40% of America's trucking capacity is left on the table every day, MIT expert tells Congress

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: Market Watch

American long-haul truck drivers are “seriously underutilized,” and the problem comes from the scheduling practices of shippers and receivers, an expert from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology told U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday.

“This chronic underutilization problem does not seem to be a function of what the drivers themselves do or don’t do, but rather an unfortunate consequence of our conventions for scheduling and processing the pickup and delivery appointments,” said David Correll, a research scientist at MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics, as he testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Long-haul, full-truckload drivers spend an average of 6.5 hours every workday driving ,even though federal safety regulations let them drive for 11 hours a day, Correll said.

“This, of course, implies that 40% of America’s trucking capacity is left on the table every day. This is, of course, especially troubling during times of perceived shortage and crisis, like we find ourselves now,” he told the House panel. Adding just 18 minutes of driving time to every existing truck driver’s day “could be enough to overcome what many of us feel is a driver shortage,” the MIT expert said.

Americans are dealing with a range of shortages and inflation as the U.S. economy snaps back from shutdowns tied to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. One main weak link in supply chains right now is the trucking industry, as MarketWatch has reported.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/40percent-of-americas-trucking-capacity-is-left-on-the-table-every-day-mit-expert-tells-congress/ar-AAQPaz0

[LiberalArkie]

1. That truck driver may be spending 2 hours waiting to be loaded at one end and another 2 hours at the

other end waiting. And may not get paid for any of the the waiting.

[mwooldri]

7. May not?

In my case - definitely not. Most OTR (over the road) company drivers get "detention pay" after waiting 2 hours. I've known owner operators to get detention pay too. All depends on the contract. I don't but that's because I'm on a dedicated contract and all my loads are waiting for me beforehand... and I'm a frequent face at the places that receive my delivery so I can be sure my appointment will be kept.

Yes trucking can be inefficient but set up right with shipper and consignee able to facilitate pre loaded trailers and planning for "drop and hook" most of the time it keeps the truck driver rolling.

If it's also a short term thing the FMCSA could suspend hours of service for a few months to legally allow drivers to work beyond the normal time limits.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Surprising with all the computing capacity these days

Logistics ... and companies that solve complex data. Maybe Uber? Palantir?

[Locrian]

3. lack of system robustness

Companies have spent the last several decades squeezing and cutting every possible corner for profit. Anything they deemed 'waste" or not essential was dismantled, eliminate, downsized, etc.

So they had this perfect "lean mean profit machine" (well, there were lies and cooking the books but we'll ignore that) and this system has zero tolerance for any type of disturbance, lacks redundancy, robustness, etc.

Couple that with the historic change in resources as boomers retire, covid resignation, etc and here you go.

Not really surprising in the least.



With global warming a pretty much done deal in terms of inaction - we're in for one hell of a ride.

[twodogsbarking]

22. Well stated and all true. Facts are often ignored.

[mountain grammy]

4. Truck drivers have been saying it for years.

[BlueIdaho]

9. My daughter agrees with you.

She finally stopped driving because the number of days she would sit idle made it unprofitable. She worked for three different haulers and her experience was roughly the same where ever she worked.

She is now a shift supervisor for an auto manufacturer.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

12. My father only drove for special deliveries...

... AFTER he retired as an engineer and was already receiving Social Security, and even he'd often have to wait for hours in his delivery van just to drop off a small number of special items.

And that was with companies which indicated beforehand when to make the delivery, which my father always did on time, but then they'd supposedly not have anyone there who was authorized to accept the stuff!

[Ford_Prefect]

5. Sounds like a manipulation of the statistics which ignores reality on the ground, or in traffic.

'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.'

(attributed to Disraeli by Twain).

[tirebiter]

6. Sounds like there's a need that needs filling

First off, filling it is not a government exercise. It should be a product of private enterprise. This is a money making opportunity.

[TrogL]

8. You try driving for 11 hours with GPS looking over your shoulder

Get yelled at for pee brakes or grabbing more coffee.

[Magoo48]

25. Now is the time for truckers to put the squeeze on. Unionize, unionize, unionize.

Right now, demand improved working conditions. Comprehensive healthcare for all, and everything else which has been stripped away or never available in the first place.

Holiday time is the right time to act. Sadly, people want their plastic shit from China and their cheep, sweatshop produced, plastic clothes from all over Asia.

Now is the time to force corporate overlords to make trucking a more livable, safer occupation.

Also demand a truckers bill of rights now while the leverage is with labor.

[Pobeka]

10. What, a private enterprise is inefficient?

I though everything that is private (and not govt run) was perrrfect!

[Buckeye_Democrat]

13. I asked a gas station clerk the other day...

... about a road next to them, that's been completely shut down for months, if she knew why it was blocked and when it might be opened to vehicles again.

She said it was shut down to supposedly repair some underground water pipes, and it was supposed to get fixed within a couple months.

Then she said, "That's the government for you! They never do anything right!"


Her accent sounded like someone from West Virginia.

I should've replied, "Yep, that's why we don't need the military or the police."

And for all I know, it's private contractors who are taking so long!

[monkeyman1]

11. I still haven't heard nothing about the rail system . put them together!

[twodogsbarking]

23. Rail system was essentially abandoned to build interstate highways

and burn all the oil possible. Oil makes the rules. Why?

[hack89]

28. 28% of all goods in America are shipped by rail

the rail system was not abandoned. What was abandoned was the use of passenger trains. In America, the rail system is primarily used to move goods.

