Resources For The Road

Trucking is transporting goods by road using large vehicles, such as semi-trucks, tractor-trailers, and other commercial vehicles. The trucking industry plays a vital role in the economy by moving goods from manufacturers to retailers and consumers. Truck drivers are responsible for operating these vehicles and delivering goods on time and in good condition.Tune in to learn more about Forum Mobility's company origins, services offered today and what drops in trucking capacity means for the overall supply chain. Today's episode of Resources for the Road is brought to you by NEXT Trucking. Host Gabrielle Bejarano chats with Will Mitchell, Vice President of Origination at Forum Mobility. The discussion on zero-emission drayage trucking gives more insight into the topic.NEXT Trucking is a company that specializes in providing digital freight brokerage services to connect shippers with truckers. Their platform allows shippers to find and book trucking services, track shipments in real time, and manage their transportation needs through a user-friendly interface. Zero-emission drayage trucking uses electric or hydrogen fuel cell-powered trucks for short-haul cargo transportation, typically at ports and intermodal rail yards. This type of trucking is considered more environmentally friendly as it produces zero emissions and significantly reduces noise pollution.In the United States, federal regulations require commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) to be equipped with electronic logging devices (ELDs) to track the hours of service (HOS) of truck drivers. The ELD mandate was put in place by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in December 2017 and applies to all CMVs subject to the HOS regulations. The ELDs must be used to track the following information: date and time, engine hours, vehicle miles, location information, driver identification, and more.“We have had early seed money from a handful of dedicated and committed investors. They were really happy to announce that all these investors, plus a couple more, have doubled down on the investment in Forum Mobility and are committed to funding us to go out there and find the right people, push you to do what you need to do and go ahead and make this vision happen,” said Will Mitchell, Vice President of Origination at Forum Mobility.The future of trucking looks bright. With the help of technology and automation, the trucking industry is expected to become more efficient, safe, and sustainable.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated many industries through rapid change, one of which was transportation, an industry which was already reeling from a worker shortage. Now, as companies begin to recover from global supply chain setbacks, they are faced with a new dilemma: where are all the drivers? With the shortage of drivers estimated to be over 80k in the U.S. alone, how do trucking companies recruit the workers they need and make sure they stay?On this new episode of NEXT Trucking's Resources for the Road podcast series, host Gabrielle Bejarano speaks with KJ Media CEO Jackie McManus about the current challenges the trucking and transportation industry faces in recruitment and retention. Bejarano and McManus cover…1) How KJ Media uses automation to streamline the recruitment process2) How the research arm and recruitment process can complement each other for better employee retention3) How KJ Media helps to combat the shortage of drivers and find highly qualified leads“We have several clients, they may have not had a college education, they may have received their CDL A or B and several of them are now COO and C-Suite Executives for major trucking corporations and so, with that entrepreneurial spirit and showing that growth and showing that roadmap, that's where I really think we're going to be able to bridge that gap within the next couple of years,” said McManus.McManus has worked in sales, marketing, and media for over a decade. Prior to founding KJ Media, McManus was a Director of Sales and Marketing for CTS Staffing and an Account Manager for DHL. She earned her Bachelor's in Management from the American International College.

The AB5 law in California isn't exactly brand new, but it is still creating quite the buzz. Host Gabrielle Bejarano invited the Director of Legislative Affairs for OOIDA, Bryce Mongeon onto the show to discuss AB5 and how it's playing out for the trucker community. AB5, under California law, helps to describe and detail who is classed as an employee and who is classed as a contractor. There are direct changes to previous legislation which directly effect the trucker community. Mongeon explained, “So the big problem with AB5 for the trucking community is the ABC test and that's the new classification test that was codified in the law.” The law of the tests states that a person is an employee unless that person can satisfy all three ABC prongs. The problem for the trucking community is the B prong, which states that the person can not be performing work that is in the same course of business as the entity they are working for. If, for example, you are providing trucking and transportation services for a trucking and transportation company, you can't satisfy the B prong “and so therefore, you're automatically an employee,” said Mongeon. The concern for this legislature is that the law would force owner and operator truckers out of the independent contractor business model and would “require that carrier to reclassify them as employees,” stated Mongeon. It is, however, currently unclear how California is going to enforce the law while many legal challenges are ongoing. “It may up-end our members business model and then we really don't know how it's going to work just yet,” Mongeon said with their involvement in the case, “We can make sure that owner/operators and small business truckers voices are heard as part of this case.”While a lot of the legal proceedings may appear quietly ongoing, Mongeon remarked on the importance of making your voice heard to lawmakers, “Be involved,” he said. If lawmakers hear how a certain community is effected, they might just adjust how it plays out.

