When the bear wakes up, there's going to be trouble

I had an interesting conversation the other day with a fleet safety manager that I know. His fleet had been having severe problems through the spring and summer with logbook violations, and were planning to implement a training program to help address the issue. It wasn't that their drivers were consciously trying to fudge their logs, but that they just didn't understand the regs and were making mistakes as a result. Current HOS regulations are pretty confusing, especially if you work cross-border, so you certainly can't blame someone for misunderstanding some of them. A customized training program looked like a great solution.

Except that they never got around to actually implementing it.

Over the last few months, their violation rate has gone down and the urgency of the problem seems to have gone down as well. When I spoke to the safety manager the other day, he said they weren't planning on doing the training program anymore, because "the problem went away".

Well, not quite.

While their violation rate may have gone down, and the drivers that were having problems have stopped having those problems (mostly because they've learned the hard way what not to do with their logs), the underlying problem itself hasn't changed.

That's because the real problem wasn't the violations - the real problem was the situation that created the violations in the first place. 

Drivers were getting violations because they didn't understand the regs. Drivers didn't understand the regs because the tools being used to convey information - driver meetings, pay stub inserts, etc. - were unreliable and ineffective. On top of that, the fleet also had no way to gauge whether or not that information was being received and processed properly, so all they could do was wait and see if problems came up afterwards. That problem hasn't been solved. And the next time there's a regulatory or process change, the same problems are more than likely to come up again.

If you're camping and a bear comes into your camp site, you've got a problem. If the bear goes to sleep, you get some temporary relief. But sooner or later that bear is going to wake up, and when it does you want to be far away!

Getting rid of the violations wasn't the answer. The fact that my safety manager friend isn't facing multiple logbook violations every week doesn't mean that the bear has left the campsite. It just means that it's sleeping right now.

Fixing the process that created the violations in the first place is the answer. Figuring out where the existing processes have failed, and rectifying those failures, is the answer. Implementing a solution that lets drivers take the time they need to learn the regulations properly (without having to make other sacrifices), and lets management see where the knowledge gaps are before those gaps turn into problems on the road, is the way to fix the problem once and for all. 

When that's done, the fleet will truly have solved the problem, and the bears will be gone from their campsite.

Delinquency

So, I'm a little behind on my blog posts. I normally try to do at least one a week, but we've got a lot of stuff on the go right now and I'm finding it VERY difficult to actually finish any thoughts.

We're wrapping up version 2.5 of CarriersEdge, which is scheduled for release at the end of this month. It's going to have a lot of great new additions - the video content from KRTS that we announced previously, new and updated courses, and a whole pile of new admin and reporting functions to make the system more efficient and more powerful for managing training programs - but in the software world, release time is always stupidly busy with last minute fixes and changes.

We've also got the Best Fleets to Drive For survey, which is seeing more fleets nominated every day. We'll soon be starting the process of interviewing all the nominated fleets so we're ramping up preparations for that. Right now we've got over 30 fleets nominated and that should more than double by the time nominations close at the end of November. Since we have about 6 pages of questions that we'll be working through with each nominated fleet, our Services team is preparing to do a lot of data crunching over the winter!

Add in all the regular day-to-day stuff, and you can see why I'm going crazy trying to stay on top of everything. The blog will be back to normal soon, but in the meantime I'm going to try and grab a few hours of sleep here and there and finish at least a couple of the many posts that are sitting in my "Drafts" folder. And if I can spare a few minutes, I may even have a chance to catch up on the outstanding serial drama that is the election (the U.S. election, that is, the Canadian election was pointless and boring!).

Stay tuned for more news about CarriersEdge 2.5, and if you're a driver or owner-op, check out the Best Fleets To Drive For website and think about nominating your company!

Repost - What's Your Plan?

I've discovered that last week's post - What's Your Plan? - never actually appeared on our main website in the section that's supposed to have the blog headlines. Since most readers access the blog through there, a lot of you probably missed this post. D'oh!

Here's a link back to the original article. Enjoy!

What's Your Plan?

I'm talking to a lot of people these days that are starting the budgeting and planning process for 2009. As I talk to them, I'm reminded of a comment made by my colleagues over at Viewnyx. Viewnyx, for anyone who's not familiar with them, makes an excellent in-cab camera system that monitors things like speed, braking, signalling, etc. and automatically records what's happening in front of the vehicle so that fleets can identify unsafe activity and do something about it proactively. In a conversation with them several months ago, they commented that they're surprised how few fleets have annual targets for collision reduction. Most every fleet knows their collisions-per-million-miles rate, but not very many actually set targets for reducing that number.

I also find that odd, so I've gotten into the habit of asking people about their own objectives, and lo and behold, I'm finding the same thing - not very many fleets that have specific targets for collision reduction. 

In order to measure the improvement (and the bottom line impact of that improvement), you have to have specific numbers. "Improve as much as possible" is not a viable objective, since there's no way to know if you've ever met that objective. On the other hand, setting an objective of reducing at-fault collisions by 5% (or 10%, 15%, etc.) over the previous year is a very specific, measurable objective, where the bottom line impact can be predicted and measured.

Same thing goes for HR issues as well. If your turnover dropped by 10% year-over-year, what impact would that have on the bottom line? If you could cut your cost of on-boarding by 10% (hiring, processing, orienting new drivers) what would that mean to the business? How about a 10% reduction in the amount of time it takes new drivers to ramp up to full productivity? 

