"...but the potential cost of losing that account due to the tardiness of a driver? That would be massive."
Heavy post from where I sit and try to survive my Mondays.
Such an important post. (as our careers have been in transport) @pooky-jax is reading it now. Compliments of a quick link sent via Threema. (Used daily here) I quoted out loud the paragraph about the 20 year vet death by crushing.
My thoughts and actions are..:
I avoid JIT in every way. The "just in time" expedited freight I have access to many times is non contracted. (Cheap) 3rd or more party brokerage nightmares. Even the Landstar contracted is barely profitable with threats of charge backs to the driver.
I have only had a few load failures in 30 years. And they were not the type to cost customers/contracts as I said above. I avoid the JIT's. I have recovered a few distressed load s over the years also. and
I do wear slippers and sweats in the cooler weather. You may also catch my god like body in just boxers in the sleeper while on my break times. But i honestly have never walked in public like some of these steer wheel holders in flip flops, baggy pajama looking clothings and such. I see them walking in and out of the ship/rec offices and I LOL...
I fear the "Auto Pilot Mode/Flying Blind" will end my career badly. I suffer from it as I am sure that crush victim driver did. A.D.D is real. And deadly in our business as you know. One of the reasons for my exit of the full time career soon. Along with the crashing of the economy by the fraudster gov. The distracted deadly drivers. Etc.
The JIT thing and cross-docking saves warehouse space and manpower for the end user and I think is going to become more prevalent. It comes with some dangers of failure to supply though. Holding less stock and relying on supply chains is risky; when a link in the chain breaks shelves empty rather quickly.
The look of an Australian truck driver has completely changed now as the drivers are dominated by one particular type of individual, 90 percent of the drivers. Some are really quite good, but most are no more than steering wheel holders as you say. They know almost nothing about their trucks and have no care factor. It makes me wonder what will happen in the future... Australia is a big land with a lot of nothing in between the cities. It takes a certain breed of person to move trucks in the outback and to remote locations...I wonder who will do it.