Back door politics try to keep small trucking companies out of the Port of Los Angeles.  By making a provision to “reduce diesel emissions” the Port of Los Angeles was in effect locking out the small independent trucking companies. 

 The L.A. Times reports about the provision: “The provision was pushed aggressively by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. It was also backed by Change to Win, a Washington, D.C.-based labor coalition that contributed $500,000 to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s successful campaign to preserve a telephone user’s tax in 2008.” (L.A. Times)

The Argument: “The American Trucking Assn. argued that the provision imposed an unfair economic burden and violated federal law. Trucking industry officials also feared it would trigger unionization of thousands of port drivers in Los Angeles and across the nation.” (L.A. Times)

The ruling: “The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday threw out a key provision of a program aimed at reducing diesel emissions from trucks hauling containers from the Port of Los Angeles.” (L.A. Times)

The port of Los Angeles has been a sore spot for most independent trucking companies for some time.  Either your trucking company had to have an “in” with the port, or the port would make life difficult for your company to pick up goods.  The 9th District court of the U.S. has finally made a stand against this bias against independent truck owners. 

  Private owners make up only 9% of the trucking industry according to the Department of Labor.  Independent truckers are the entrepreneurs of the trucking world.  Too many of the large trucking companies are dictating the price of good transported.   These small few independents are vital to trucking, they create competition, pricing discounts, and a venue for a fledgling trucking company to get off the ground.

Thank goodness that the US government is doing what it is supposed to do and that is protect the free flow of commerce.

Christmas may be fun for most; however, for the logistics world it can make
or break a trucking company.  If you are a startup or exsisting trucking company, one had better have ones ducks in a row. If the maintenance of the trucking company is not up to industry standard, the company will not show well during this frantic time, therefore losing the most valuable asset for trucking companies that is “word of
mouth” marketing. According to the web site http://www.mhlnews.com, Freight Associates
is forecasting a declining environment for shippers through the remainder of
this year and well into 2012.

“Events are unfolding as we had projected with regard to shipping
conditions. Carriers have right-sized to meet current demand levels and are
reluctant to add capacity given the high level of economic uncertainty,” says
Larry Gross, senior consultant for FTR. “Moreover, tightening driver availability
means that even those truckers that wish to add capacity are finding it
difficult to do so. The result is higher freight rates even in the face of the
soft economy.” (MH&L news)

I know that with this volatile business climate, one has to force themselves
to expand or spend money to improve existing depreciation such as tractor trailers
(trucks), or employees.

I also think in order to gain market share in today’s business environment, a trucking company needs to be progressively researching ways to improve, and yes spend money.  In the trucking company enviromant with regard to the new trucking laws; enforcement of these laws will be a priority for the government agencies, in order to keep their budgets, and employees stable.  To skimp on truck up keep, and having to many unqualified drivers to drive said trucks, does not make good business sense.

So fight to urge to be too conservative during this unprecedented time.

Scheduling your life should not be a something that one should avoid, quite the opposite is true.  I first thought that having a stringent schedule would somehow limit my ability to manage” on the fly.”  In Logistics management this is the prevailing thought for most, due to the volatility of Logistics, no one day is the same.  There are too many people involved in the end goal of Logistics for the goal not to fail at some point in the process.

I have been scheduling my days more and more, especially sense I have been writing tweets, blogs and emails.  One has to be on top of each venue or one will be left behind in the preverbal digital dust.  I have seen the rewards of a tight and consistent schedule.  Yes I do have to be ready for the occasional separation from my schedule, however, I probably could schedule for those also. Driven, goal oriented, people insistently schedule their day.  I have seen this in most, if not all of the successful mentors that I have had in my life.

So why did I run away from it for so long?  Good question, a question that I cannot completely answer, except perhaps I felt that scheduling would make my life pass by too quickly, you know I wanted” to smell the roses.”  But in reality scheduling” smelling the roses” makes more sense, life will pass by you regardless if you schedule or not, yet scheduling your life opens you up too more opportunities in life.  Scheduling actually gives you more of a life.

Bottom line if I expect my cohorts to be on time to work, and do good work in a timely manner.  I as a manager should schedule my time to teach them the importance of scheduling.  Therefore lead by example by scheduling my day.

Disclaimer:  I do not believe in the idea of “an original thought”, just because I say it, does not mean I believe that I have come up with the thought that I have expressed (obviously).   Through my blog I am only chronicling thoughts that I have learned from successful people, or at least they whom I deem to be successful.

So what does my statement in my header have to do with the world of Logistics?  Everything, when I state what I do for a living, (logistics manager), most if not all people give me the deer in the head light look, and say “what is logistics?”  Sadly, this too happens in most executive meetings.  Logistics has always taken the back seat to the sexier professions in the business world, such as Finance, Marketing, and most of all Sales.

It is also a know fact that Logistics is oft times the bane of most executives existences.  Logistics is viewed as a draw on the bottom line, rather than an asset.  An asset that if properly managed can set a company apart from the rest.  Take the retail dot com explosion of the 90′s, where are all of those start up companies?  I will tell you where they went , most went no where, they no longer exists.  The biggest reason for the down fall for dot com’s, is that they where all show and no substance.  I.T. was sound Marketing was sound, Financial backing was good, however the operation itself or the logistics end of the company where neglected. Technology was used more for the front end of the company, i.e. the website, yet the people in the warehouse were picking product off the floor with no assistance accept there memories to find the product.  In the dot com world the first impression can be your last.  So to build a company without an emphasis on “structure” or in the case of retail dot com’s of the 90′s a good logistics base, was not only ignorant but it was also for the failed do com’s costly.

I know there are allot of  cliches out there about business, but one that is used often, yet is completely applicable to a good logistics department is, “If you build it, they will come.”