As we enter the fall 'planning season', in a changing and uncertain economic climate, it's ever more important to set specific, measurable objectives for the coming year and identify what's required to meet those objectives.

In the examples above, I used 10% as a baseline number, but it could be anything. What targets 

do you have for improving your safety and HR programs? What steps are you taking to meet those targets?

Let me know.

The Culture of the Internet ... and Free Stuff

The other day I saw a posting that tweaked my curiosity and I thought you'd all enjoy it as well. It was a list of the more common Internet memes - those interesting but pointless tidbits that pass our way periodically - from the past decade or so. Many of them I'd forgotten until the list reminded me of them, but they all represent a shared cultural experience that we've had over the Internet, as well as pointless, but fun, time-wasters.

See how many of these you remember:

• "All your base are belong to us"
  
• Neiman Marcus cookie recipe
  
• 9/11 tourist guy
  
• Bert is evil
  
• Hampster dance
  
• Bill Gates email - forward the message and Bad Billie gives you money
  
• Star Wars kid
  
• LonelyGirl15
  
• 300 page iPhone bill
  
• Dancing baby
  
• Exploding whale
  
• Bus uncle
  
• "I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords"
  

I think you have to be a serious geek to remember all of them. So, in the spirit of geekiness, and recognizing that the uniform of every true geek is jeans and t-shirts, I'll give free t-shirts to anyone who can identify all 13 of them. Post here or email info@carriersedge.com with your details.

Enjoy!

Danger Sneaks Up On You

Wow, two weeks in a row of boogeyman-style headlines! 

You can tell that summer is over and I'm crabby because winter is coming :-(

To finish out the summer, we took our kids to Ontario Place which, for everyone who doesn't live in the Toronto area, is a large park that's equal parts amusement, heritage display, event venue, and all around nice place by the water. In the kids area, they had an attraction called Atom Blaster which was a multi-level indoor game where kids could shoot soft foam balls at each other (but mostly at their parents). It teaches kids about how atoms work, but mostly it's a safe, kid-friendly version of paintball.

Except that it's not safe.

I'll bet that every piece of the equipment is inspected regularly and it all looks very well maintained, so I'm sure the consensus is that it's perfectly safe. And as far as the overall fitness of the equipment and design of the attraction, I'd agree that it's fine.

But there's one area that no one seems to be checking, and that's an area that's definitely NOT safe. Atom Blaster is insanely LOUD. All of the gadgets that shoot the foam balls around use compressed air, so every time one of them goes off, there's a deafening blast of white noise accompanying it. The venue itself has a relatively low ceiling and hard plexiglass walls, so there's little to deaden that noise. Topping it off, each gadget needs to be loaded with foam balls so when they do go off, they're invariably surrounded by a bunch of kids.

Where I was standing (in the viewing area for crusty old people) the blasts had to be approaching 100 dB. Right in front of the things, where all the kids were, it was easily 120 dB.

As many of you know, I spent my youth touring with a variety of bar bands, so I've had plenty of exposure to painfully loud rooms (and in fairness, since my instrument is the drums, I've often contributed to that painful noise level). Atom Blaster brought back unpleasant memories of those days by giving me that sick, dizzy feeling that you get when the noise level is too high.

Sure, it's not gonna kill anyone, but prolonged exposure to excessive volume does do long term damage to the ears. Even brief exposure can be damaging if the level is high enough.

At some point, something bad will happen (either an injury to a guest, or an inspector who shuts them down) and when that happens, Ontario Place will be falling all over themselves to demonstrate how quickly they can respond. Unfortunately, by then it will be too late. 

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but maintaining a safety culture isn't about reacting after the fact - it's about working proactively to identify and correct potential problems BEFORE they blow up in your face. Danger sneaks up on you from the most inconspicuous places, so you have to check every dark corner to flush it out and deal with it.

And if you take your kids to Ontario Place, take ear plugs!

Ignore It At Your Peril

Apologies for the doom and gloom headline, but I came across a great quote from Seth Godin about technology and why it's so important to pay attention to what's happening:

Technology, most especially the Internet, has enabled the New Marketing, but you don't have to understand it to use it.

It's been a decade since the underpinnings of this revolution were put in place. For the last ten years, ignoring most of what was going on with the New Marketing wouldn't have hurt you that much.

Unless you were a travel agent. Now you're out of business.

Unless you worked for a newspaper. Now you're out of a job.

Unless you bought books. Now you know that the best place to find any title, fast and cheap, is online.

Unless you sold insurance. Now you've seen that fat commissions are a thing of the past.

The quote comes from Seth's Meatball Sundae, an excellent book about how technology has created new marketing channels, which in turn require the entire company to be aligned around those channels and the message. He's talking about marketing, but it could apply to any number of other things.

The point is that there's a lot going on and it's often easy to ignore it and say "that doesn't apply to me". The reality, though, is that technology changes businesses in ways that no one can see coming, so ignoring it can be very dangerous.

Ten years ago, did anyone foresee the demise of the independent travel agent? Of course not. How about the music business? Retailers? 

Ten years from now, what will be different? That's impossible to say with any certainty, but smart companies are investing some time in thinking about how they can use technology to improve efficiency, streamline operations, or do things that were previously impossible. When those companies start seeing the results of that effort, their business model is going to give them a tremendous advantage over everyone else - they'll be able to charge less, provide better service, and make more profit all at the same time.

