
This is clearly a big advantage to the driver. And Uber takes a cut from the fee offered to cover the trailer lease and maintenance costs, and the service ofhaving it at the shipper’s warehouse when they need it.
Think of it as a bit like the U-Haul moving pods you sometimes see outside the house of someone who is moving. the family can load it as they can, and when it’s ready they can just say, “Come pick it up.” A driver comes and takes it to where it’s going, and leaves it again, in the new driveway or something. It’s up to the family to unload it, and then have it taken away. For some it works a lot better than a moving van.
Warehouses are notorious for having limited working hours that don’t conform to the needs of the truckers they’ve hired to move the load. The warehouses may have labor rules for union workers, or may have instituted various rules themselves. Failing to match rules to truckers’ needs can result in a warehouse being placed on a lwess-than-desirable list that may bring higher rates, or fewer carriers to select from. And at the extreme it may result in abandoned loads and poor relations with the carrier, customer, and warehouse, losing money and time for all.
The Uber approach is one that could work in drivers’ favor and warehouses also. It takes financial muscle, such as Uber can generate— to lease the trailers; and technology, like Uber’s— the system for good communication with drivers and drop-off points to get the scheduling right.
Uber Freight’s power-only expansion into Georgia gives owner-operators leg up Powerloop now accessible in 3 states .
Supply Chain and Logistics 