But these are minor wins, Lund warns, and could have a big impact down the road. Lower diesel prices and reduced drilling or fracking may have shifted some drivers in those industries to produce loads, but only in the short term. Lund predicts the new legislation will be good for the industry particularly in the area of allowing for “significant infrastructure investment: this will get the projects going that have been held off. That’s good for jobs, carriers, ports, and everything.”
Hoped for truck weight increases were not approved in the final bill, and Lund sees little hope for change in the future. The legislation also did not include a new national hiring standard, but there are regulatory requirements for electronic logging devices. The latter is a very contentious issue, as many truckers see them as inhibiting their ability to do their job. “It takes away flexibility,” Lund explains, saying that this can be a problem, particularly for a smaller truck line carrying highly perishable loads.
Ed Treacy, vice president of supply chain efficiencies at the Produce Marketing Association, views it a little differently. “I fully support electronic log books, but I can see how people could interpret them as being counter to getting more people to take up the profession.”
Easing the Driver Shortage
Lund believes California’s increasingly regulatory atmosphere is driving business out of the state. “It’s not as much the drought affecting California,” he claims, but “the lack of a stable workforce and an abundance of overregulation.” Instead of spending money to fix roads or make trucking more efficient, Lund explains, the state continues to pass laws that make it even more expensive to operate.
A rollout of “driverless” trucks and platooning could help with the driver shortage, though it’s unclear when such technology would be available for use.
“We had the range from five years or less to never,” comments Lund, who believes a move to platoon convoys (comprised of a lead truck and several driverless trucks behind it, with drivers who are either on off-hours or sleeping) is on the horizon in a few years, with military tests already meeting with success.
Treacy is more skeptical. “People are going to allow a 100,000-pound truck to get on the road without a driver in it? That’s what trains are for—I’m not sure society is ready.”
COMMODITIES & INNOVATION: CREATING DEMAND
Like last year, organics are poised for growth in 2016 and may be coming down in price. Park sees Whole Foods continuing to try and change its image and pricing, to make organics more affordable.