The companies that AREN'T thinking about that will be the unfortunate ones trying to compete against them. Who do you think is going to win?

Hire for Attitude, Train for Skills

I was reading about a health club in Florida that has one of the most interesting hiring processes I've seen in quite a while.  Here's what they do.

1. A 4-page application that's mostly puzzles and games. According to the company, that eliminates most of the lazy people right away.

2. References are checked by phone

3. A group interview with at least 8 candidates and a hiring team from the company (supervisors, department heads, etc.)

4. One-on-ones with the department head. This stage focuses on using creative techniques to determine whether candidates share the company's core values of integrity, willingness to work hard, commitment to helping others, and desire to create the future. One of these techniques is called the chair test:
Extra chairs are left in the interview room. The candidate is sitting in the room when someone comes in and says "They need some chairs next door", then begins picking up the chairs and carrying them out. They continue carrying the chairs out until there are only two left in the room, all the while watching what the candidate does. Does the candidate sit there and watch, or do they offer to help?

5. A high intensity workout on special fitness machines. The goal of this stage is not to see what kind of shape people are in, but to see how they react to adversity and how hard they work.

What I find very interesting about this process is how unconventional it is. In the fitness industry, interviews have traditionally been focused on the candidate demonstrating their own physical fitness and their knowledge of workout best practices. This process, however, focuses almost entirely on attitude - work ethic, previous work experiences, approach to difficult situations, etc. They're interviewing without really interviewing, but they've found some very creative ways to identify whether or not someone is a fit in the organization.

I talk a lot about how attitude is more important than ability when it comes to hiring and developing drivers, so it was very interesting to see a health club taking the same approach, and generating stellar results with it (these guys have a 77% client renewal rate, well above the industry average of 60%, and their margins are just as impressive).  

In trucking, everyone uses pretty much the same hiring process - get a list of previous employers, see how long the driver has been at each one, check their abstract, do a background check, road test, etc. There are some variations in there, but it's all basically the same thing. What would happen if the screening process focused more on a driver's attitude rather than past performance? 

Investors are used to seeing disclaimers stating that "past performance is no guarantee of future returns" on every potential investment, and driver abstracts are exactly the same - just because someone performed well (or poorly) at a previous employer doesn't mean they'll do the same for you. You can do all the road tests and background checks in the world, but if that individual isn't a good corporate fit, or doesn't have the right attitude, nothing else will matter. At the same time, if they do have the right attitude, you can fix the other problems and turn them into a money making machine.

What kinds of out-of-the-box techniques do you use to gauge the attitude of job applicants?

Free Internet

What's the deal with these hotels that don't give you free Internet? They piss me off. I can go stay at Bob's Cheapo Motel and get high speed (likely wireless) Internet included for free in my $49/night room. But if I stay some place that's more middle-of-the-road, then they stick me for 10-18 bucks PER DAY for access. 

Gimme a break. No way does it cost them more than $1/day to deliver that service.

I'm staying at hotel in downtown Dallas right now, about a block away from the convention center where GATS is happening. The hotel dings me for 9.95/day for access, and to make matters worse, it's not even easy to connect! Instead of a basic page that says "if you continue, you'll be charged $X to your room", they make me call the front desk and get an access code, then scroll through their stupidly long usage terms.

I'm sure it won't be long before some major hotel chain starts offering high-speed wireless access in the rooms for free, and advertises that as a key feature. Once that happens, everyone else will have to follow suit and provide decent access for free. That will be a good day.

Until then, I have to pay. :-(

It's bad enough that most of these hotels have ripped out their minibars and now just provide an empty fridge (at best, in most cases, you get bottles of water strategically placed throughout the room, with a hefty price tag attached), but now they're grinding us on Internet as well.

At the least the place I'm staying at has a happy hour and provides complimentary drink tickets. That's pretty cool. And if I use all the drink tickets, it might just distract me from the Internet bill!

The Joy of Stress

I love the Olympics. I'm not a big sports guy but every four years I'm glued to the TV for the duration of the summer games. It sucks for my family.

What I find so fascinating about the Olympics is that the winners are so often NOT the best athletes. Yes, in every Olympics there are some stars that are expected to win, and do - Michael Phelps is one of those people this time - but I think the more interesting stories are the people who aren't favored to win. Or the people that are favored but don't place - how many times have you seen an athlete who "won the world's" the previous year (the announcers love mentioning this) that doesn't even finish in the top 5 at the Olympics?

It happens pretty regularly, especially for Canadian athletes, it seems.  :-(

As I watch this unfolding at each Olympics, I always think about The Joy of Stress - an excellent book written by a guy that used to be my family doctor (until he quit for a lucrative speaking and writing career). In the book, Doc Hanson points out that not all stress is bad and some of it can, in fact, have a very positive effect on us. To underscore that argument, he points out that world records are set at the Olympics (probably the highest stress environment on the planet) and never set during practice (the lowest stress environment). When people are in the right frame of mind, a high stress environment stops being a problem and actually becomes an asset that can lead to record breaking performance.

