BestNow

INSIDE: THE WORD FROM CUMMANS
BestNow
The official publication of BestTransport, the leader in transportation management
BestTransport.com
MAY 2019
THE
PRESENT
&FUTURE
OF TRUCKING
Autonomous trucks
are coming, but
drivers still turn the
wheels of freight.

PORT OF ENTRY THE WORD FROM SCOTT CUMMANS
The value
of a dime
In our quest for continual improvement,
we are proud to
share some of our recent progress:
UAT
We will soon be moving our
UAT computing environment to
an offsite data center for improved
reliability, availability and
security.
It will be in a secure data center
with redundant power, faster
communication speeds and
advanced protection from fire
and environmental disasters.
Truckload visibility
This has debuted with one client.
This functionality provides
real-time track and trace for
truckloads.
LTL rating
We now offer LTL rating
services (in lieu of SMC) which
can result in accurate and timely
rating at a reduced cost.
Professional services
In professional services, we
have been focused on the LTL
business processes. We are
uniquely qualified to analyze
freight spending and manage
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costs. With more than 40 years
of transportation expertise, we
can quickly pinpoint savings opportunities.
Have you ever been driving
down the highway deep
in thought and looked down
at your speedometer to see
you are going 20 mph over the
speed limit? Once realized you
take immediate action and slow
down.
You may breathe a deep sigh
CLICK HERE OR ON HIS NAME TO EMAIL SCOTT CUMMANS
of relief that you didn’t get
pulled over as a ticket for going
90 mph in a 70 mph zone is
costly. Worse, it could be deadly.
Good cents
A similar thing happens with
LTL rates and tariffs. We get
focused on managing the rest
of the business and we take
our eye off the rates and tariffs
as they slowly eat away at our
profits.
Maybe it is only a 10-cent
increase here and there.
A dime does not sound like a
lot. It is only 10 pennies. Or is it?
Say a piece of freight is moving
500 miles and the freight
rate is increased from $2 to
$2.10 per mile.
Now $1,000 becomes $1,050,
or a 5% increase. Fifty dollars
doesn’t seem like much in the
grand scheme of things. But
let’s look at the impact this can
have.
Shipping 100 loads per day
over 220 shipping days in a year
results in significant financial
impact. One-hundred loads per
day times 500 miles times 10
cents per mile times 220 days
equals $1.1 million in additional
freight costs.
Just like speeding down the
highway, the additional costs
frequently go unnoticed until
it is too late.
Instead of a police officer
asking why you were going so
fast, it is your boss wondering
why you haven’t been properly
managing freight spending.
What we have seen over
the past few years are price
increases well in excess of 10
cents per mile.
What we do and can do for
our clients is help them not
only monitor these increases
but manage them.
Consider, for example,
changes to the LTL rules
tariffs. Many of us pay no
attention to the changes and
before long costs have increased
and we wonder what
happened.
Some LTL carriers hope the
small increases go unnoticed
so they enjoy increased revenue
at the shipper’s expense.
Reach out to us and we will
be happy to engage with you
and your specific circumstances.
For you, our client, we always
try to do the right thing.
We don’t always do things
right but we always go to
great lengths to make things
right.
I always welcome any and
all feedback as to how we are
doing.
Check it out
Email PSG@BestTransport
BestTransport’s
Professional Services
Group for help managing
to better financial
outcomes.
The long american saga on
infrastructure continues,
just as it appeared some
progress was being made.
That sobering conclusion was
offered recently by none other
than Roger F. Wicker, who, as
chairman of the Senate Commerce
Committee, ought to know.
“This will take time,” the Mississippi
Republican said during
the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s
recent Infrastructure Week advocacy
forum. “If we do something
really, really big, we need
to realistically have a pay-for that
works.”
Finding one, or at least finding
consensus on one, has been difficult.
Congressional transportation
officials faltered in recent
efforts to reach a deal on an infrastructure
package valued at $2
trillion.
OPEN TOP
Sen. Roger Wicker on infrastructure package: “This will take time.”
Fixes waiting
game still on
Congress continues to grapple with how
to fund needed infrastructure upgrades
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department
of Transportation is pursuing
a P3 option to kick-start local
projects.
“The federal government owns
about 10% of our country’s infrastructure,
and we fund currently
about 14% of total infrastructure
funding,” Dan DeBono, U.S.
DOT’s chief infrastructure funding
officer, said during a two-day
summit. “We’d like to see that
ratio shift back more to the states
and localities. We think that giving
the decision-making power
back to local communities makes
a lot of sense.”
BestTransport Chief Operating
Executive Reo B. Hatfield
said simply, “Something must be
done. We need tip-top roads to
continue to drive commerce in
this country. This has been left go
for far too long.”
may 2019 3

