MOVING RIGHT ALONG

Beat the clock

TED PRINCE

ost of us are familiar available for work. Many motor carriers bility of the railroad or steamship line with the game show will use more trailers that can be left at and the speed and consistency of load- Let’s Make a Deal and customers’ sites rather than having driv- ing and unloading. Truckers have long M its famous emcee, ers perform “live” loading and unload- been expected to conform to each ter- Monty Hall. Some transportation indus- ing. Technology vendors may see a minal’s operational requirements. try observers are reminded of the show resurgence in business as tracking, Recently, the concerns of intermodal by the rate freedoms permitted under load-planning and asset-deployment truckers have become paramount. This deregulation. Now Hall may have systems become more desirable. These is a result of vendor unrest, often sup- another transportation connection with costs will ultimately find their way into ported by the Teamsters union, and leg- his game show Beat the Clock. rates. Furthermore, carriers can be islation focused on vehicle emissions On Jan. 4, hours-of-service regula- expected to be much more diligent and congestion (such as California’s tions for truck drivers received their about assessing — and collecting — Lowenthal Act, which imposed $250 first overhaul since the first rules were accessorial charges for driver delay. fines on marine terminals that made introduced in 1939. The modifications Customers will need to keenly mon- truckers wait more than 30 minutes). are so wide-ranging that Transportation itor their own operations. Appointments West Coast marine terminals have Secretary Norman Minetta felt com- must be kept. Loading and unloading announced their intent to provide radio- pelled to ask states for a 60-day grace will need to be mechanized. The entire frequency identification tags for all period in enforcement. industry must again determine how cus- tractors transiting their facilities. This Under the new rules, truckers can tomer facilities can work 24/7, while will not only speed gate throughput but drive one additional hour while working taking into account the complications will track truck arrivals and improve (11 instead of the previous 10); howev- presented by local practices, zoning and terminals’ efficiency as the RFID tag er, the rest time between shifts has also NIMBYism. becomes a mobile work order. This may been increased (10 hours instead of the No one is certain how the new rules help to refute anecdotal claims about previous eight). More important, the will affect intermodal. The conventional truck delays being relocated from out- driver’s on-duty time has been reduced wisdom is that any increase in the cost side the gate to inside the terminal. to 14 consecutive hours (from 15), but of line-haul trucking is good for inter- Unfortunately, RFID tags will not rest breaks, meals and waiting time are modal because intermodal’s price address issues of driver identification counted against that total. advantage is widened. When comparing and motor carrier interchange. Gate The impact on motor carriers is rail and truck, this may be true, but an transactions can be greatly accelerated expected to be extensive. The apples-to-apples comparison of door-to- by advance exchange of information Department of Transportation has esti- door cost and transit is more complicat- between terminals and motor carriers, mated the increased cost at $1.3 billion ed. but throughput is still limited by equip- annually, but some industry leaders say Rail intermodal employs local ment inspection. it could be 10 to 30 times higher. A drayage firms for pickup and delivery. While the entire transportation and study cited by Schneider National The new regulations may have a much logistics industry works to comply with maintains that a 4 to 9 percent reduc- greater proportional impact on these the new hours-of-service rules, the tion in driver productivity could moves, which are often short distances, intermodal industry will try to use this increase linehaul expense by as much than on long-haul, door-to-door transit opportunity to expand the business. as 19 percent. Long-haul moves with a by a single truck. However, the ability Will it succeed? Time will tell. customer drop will be minimally affect- for drivers to “reset” their consecutive ed, but short-haul moves with multiple work days under the new rules may fit stops may have a drastic impact. the peak nature of intermodal volume. Ted Prince is senior vice president of Additional expense will come from Terminal transfer is always part of Optimization Alternatives Ltd. He can many areas. Increased driver wages are an intermodal move. Traditionally, cus- be reached at (804) 754-2291, expected to offset the reduced hours tomers have focused on the transit relia- or via e-mail at [email protected].

February 2-8, 2004 The Journal of Commerce 11