If any of you are familiar with The Inner Game of Tennis (or the other, companion 'Inner Game' books), you know that the key to performing in these situations in staying focused on the right things. The inner game is what allows top performers to get 'in the moment' and really set things on fire. Not playing the inner game is what causes otherwise qualified performers to cack when the moment of truth arrives. 

So, what's the secret to surviving high stress environments and delivering superhuman performance? Recognize that that stress can lead to exceptional performance, and make sure to stay focused and play the inner game every time. 

Simple, eh? Maybe I should be an Olympic coach. :-)

5 Steps To A Great Employee Handbook

I love Inc. magazine. It's one of the few magazines that I read cover to cover every month, because every issue is packed with great information for the entrepreneurial business. They have sales & marketing tips, finance, business strategy, case studies, and all kinds of other useful info.

One of their regular sections is a pull-out how-to section on policies and best practices. This month, the how-to is focused on creating an employee handbook. They cover the five key components of an employee handbook and outline several "gotchas" to beware of. You can get a copy of the guide here.

Employee handbooks are critical resources for companies of any size, since they help cover your butt on the legal side, and spell out what's expected of everyone in the workplace. The problem is that most small businesses (who can really benefit from them) can never find the time to put them together. And even if you do block off some time to work on one, it's tough to know where to start. This guide fills in a lot of the blanks and gets you started down the right path.

For any of you that don't yet have a handbook, this guide will make it much easier to put together a good one. For any of you that have one already, you can compare it to the best practices in the guide and see if there are areas for improvement.

We put together an employee handbook a few years ago and it's made a huge difference for us. Even so, going through this guide I found a few places where we can tighten up our own policies.

Enjoy!

How Not To Serve Your Customers

I had another run in recently with the cable company. I'm not going to say which cable company, but they've been in the news a lot recently after they botched the rollout of a certain hot-ticket cellphone.

I can't stand this company. 

I'm a customer purely because they offer a service that no one else does. That gives them a competitive advantage, for sure, but not for long. Eventually, the competition will catch up and the second they do, I'll jump ship.

Here's what annoys me about this company. A few years ago, they brought out their Personal Video Recorder (PVR) product. When they first released it, they didn't offer a monthly rental option, so I had to buy it from them (at a cost of 650 bucks). Annoying, but I recognize that there's a price for being an early adopter. Adding insult to injury, though, they also charged me $2/month to access the content that gets recorded on the PVR. Hmm, that sounds shady already doesn't it? Of course, they've structured the package and the contract so it's legal, but it still sounds like a scam. And, since it's a monthly access fee, it goes up. It's now up to $3/month to access content that I've already licensed (through my normal channel package fees), and recorded on a box that I own.

In addition, they've had very few software updates to this PVR since it came out, so the functionality is still pretty rough (especially compared to other PVRs on the market). They've now discontinued this model and they're pushing the newer version, but they have no upgrade path for those of us that purchased the original - if we want a new one we have to chuck our old one and buy/lease the new one at full price.

So that's why I loathe them (there's more, but that gives you a taste of it). Every time I call them, I hear the familiar disclaimer that my call may be monitored or recorded for training purposes. And every time I talk to an agent there, I make a point of telling them how much I loathe their company and its policies. I even ask them to note it in my account. The phone reps, of course, have no idea how to respond to this and invariably sit there in stunned silence.

This has probably happened a dozen times over the last few years, and not once has a rep passed me to a supervisor for discussion. Not once has a customer service person contacted me to inquire about my dissatisfaction or attempted to resolve my issues. They do their best to completely ignore my dissatisfaction, all the while continuing to hound me to buy additional services from them. Sure, they talk in public about how much they value their customers, but their actions tell a very different story.

Now, I'm not expecting them to change their policies just for me. They're a business and they have to make money like every other business. Of course, solving my problem would cost them very little and generate far more goodwill, but they're a public company and they're obviously focused on short term results rather than long term value.

To me, that's a great example of how NOT to treat your customers. Sure, they've got my business right now because of a competitive advantage, but they won't have it forever. If their business model is "suck in customers with shiny products then treat them like crap", they've got it down, but that business model puts them squarely into the same category as pimps and crack dealers.

In fact, every time I'm forced to deal with this company, it causes me to re-examine our customer service policies. My goal is to ensure that we never do anything that remotely resembles them. I don't think there's much chance of that, but still, I think about it. I can't imagine any customer ever calling up and saying "please make a note that I can't stand your company and its policies" but I know that I wouldn't sleep until their issues were resolved.

I guess these clowns at the cable company are doing me a favor, then, by forcing that ongoing review of our policies. I have a feeling that I won't get around to thanking them, though.

Jane's Classroom Training Tips

This week's post is compliments of Jane Jazrawy - the VP, Product Development at CarriersEdge. In addition to be an outstanding developer of online materials, Jane is also a superb classroom trainer, having taught everything from elementary school to finance, consumer electronics, regulatory compliance, and a whole lot of other stuff. 

Even though our business is online driver improvement, we recognize that people aren't going to move EVERYTHING online (in fact, companies have tried that in the past with disastrous results), but with continued cost pressures in every business, it's important to make the most out of each classroom training session.

In this industry, the biggest challenge with classroom training is getting drivers to engage. Getting drivers into the room in the first place is tough, but getting them to open up and be an active part of the session is even tougher. They may be sitting silently and not saying much. They may be avid talkers that send the discussion down a rathole. In any case, to ensure a successful session it's important to get everyone engaged, and keep them focused.

