One thing that should be clear after the recent bout of winter weather that ravaged the country is that trucking is doing it again. Despite horrible conditions, we are still moving freight and getting it where it needs to be. Heavy drifting snow and sub-zero temperatures stop most of us from literally doing anything but staying home and waiting it out. Not truckers and those of us supporting them.
NACFE’s communications director, Denise Rondini, thinks I am preaching to the choir when I talk about how great the trucking industry is. She says people in trucking know how awesome we are. I suppose she is right, but I am going to talk about it anyway and hope you will share this blog with others in your circle who are not in trucking so they can be reminded of just how amazing the trucking industry is.
I talked to a lot of fleets in the past week or so about a variety of topics concerning making deliveries in inclement weather. They were candid in sharing stories of accidents their equipment experienced because of the conditions of the roads or the actions of other drivers on the road who don't understand what it takes to stop an 80,000 lb. truck.
See also: How to ensure a safe fleet during inclement weather
They commented on instances where highways were shut down, which resulted in long lines of trucks and drivers stuck on those highways waiting for them to reopen. And they shared stories of when drivers were at truck stops or other locations but unable to leave.
There were instances of trucks not starting because batteries were dead and stories of fuel gelling.
And, of course, in some other cases, there were bad tempers from drivers, technicians, managers, and shippers.
But despite all these obstacles, goods got delivered with few delays reported. Under the best conditions, the “dance” it takes to get goods from manufacturers to end users is complex. Factor in terrible weather conditions and it really is a wonder that shelves are full of the items we need or want. Sure, sometimes, during these conditions, we may need to substitute one brand of peanut butter for another or go to a store 20 miles away because our local store was out of what we needed. But in the main, we were able to find what we needed where we wanted to buy it from despite the accidents, closed roads, dead batteries, and short tempers.
And that is pretty darn amazing.
Michael Roeth has worked in the commercial vehicle industry for nearly 30 years, most recently as executive director of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE). He serves on the second National Academy of Sciences Committee on Technologies and Approaches for Reducing the Fuel Consumption of Medium and Heavy-Duty Vehicles and has held various positions in engineering, quality, sales, and plant management with Navistar and Behr/Cummins.
