“The big carriers are going to get bigger and fewer,” confirms Duff Swain, president of consulting firm Trincon Group, “while the smaller carriers need to get smarter and more niche-driven.”

Swain delivered this news at a recent conference, where he pointed out what most of us already know: the global economic downturn has not only forced us to rethink the way we do business today, but it’s also forced us to re-evaluate how we’ll operate in the future.

According to American Trucking Association (ATA) President Bill Graves, the main concern carriers face today is the increasing influence of the federal Government.

“The policy and regulatory reach of federal government into your businesses will surely increase over the next 5 to 10 years,” Graves said at the ATA’s Annual Management Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas in October.

“The list of government agencies that now have a role in regulating your business reads like alphabet soup.”

To survive and thrive in the challenging and evolving freight market, he recommends that carriers initiate a strategic overhaul of their operating procedures – pronto.

“Whether you were running one truck or 10,000 trucks, figuring out how to manage almost $5 [per gallon] fuel was the difference between staying in or going out of business. Now that prices have subsided and are holding reasonably steady, the application of those lessons learned should continue to produce tangible financial benefits,” he explains.

For instance, carriers should consider investing in specialized software such as Telogis GPS Fleet Management Software, which assists with fuel management. The average OnTrack (now Telogis Fleet) customer reports a 10-15% reduction of their annual fuel bill, as well as savings and higher efficiency across areas such as insurance, safety compliance, risk management and customer service.

Truckers also need to figure out how to cope with rising costs across critical areas such as equipment and technology, by working out a way to run fewer vehicles in a more productive and profitable way.

“Change is difficult at any moment, but it will be especially challenging for this industry in this transformational time,” Graves says.

“The question is not whether you’re able to adapt to this ever-more-complicated, increasingly intrusive operating environment. Your failure to do so simply means you cease to exist as a transportation enterprise.

“The question is how you’re able to deal with these myriad government mandates – and still find some enjoyment in running your business, provide quality service to your customers and, heaven forbid, make enough profit to make it worth your while.”

There has been some resistance to the Australian government’s push of the Intelligent Access Program (IAP),  for trucks using Higher Mass Limits which plans to enable better road usage for trucks adopting the program.

“The program gives heavy vehicles access to 14,000 kilometres of the state road network,” says Michael Daley, NSW Roads Minister

“There are also significant economic benefits by allowing transport operators to safely carry heavier loads on approved routes.”

Companies have until June 30 (or six weeks after for Queensland) to install GPS monitoring technology in heavy vehicle cabs or risk losing access to more than 10,000 kilometres of road across NSW.

Despite the obvious reluctance of many companies to take on the new tracking systems, the benefits of a good implemented system will far outway the costs.

Integrated Solutions Magazine in the U.S. recently published an article on how a GPS tracking system by Telogis is helping save Namasco Corp $500,000 per year in fuel costs alone (read full article). This is but one of many success stories of a well integrated system and how it’s helping to see companies through the current financial instability.

Read more on the IAP here.

Iowa – Oct 5th, 2006. A truck company representative who declined to give his or the driver’s names said, the driver “didn’t see the low-bridge signs.” (Photo courtesy: Matt Ryerson/The Daily Iowan)

Davenport, Iowa – Nov 18th, 2008. This truck had it’s top literally ‘peeled off’ after making it completely through a railroad overpass before realizing that the truck was too tall. (Photo courtesy: Larry Fisher/Quad-City Times)

Greensboro, Carolina – Oct 1st, 2007. The driver of a tractor trailer used her best judgment to drive under this railway bridge but misjudged by 18 inches. (Photo courtesy: Amy Dominello / News & Record)

Kansas – Feb 15th, 2006. On Interstate 70 just west of Hays, a semi-tractor trailer, hauling a track hoe excavator, hit a bridge causing the boom to crash right through the bridge. (Photo courtesy: Steven Hausler/AP Photo)

The amazing part about these accidents is that it’s really not uncommon. You only have to misjudge a bridge height by an inch and you’ll peel the top like a sardine tin. These days though, truck drivers don’t have much excuse because industry leading Fleet and Truck GPS systems now include truck attributes for every road.

Truck Attributes?

There are all sorts of road restrictions throughout the US (and they vary in every state), specifying what types of vehicles are allowed in certain streets, bridges and tunnels and so on. The obvious ones are the ones that clearly (as seen above) just don’t fit. The not so obvious ones may be whether the size of your trailer length can handle a turn from this street to that street without knocking down people’s fences. Or whether the load you are moving is legally allowed on this road at this time of day and/or season.

It’s a good thing that there is now software to handle and process this information for you. To utilise this data a truck driver simply needs to enter the weight, height, width and some other attributes about their load into the system and the software will route to your destination on the safest and most fuel efficient route.