Here then, are some of Jane's tips for running a successful classroom training session.

1. Set your expectations. Make sure you're clear on what you want to accomplish through the session and what you want everyone else to understand as well. When creating learning objectives for the session, be sure to use action words like 'list', 'define', and 'describe' since you can measure them. It's impossible to measure understanding, so avoid that one.

2. It's the experience that counts. The most important thing you can get out of a classroom training session is a deeper relationship with the people attending. The content is always secondary - if you can build the relationships effectively, and foster the right attitude among participants, the content will take care of itself. Drivers with the right attitude are always more valuable than smart people with the wrong attitude, so take the opportunity to build the relationships with and among the participants.

3. Get in the room, not in front of it. It's much easier to get people communicating when you're standing amongst them. Standing at the front of the room creates a divide between "teacher" and "students" which detracts from the educational experience. When you're in the middle of the room, you get better participation, and there's no longer a way for people to hide at the back. If you really want to change the dynamic of the room, give them an exercise then go stand at the back of the room while they complete it. 

4. Use icebreakers to your advantage. Instead of the standard introduction format of "who are you?", "where are you from?", "why are you here?", mix it up. Ask participants which regulation they dislike the most, or which one is their favorite. Try asking them what they think the session should focus on. That not only makes them think, but it gives you a better sense of where their head is at before the class really gets going. 

5. Use flip charts and whiteboards to your advantage. Flip charts are fabulous tools for tracking ideas, questions, and off-topic discussions during a session. Use these in combination with the tip above, to track the comments made during the introductions. Good instructors fill up lots of flip chart pages because there's always lots of unexpected things that come up during a session and it's important to document them.

6. Close-ended questions get more answers. If open-ended questions aren't generating the discussion you'd like, try using more close-ended questions. Specific questions, with specific answers, will often generate better results. Open-ended questions can often be like staring at a blank piece of paper - it's hard to know where to start so you end up doing nothing.

7. Follow-up. It's inevitable that there will be unanswered questions at the end of a training session, so make a point of following up in a timely fashion, and be sure all the participants get the answers. As trainers, we're there to provide a service to the people participating in the training, so it's important that the service is followed through until all the questions are answered.

Blue Ocean Trucking

I was on vacation last week and one of the books I took with me was Blue Ocean Strategy. Yeah, I know, that's pretty lame - taking a business strategy book as "light reading" on vacation. Others have already made fun of me for that. The truth is that I've picked through this book a number of times but never been able to sit down and really think about what it's saying.

Blue Ocean Strategy, for anyone not familiar with it, argues that to have real business success, you need to break out of the competitive bloodbath and create new market space by doing something that no one else is. Rather than fighting over the same customers again and again, create a new space that grows the overall market and assures your leadership in it. The book provides detailed instructions for doing this, but the gist of it is that you have to identify the elements that your market values and expand (or create) those, while simultaneously reducing (or eliminating) the things the market doesn't value. By doing this, you create a leap in value for your customers (which differentiates you from your traditional competitors), and you lower the cost of producing the service, which allows you to provide better pricing and still make a good profit. You can also draw in a number of non-customers who haven't previously bought the service, if you emphasize the right things. The book provides a number of excellent examples of companies that have done this and had great success with it - including diverse examples such as Cirque du Soleil, Southwest Airlines, and [yellowtail] wine - and it's a great read.

I started thinking about how this applies to trucking. I can't think of any for-hire carriers that have created a service radically different from the rest of the industry, but I'd be interested in finding one. Most fleets sell roughly the same service - "we'll deliver your freight on time, in good condition, for a fair price" - which is what most of the people currently buying trucking services want (or so the conventional logic goes). But is that really what those buyers value? And what about all the people who AREN'T buying trucking services? Why aren't they buying, and what are they buying instead? I'd be really interested in finding a trucking company that's tackled that challenge and put together and strategy for addressing it.

On the other side of that - the business of delivering the freight - there are lots of opportunities for applying a Blue Ocean approach as well. Regardless of who the customers are, all fleets want the same thing in a driver - someone who can be relied on to deliver the freight on time, in good condition, and do so in a safe and courteous manner. Traditionally, fleets get those drivers through a combination of screening tools (trying to get the best ones in the door in the first place), and a carrot/stick approach (incentives and training programs combined with discipline to keep everyone moving in the same direction). There are some variances in the screening processes, incentive programs, training, discipline, etc. but everyone is doing roughly the same things. As a result, everyone has roughly the same cost structure and therefore roughly the same comp package.

What would happen, though, if someone took a Blue Ocean approach and identified the things that are disproportionately important to drivers, then focused all their efforts on providing those things, while reducing or eliminating everything else?

For instance, every year there are surveys about what drivers want, and every year the same items appear at the top of the list - more money, more career opportunities, more education/training opportunities, more say in decisions, etc. 

I pretty much discount the money thing, because every person doing every job in every company wants more money. Every time you get a raise, you give half to the government and spend the rest before it even shows up in your pay. Two months after you first received the raise, you feel like you need another one. No way to win, so let's forget about that one.

