Big Money Trucking - October/November 2019

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019
Features
14 > Putting the driver first is
Dart Transit’s Stephanie
Williamson’s top priority
General Manager: Megan Hicks
Sales Manager: Ed Leader
Editor-in-Chief: Lyndon Finney
Art Director: Rob Nelson
Art Assistant: Christie McCluer
Advertising
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10 > On Trucking
22 > Puzzle
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Lyndon Finney, Editor
FMCSA listened: Theme of HOS
proposal is ‘flexibility’
There are few Americans who are not absolutely frustrated
with the us vs. them mentality of the legislative branch of
our federal government.
Nothing the Republicans do meets the approval of the Democrats.
Nothing the Democrats do meets the approval of the Republicans.
We’ve been at this job now for almost 15 years and if you’ll allow
us to be very candid, the same has been true of the trucking industry.
In this case, it was the drivers versus the American Trucking Associations,
the Truckload Carriers Association and the Federal Motor
Carrier Safety Administration, et al, especially the FMCSA, and
especially true when it involved regulatory matters such as Hours of
Service and electronic logging devices.
Granted, the former has been plagued by the court system since
what is the foundation of the current version of HOS was published
in final rule form on April 28, 2003, and became effective January 4,
2004.
Safety advocates, buoyed by the fact that the new rule upped the
allowable driving time from 10 to 11 hours each day, sued, and on
July 16, 2004, a federal appeals court vacated the rule saying the
FMCSA had not considered effects of the changes in HOS on drivers’
health as required by
a federal law that said any regulation concerning the operation of
commercial motor vehicles could not have a deleterious effect on the
physical condition of the CMV drivers.
Over an approximate seven-year period, various new versions of
rule repeatedly wound up in court, with FMCSA finally emerging
triumphant, and with one major exception the 2011 rule is the one
in place today.
One of the major complaints we hear concerning the FMCSA is
that the agency doesn’t listen to the rank and file.
With the rank and file (drivers and carrier executives alike)
pleading for a rule with more flexibility, the agency did listen, as evidenced
by the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Hours of Service
for Drivers.
Read through the NPRM and you’ll see the words “flexible” or
“flexibility” well over 50 times.
The first sentence of the document says it all: “FMCSA proposes
amendments to its Hour of Service requirements to provide greater
flexibility for drivers subject to the HOS rules without adversely affecting
safety.”
Another statement jumped out at us: “The flexibilities in this
proposal are intended to allow drivers to shift their driver and work
time to mitigate the impacts of certain variables (e.g., weather, traffic,
detention times) to take breaks without penalty when they need
rest; FMCSA does not anticipate that any of these time shifts would
negatively impact drivers’ health.”
Now here’s the real kicker.
Those ELDs that so many drivers eschewed played a role in the
agency’s decision to amend HOS.
To wit: “The HOS regulations were identified as an area for potential
modification both as a result of the public comments received and
due to changes in tracking HOS compliance through implementation
of the ELD rulemaking. The accuracy of the electronic data provided
to enforcement is much higher than information that was previously
provided on paper. While the ELD rule did not change the HOS rules,
the accurate recording of driving time by ELDs highlighted the rigidity
of HOS provisions and the practical ramifications drivers faced.”
Key to getting these amendments put in place as proposed is the
current comment period.
The agency will carefully review public comments on the NPRM
and could make changes based on those comments.
So, let the agency know how you feel.
Go to heep://regulations.gov, put in the document number
FMCSA-2018-0248 in the keyword box and click “search.” When
the new screen appears click on “Comment Now!” and type in your
comment into the text box on the following screen. Choose whether
you are submitting your comment as an individual or on behalf of a
third party and then submit.
* * *
In the past few days there have been reports of several trucking
companies going belly up, 10 to be exact as of this writing, out of 1.7
million carriers in the United States.
Some 3,000 drivers have lost jobs, which is sad, but based on
American Trucking Associations data on a 60,000-person driver
shortage, at least there are plenty of openings.
10
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Putting the driver first is Dart Transit’s Stephanie
Williamson’s top priority
Clif Abbott
Some drivers may think they were born into the
trucking industry, but it’s a safe bet they didn’t arrive
at the hospital in the cab of a dump truck, driven by a
mother whose workday was interrupted by labor pains.
“My grandpa was doing some bulldozer work and Mom
couldn’t get his attention, so she just drove the truck to the
hospital,” explained Stephanie Williamson, who went on to
do some truck driving of her own. Currently, she’s the vice
president of revenue management for Eagan, Minnesotabased
Dart Transit. She’s also the Women In Trucking (WIT)
August 2019 selection as Member of the Month. And she’s on
a mission.
