A truck driver report card survey for rating shippers
How do shippers and consignees routinely treat truck drivers on pickups and deliveries?
If carriers and drivers could assign these facilities scores based on their performance and behaviour, would they deserve to be on your HONOUR ROLL or would they go into your DETENTION HALL? By taking the first-ever Operation UpGRADE survey, here’s your chance to help identify who are the strongest and weakest links in the supply chain.
(Motor carrier managers, be sure to email the survey link below to your company drivers and owner-operators)
Once the survey page is loaded, be sure to bookmark it to your desktop, smartphone or tablet. OTA encourages you to return to the survey page routinely to nominate as many good, preferred shippers and consignees (Honour Roll candidates) or the bad ones who you think don’t do a very good job respecting drivers (Detention Hall candidates). Vote as many times as you want. Each time you complete the survey, please fill out all the specific shipper and consignee information required, such as facility, location, time, etc.
Why Are We Doing This?
The treatment of professional truck drivers at shipper and consignee facilities has been an issue for a long time. Waste in the system such as loading/unloading delays at yards, detaining drivers who have limited hours available and general maltreatment of drivers (such as denying them access to washrooms or not permitting them to run their engine systems in the winter while they wait) chases drivers out of the industry. These are the undercurrents that flow beneath the worsening driver shortage, which, by the estimation of the Conference Board of Canada, could grow to a gap of 33,000 drivers by 2020.
As the driver pool shrinks, demand for trucking services is growing. The capacity imbalance has led to many North American carriers implementing so-called “preferred shipper” programs. While several factors play into such a system, a universal component is how drivers are treated at various facilities. These issues will only become more amplified as capacity continues to be constrained.
Operation UpGRADE is designed by the Ontario Trucking Association to raise awareness of truck driver treatment among supply chain participants while recognizing preferred shippers and also educating those who need to improve their behaviour.
Recognition
OTA will publicly recognize ‘Honour Roll’ shippers and consignees who treat drivers well and professionally, while at the same time, privately communicating with ‘Detention Hall’ companies what drivers are saying about their practices at certain facilities.
Positive publicity could come in many forms. By highlighting positive actions of certain companies, OTA hopes executives from other shippers ask themselves: “Why were we not recognized?” and “what more can we do to be named to the Honour Roll?”
Additionally, OTA will make shipper appreciation “business cards” available for truck drivers to hand out to customers who treat truck drivers as professionals. Email [email protected] to order the cards for your staff.
Reporting
Operation UpGRADE will run for a minimum of six months. At the conclusion of the survey, results will be analyzed and published in a final report to the industry. While the report will not specifically name companies, it will provide an analysis of driver and carrier perceptions of the shipper and consignee communities. Overall, it aims to identify examples of positive driver-shipper relations and where there is an immediate need for improvement. OTA will make the final report as well as possible interim monthly summaries accessible to the industry and the public.
Don’t forget to share this page with others and bookmark it so you can return and nominate as many shippers you want to the Honour Roll or Detention Hall