$129,710

That’s the financial penalty company drivers pay over the course of a 30-year career by repeatedly changing jobs. The figure, calculated on behalf of the Truckload Carriers Association a few years ago, assumes a driver will change jobs 8 times during a 30-year driving career. During this time, the study assumed the driver would be unemployed for 4 months with no compensation (loss of $11,014) due to job changes, will go through 21 months without medical coverage (loss of $3,696) and have 84 months of non-eligibility for pension funds (loss of $115,000). The study also assumed a base starting salary of 30.5 cents per mile and a three-year rate of 33 cents per mile with 9,028 miles driven per month on average. Other potential losses include loss of miles due to lack of seniority; loss of paid vacation time and not being considered for dedicated runs. It concluded that in a typical driving career, job switching is currently costing the driver in excess of 5 cents on every mile driven.

CJ-4: Still a slippery subject for many fleets

Despite industry efforts to educate fleets about the new CJ-4 category of motor oils required with the 2007 model diesel engines, our annual Equipment Buying Trends Survey found Canadian fleet awareness to be low. On average, fleet managers responding to the survey, conducted in the summer of 2006 by our own Transportation Media Research, rated their familiarity with CJ-4 a 2.1 out of 5. And just a few months before the 2007 engines were coming into their fleets, the majority (44%) told us they did not know what their motor oil spec’ing strategy would be. Slightly more than 1/3 expected to keep separate supplies of CJ-4 motor oil for their fleet equipped with 2007 engines and conventional oil for their older fleet. Only 17% were planning to stock only CJ-4, which although more expensive, is backwards compatible.

What do shippers worry about?

A whole bunch of things, according to our annual Canadian Third-Party Logistics Survey. The need to improve their supply chain management execution and enhance customer service are top priority as is the need to improve the information they use to run their supply chains. But all these concerns pale in comparison to the need to reduce costs. Cost reduction is a supply chain challenge cited by the greatest majority of respondents (79%) to the survey but is it the challenge given the highest priority? Yes, our survey clearly points out. Using a scale of 1 to 5, survey respondents gave it a priority ranking of 4.51, considerably outdistancing the other major concerns. That provides a strong indication that despite shippers’ recent acceptance of higher rates, they remain highly concerned about cost increases. Our annual survey includes the input of more than 700 shippers across Canada and is conducted in partnership with Ryder Canada, Supply Chain and Logistics Canada and The Logistics Institute.