This is a long post (3-4 pages printed) and probably of interest only to a few folks. It may not be worth your time to read. It explains an idea I have for an organization that would help drivers find good fleet owners and fleet owners find good drivers.
It's just an idea. I have no plans to act on it in the foreseeable future. I simply share it here for the pleasure of those that might be interested.
While I'm relatively new to expediting, I know a fair amount about creating and building organizations. With expediting now over 25 years old as an identifiable sector in the transportation industry, it seems odd that drivers and owners have not yet created an organization to address one of their most pressing needs.
Drivers in search of fleet owners need to know from an independent and reliable source what kind of track record their prospective fleet owners have. Fleet owners need to know the same of drivers. And once drivers and fleet owners have entered into a working relationship, they need to know they can count on each other to perform as agreed.
Note the difference between carriers and fleet owners. By fleet owners I mean folks in expediting that lease a number of trucks (usually less than a dozen) to one or more carriers and contract with drivers to run them. The drivers I discuss here are not employees or company drivers. They are self-employed independent contractors. While the concept I have in mind could scale to the entire trucking industry, I'm only talking here about the sector I know best; expediting.
DAC reporting is way too slanted in favor of carriers. As far as I know, fleet owners have no comparable driver reporting organization of their own. OOIDA is a driver organization but operates at higher levels than would the organization I have in mind.
I'm thinking about an organization that recognizes the common interests drivers AND fleet owners share. It's in both their interests to run freight and make money. It's in both their interests to conduct fair business practices. Fleet owners don't want drivers that secretly use their trucks to make money on the side. Drivers don't want fleet owners that skim a little here and there, or worse. I could go on, but I think the point is made. The need exists for an organization that does not pit one group against another, but instead serves drivers and fleet owners together.
The driver/fleet-owner organization I'm thinking about would help put folks at ease and help good people find each other. Bad people would not be admitted. Membership fees would cover administrative costs. The fees would pay for the applicant's background check. The background check would include a public records search and third-party interviews with the applicant's past business associates.
Background information would be made available among members according to organization rules put in place. Ongoing rating of fleet owners by drivers and drivers by fleet owners would occur and be reported to all organization members; similar to eBay, where members rate and comment on each other's performance.
Organizational emphasis would be placed on recognizing good behavior and quickly tossing out members that fail to uphold the organization's standards.
It would not be a big organization that needs to keep getting bigger to satisfy the ambitions of the organization's staff members(volunteer or paid). It would not maintain a high (and expensive) public profile. It would be just folks - fleet owners and drivers -coming together in an agreed-upon way to produce mutual benefits.
Think of the rookie driver with no credit history, or the experienced owner/operator that failed and ruined his credit and wants to start fresh. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to submit to a background check, answer questions that address fleet owner concerns, ask questions that address your concerns, be given the benefit of the doubt, and be able to start (or start again) on the road to trucking success? And wouldn't it be nice to know your fleet owner is truly committed to helping you achieve your career goals?
Think of the fleet owners that have what it takes to be part of the organization (good credit history, some money to work with, trucks, history of good business practices, etc.). They'd love to find reliable and trustworthy drivers. That's how organization participation would benefit fleet owners.
And think of the deterrent value poor performance under your organization agreements would have. Poor performance would be reported (as you previously agreed as a condition of membership) to other members and expulsion from the organization would be a possible result.
Dispute resolution procedures that first try to resolve conflicts without lawyers would be in place, making it easier for disputing members to work things out.
There's much more to think through in designing and building an organization like this....funding being one of the important topics, organizational leadership structure being another, driver and fleet owner admission requirements being yet another.
Other risks must be anticipated and hopefully pre-empted. If you succeeded in building this organization, vendors will descend with all sorts of proposals. They'll offer discounts to members, they'll pay to mail the organization newsletter if they can have exclusive advertising space in it. They'll offer to put organization leaders and/or staff members up in free hotel rooms at truck shows.
All such vendor offers should be rejected. Members can get product discounts through other means. This organization is not about providing a number of member benefits. It's about providing ONE benefit...helping good drivers and good fleet owners meet and succeed together. While the above vendor activity may be tempting, it would also be a distraction from the organization's sole purpose.
If the organization decided to expand its mission, member development would be a good way to go. The organization could tap the talents of its members to publish "How to" articles, create boilerplate fleet owner contract language, and/or offer things like advanced driver training opportunities (e.g. skid pad), or business management classes. In other words, focus on things that will help drivers and fleet owners improve their skills and working relationships.
