There’s a common thread to many of the discussions I’ve had with drivers about the new American hours-of-service rules, and there’s also a very clear theme to the discussions I’ve had with carriers on the same subject. And yes, the drivers and carriers are diametrically opposed, but not in the way you’d think.

The drivers-and many owner-operators as well-see the new rules as having a limiting effect on their earnings. The drivers’ most frequently stated concerns are waiting time at the border and at loading docks, and idle time between loads. “How,” they ask, “will we be able to run any miles if the time is burned up waiting for something to happen?”

They tell me that if things don’t change, they’ll just have to find new ways to work around the rules, maybe logging on-duty later in the day than they actually do, or just leaving certain portions of the trip off the log sheet altogether. (The truth is, it’ll be more difficult to cheat, because the alterations will be easier to detect, both at the roadside and during a facility audit.)

The carriers fret that they’ll lose a significant number of drivers as a result of the new rules, especially as their effects start to show up on the balance sheet. Fleets are right to be concerned-people aren’t lining up for driving jobs.

David Bradley, head of both the Canadian Trucking Alliance and the Ontario Trucking Association, recently told a gathering of shippers in Toronto that capacity would be a real issue in the near future. He told the group that buying more trucks won’t help because carriers can’t find qualified people to drive them.

The fleets have concluded, at least the ones I’ve spoken to, that paying more will be the only way to maintain the existing driver pool and to encourage more people to become drivers.

Some of the largest American fleets have already announced significant increases in driver pay. One of the largest, Schneider National, is offering some attractive increases for non-driving activity as well.

So here’s an opportunity to increase pay, to right some old perceived wrongs, and to work out a better way of compensating drivers for all the work they do.

What have we got instead? Drivers are worried about how they’re going to cheat on the logs in order to keep the freight moving. Carriers are talking about coughing up more dough and making the shippers pay.

Seems what we have here is a failure to communicate.
The carriers who have the drivers will be the ones best able to serve their customers. Since drivers are pretty keen on not having 20 or 30 hours a week of their time wasted by a shipper, they’ll be playing a more active role in deciding which shippers the carriers serve.

As Bradley told shippers, drivers will be looking for carriers who respect their need to earn a living. And they will gravitate to the carriers with customers who understand the problem, not those who make it worse.

If your driver was making $900 a week in December, you should make sure he’s getting at least $900 a week in January, in March, in April, and beyond. Much of the value of what truckers do has been lost by hiding the wasted time on the top line of the log sheet. That won’t work anymore, so drivers are going to want to get paid for all the time they spend on the job.

If driving time is reduced by 20 per cent, the wage value of that 20 per cent will have to be replaced by hourly pay, flat-rate fees, or perhaps even salaries with operational or mileage bonuses.

Somehow, value has to be put back into the system, and there won’t be a better opportunity to do it than now.