“I am extremely passionate about making a driver’s life
easier,” she said. She knows something about the driver’s life,
growing up in a trucking family before obtaining her own
CDL and hitting the road. She and husband Bob shared a Peterbilt
with a 425 Cat engine and a 13-speed transmission. “It
was a dream truck for a lot of drivers in those days,” she said,
“a real triple-digit machine.” Turns out those early days of her
career in trucking were also the genesis of a marriage that
has lasted more than 30 years, including a side trip through a
drive-thru wedding chapel in Las Vegas to make it official.
Soon after coming off the road and having a child, Stephanie
began her long tenure with Dart Transit. She credits
mentors Bev Oren and Joyce Jordan at Dart for her success at
the company, where she worked her way through the ranks
in recruiting, orientation, safety, customer service and other
positions.
Today, her experience as a driver still impacts her decision-making
at an executive level. Part of her role involves
contracting for the loads Dart drivers haul, and she understands
the role drivers play.
“It’s all about the driver,” she said. “I don’t need or desire
for our drivers to perform any activity that takes away from
their ability to use their hours productively.”
Changes to the Hours of Service rules have prompted
changes in process, too. Williamson and her team look for
opportunities to maximize the driver’s earning potential, and
one way is to minimize time spent on nondriving activities.
“We don’t want drivers doing things that should be done by
shippers and consignees, like loading or staging freight,” she
said.
Williamson acknowledged that modern drivers are different
than those she shared the road with in the early days.
“I mean that in a positive way,” she said. “Drivers want to
live like normal people now. Most no longer desire to be the
‘cowboy,’ staying gone three to four weeks.”
Much of the change has to do with the way families are
raised, she said. “Years ago, the father was considered the
breadwinner and did whatever was necessary to take care
of the family, including being gone for long periods while
the mother cared for the family,” she said. “These days, both
parents are more invested in the day-to-day activities of the
children.
“For example, whoever heard of a driver asking for paternity
leave back then? It just didn’t happen. Now, there’s nothing
unusual about a father wanting a couple of weeks off to
be with his wife and newborn child. That’s a good thing.”
Stephanie is proud of her longevity at Dart, where she will
celebrate her 25th anniversary this year as the company celebrates
its 85th year of operation.
“If I could change one thing about trucking, it would be
the lack of longevity,” she said. “That’s for drivers and others
in the industry, there’s just so much churn of people.”
Williamson specified that turnover of fleet managers and
others in the office has an impact on drivers, too. “We all
tend to do better when we know what to expect,” she said.
She lamented that changing jobs is used far too often as a
method of problem-solving. “We should work through our
problems instead of just changing them, often for a new set
of problems. For me, making one company my forever home
has been critical.”
14
Big Money Trucking
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A passion for Stephanie Williamson, who was almost born in the cab
of a truck, is to make life easier for drivers at Dart Transit.
As for her membership in WIT, Stephanie says
she’d like to do more. “Quite honestly, this year was
my first exposure and experience with Women in
Trucking,” she said. “I hope to be able to spend more
time with them and participate more in the future.”
Like many busy executives, however, her available
time can be limited. “My time with my employer is
my primary focus,” she said. “When you’re around
something for so long, the lines get blurred a little,”
she admitted.
While her dedication to Dart Transit and its drivers
consumes most of her time, she remains passionate
about opportunities for women in the trucking
industry. “Women are levelheaded, rational thinkers,”
she said. “Not that men aren’t, but we’re well suited
to a variety of jobs in the industry, including driving.
We’re all equal once we’re in that seat. The skillset is
equal.”
For now, however, Williamson plans to continue
to provide Dart drivers with the best possible experience.
“We’re not a West Coast carrier at all, so our
network design and lane density are designed with a
purpose.” she said. “We know that we have to be able
to put 2,200 to 2,500 miles per week for each truck
and driver to be productive.”
She mentioned the bidding process for loads and
the consideration involved in procuring loads that
keep drivers productive and get them home on time.
Staging equipment is another way to keep drivers
moving, so that trailers that are preloaded on a weekday
can be picked up on the weekend, when the shipper
is closed.
Her concern for drivers goes beyond productivity,
however. In an interview with Women in Trucking,
she said, “I look at it from the standpoint that we
have to be careful who we do business with, because
the driver is the most treasured member of our team.
Businesses that hold drivers up for loading or unloading,
businesses that won’t allow our drivers to use a
bathroom, businesses that just generally disrespect
the driver — I can’t be a part of that.”
Stephanie Williamson didn’t set out to blaze a trail
for women in the trucking industry, but in building a
career caring for the drivers that keep it moving, she
has become an example for others to emulate — and
WIT’s August Member of the Month.
16
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