Transportation companies have one thing to sell: service. How long would a carrier be in business if their drivers were always late with pick- ups and deliveries? Picking up and delivering each load is critical to the success of our company and insures each driver keeps his/her job.
If a driver makes a late pickup or delivery usually poor time management and lack of communication are to blame.. Here are three rules I live by:
1. Don’t take the load if you cannot deliver on time.
2. Once you’ve accepted the load and find that you are going to be delayed – communicate to those involved. A late delivery or pickup may be avoided by communicating with your driver manager.
3. When possible check into the shipper or receiver early. Most locations allow you in the gate an hour early. Drivers need to be there within the one hour window. If a driver waits to check in at the appointed time, he/she may be late getting to the check-in window itself. When that happens, the driver is labeled as late and normally has to wait. Feeling punished, the driver then has to resist getting a bad attitude.
A domino affect then begins: The driver arrives late – the driver waits to be rescheduled – the driver misses getting the next load or can’t be scheduled on another load until the shipper works them into their dock. The driver loses revenue, the company loses utilization of the driver’s truck and both get a black eye.
Why deliver on time? Your job and the company you work for depends on it to maintain customers. Each day drivers and driver managers need to try their hardest to satisfy our customer with our best service.
Happy Trails,
Steve Danielson