It looks great on paper. But even if you pulled together a group of reputable fleet owners and drivers, and put together the ideal organization, problems would rise. A fleet owner that also owns a bowling alley might be your star member for many years. But when the bowling alley business gets in trouble, the temptation to cheat drivers grows. Organization staff members may develop a high-school clique mentality and favor their "in" friends over other members, creating a situation where all members are not equally and fairly treated. A great driving team with a pristine background check and performance record this year may get divorced and depressed next year; and in that process quit caring about the truck and the fleet owner's needs.
People are people...at once saints and sinners. No matter how good an organization you design on paper, the human element will always enter in, for the better and the worse. Human failures would also have to be anticipated in organization's bylaws, so when the failures happen (the good fleet owner becomes a cheater, the good driver becomes a drunk) there are procedures in place to deal with them.
If you've read this far, I thank you for listening. These thoughts have been buzzing around in my mind for a few months now. It's nice to get them into public view.
A steering committee would have to be formed to actually start such an organization. The steering committee would be self-appointed. That's the nature of steering committees. People with common interests group together and act to achieve a desired result. In this case, the committee would lay the groundwork for the organization, fund the startup costs out of pocket or by fundraising efforts, and write the bylaws.
At some point the steering committee would dissolve and organizational leaders would run the show. The bylaws would describe how those leaders are selected, what powers they'd have and their chain of accountability.
As you can see, starting such an organization would be a huge task. It would take months, maybe even years of committed effort and faith in the organization's success to make it work. That's why I have no desire to get the ball rolling. My wife and I got into expediting partly to simplify our lives. Getting involved in the above-described start-up efforts would bring us right back into the complexities we left behind. At this point in our lives, our one-truck business is all we want. We're not interested in forming a steering committee and getting the ball rolling.
If others think this concept has merit, by all means, pick up the ball and run with it. Call your friends and industry colleagues. Form your steering committee and together figure out your next steps.
The need is there. If you succeed in bringing the organization into being, you'll find great satisfaction knowing you helped change our industry and a many lives for the better.
Maybe you can call it GOBAG for Good Old Boys and Girls. If your a member, you're "In the bag!"
It's just an idea. I have no plans to act on it in the foreseeable future. I simply share it here for the pleasure of those that might be interested.
While I'm relatively new to expediting, I know a fair amount about creating and building organizations. With expediting now over 25 years old as an identifiable sector in the transportation industry, it seems odd that drivers and owners have not yet created an organization to address one of their most pressing needs.
Drivers in search of fleet owners need to know from an independent and reliable source what kind of track record their prospective fleet owners have. Fleet owners need to know the same of drivers. And once drivers and fleet owners have entered into a working relationship, they need to know they can count on each other to perform as agreed.
Note the difference between carriers and fleet owners. By fleet owners I mean folks in expediting that lease a number of trucks (usually less than a dozen) to one or more carriers and contract with drivers to run them. The drivers I discuss here are not employees or company drivers. They are self-employed independent contractors. While the concept I have in mind could scale to the entire trucking industry, I'm only talking here about the sector I know best; expediting.
DAC reporting is way too slanted in favor of carriers. As far as I know, fleet owners have no comparable driver reporting organization of their own. OOIDA is a driver organization but operates at higher levels than would the organization I have in mind.
I'm thinking about an organization that recognizes the common interests drivers AND fleet owners share. It's in both their interests to run freight and make money. It's in both their interests to conduct fair business practices. Fleet owners don't want drivers that secretly use their trucks to make money on the side. Drivers don't want fleet owners that skim a little here and there, or worse. I could go on, but I think the point is made. The need exists for an organization that does not pit one group against another, but instead serves drivers and fleet owners together.
The driver/fleet-owner organization I'm thinking about would help put folks at ease and help good people find each other. Bad people would not be admitted. Membership fees would cover administrative costs. The fees would pay for the applicant's background check. The background check would include a public records search and third-party interviews with the applicant's past business associates.
Background information would be made available among members according to organization rules put in place. Ongoing rating of fleet owners by drivers and drivers by fleet owners would occur and be reported to all organization members; similar to eBay, where members rate and comment on each other's performance.
Organizational emphasis would be placed on recognizing good behavior and quickly tossing out members that fail to uphold the organization's standards.
