On today’s episode of WHAT THE TRUCK?!? Dooner is talking to FreightWaves’ Rachel Premack about the drama over at Yellow. The carrier has told the Teamsters it will be out of money by August, but the union says it’s not going to bail the company out again. We’ll find out if Yellow can survive and what will be left of it.
Tiger Cool Express, LLC shuts down.
Remcoda CEO Remy Garson has doubled down on nearshoring. We’ll learn about its recent strategic acquisition in Colombia and how he thinks nearshoring will reshape supply chains.
Optym’s Chris Torrence and Danny Zeenberg put a FreightTech spotlight on AI. Is it living up to the hype in trucking and is this still a business about people?
Justin Martin has the latest on the I-95 collapse; if drivers prefer check calls over tracking; a new headlight meme at truck stops; lunatic Lyft drivers; why the ‘80s hit different; and what’s ahead at the Future of Supply Chain in Cleveland.
William McIntosh
It is time for the teamsters to save 30000 jobs and allow the union companies to compete ,and take care of the customers with the service they deserve and can get by other means. Working the dock at breakbulk and destination terminal is a small price to pay to take care of the paying customer with faster and better claim free service. Most freight is palletized so it is not a manual effort to make this happen. The drivers ,Union as well as non union have great insurance, and all make a very livable wage so they both need to take care of the customer or they will be out of business. I think the drivers know the customer makes it possible for them to have the lifestyle they currently enjoy and I can only hope the union understands that times have changed. Protect your drivers jobs for the future.
No one that lost their job when Consolidated Freight shut down won that war.
Here is hoping it all works out!
Bob
As regards Yellow, the dock work changes are mostly about linehaul drivers being forced to work the dock. They often move multiple different loads during the night and arrive at dark terminals with no dock workers present. The rule changes would say a LH driver has to move a pallet or two off and maybe add one or two pallets to a load before moving on. Now it could be more, but the company has an interest in making sure drivers spend most of their night driving and not doing dock work. It is much more efficient for the driver to be able to move some pallets instead of having another worker available for small amounts of work.
What the driver said about compensation may also be true, because driving for a full hour pays better than an hour of dock work. Note the drivers also get paid wait time if their load or next load is not ready. Instead of paying wait time, why not move a pallet and get paid the hourly rate?
Again the company has a very very strong interest in making sure drivers are driving, but it sure helps out to move a pallet or two. This activity was more common at the regionals like Holland and not so much YRC itself, so that’s a lot of where the fight stems from.
Not defending management, but it makes sense to try and convert wait time payments into actual dock work (of which the company pays an enormous amount of wait time because its dysfunctional)