MAIN FRAME
Over
drivers
Autonomous
trucks’ day is
on the verge of
dawning, but
drivers still are
badly needed
to keep freight
moving.
DB Schenker’s T-pod, a driverless truck manufactured by Einride, makes its way past idle trucks in Sweden.
History began unfolding this
month on a public road in southern
Sweden, but the future, like heaven,
can wait.
A 23-foot electric cargo vehicle is
rumbling on daily runs to and from
a terminal and warehouse operated
by German logistics giant DB Schenker. The track
covers 300 meters, or slightly more than 2.4 times
the expanse from home plate to the centerfield fence
inside Yankee Stadium.
Of course, the distance is not what everyone notices.
It’s the driver. Or the lack of one. Nor any accommodations
for one. The “T-pod,” as the equipment is
called, features no cab but rather a chasis equipped
with sensors and computers that allow the vehicle
to drive itself. Beneath the trailer, a battery carries
300 kilowatt hours of acapacity, enough carry it for
120 miles. Its maximum permitted speed initially is
roughly 3 mph and it is traveling just six miles a day.
Robert Falck, CEO of Einride, the Stockholmbased
manufacturer of the T-pod, calls the one-year
commercial deal with Schenker “a first step.”
Schenker CEO Jochen Thewes sees more steps on
the horizon.
“Autonomous trucks will become increasingly
important for the logistics sector,” Thewes said in
Continued on next page
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may 2019 5

A rendering of Volvo’s driverless rig backed into a dock.
a statement. “Together with Einride,
we have now introduced
autonomous, fully electric trucks
to a continuous flow on a public
road — a milestone in the transition
to the transport system of tomorrow.”
Informed observers do not
doubt Thewes’ assessment. After
all, the allure of self-driving
trucks is unmistakable. For starters,
there is the latest driver
shortage. Circumstances are not
likely to improve given the fact
that the average age of current
drivers is roughly 55.
Precisely how many heavy-duty
truck drivers now are on the road
is a subject of debate. The federal
government pegs the number at
1.8 million. The American Trucking
Associations estimates nearly
twice that at 3.5 million. Even
based on the low number, the
savings from phasing out drivers
would be enormous at an estimated
$70 billion annually. Fuel
efficiency would rise. Productivity
also would soar, by some 30%,
since driverless trucks can run
24/7 round the clock. Hours of
service rules designed to eliminate
accidents caused by fatigue
limit drivers’ time on the road.
But obstacles to the advent of
the driverless era abound.
First, the technology for mass
production of autonomous trucks
is not ready for prime time.
In the case of Einride’s T-pod,
the vehicle is closely monitored
and can be guided from a control
room in Borås, and someone
is always physically nearby the
truck, ready to take over if needed.
Anheuser-Busch’s celebrated
driverless truck, which famously
delivered 51,744 beer cans in October
2016, was escorted by four
Colorado state patrol cruisers and
three other vehicles with the Otto
rig’s path cleared in advance by
two tow trucks. Tests are tightly
controlled. And autonomous
trucks still aren’t prepped for the
wide range of real-world situations
they might face.
Then there are the legal concerns.
Who gets sued if a self-driving
truck is involved in a fatal crash
with a passenger vehicle? There
are some 3,000 of those types
of crashes each year, roughly 80
percent the fault of the driver of
the passenger vehicle. The legal
framework now is nonexistent.
Other issues exist.
“The point,” says Reo B. Hatfield,
BestTransport’s chief operating
executive, “is that we still
need drivers, and we are going to
need them for a long time yet to
come. So we need to take care of
them.”
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J. Scott Cummans
President and CEO
Reo B. Hatfield
chief operating executive
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