In this episode of Resources for the Road, host Gabrielle Bejarano sat down with Paul Gioupis, CEO of ZEEM Solutions. The two discuss how Gioupis got into the trucking industry, as well as where ZEEM fits into the trucking and drayage industry as a whole.“We started focusing on areas that we knew were going to have high concentrations of electric trucks that would run routes between 150 or 200 miles or less,” which includes areas near airports, ports, and distribution centers. ZEEM's first location, which has been up and running since December, is located near LAX in California, where they can house 220 trucks overnight and about 80 vehicles in their fleet.But the battery electric solution is not for over-the-road trucks operating more than 200 miles a day. “Trucking operations have been run the same way for a very long period and they've always been diesel minded. So the moment you come in and try to apply new regulations to a trucking business like this you cause major disruptions.”Gioupis explains that they understood a lot of the large fleets were going to have to start to go electric and they are willing to pay the prices to do so. If a trucking industry or trucking operator was looking to go electric, they would have to time several steps perfectly, which can quickly become incredibly difficult. So instead, ZEEM comes into those areas where they know there is going to be a high density of electric truck operations. “The idea for us is to come into areas, find a plot of land, and set up operations for anywhere between 250-300 trucks to park there overnight,” Gioupis explains, “And for those who want to domicile vehicles at their locations, we provide high power charging throughout the day for those operators that need the ‘juice' as we call it.”

Driving for a living can take a physical toll on the body. Dr. Mark Manera, Founder & CEO of Supply Chain Fitness, saw this toll first-hand through many of his professional driver physical therapy clients. Dr. Manera decided to utilize his rehab and fitness knowledge to make a difference for those in the trucking industry. The more Dr. Manera learned about the driving industry and his patients, the more he knew he could make a positive impact. He was shocked by some of the research and statistics on the health of an average driver. “The one that was really shocking to me, and the one that was something that said I need to do something about this was, I saw that as a group, truck drivers have a life expectancy sixteen years less than the average population,” Dr. Manera said. The unique lifestyles of the individuals working in driving and supply chain need a specific program designed to meet their needs. “I tell drivers all the time, your health goes with you forever,” Dr. Manera said. “So, when we're making these changes, we need to set it up from day one in a manner that you can do this for the rest of your life. It's realistic, and we can see the compound effect of just showing up every day and getting those small wins.” Supply Chain Fitness takes a proactive approach to the situation and works to make small changes in driver habits that build into an overall transformation in health and fitness rituals. “If we can find a way to meet drivers where they're at and give them a way to live a healthier life out on the road, everyone's going to win, and everyone's bottom line is going to win,” Dr. Manera said.

Driving for a living can take a physical toll on the body. Dr. Mark Manera, Founder & CEO of Supply Chain Fitness, saw this toll first-hand through many of his professional driver physical therapy clients. Dr. Manera decided to utilize his rehab and fitness knowledge to make a difference for those in the trucking industry. The more Dr. Manera learned about the driving industry and his patients, the more he knew he could make a positive impact. He was shocked by some of the research and statistics on the health of an average driver. “The one that was really shocking to me, and the one that was something that said I need to do something about this was, I saw that as a group, truck drivers have a life expectancy sixteen years less than the average population,” Dr. Manera said. The unique lifestyles of the individuals working in driving and supply chain need a specific program designed to meet their needs. “I tell drivers all the time, your health goes with you forever,” Dr. Manera said. “So, when we're making these changes, we need to set it up from day one in a manner that you can do this for the rest of your life. It's realistic, and we can see the compound effect of just showing up every day and getting those small wins.” Supply Chain Fitness takes a proactive approach to the situation and works to make small changes in driver habits that build into an overall transformation in health and fitness rituals. “If we can find a way to meet drivers where they're at and give them a way to live a healthier life out on the road, everyone's going to win, and everyone's bottom line is going to win,” Dr. Manera said.

