I am done with larger trucking companies. Just done. I know that this is a trend for American business. But when did it become the business model for people who have never before performed the duties of what the company does.. to oversee and run them? Normally into the ground.
My last and maybe last ever company is guilty of this. NONE of those in my chain of command that resided at the company headquarters have ever been in a truck, have never been licensed to drive, have little to no empathy for drivers as they cannot relate to what it is that they do, have done or must do to the job that these people demand they do.
The company that I worked for had a dedicated operation in my area, I decided (a bit reluctantly) to accept the safety rep position for a fleet of (then) around 160 drivers. The accident rate was staggering.. STAGGERING. But it was apparently acceptable enough for the company to stay profitable enough to keep going. The root causes of the accidents? 1. Inexperienced drivers who had the same basic skills that most new drivers have. 2. Equipment poorly spec'd for the work to be performed. Tractors are purchased based on resale and recruiting tools. Trucks were too large, too long and had way too much aerodynamic froo froo glued and screwed onto them.. trailers 53' vans that were stuffed to the gills and an added liftgate to unload customer freight with.
Bottom line, drivers forced too soon to "get up to speed". i.e Operations used these new drivers for any and all deliveries.. even in areas that were extremely difficult and in fact dangerous to get into. The results are easy to figure out..
Most months the account would have at east twenty accidents and there were many months where there were over 30 accidents. "Real" accidents were rare, but did happen. Most accidents were based on close quarter maneuvering failures, and honestly most were totally preventable..
For the first time in my life (I'm 55) I was terminated from a job.. I was terminated for "failure to take ownership of the account" and "being too negative"...
In my defense.. I do not see holding operations and the driver's feet to the fire on having up to 6 accidents a DAY as being negative.. I saw it as being REALISTIC.. There can be no high fives and congratulatory BS when the accidents are costing over a million dollars a year on an account with less than 200 drivers..
Rant almost over...