Obtain the data you need to make the most informed decisions by accessing our extensive portfolio of information, analytics, and expertise. Sign in to the product or service center of your choice.
As truck drivers rush to deliver essential goods during the
coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, US shippers are
taking advantage of extended driver hours to speed replenishment.
They're putting more people on docks, ensuring they've purchasing
the right amount of goods, and even creating forms to help truckers
hauling their loads verify they and their shipments are exempt from
US hours-of-service (HOS) rules.
The first-ever nationwide HOS exemption is
meant to put some flexibility back into a US transportation network
that is limited by the daily clock governing trucker working hours,
which allow 11 hours of daily driving time and 14 hours of on-duty
time. The exemption allows truckers to exceed those limits, as long
as they take a 10-hour break afterward.
Drivers are apparently using the HOS exemption, but there's no
way to publicly track how many are working longer hours to get
essential goods to destinations. Truckers are traveling faster
through typically congested urban areas, however, thanks to a
reduction in everyday commuter traffic, according to a new report from
the American Transportation Research Institute.
Shippers verifying drivers, loads
Eric Lien, executive vice president of strategic partners at
Arrive Logistics said, many shippers are thinking outside the box
and embracing responsibility for ensuring drivers working under the
exemption can make deliveries. "We've seen some of our largest food
and beverage accounts issue formal memos to truck drivers with
their shipment paperwork notifying anyone who stops the drivers
that they are covered by the exemption."
That's a relief to drivers wondering how they would demonstrate
they were exempt, absent a certificate from the government, if
their hours of service were checked by state or local authorities.
The exemption also allows truck drivers to deliver goods within
restricted areas under a shelter-in-place-style lockdown imposed by
state or local governments.
"This kind of leadership from the shipper community is really
encouraging to see," Lien said. Some shippers he's spoken with are
also stepping up basic "shipper-of-choice"
driver-friendly practices they introduced in 2018, when the
electronic logging device (ELD) mandate and higher freight demand
combined to disrupt delivery times and constrict truck
capacity.
"We've talked with shippers that are picking up amenities
drivers now can't get at truck stops — vending machines,
bottled water, sanitizer," Lien said. But shippers and consignees
are also asking drivers, and other visitors, to verify that they
haven't traveled to other countries affected by the COVID-19
pandemic or had flu-like symptoms within the last 14 days.
Not just collaboration, but coordination
The transportation crisis caused by COVID-19 requires shippers
to do more than see to driver needs, however. "With
the HOS exemption, you've got an opportunity to ship products
outside the traditional hours, a relief from capacity constraints,"
Lien said. "But to leverage that opportunity you've got to
coordinate across the supply chain, especially on the receiving
end."
That means tighter coordination between procurement,
distribution, and receiving. "Purchasing and distribution often
operate in two different worlds," Lien said. "But you need to
ensure you not only procure the amount needed for replenishment,
but that you have the crew you need on the docks and the yard space
to handle higher volumes." The same is true at customer sites.
"Best-in-class shippers are trying to get ahead of these
problems, working hard to keep their base of carriers intact," he
said. When the pandemic eventually wanes and businesses start
shipping higher volumes again, "they don't want to find themselves
with a glut of carriers that they don't have a relationship with.
To hold onto their own guys, they've got to be flexible."
John Janson, global logistics director at custom apparel shipper
SanMar, is working on the kind of supply chain coordination Lien
describes, but it's not easy. A big question is how to maintain
communications. "Everybody from headquarters is working from home.
Different parts of our company are doing different things," Janson
said. "And right in the middle of this, it's contracting
season."
When it comes to working with truck drivers, "we're following
the policies laid down by the [motor] carriers," Janson said. "Each
of our major carriers has published what they want customers to do
when drivers show up. If they want us to keep the six-foot rule,
we'll accommodate them." The goal, he said, is to keep trucks and
cargo moving.
"What's really been impressive is how every one of our carriers
is stepping up with their contingency plans and letting us know how
they will affect us," Janson said. "I've always said building
strong relationships will get us through. That's really coming to
fruition right now." Those relationships will be just as important
when COVID-19 cases wane and the economy revives.
At that point, "capacity will have to shift again and that will
create disruption," Lien said. "That transition will come at a
cost, and it just depends on how long some of these industries are
down. I don't think all industries are going to start up
immediately. It's not like everybody's going to be out there buying
cars. People will probably continue with some degree of
frugality."
Posted 09 April 2020 by William Cassidy, Senior Editor, JOC, S&P Global Market Intelligence