“I hope you aren't watching this while driving,” said Robert Brown, Chief Strategy Officer at Spartan Radar. Spartan Radar is a California-based company started by brilliant minds who built radar systems and planes in the Air Force. “They brought their skills to the automotive industry,” said Brown. Spartan's work focuses on improving driver assistance systems - systems that sometimes give false alarms and beep when they shouldn't.Brown's background includes work in the automated trucking industry. He enjoys what he does because it is an essential part of everyday life and there are many advantages. While new technology in trucking would have seemed like science fiction ten years ago, such as zero-emission vehicles, battery electric vehicles, hydrogen-run vehicles, autonomous vehicles, and drone delivery, it's an incredible opportunity right now. “Sounds like an exciting time,” said Gabrielle Bejarano, the podcast host.There's a lot of buzz around autonomous vehicles. “The most important thing is to educate on what is going on. If you're nervous about autonomous trucks, learn about them. There are so many great resources out there,” Brown suggested. There is no autonomous truck at scale. The race is to go to market. Even once these vehicles are released, the primary use for autonomous trucks will be for long-haul routes. “It can't do the inner-city local pickup and delivery,” said Brown. The journey would start with a manually driven truck, shift to an autonomously driven truck, and again to a manually operated truck for local delivery. With that in mind, the process opens up two trucking jobs on either side of the long-haul journey. Are autonomous trucks the solution? Connect with Brown on LinkedIn to learn more about what's NEXT for the industry.

Matt Schrap, CEO of Harbor Trucking Association, doesn't drive trucks for a living, but he knows all the regulations and rules of the road that govern them. The Harbor Trucking Association is a coalition of intermodal carriers serving America's West Coast Ports, including Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle, and Tacoma. Schrap spent the better part of his career involved with government regulatory issues affecting the trucking industry, so he knows the ins and outs of this business.Trucking in port environments is not the same experience as long-haul trucking. Truckers go home every night; they are not on the road for days at a time. "Here, we're concentrated solely on twelve containerized marine terminals in the ports of LA and Long Beach. We take that cargo to local distribution centers near Rancho Dominguez, Compton, and Wilmington, all the way out to some of the Inland Empire spots like San Bernadino, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, and Fontana," Schrap said.Port trucking was always challenging, but with more and more products produced overseas, the logistical impact for today's port truckers raises the bar. “LA/Long Beach is the largest gateway port complex in the country,” Schrap said. “Last year, they handled over twenty million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units,) which is the most ever by any port in the Western hemisphere. So, it's not that necessarily things have changed, but we've seen a lot more volume come through.”One challenge facing port truckers that may prove difficult to overcome is the recent supreme court ruling that upholds the California AB5 law of 2019, which could impact two-thirds of California's port truckers. The law, designed to protect independent contractors, contains specific regulations that make it difficult for the trucking industry to hire independent truckers in the future. The implementation of this law was on hold while the case played out in the courts. With the Supreme Court cementing California's law, the trucking industry must find ways to comply to keep activity at the ports running smooth.

Choosing the right carrier for transporting goods can be tricky, but it is now a much easier task thanks to Carrier Assure, a new software platform created by CEO Cassandra Gaines. Using her experience as a “trucking attorney” in the transportation industry, Gaines created Carrier Assure to provide shippers and brokers with a new and improved way to choose who is best for transporting their goods.“[W]hat this software does is it provides shipper, and the brokers, a score,” Gaines says. Acting much like a credit score, the software allows shippers and brokers to look over all of the data—including tracking data—and determine whether the carrier is appropriate for the shipment before selecting one.While the platform exists to let shippers and brokers see the scores of carriers, Gaines wants carriers to do the same with shippers and brokers in the future. “I want it to be a credit score for the entire industry,” Gaines says. “So, one day…[carriers] will have a score on brokers and shippers.”Gaines also provided useful advice to carriers regarding “double brokering,” which happens when the DOT and MC number changes. Since the DOT and MC number cannot change during shipment, this is something that tends to happen accidentally. “[I]f it happens and the customer finds out, they will report you to all the softwares—including mine—and you will lose so much business.”Carrier Assure's website provides more information regarding double brokering in the “Report Carriers” FAQ page. She additionally recommended that carriers sign up for a one-week trial on the website so they can see their and others' scores.

