Looking For Solutions

TRYING NEW APPROACHES

Much of the current news in trucking centers around the latest Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations. These topics become widely debated with various opinions about what the impact will be on costs and productivity. Around the first of the year we’ll see a published list of the Top 10 Concerns in the trucking industry. Although there may be some surprises on that list, most generally the concerns remain the same but may receive different rankings from year to year.

It might be instructive to take a step back and view the industry from a slightly different perspective. Instead of examining the top concerns directly affecting the industry, it might be just as important to identify things that directly
affect your employees. One company, Pitt Ohio, did just that.

An executive for Pitt Ohio was talking to a neighbor who works for the University of Pittsburgh which resulted in an introduction to a professor of organizational behavior and management. One of the things the professor has been studying is how financial stress impacts the skills and performance of workers. One revealing statistic published in a Federal Reserve study is that nearly half of the adults in the U.S. said that they could not cover a $400 emergency expense without either selling something or borrowing money.

Stress can certainly impact performance, and in the trucking industry that can mean an impact on safety outcomes. Pitt Ohio commissioned a study of their employee’s “financial health” and concluded that financial stress made drivers 50 percent more likely to have a preventable accident. As a result the company came up with a voluntary weekly payroll deduction plan to fund an emergency savings account.

The fund balance comes primarily from the employee’s payroll deductions. However, Pitt Ohio makes a contribution if the employee does not make any withdrawals for six months and again at 12 months. Approximately half of the employees signed up for the plan.

Will it be successful and will Pitt Ohio see a measurable impact on their accident costs? It’s not likely that the results will be publicly available, although Pitt Ohio may comment from time to time. It’s not so much the direct results that are important but rather the approach that Pitt Ohio took.

They stepped outside the box and looked beyond the normally accepted industry influences. Once they identified a potential negative impact they took steps to counter it. That’s what safety management is all about. Identifying risks and controlling impact.

This type of approach may also be helpful in other areas such as driver health. Attention to this matter is increasing as FMCSA works to fine tune the regulation on sleep apnea. A still broader issue is driver retention and even beyond that the question of what will attract future drivers to this industry.

Attention should certainly be paid to the regulations and the industry should do all it can to ensure that proposed regulations actually contain workable solutions to current problems. However, in the final analysis, this is really a people issue, not a regulatory issue. An even closer look reveals that it’s a performance issue. At this point the goal is to get maximum performance from a valued asset, the employees and drivers.

Look beyond the box to identify potential problems and work to craft solutions that will positively impact performance. You may find that some of the problems are internal but you may also find one or more external issues. Using this technique will add value to your risk management efforts.

You can count on us to provide expert guidance to keep your safety and compliance programs on track.

Ryan Billet
National Transportation Consultants, Inc.