However, the other things at the top of the list - training, career path, input - can all be lumped into professional development, and very few (if any) fleets focus much attention on that at all. I've yet to find a fleet that has multi-level job descriptions for drivers with documented steps to move up the levels. Very few fleets provide robust training and development opportunities for drivers, and fewer still advertise them. What would happen if a fleet focused on providing those things, and lowered their investment in things that drivers don't value as much? What would happen if, instead of advertising pay package, home time, and a family atmosphere, the fleet created a killer career path program for drivers? Or the best professional improvement education program in the industry? What kind of drivers would that attract, and what would it do for the fleet overall?

Are you doing anything like that? What strategy are you using to break out of the bloody red ocean of competition and create a blue ocean of uncontested space?

The "On Demand" World

I finally got an iPod. I know, most of the civilized world already has at least one, but I never got around to it before, and someone finally gave me one as a gift. In the few months that I've had it, I've already noticed that I'm not using it the way I thought I would.

Instead of dumping all my existing CDs onto it and having a virtual jukebox on the go, I find that I'm downloading a lot of podcasts. I also find that I'm downloading podcasts of radio shows that I used to listen to in the car. That's not remarkable on its own, but what is interesting is that I primarily use my iPod in the car. I've quickly got into the habit of downloading these podcasts and listening to them in the car, when I could just as easily be listening to them on the radio live.

I know I'm not alone in doing that, so I've been thinking about why people do it - why listen to a podcast of a CBC radio documentary, instead of just turning on the CBC and listening live?

Of course, the answer is that I'm getting used to having content presented to me when and how I want, and I'm not interested in content that's served to me according to someone else's schedule. More and more, that seems to be the case with how we consume services (whether it's broadcast content, or any other kind of service), we want them on our terms, not someone else's.

Another example is TV. I have a PVR that records my shows and keeps them organized for me. I couldn't tell you when any of my favorites are actually scheduled, I just know that new episodes appear every week. In fact, I don't care when they're scheduled - that's the TV network's problem to figure out, not mine. I just want the new episode. 

To a certain extent, I blame the banks for this. When banks rolled out ATMs in the 80s, all of a sudden we could access our money whenever and wherever we wanted. Not long after that, we could pay bills and do all our banking through ATMs, then phones, then computers. When the web hit, the door blew open even further. 

As those things have progressed, we've become more and more picky about how we consume services - we don't want to be forced to stand in line, pick through a catalog, wait for business hours, drive to a meeting, etc. We want what we want, and we want it NOW.

So, what does that have to do with drivers? 

Well, if that's the world we're living in now (and moving deeper into all the time) then that's the world we have to do business in. Trucking is already a "get it when you need it" business, but that doesn't always extend to the processes behind the scenes. If you think about the various services you provide to support your drivers, how many are available WHEN and HOW the drivers want?

I'm not saying that someone should be sitting by the phone 24/7 ready to take a driver's call - I think that's actually counterproductive because it assumes that drivers want to speak to a live body. All of the things I mentioned above are automated through technology, and heavily weighted towards self-serve. I think the on-demand model is a much better approach. Obviously, providing drivers with self-serve, on-demand training is a great idea (and I just happen to know where you can get some ;-)) but there are lots of other driver related processes that could easily be offered in a self-serve fashion as well.

Many companies have online portals for benefits administration, payroll and settlements, forms management and processing. More progressive companies are recognizing that coaching and mentoring can be administered entirely online (and by providing discussion forums and chat rooms, they've also got a mechanism for documenting best practices and tracking activities), and with newer technology entire communities can be created completely within an on-demand environment.

How are you using an on-demand approach to improve your business? Let me know.

Why People Hate Truck Drivers

This morning I was traveling across the top of Toronto on my way to a meeting and witnessed one example of why the general public is scared of big trucks. I was in the right lane with my cruise control set at 107 km/h and a guy driving a flatbed went past me, probably doing about 110-115. Not a lot faster than me, but faster. There was a car in his lane going slower than that, but instead of changing lanes and passing, the truck driver sailed right up behind the car and stayed on his bumper. He stayed there for quite a while - long enough for me to grab my phone a snap a picture.

Now, the truck was pulling an empty trailer, the traffic was fairly light, and it was a bright sunny morning, so the driver probably felt that he was in control and wasn't endangering anyone.

However, the car driver didn't know how much weight was on the truck behind him. All he knew is that a large truck was blocking his entire rear window and not backing off. Adding to the intimidation factor, the truck was dirty, beginning to rust, and generally not looking like something you want to be anywhere close to.

Maybe this driver was perfectly in control of his rig and knew exactly what was going on. Maybe he was a cowboy and thought that he owned the road. I don't know. I do know that car drivers get intimidated when big hulking, filthy trucks start riding up their butts. I also know that car drivers don't notice the 25 clean, well driven vehicles they pass on the highway, but they remember the one that scared them.

This industry already has a bad name among the general public and things like this don't help. The truck was being operated by a large lumber distributor, and I'm tempted to call them up and point out that their drivers could use some defensive driving training.

Surviving Las Vegas

As I mentioned last week, I was in Las Vegas for the Great West Truck Show. I love Las Vegas and it was an excellent show. As part of the show, I ran a seminar each day on cash flow management for owner-operators. We had a great turnout for each session, but hardly any true owner-operators (single truck operators). Most of the audience each day was made up of what I call micro-fleets - people running 2-10 trucks. At that size, they're starting to have the same challenges as larger fleets, but they don't have the resources to deal with them. 

