Although drivers and dispatchers discuss shortages and regulatory issues as two of the biggest problems facing the industry today, those concerns also tie into the pressure to make a delivery.
A trucker’s goal is to ensure the goods they’ve been entrusted to deliver will arrive in excellent shape. When you’re forced to brake suddenly or take a tight turn, the items in your trailer can shift and move if they’re not secured correctly.
That means a driver must pay careful attention to the road, anticipate traffic issues, and be proactive about any sudden moves that could be necessary.
After you consider the need to deliver items safely and securely, there’s the added issue of arriving on time. It’s not unusual for unrealistic delivery and timing goals to be set, which forces drivers to refuse work or be forced to go the extra mile to meet contract stipulations.
How to Handle High-Risk Deliveries
The first rule of any delivery should be safety. Although many pickup and delivery locations are pre-screened by your employer, professional truck drivers should always consider themselves responsible for themselves.
If you have any doubts about the safety of a specific area, call dispatch to explain the situation. It’s not unusual to have people try to bully you into making decisions that go against what your guts say.
Listen to your instincts. Ask the receiver when delivering to a new location about any safety issues you’ll need to address. There aren’t any bad questions to ask during that conversation because it’s always better to find out before you arrive instead of discovering problems on the fly.
Here are some tips to help you out in a high-risk situation.
1. Use Daylight to Your Advantage
If you’re unsure how safe a specific area is when contacting a receiver, it’s better to get in and out during daylight hours. When you reach a dispatcher about your concerns, a common statement heard is, “We’ve never had problems there before.”
You shouldn’t be concerned about refusing a pickup or delivery in an unsafe zone. The dispatcher needs to move freight from one point to another. Their concern involves those logistics, not your safety.
If you decide to proceed, ensure that appropriate lighting is always available. It’s better to be a little late than be stuck in an unsafe situation.
When your window is at night, try to see what lighting is available at the location. Just remember that you’re still on duty, so don’t pull up once you’ve fulfilled your hours for the day. It’ll create a bigger headache for everyone.
2. Take Safety Precautions
Even if you’re dealing with delivery pressures, you should never compromise your safety routine to save a few minutes. If you’re in an unsafe area, some preventative measures may improve the situation.
- Stay on the main streets whenever possible while keeping the truck doors locked at all times.
- Keep your mobile device available to take photos, videos, or contact emergency services.
- Unless you must stop for some reason, keep the truck moving. A traffic violation is better than some alternatives.
- Use your GPS to guide you toward the fastest way out of the area.
- Take some extra time to plan your trip.
It helps to speak with your shipper or receiver by phone or email before going into a specific area. Don’t forget to notify your employer of whatever findings you discover during this process.
3. Track Your ELD Accurately
There is still a “hurry up and wait” attitude that you’ll find at many shippers and receivers, especially if you’re an OTR trucker. You can do everything right, arrive on time for your appointment, and then be told that they’re not ready for you.
The ELD mandate includes loading and unloading time on Line 4 of the log. That means you’re on duty, but in a non-driving capacity.
That gives you documentation of the problem, but it doesn’t solve the issue of your 14-hour clock still ticking. Many CDL drivers have stopped working in the industry because they feel like they’re being punished for arriving late, even with good communication.
4. Work with Your Employer
If you’re not an owner-operator, you can work with your employer to deal with delivery pressures. Some firms have started paying their drivers up to $40 per hour (and sometimes more) for detention time at the dock after a predetermined amount of free time.
About 1 in 8 shipments incurs detention, which costs shippers about $8 billion in shipping fees annually. Almost two-thirds of drivers say that they spend more than three hours at a pickup or delivery location each time, which translates into over four billion hours of wasted time at facilities. [[1]]
Always ask if detention is being paid on a load and when it kicks in for you. That’ll make it easier to select the best jobs – when you have opportunities to be picky.
5. Work with a Supportive Employer
Not all carriers will wait as long as it takes for shippers or receivers to finish loading or unloading a truck. Over 80% of companies say that they’ll allow for a four-hour window before pulling a driver from a shipment.
