CVSA Inspections Ep 15: Under the Truck

New Report Highlights Truck Driver Preferences on the Road

Graphic via One20

One20 has released its inaugural TopOne20 report highlighting data about drivers, their travel center preferences, and other industry trends.

TopOne20 provides a view of driver behavior using more than 3,000 driver-collected insights to help companies that serve the trucking industry improve life on the road for drivers.

The effects of technology had a clear impact on the report. One20 found that fewer than 50% of those surveyed were ELD-compliant. The same percentage of drivers shop online and were found to make more informed product decisions. The top 25 items sold to drivers were found to cost 37% less on Amazon than at travel centers.

TA and Petro Shopping Centers were named the preferred travel center chain, receiving top votes for best parking, cleanest facilities, and best restaurants.

“The information we've compiled from the driving community for the TopOne20 report is invaluable to the industry. We now know how many drivers are making online purchases, the technology drivers are using based on their ages, the payment methods they're using on a day-to-day basis and their off-duty entertainment preferences,” said Christian Schenk, president and CEO of One20. “We're working to improve life on the road for professional drivers and this data will enable us to better work with industry partners to create change.”

The TopOne20 report is designed to help companies selling goods and services to truckers make more informed product decisions, plan a selling strategy based on location, time and demographics, and identify the most used products and services to aid with partnership identification, discounting and marketing/merchandising.

One20 plans to release additional reports quarterly, with the next report scheduled for July 2017.

“We know which travel center chains were voted least favorite in a number of categories, and we're not afraid to call out the industry giants that came in last,” Schenk said. “Drivers are very ...Read the rest of this story

Analysis: Behind the Wave of Trucking Mergers and Acquisitions

Lana Batts moderates a fleet panel discussion at a past Truckload Carriers Association annual meeting. Photo: TCA

It's been a long time since we've seen the number and size of trucking mergers and acquisitions like we have lately. There's the merger of Knight Transportation and Swift Transportation, plus numerous acquisitions in the flatbed market by Daseke. Before that, XPO Logistics purchased Con-way, later selling off its truckload component to a Canadian company while keeping the less-than-truckload.

To get some perspective, I contacted Lana Batts. She's currently partner emeritus of Transport Capital Partners, a consulting firm specializing in transportation mergers and acquisitions. However, she is known for much more than that. Her 40-plus years in trucking includes being president of the Truckload Carriers Association and senior vice president of government affairs for the American Trucking Associations.

Here are the highlights from our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. Lana, what is driving all of this mergers and acquisitions activity?

Lana: When you look at the Knight-Swift merger… it's the maturing of the truckload industry…and faith in the future. Nobody really has any market share to talk about compared to what you see in other segments of trucking. And the reality of it is, contrary to what we always thought prior to deregulation in 1980, there are in fact economies of scale in truckload. It's all the back office stuff, and a lot of that is driven by regulation. With the regulations the industry is facing, you've got to spread that out over enough trucks.

Q. What about the many acquisitions by Daseke, which is reportedly now the largest flatbed operation in the country?

Lana: There wasn't a dominant player in the flatbed sector. And what Don Daseke did as an outsider with outside money, is nobody in the trucking industry could finance ...Read the rest of this story

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