[twodogsbarking]

29. All true. We could do better.

[kimbutgar]

14. Yesterday we drove from the San Francisco Bay Area to Palm Springs and today to Phoenix

I was shocked at the number of trucks on highway 5 going north and south with large containers.
Last year we drove the same route and there were trucks but not as many as yesterday and today. Today it was ridiculous going east on highway 10. There were so many trucks and that they outnumbered cars easily 5 to 1. As we passed a weigh station that was going west toward Los Angles the back up of trucks was over a mile. A lot of those trucks were bound for Long Beach to pick up cargo.

[caraher]

15. That math is kind of shady

It implies truckers should be working 55 hours/week. Now 6.5 hours a day isn't 8 hours a day (40 hour work week) but it's not honest to say 40% of potential working hours are being unused when the analysis says a trucker should work a week that's 37.5% longer than the standard 40 hour week.

[GregariousGroundhog]

17. "Over the road" drivers work many more than 55 hours a week

Truckers may work for up to 14 hours at a time and may drive for 11 of those hours. They need to take a 10 hour break in order to reset that clock. Additionally, truckers may only work for 70 hours in a rolling eight day period, but can reset that 70 hour clock by taking a 34 hour break.

The net result is that they often work 70 hours every six days. They may spend 12 or 18 days on the road before returning home and getting a couple days off.

[NullTuples]

16. Feels like middle management: They're allowed to drive 11 hrs a day therefore 4.5 hrs are wasted

[Ford_Prefect]

19. As I said above...Statistics used without regard to laws of gravity, or reality on the ground,

to support a paradoxical conclusion which suffers no reasonable end. Who other than management could propose such a thing with a straight face?

[Mawspam2]

18. Leave it to some MIT dweeb who has never...

...seen the inside of a truck to tell truck drivers how lazy they are. Eff that guy.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

20. Is that what you got from the article?

Let me repost the 2nd paragraph

“This chronic underutilization problem does not seem to be a function of what the drivers themselves do or don’t do, but rather an unfortunate consequence of our conventions for scheduling and processing the pickup and delivery appointments,” said David Correll, a research scientist at MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics, as he testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Long-haul, full-truckload drivers spend an average of 6.5 hours every workday driving ,even though federal safety regulations let them drive for 11 hours a day, Correll said.

It seems the inefficiencies are in coordinating pick ups and deliveries with the warehouse, sometimes a lot of idle time waiting.

[Steelrolled]

31. I had the same thought.

And I thought it was a bit rich for an MIT academic to be talking about the inefficiencies of the trucking industry.

[Deminpenn]

21. Listened to a report yesterday where a longshoreman

was interviewed about his job and what is causing the back up at the ports.

The first thing he cited was the wide-spread practice of "just in time" inventory, meaning companies don't want to hold inventory and have to pay for warehouses or warehouse space. This practice means companies never have enough product on hand to meet demand in the event of a disruption somewhere in the logistics chain. They need regular shipment arrivals to keep pace. That is more shipments more often.

The second thing he cited was that the truckers arriving to pick up loads are there for specific containers and that the specific container might be under or in the middle of a stack therefore causing the crane operators to have to unstack, then restack containers.

Last, he said there is literally no place to put the containers being off-loaded.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but perhaps it involves co-ordinating freight trains to take containers being sent to a region to a general destination like east coast, midwest, southeast, southwest, northern plains, west coast and distributed from there.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

24. Sounds like some bean counter thought warehouse and storage space

was an unnecessary expense.

[Deminpenn]

32. Fads come along in business processes just

as in many things. JIT is, imho, one of them. Having inventory holding costs hurts the bottom line, but it also leaves little to no safety net.

DoD tried to follow the same JIT fad, telling us inventory managers that defense contractors could supply inventory at the drop of a hat and therefore we didn't need to have stock at our DoD supply warehouses. Needless to say, we all thought "the mgmt" was nuts given DoD's unpredictable missions and deployments. We were always being told we had "excess" inventory we should dispose despite some of that inventory still being needed and out of production.

[Sherman A1]

30. The longshoreman interviewed was very perceptive

This is indeed a result of the “just in time” inventory mantra that became the holy grail of company’s cost cutting a few decades ago. Treating truckers like dirt using the previous holy grail mantra of the “disposable workforce” is also a huge contributing factor.

Our supply chain woes are self inflicted wounds created by short sighted management in the private sector. But, I’m sure that isn’t a surprise to much of anyone.

[ConstanceCee]

26. Also..

Truckers don't have enough places to park for the night. Highway rest stops are full, and truckers have started parking along the shoulder as you exit the rest stop. My husband and I frequently drive on I-64 between Richmond, Va, and St. Louis. We are getting the feeling that truck drivers are not being treated very well. At the same time, the highways are full of trucks. I want Pete Buttigieg to figure this out.

[ripcord]

27. Why would anyone want to drive a truck these days?

They can make as much at a fast food place after the wage increases and be home every night. Wait time pay is a joke and companies feel no remorse at making drivers wait hours even days to pick up a load. You not only have a dash cam monitoring your driving but many companies now have a camera that watches the driver. You have someone sitting hundreds of miles away deciding if the road is safe, even overriding the opinion of the driver on the scene, you drive when they say or you are fired. Truck drivers are a classic case of wage slaves, shit pay and no chance of advancement. There is a saying among drivers all trucking companies are bad, you just have to find one who's bullshit you can put up with.

[Philosophizing Fool]

33. Rather than waste valuable government time

He would have been better served to join a trucker for a few deliveries. Putting down the pen and picking up a hammer, or box in this case, would have taught this expert more than all his number crunching.