Without trucking, where would we be? The answer seems a little frightening doesn't it. Yet the industry as a whole is gaining a reputation that makes it unappealing to new drivers. We now have an industry that is vital to the country, and it's quickly gaining a reputation that makes it undesirable. So how do we fix this problem? The answer truly is much simpler than most people are willing to admit:We start to recreate the image of trucking and truck drivers to give them the respect and credit that they all deserveWe start shipping sustainably.In a recent article by the Detroit Free Press (link at the end of this post) the author drew attention to the mounting problem of driver shortages facing our country. The issue is one that is drawing attention from many different people, meaning it's beginning to get the attention it needs. Trucking is the backbone of our country and its industry, and we don't have nearly the amount of drivers we need right now to successfully keep industry going. With businesses like car manufacturing being completely reliant on the trucking industry to not only get their product where it needs to go, but also to get the parts and products to them to manufacture the cars, a driver shortage is killing our productivity. The problem is only growing, as the recession hit we started to see the massive cutbacks in the trucking parts of companies, and that only added to the driver shortage. As companies are starting to pick back up from the recession, the need for new truck drivers is only growing. The productivity is finally growing again, and this productivity is halted by the fact that we can't ship that product once it's created. As the article pointed out this problem is threatening to majorly drive up consumer prices.Zip Xpress has been following this issue closely, and what we do here offers a simple solution to this problem. As President Mike Dargis stated, it's about creating jobs. And what we do here is all about that. We compile LTL truckloads into one shipment and we create a job for the drivers that can take that freight across the country, but it also helps to eliminate the truckloads that were previously being shipped as full, and make the need for several drivers cut in half. Think about it this way: if 5 companies all ship 5 truckloads as full down the road at the same time, when in reality they are all only filling 1/5 of the trailer. That's 5 trucks and more importantly 5 drivers that we need to get that product to its final destination. Zip Xpress steps in and compiles those shipments into one trailer, and we now only have 1 trailer going down the road meaning we only require 1 driver to get the same amount of product to its final destination. In the process we create jobs because we need the men that work in the warehouse to transfer the product, we have the professional road pilots that pick up the freight from the producers, we have the billers that help maintain the paperwork. We may be reducing the number of drivers required, but the number of jobs created by shipping sustainably is compiled ten fold to the number of drivers we reduced. We are reducing the need for drivers, and at the same time creating warehouse and office jobs that Michigan desperately needs. The solution is simple, and its one that is taking too long for people to latch on too. There is too much fear rolling around the industry that things will be the same as they have been: trucking will be treated with little respect and there will be no trust between drivers and sellers. There have been too many negative experiences for all people in the industry to be willing to trust LTL carriers to do what they say they will. Zip Xpress was only built as successful as it is because we put our relationship with our customers at the front. We realize that customers are the most important part of what we do, and we foster that trust every day. We are dedicated to reforming an industry that has lost the glory it once had, and that starts with our relationship to our customers.The solution to the issues that the trucking industry face are simple, yet incredibly complicated at the same time. The trucking world used to be one that demanded respect and honor, and now met of us think of truckers as over-weight and not particularly kind. The image of the trucking world has changed drastically and not for the better, a problem that is in desperate need of reevaluation and serious effort to correct. With an industry that is responsible for literally driving capitalism, it's too valuable to not take serious time to start correcting the problems it faces. The other problem that we face as an industry involves sustainability. The trucking world is one that is full of regulations, but few of those truly get to the heart of sustainability in trucking. With large corporations being willing to ship trailers that are carrying a third of what they can hold down the street, because they don't have the time or the equipment to ship sustainably, we have created a recipe for disaster that is only quickly destroying our infrastructure and burning out at a pace that we can't sustain. We don't have the drivers to keep trucking going, and we don't have the roads to sustain the amount of trucks we have out there right now; both problems that seem to have been widely realized by those in the industry (and some out of it) but is not yet being addressed. So what do we do? With an industry that focuses sustainability on making trucks more gas efficient, perhaps it is time for us to take a step back and start looking for solutions to the number of trucks on the road, a solution that I remind you Zip Xpress has already found. It seems too good to be true, and yet it is an overwhelmingly simple solution to such a growing problem. I invite you to dialogue with us and learn about how we make trucking sustainable.Regardless of what industry you're in, everyone recognizes the need for more drivers. We are working tirelessly to do what we can to not only end the driver shortages, but to also create more jobs in the process. What are your solutions to the driver shortages?Click Here for the Detroit Free Press article
