First out

[CharlesD]

I'm curious how your company handles first out, or what your opinion is. For the record, I believe in a pretty strict first in first out policy, all things being equal regarding truck size, team or solo, and any other items like a liftgate.

With that said, we have come across a few grey areas that I'm trying to clarify. How large an area do you consider when determining which truck is first out? We've been going by metropolitan areas, but that gets tricky when you have two cities close to each other like Cincinnati and Dayton. You can say a truck with enough time to make the pickup should get the load if it's been sitting longer, but where do you draw the line? Technically, a team truck could deadhead 500 miles to pick up a load, but I don't think that would be fair to a guy sitting on top of the load, even if he hasn't been sitting as long.

A few months ago we had a sticky situation where we had trucks in New England and a truck in Newark. The Newark truck had been sitting a couple days and the New England trucks one day. A load came up in CT and we had a bit of a disagreement over who should be offered the load. Give it to the NJ guy, who is 120 miles out, or give it to the New England truck that is 30 miles out. On one hand was the idea that the New England truck was first out for anything in New England and the NJ truck was first out for anything in the NYC metro area, and on the other hand a couple people thought the NJ truck was first out because he had been sitting longer and had time to make the pickup.

We ended up putting the load on the New England truck because, as I see it, New England is it's own region and it wouldn't be fair to a driver who is already there for someone to deadhead in and jump ahead of him and grab the load. It is, though, a bit tricky when you have multiple trucks that can make a pickup time but are in different metro areas or regions. Is the answer splitting the country up into boards and simply going first in first out in each board? Thoughts?

 

[Turtle]

I don't think I'd get too wrapped up in cities, town, regions or some other geographical area. I also wouldn't even try to come up with any hard and fast rule, because as soon as you do something will pop up to be the exception. Expediting is, in the end, more about being in the right place at the right time. Picking this or that truck really boils down to common sense, what works best, both wrapped up in the Golden Rule.

As a guideline I'd go board position at 50 miles out from the pickup (or 75, or 100, whatever it takes), rather than who's in what city. If you've got a truck at the TA in Florence and one at the Pilot in Franklin, and a load comes up out of Kettering, if both trucks can make the pickup on time, give it to the longest sitter. If it picks up in Domino's Pizza fashion (that would be 30 minutes or less), it goes to the closest truck.

As for New England 30 miles out or Newark 120 miles out, that seems like a 'right place at the right time' no brainer to me. The New England truck gets it. If the Newark truck had been sitting for another day or two though, the Golden Rule says he should get it.

 

[ebsprintin]

CharlesD needs to first look out for himself when it comes to owning a load. Every extra minute and mile commited to a load is risk that Charles is taking, because in the end it doesn't matter whose truck the freight is on or how "fair" you are--Charles owns the load. I really don't get too hung up on first outs, load board sequencing, dwell time... as long as I'm not getting screwed, because in the end, first outs and closest-to-the-freight's average out, if the decisions are based on efficiently moving freight. From the driver's side of the equation it is nice to have general rules about board position and dwell time, but the company should always reserve some leeway in making the final call.

My definition for getting screwed would be something like a dispatcher, who is also a fleet owner, giving loads to his vehicles before other vehicles that may be closer or have longer dwell times. That kind of decision isn't based on efficiently moving freight.

eb