Another 80% of carriers state that there are specific facilities that they “absolutely do not work with” because of their reputation for regular detention problems. [[2]]
Many carriers have noted that the number of facilities they’ve started refusing to work with has increased since ELD hours have been tracked. That includes avoiding locations that have strict appointment times and no delivery windows.
When you have a supportive employer that has your back, it’s worth finding a way to stay on that team. With driver churn at high levels in 2022, you have an opportunity to get on the road with someone else, earn more pay, and have additional help with those delivery pressures that come along.
6. Advocate for Yourself
It’s common for drivers to wait for a long time at a receiving facility, stuck in line with a dozen other trucks waiting to unload. There has been a 27% increase in delays of six hours or more in recent years. [[3]]
Although that issue impacts all drivers, women are 83% more likely to experience long delays when working in the trucking industry. [[4]]
Can you imagine being forced to wait four hours to unload, having nowhere to use the bathroom, and then trying to use the final 30 minutes of your driving time to locate a parking spot that might not be available?
Advocating for yourself might not always be popular, but it does keep things more professional. Things don’t always go as expected, which is why open communication lines are vital.
If you find a specific shipper or receiver acting punitive, speak with your employer about changing routes. When you’re an owner-operator, stop serving that customer. It’s not worth the headache.
7. Keep Track of Current Events
Truckers are often singled out when infrastructure bills go before state and federal legislatures. After the 2020 election, Senator John Cornyn pushed for a tax that would mandate electronic tracking devices inside a truck. That would allow the IRS to monitor vehicle movements, with the suggestion to tax a quarter for every mile driven.
If you put down 100,000 miles per year in the United States as an owner-operator, you could lose $25,000 in earnings annually with ideas like that.
Cornyn says his idea could raise $33 billion per year. At the end of the day, the costs get passed to drivers or consumers, which means your expenses rise – and more delivery pressures form. That’s why it’s imperative to keep track of industry-related current events. [[5]]
You Have the Right to File a Complaint
If the actions of a shipper or receiver cause you to violate regulations as a driver, there are steps available to file a Truck Complaint. [[6]]
You’ll need to visit the National Consumer Complaint Database’s FMCSA website. You’ll see the option to file a complaint in the middle section between “Consumer” and “Industry Professional.”
After clicking on the “File a Complaint” button, you’ll get the option to file a complaint against a specific agency. You must choose “Trucking Company” to continue.
Click on the “Next” button. You’ll be given a box to document the incident information. The website also requires you to choose all the allegations that apply. If you have shipper or receiver issues, you’ll find the appropriate boxes by scrolling down the page.
The complaint mechanism requires company and contact information. You’ll also have the chance to upload files before submitting your concerns.
Delivery pressures are part of our industry. Everyone has deadlines that they need to meet at some point in their lives, and it is the job of receivers and dispatchers to hold drivers accountable.
You are responsible for meeting your obligations, but that doesn’t mean you should place yourself in risky situations. When you communicate openly and proactively, most issues are easily resolvable. For those that are not, you have some additional options to consider with the FMCSA process.
[[1]] https://www.freightwaves.com/news/driver-issues/shippers-continue-to-detain-truck-drivers
[[2]] https://ziplinelogistics.com/blog/eld-mandate-october-2018/#:~:text=Summary%20of%20Major%20ELD%20Survey%20Findings&text=Under%20the%20Mandate%2C%2077%25%20of,are%20willing%20to%20go%20to.&text=This%20is%20different%20than%20survey,rates%20increased%20due%20to%20ELDs.
[[3]] https://www.ttnews.com/articles/driver-detention-has-increased-recent-years-atri-finds
[[4]] https://www.trucking.org/news-insights/3-ways-help-lighten-load-truckers
[[5]] https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2021/05/20/cornyn-enrages-truckers-by-pitching-25-cent-per-mile-tax-on-big-rigs-to-finance-highway-work/
