Moore On Pricing: Never take our drivers for granted

I had the opportunity to speak with three truckload drivers this past month, and I have to say it was eye-opening. Mike, Charles and Nick were candid with opinions and often colorful in their descriptions of the current state of operations in a pandemic.

Mike is an owner operator with 17 years on the road, with the last 10 years as a free-wheeling, “self-employed” truckload operator moving freight as it becomes available. He gets most of his loads from brokers—two large companies with nationwide coverage.

In our conversation, Mike told me of staying away from his home where his wife, mother-in-law and two children are hunkered down, as he was afraid to bring the virus home with him. In the early days of the “lockdown” he slept in his truck at home rather than chance getting someone sick. He also told me about the few weeks of very few loads as the economy stopped, but now he’s getting better loads at better rates as things pick up.

Charles works for a large national carrier. He told me that there was a real push for masks and gloves and avoiding touching paperwork for a several weeks, “but that seems to be fading out now.” He also told me of going into a truck stop in early June and finding no one with a mask on except for him—he said it was embarrassing so he took his off.

Charles is divorced, so he doesn’t have immediate family to worry about except for his parents, whom he hasn’t seen in months. He told me it’s “too risky” because his dad has asthma. Overall, he’s glad to be with a big company because they kept him moving and paid even as things really slowed down.

Nick has been an owner-operator, a company driver and is now employed in dedicated service to a big retailer. Except for one week over the past three months he has had steady loads and no accidents or citations for eight years—a fact of which he is proud.

Nick’s wife is a nurse and he gets to be home most weekends. His mom watches the kids most days and some nights when their work takes both parents out of the house. His wife was working in orthopedics, so was laid off briefly when elective surgeries stopped at her hospital. The sudden drop in income was “really scary.”

Nick worries about both he and his wife “catching the bug,” but he said that the shipper customer was pushing his dispatcher to make sure Nick was equipped with PPE, and they also changed the procedure at the warehouse so that Nick doesn’t go in the building anymore. He said he misses the interaction.

On top of the financial worry, all three of these men were obviously concerned about their health as well as the health of their loved ones. None were confident that they would have a future working the same way or for the same folks they haul for today.

My final question to all three was whether they recommended trucking as a job for young people. The answer was a resounding “no way” expressed in colorful language.

Keeping these recent exchanges I had in mind, both shippers and carriers now must find ways to connect with our industry’s essential workers. We can’t take for granted what it means for them to be there when we need them most.