They do, however, have lots of tips for maximizing revenue, cutting costs, and figuring out what's going on with the business. I compiled those tips and will be emailing a summary to everyone who attended. Here's a quick look at some of those comments:

• Buy the truck (rather than leasing) and run it for as many years as you can. This may not be possible in some industries that require newer equipment, but the consensus among the group was that buying was a better choice. Along with that, pay the truck off as soon as possible because then it's an asset that makes you money, rather than costing.
• With those older trucks, the group felt it was better to not invest in an APU. Avoiding idling was considered important, though, and the general feeling was that staying in a motel was the best way to avoid idling without an APU. The motel often costs less than idling, and offers other benefits as well (showers, TV, free Internet, etc.)
• One simple tip sparked a large discussion - look for lighter loads. Many loads aren't priced with thorough consideration for their weight, so hauling lighter loads at the same (or comparable) rate can save fuel and lower the overall operating cost.
• Someone else commented that many times "TL" loads don't actually fill the truck. Depending on the circumstances, you may be able to use that extra space and stick a couple of extra palettes in the back. Lots of discussion about this one as well, and the general consensus was that you have to be very careful, and it only works in specific circumstances, but it is something to be thinking of.
• Invest in software that streamlines the administrative requirements. A couple of participants mentioned different software products that integrated with QuickBooks and other programs and saved a lot of duplicate data entry. There are a number of these packages out there, so I may do some investigation for my Rear View Mirror column, but a little bit of poking around can end up saving lots of time on the business management side.

Do you have tips for more effectively managing the business? If so, send me your thoughts and I'll add them to the list.

Happy Canada Day to everyone north of the border! Happy 4th of July to everyone down south!

It's Really Hot in Las Vegas

This week I'm in Las Vegas for the Great West Truck Show. We're exhibiting here as part of Internet Truckstop's ITS University & Marketplace, and I'm also leading a seminar on cash flow management for owner-operators. As part of that seminar, I'm going to be asking the attendees for their tips and tricks - things they've come across that help them increase their revenue and cut their expenses. Since I'm doing the seminar each day of the show and no one is going to attend all three days, I'm going to compile those tips and email them to everyone who attends.

I'm also going to post them here as well. Next week will be crazy with the holiday, but I'm going to try and get the tips up early in the week, so if you check back on Wednesday you should see them.

In the meantime, it really is hot down here. But now I understand what people mean when they say "dry heat" - the lack of humidity really does make a difference. Of course, I love the hot weather so I'm pretty much in heaven here!

Free Lunch Revisited

A little while ago I wrote about a friend of mine that started a new job and wasn't taken out for lunch on the first day. The "first day lunch" is pretty much a tradition in the tech industry and by skipping it, this company sent a bad message to new hires.

At the time, I predicted that my friend would hang around that place for a few months until something better came along, then get out. 

I was right. Just 5 months into the job, my friend quit. The company has lots of excuses for why people are leaving and they're telling lots of good stories to the remaining employees, but the simple fact is that they missed out on the small but important things that are fundamental to building a strong workforce.

Adding insult to injury, when my friend gave his notice, the president said "we should go out for lunch, just you and I".

I doubt my friend will take them up on it.

Looking Into The Future - Part II

There's a lot talk about the future of long haul and how younger generations won't be interested in that kind of work. The thinking seems to be that Gen Y (and the kids coming after them) need to be connected to their communities, aren't interested in being separated from their lives for long periods, see work as something that happens around their lives not vice versa, and various similar things.

All of those assessments of younger generations are correct, but I don't think that means long haul is doomed. Tying the "connectedness" of Gen Y to the demise of long haul only works if you use a traditional, narrow definition of "connected".

Gen Y needs to be connected to their friends and peers, but that connection doesn't necessarily have to be face-to-face. That connection can happen just as easily online.

I wrote in a previous post that in 10 years the Internet will be like electricity is today - available everywhere and essentially free. Look at where laptops, smart phones, and other technology are heading and think about what kind of communication tools will be available to drivers 10 years from now. They'll not only have fulltime Internet access for their entire trip - wherever they're headed - but they'll likely have video-conferencing, virtual socializing and online representations of their entire social lives as well.

If any of you have tried Second Life, you've seen the future for this generation. More Second Life type environments will pop up, letting tomorrow's drivers socialize with their friends online from anywhere in North America. They won't need to be there in person. 

And that's just the stuff that's on the market today. Who knows what new, supercool thing is going to be invented 3 years from now that will change the game even further.

I certainly don't think long haul is going to suffer. In fact, it may be healthier in the future than it is now.

The Guy With the Cowboy Hat

I'm just about recovered from the Winnipeg Truck Show last week. Through two days of exhibiting and walking around I met lots of interesting people and had a great time overall, but it sure is draining.

The highlight of the show, for me, happened on Saturday afternoon, near the end of the show. I was standing at our booth and two owner-operators came up to talk. These guys were a classic example of what people think of when they think of truck drivers - older, white guys, cowboy boots, belt buckles, - the whole package. They started asking me about the program we run in partnership with Humber College and going through the standard questions about what courses are included, how long it takes, etc. One of them was asking most of the questions while the other one was kind of nodding his interest, but not saying much. We got through the normal questions about the program and how it helps them run their businesses better, get a college education that's actually relevant to the job, and that kind of thing. As we headed to the logical end of the conversation, the quieter of the two, who had been staring down at the brochure up this point, looked up sheepishly (and definitely not making eye contact) and asked if you need grade 12 to participate.

