Logistics Management

Remember in driving class the instructor telling you the rearview mirror was an important tool? But in use how important are they? I think somewhat more than most folks give credit for. When backing they are the way you see what you are backing into. And they can help you figure out where the traffic is behind and beside you. But are they very good at telling you where you have been?

I was doing a bit of rearview work this morning, looking up some projections about Truckload capacity from February and March to see if the projections came true. The projection was how much the national TL fleet would shrink. Close as I can tell, some of the projections that people sent to me were low, and I think the numbers that we will see in the 3rd quarter are going to be worse than what ar...Read More

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Sorry about the long delay between posts. I got back from 9 days on the motorcycle on July 23 and have been busy getting caught up.

This trip I covered the central Midwest, from Pennsylvania to Wyoming. I spent time on the major trucking routes of I-70, I-80, and some of the connector interstate and state highways along the way. I do these week-long or longer motorcycle trips every summer. I go in just about all directions; sometimes north into Canada, sometimes South to Georgia, Florida; and many times on the Blue Ridge Parkway where you will not ever see a truck on the road. This year it was out to Gillette, WY for the BMW Motorcycle Rally. I get out to the Northwest about every 4 years, which means a long ride through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dak...Read More

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For most of use that are gray of hair and have been around for a while, we remember the dark days of transportation regulation as a bit of nightmare. A federal government agency commission controlled the rates that carriers got to charge. There was limited competition, and in many cases no real incentive for innovation that could reduce costs.

Lately there has been quite a bit of populist rhetoric by persons seeking political office about establishing a “windfall” profits tax upon the oil companies that do business here in the US. This is a fall back to another “nightmare” of times, it was done in the past and, as some argue, not only did not work, but is the cause of some of the oil market conditions that we face.

On June 5 Illinois Senat...Read More

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One of my weekly habits is to go into linkedIn.com and look at the questions posted in the Supply Chain Management area. (If you don’t know what LinkedIn.com is, go there at www.linkedIn.com.) There was a question from the sales manager of a little 3pl about the death of carriers due to high fuel prices and if the “community” knew of any shippers that were looking for capacity.

No one really answered his question, mostly there was ranting about how if the carriers were going out of business it was because they were bad managers, or how it is a play to get higher rates, or random single point issues about how the truckers are hurting.  What struck me was how ill informed and somewhat ignorant some of the posted answers really wer...Read More

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I am in the process of tearing a motorcycle apart. If you follow this blog you know that back in April I had a "too close encounter" with an “individual driving while on phone”. As one would expect, even with the low impact speed, there was a lot of damage. As I dig into the repairs on my 1999 BMW R1100RT touring motorcycle I am being surprised by what I see.

First, none of the plastic body panels are really damaged. The bike did not slide on the pavement; we hit the car and then fell over. The right mirror & turn signal housing was destroyed. But the body panels were only scuffed, about 2 hours of elbow grease and rubbing compound took off all of the marks. The cylinder covers are scratched and gouged, but replacement is 4 bolts, a new cover and a new g...Read More

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 I have a rather large collection of books. Kind of goes with being someone who started reading at a very young age and a genetic makeup that is part “pack rat”. Do I have books! It would really be a serious problem if I did not go through a process of culling out the ones that are not “worthy” of being on the shelf, or the habit that I have of “sharing” some of the better ones with friends. 

Last week I was looking at the book shelves in my office, considering what should stay and what should go. Part of the criteria is the question; “Is the book still relevant? Is the material or ideas in the book still relevant to today?” If the answer is no, then the book goes off into a box and sent over to the local thrift store.

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In the wee hours of the morning I got to sit for a few hours at the Amtrak station in downtown Cleveland, Ohio last Thursday. It was quiet, a steady noise of the big wind turbine that is up by the Science center, punctuated by the passing of many freight trains on the Norfolk Southern main line (the old New York Central “Water Level Route”).

As the freight trains passed in both directions, I noticed three consistent characteristics of the trains. They were short. They had only one or two locomotives (3:1 one locomotive). Finally, the trains were mostly empty. 

It kind of struck me odd as I sat there and noticed these three “trends” in the 2 hours that I watched by my count almost 20 trains pass by. The NS route is not th...Read More

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Could you drive better with that phone…

I ride a motorcycle. I own several, but ride only one at a time. And I ride a lot. A “slow” year is one that I don’t ride more than 10,000 miles.

I ride both short distances and long distances. I have been riding for a long time, over 25 years. I have had a few accidents in that time. I raced for a while, and you will have more than one “close encounter with the asphalt” if you race. I have also had two on the roads accidents where I lost traction and had the rear of the bike “step out” from under me.

I have had a few close calls with other vehicles. Most of the encounters in recent years has been bec...Read More

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I stopped by the Post Office yesterday to pick up my mail. It was a busy place, not an empty parking space to be found. Most times there are only 4 or 5 cars in the lot. My first thought was that they were giving away postage. Then I remembered that today is tax deadline day and that everyone was rushing to get their taxes into the mail. The lines were long and people were grumbling, unhappy about the wait and unhappy about paying taxes.

I remember my accountant telling me as we reviewed my tax return that my “effective” tax rate was 21%. For every $100 that I earned the federal government got to take $21. But that is not the whole bite, which is only the income tax bite. There are all sorts of other taxes that we pay that are bites from our income AND additions ...Read More

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It is the afternoon of April 2. I woke up yesterday to the sound of Class 8 trucks on the turnpike. I went to bed with the sound of Class 8 trucks on the turnpike. Scale houses were just as busy this Tuesday as they were last Tuesday.

Yesterday was the big date of the “Shutdown”, by independent Owner / Operators. While there were reports of protests, like at the Port of Tampa, and the blockage on the New Jersey Turnpike around Newark, the nation’s transportation system moved like it normally does.

Not that the effort by the O/O’s was a wasted effort. They did get more press with this shutdown than they did with the ones in the past. They did get some pandering mention from a presidential hopeful in a speech to a union (but t...Read More

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The first wind of the "strike" came in a phone call to a friend in Southwest Missouri. I had heard about the flooding in along the Mississippi. My friend owns a several hundred acres in the Ozarks and heavy rain tends to make things kind of messy. My friend was not worried about flooding; he was more concerned about the truckers and the cost of getting livestock to market. The way fuel was going up the truckers were hiking up the rate to get cattle to market. My friend was just as concerned about the fuel costs, his tractors burn diesel. He mentioned that the last driver picking up stock for market talked about a shutdown on April Fools Day.

I was on vacation this week in Florida with my family. When I travel in other parts of the country away from home I look at all so...Read More

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