It would not be a big organization that needs to keep getting bigger to satisfy the ambitions of the organization's staff members(volunteer or paid). It would not maintain a high (and expensive) public profile. It would be just folks - fleet owners and drivers -coming together in an agreed-upon way to produce mutual benefits.
Think of the rookie driver with no credit history, or the experienced owner/operator that failed and ruined his credit and wants to start fresh. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to submit to a background check, answer questions that address fleet owner concerns, ask questions that address your concerns, be given the benefit of the doubt, and be able to start (or start again) on the road to trucking success? And wouldn't it be nice to know your fleet owner is truly committed to helping you achieve your career goals?
Think of the fleet owners that have what it takes to be part of the organization (good credit history, some money to work with, trucks, history of good business practices, etc.). They'd love to find reliable and trustworthy drivers. That's how organization participation would benefit fleet owners.
And think of the deterrent value poor performance under your organization agreements would have. Poor performance would be reported (as you previously agreed as a condition of membership) to other members and expulsion from the organization would be a possible result.
Dispute resolution procedures that first try to resolve conflicts without lawyers would be in place, making it easier for disputing members to work things out.
There's much more to think through in designing and building an organization like this....funding being one of the important topics, organizational leadership structure being another, driver and fleet owner admission requirements being yet another.
Other risks must be anticipated and hopefully pre-empted. If you succeeded in building this organization, vendors will descend with all sorts of proposals. They'll offer discounts to members, they'll pay to mail the organization newsletter if they can have exclusive advertising space in it. They'll offer to put organization leaders and/or staff members up in free hotel rooms at truck shows.
All such vendor offers should be rejected. Members can get product discounts through other means. This organization is not about providing a number of member benefits. It's about providing ONE benefit...helping good drivers and good fleet owners meet and succeed together. While the above vendor activity may be tempting, it would also be a distraction from the organization's sole purpose.
If the organization decided to expand its mission, member development would be a good way to go. The organization could tap the talents of its members to publish "How to" articles, create boilerplate fleet owner contract language, and/or offer things like advanced driver training opportunities (e.g. skid pad), or business management classes. In other words, focus on things that will help drivers and fleet owners improve their skills and working relationships.
It looks great on paper. But even if you pulled together a group of reputable fleet owners and drivers, and put together the ideal organization, problems would rise. A fleet owner that also owns a bowling alley might be your star member for many years. But when the bowling alley business gets in trouble, the temptation to cheat drivers grows. Organization staff members may develop a high-school clique mentality and favor their "in" friends over other members, creating a situation where all members are not equally and fairly treated. A great driving team with a pristine background check and performance record this year may get divorced and depressed next year; and in that process quit caring about the truck and the fleet owner's needs.
People are people...at once saints and sinners. No matter how good an organization you design on paper, the human element will always enter in, for the better and the worse. Human failures would also have to be anticipated in organization's bylaws, so when the failures happen (the good fleet owner becomes a cheater, the good driver becomes a drunk) there are procedures in place to deal with them.
If you've read this far, I thank you for listening. These thoughts have been buzzing around in my mind for a few months now. It's nice to get them into public view.
A steering committee would have to be formed to actually start such an organization. The steering committee would be self-appointed. That's the nature of steering committees. People with common interests group together and act to achieve a desired result. In this case, the committee would lay the groundwork for the organization, fund the startup costs out of pocket or by fundraising efforts, and write the bylaws.
At some point the steering committee would dissolve and organizational leaders would run the show. The bylaws would describe how those leaders are selected, what powers they'd have and their chain of accountability.
As you can see, starting such an organization would be a huge task. It would take months, maybe even years of committed effort and faith in the organization's success to make it work. That's why I have no desire to get the ball rolling. My wife and I got into expediting partly to simplify our lives. Getting involved in the above-described start-up efforts would bring us right back into the complexities we left behind. At this point in our lives, our one-truck business is all we want. We're not interested in forming a steering committee and getting the ball rolling.
If others think this concept has merit, by all means, pick up the ball and run with it. Call your friends and industry colleagues. Form your steering committee and together figure out your next steps.
The need is there. If you succeed in bringing the organization into being, you'll find great satisfaction knowing you helped change our industry and a many lives for the better.
Maybe you can call it GOBAG for Good Old Boys and Girls. If your a member, you're "In the bag!"
