Swift Creates Leadership Development Program

Swift Transportation has launched the Edge program, a proprietary leadership development program designed to incubate Swift leaders.

Edge stands for education, discipline, guidance, and experience, and is an 18-month program that features a curriculum and practical experience aimed at helping individuals at the company succeed in the trucking industry, according to Swift.

“When it comes to leadership, most individuals come into a role with experience, but no practical leadership training, setting them up to fail in a position where they should flourish,” said Becky Tooley, director of leadership and organizational performance, Swift Transportation. “Edge gives our leaders the toolkit they need to enhance their skills and positively impact our drivers across the country.”

Combined with practical application, Edge features educational sessions from leaders in executive development covering topics such as motivation, leadership, communication, culture, and strategic thinking. By investing in its leaders, Swift plans to cultivate coaches, decision-makers, negotiators, communicators, and thinkers.

The program currently has 150 participants across the country.

“Great leaders produce great teams, which achieve great business results,” said Pat Ahern, vice president of learning and development for Swift Transportation, whose department created the Edge program.

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Technology is great, but get the BASICs right!

I'm a firm believer in the power of technology to transform our lives for the better. Moving freight more efficiently, more quickly, and more safely is a big way that technology can serve mankind.

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GAO Slams FMSCA for Sluggish Info-Tech Effort

Image: FMCSA

The watchdog agency of Congress has roundly criticized the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for not yet modernizing its information technology systems and for failing to fully establish an “investment management framework” for IT.

A blistering report just issued by the General Accountability Office also points up the difficulty FMCSA has fulfilling its mission while its chief posts—including that of Administrator-- remain unfilled by the Trump Administration. Since earlier this year, FMCSA has been led by Deputy Administrator Daphne Jefferson, a career civil-service executive, after prior Administrator Scott Darling, an Obama appointee, stepped down after President Trump took office.

The GAO report states that FMCSA “lacks complete plans to guide its systems modernization efforts. Specifically, the agency's IT strategic plan lacks key elements. While the agency has an IT strategic plan that describes the technical strategy, vision, mission, and direction for managing its IT modernization programs, and defines the strategic goals and objectives to support its mission, the plan lacks timelines to guide its goals and strategies related to integrated project planning and execution, IT security, and innovative IT business solutions, among others.”

According to GAO, the FMCSA's Chief Information Officer is charged with overseeing the “development, implementation, and maintenance of the IT systems and infrastructure that serve as the key enabler in executing FMCSA's mission.” However, the report notes, currently the agency's Office of Information Technology is “undergoing a reorganization to establish an Office of the CIO. While a revised structure has been proposed, it has not yet been approved.” And that of course means it has not been staffed.

GAO, which undertook the report per the FAST Act highway bill of 2015, said FMCSA began an IT “modernization effort” back in 2013 that includes both developing new systems and retiring legacy systems for each of its four key safety process areas—registration, ...Read the rest of this story

Neatness counts in the shop

“A place for everything and everything in its place.” That might be a good adage when it comes to today's service shop.

Take a look around your service shop or the bays of any outside service provider you send work to. What do you see? Some amount of disorder is to be expected as technicians often have to disassemble components to make repairs and some grease and oil on the floor is a given during the course of normal shop operation.

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Behind the scenes at the Formula E electric race series in NYC

It's a view of the Formula E electric racecar events you don't usually get: a look at the setup and some of the complex logistics needed to get the race to its destination.

Reporters and media were allowed in before the races this weekend for DHL's showcase of the races and extreme potential of electric-powered vehicles as well as a number of mobility technology innovations the company has brewing.

Earnings Watch: J.B. Hunt Second Quarter Profit Falls

The second quarter earnings season for trucking kicked off on Monday morning with J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. reporting a small decline in profitability.

Net earnings fell 6.8% from the second quarter of 2016, totaling $97.9 million, or 88 cents per share, 4 cents less than a consensus forecast from analysts and compared to 92 cents per share a year earlier.

This happened despite a 7% increase in total operating revenue of $1.73 billion while total operating revenue minus fuel surcharges increased 5% from a year earlier.

The Arkansas fleet attributed the increase in revenue to load growth of 5% in its intermodal operation, a 5% increase in revenue producing trucks in dedicated operations and a 20% hike in volume with its brokerage business.

Operating income for the current quarter totaled $164 million versus $176 million for the second quarter 2016, a 7% decline.

“The benefits of volume growth and increases in revenue producing truck counts were substantially offset by lower customer rates, increases in rail and over the road purchased transportation costs, start-up costs associated with new DCS (dedicated) contracts, higher driver wages and recruiting costs, increased insurance and claims costs, increased equipment and facility maintenance costs and increased technology costs,” the company said in a statement.

J.B. Hunt's intermodal operation reported revenue increased 7% to $1 billion from a year earlier while operating income improved 4% to $110 million. The period ended with approximately 85,600 units of trailing capacity and 5,300 power units assigned to the dray fleet, an increase of more than 4,000 units of trailing capacity with only a slight gain in power units.

The dedicated operation saw second quarter revenue increase 8% to $412 million while operating income fell 4% to $49 million as a net additional 486 revenue producing trucks, 226 net additions compared to first quarter 2017, were in the ...Read the rest of this story

Monthly Spot Truckload Market Gauge at Highest Level in 3 Years

Spot truckload freight activity in June rallied to record highs for the number of available loads while rates rose to their highest points in nearly two years, according to the DAT North American Freight Index.

The June level increased 24% compared to May and was up 57% year-over-year, capping a robust first half of the year. The surge also places the measure higher than where it was at any point in the past three years

Van freight activity jumped 35% compared to May and 68% year-over-year. Refrigerated freight made similar gains, up 23% compared to May and 66% year-over-year.

Flatbed freight, which includes construction materials and machinery, showed more modest gains. Activity increased 14% compared to May. Year-over-year gains were more substantial for flatbeds, up 66% compared to June 2016.

Brokers and shippers had a harder time finding trucks and paid a premium in most major markets and lanes, according to DAT.

Compared to May, the van rate gained 11 cents for an average of $1.80 per mile while the reefer rate was up 10 cents to an average $2.12 per mile. The flatbed rate averaged $2.16 per mile, up 6 cents in June from May.

Spot truckload rates incorporate a fuel surcharge which is tied to the average price of on-highway diesel which has fallen 7 cents per gallon since the start of 2017.

“Spot rates have remained strong for all three equipment types even though the surcharge portion has been shrinking compared to previous years,” said Mark Montague, DAT industry pricing analyst.

He said that July typically is a month of transition, when freight activity begins tapering off until the end-of-year holiday season. This year may be an exception, however, as load availability and pricing trends remained strong in the first week of July.

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