I said no, the program is open to anyone and doesn't require grade 12. Well, this guy lit up like a Christmas tree. We talked for a few more minutes about the program and this guy was like a different person. When we were finished, he fixed me square in the eye with a look that went through me and down my spine, and said "thank you, very much. The industry needs this".

I wasn't expecting that response, and it shook me up a bit.

When we were putting this college program together, I knew that there were a lot of drivers who would love a college education but never considered it an option since they didn't finish high school. In the past, they haven't had the opportunity to participate in post-secondary programs at all, so I wanted to make sure that our program was open to them as well. After talking to these guys, I know that was the right decision.

This conversation was also interesting for another reason.

I talk to a lot of people about online training and there are still people that think their drivers won't be able to use it. They tell me that drivers don't want to use computers, that older drivers have problems with technology, they can't read. In many cases, they're making assumptions that they haven't validated by talking to the drivers directly.

This is all crap. 

Drivers are regular people and they live in the same world as the rest of us. If there's something online that's useful or interesting, they're going to go online and get it just like everybody else does.

The guy with the cowboy hat is a perfect example. Here's a guy that's a typical example of a career trucker, exactly the kind of person that people assume won't use a computer. However, when he found out that he could get a college education, without coming off the road, and didn't need grade 12, he was sold. The fact that it was online was not an impediment for him in any way. In fact, that was a big selling point, since it allowed him to work through the material without sacrificing mileage.

I think that's really cool.

On top of that, the weather was good too! I'm definitely looking forward to the next Winnipeg Truck Show.

Looking Into The Future - Part I

10 years from now, I think the Internet is going to be everywhere. It's almost everywhere now, but not quite. And many of the places where it is available, it's slow and unreliable. Or you have to pay a premium to get at it. It seems to me that 10 years from now, the Internet will be like electricity. It will be a utility service (which it almost is now) and the price will be low enough that we won't even think about it. When that happens, you'll be able to get it for free in all these places where you have to pay for it now.

For instance, if you're at an airport, you can plug your laptop into the wall and charge the battery for free, but you have to pay (a ridiculous price!) for Internet access. It's the same story in the downtown Toronto core - there are lots of outlets around that you can use if you need quick power, but wireless Internet service is slow and expensive. Ditto for truckstops.

In ten years, I think that will be fixed. Anywhere that you can plug in for power now, you'll be able to get Internet with the same quality for free, and with much higher speed than we have now.

Once that happens, think about where technology can take us. If super-fast Internet is everywhere, then realtime connectivity to your fleets will be there as well. Realtime data being fed back from EOBRs. Realtime voice and video communication with your drivers (OnStar to the max), realtime GPS, traffic and weather data so you always know if your drivers are about to hit a traffic jam.

What else will you be able to do with that kind of communication power? How much would your business change if you truly had realtime connectivity with your fleet today?

Let me know your thoughts.

Making Tough Decisions

I went to see Anna, my haircutter again this week. Last time I went to see her I blogged about how I think she should raise her prices.

This time, we had another discussion that I found very interesting.

Anna, in addition to cutting hair, also sings in a Fleetwood Mac tribute band. We were talking about her upcoming gigs and she mentioned that she'd been offered a chance to do a gig in Japan. The gig would be a couple of nights in Tokyo, with all travel and accommodations provided for free.

Anna said no to the gig.

Her reason for saying no was pretty straightforward - she already has a 3-week vacation booked and the Japan gig would have come pretty much immediately after that. She's going (home) to England for the 3 weeks, so she'd basically be flying from London to Toronto, spend a day in Toronto, then jump on a plane again for Tokyo. Jetlag would be a bit nasty, but her biggest concern is that she'd be away from her customers for nearly a month and she was concerned that she'd lose them.

I told her she was crazy. If someone offers me a free trip to Tokyo (even if it's only for 2 days), there's no way I'm saying no!

I pointed out that she has two kinds of customers - ones who come specifically to see her, and ones that just want an open chair. The ones in the second group are unreliable and unpredictable and she can't spend her time worrying about them. The ones in the first group are the good customers, since they're coming to see her specifically. Those customers aren't going to leave her because she took an extra week off. 

If they're already dissatisfied with her service and thinking of leaving, then this might push them over the edge, but that's not the extra week that's causing the problem, it's something else.

Her regulars are happy with her work and they don't care if she takes an extra week off. Haircuts aren't something you need every week anyway, so at most someone might be inconvenienced for one of the 6-8 cuts they get from her each year. Hardly a case of bad customer service. After 14 years of having her cut my hair, I'm certainly not going to leave over this.

Of course, once Anna realized this she was kicking herself for turning down the gig.

It's a tough decision, though, and one of those tough decisions that have to be made quickly so there isn't time to poll the client base and gauge their reaction. That kind of decision comes up from time to time in every business, and they're always tricky. There's no easy way out, but if you understand your customers, then you're usually pretty safe following your gut. Anna's gut was telling her to take the gig, but she second guessed herself and now she's regretting it.

I've done the same thing in the past and learned the hard way to trust my gut.

What about you? Do you trust your gut when you're making tough decisions or do you try to base your decision squarely on the facts?

Let me know your thoughts....