When it comes to global supply chain issues, there is no greater source than FreightWaves, the largest media and market-level data provider in the logistics and supply-chain industry. Tyler Kern welcomed Craig Fuller, CEO & Founder of FreightWaves, to Resources for the Road for a brain-picking session on what's happening in logistics today, and ‘spoiler alert,' there's a lot happening. To understand the challenges in logistics today, Fuller said it's essential to look at what occurred before the pandemic during what the industry coined as the trucker bloodbath. Due to massive expansion, trucking capacity outweighed demand for a couple of years before 2020, “The market slowed down just enough to cause a situation where trucking spot rates dropped significantly; demand drooped significantly to where the total number of trucks in the market, and companies with marginal balance sheets and unit economics could not survive,” Fuller said.These factors led to a lot of trucking companies going bankrupt in 2019. Boom and bust cycles occur more often than most people recognize, according to Fuller, and these cycles tend to ebb and flow every three years. Today, the market is robust, and many new trucking companies are entering the mix, “Many of those carriers will do quite well, but some of those carriers, particularly those that went beyond a single owner-operator entering the market, but maybe they added 50-100 trucks, are probably at the greatest risk,” Fuller said, “They have gone well above their ability to run a company at scale and run one well.”Fuller mentioned the trucking market is already beginning to soften, even though the warmer months typically bring more volume. So far, in 2022, that hasn't been the case, but there will be a lot of watchful eyes on the situation over the next few months.

The importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions continues to make headline news. One of the easiest ways to do this is by transitioning traditional vehicles to all-electric vehicles and one industry that has the ability to make a significant impact in a short period of time is commercial transportation vehicles that operate on diesel fuel.Tyler Kern, podcast host of Resources for the Road, sat down with Esther M. Santos, Director of North America Sales at Xos, Inc., to discuss the EV solutions available to those who manage diesel-fueled transportation fleets.Since 2018, Xos trucks have been providing “OEM class 5 through Class 8 battery electric vehicles. We design and build the vehicles. We also design and build our power trains. We do charging infrastructure and fleet management” with a focus on trucks that complete 200 miles or less per/day, said Santos.She also highlighted that Xos is “one of the few battery-electric commercial OEMs with vehicles on the road right now.” Xos clients include Lumis, Unifirst, Southern Glacier's Wine and Spirits, and FedEx ground operators, “We are truly obsessed with making fleets more efficient for our customers. We believe we're helping transform a segment of the transportation industry that's actually going to have the biggest impact in reducing greenhouse emissions,” stated Santos.However, the impact of EVs goes beyond fleets and includes regular cars despite the common misconception that EVs are too expensive or don't apply to the current environment. There are many initiatives working to make everyone go electric by 2030. It's not a matter of if it's going to happen but when.Thinking about transitioning a diesel fleet to electric should be something that people are talk about today, not two or five years from now. This applies to every fleet-operated business whether they have five, fifty or hundreds of vehicles as part of their operational landscape.

With global logistics a hot topic now more than ever, Corey Riggins of NEXT Trucking sits down with host Tyler Kern to talk about NEXT Trucking's new podcast series and how technology can change the trucking industry. What is NEXT Trucking? NEXT is a technology platform that helps connect drivers with customers while helping carriers leverage the technology to assist in deliveries. Riggins explained the mission of the company, “We want to focus on the things that matter, keeping the wheels turning.” By bundling loads onto the app, this allows the driver to focus on the delivery by clicking and going. “We want to empower the carriers to maximize their productivity,” said Riggins. On joining NEXT, Riggins said, “What excited me most was the scrappiness of the company.” NEXT has built from the ground up and seen astute growth. While the company invests heavily in technology to continue maximizing the benefits, NEXT also invests in their operations by providing, “industry people,” those of which, “know the space,” said Riggins. By hiring industry professionals, NEXT Trucking is able to, “bring that sense of expertise that I think a lot of other companies overlook or take for granted,” said Riggins. Knowing the industry and knowing the audience allows NEXT not to lose sight of its goals. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and the disruption it caused pushed the “inefficiencies” in the industry to the forefront. Riggins stated the industry is, “ripe for change,” which is possible by, “listening to our people” and acknowledging the importance of carriers, “Drivers are the salt of the Earth.”This podcast will continue to be a source of information about the trucking and logistics industry for customers, drivers, and outsiders. Tune in to Resources for the Road podcast and visit https://www.nexttrucking.com/ to learn more.