Waynes World - March 2009

USING TRAFFIC LANE DENSITY TO BE
MORE PROFITABLE AND MASTER...

THE FINE ART OF PROPER
LOAD PLANNING

by Wayne Schooling


Have you ever heard of Traffic Lane Density?  This is a term you may have heard in the course of doing business as a trucker.  As you’re about to see, it’s very important in determining whether you are profitable or not.  Traffic Lane Density is the art of load planning, which keeps your truck full with profitable tonnage whenever it is rolling.

It is documented that over 40% of all over-the-road trucks on American highways are partially or completely empty.  This is an indication that efficiency is not a part of the plan.  Traffic Lane Density should be one of the dispatch plans every trucking operation implements, regardless of size.

The plan is simple: keep your trailer loaded every mile it has tires rolling on the highway pavement.  You should always be looking for a return load when considering outbound freight.  Better yet, you should be looking two or three trips into the future, so that your trailer has a load assigned to it long before it has reached its destination.

The plan is to eliminate deadheading and unnecessary sitting by maximizing lane density.  Don’t allow your truck or the loads to determine your downtime or contribute to unpaid or underpaid miles.  In today’s tight market, there is more tonnage to haul than there are trucks available to carry it.  Any trucking company or owner operator who isn’t charging round-trip miles on outbound loads is going to get left behind.

Shipping managers are now contracting with several companies to ensure that their loads get covered.  The days of the exclusive hauling contract are almost over.  Shippers are anticipating rate increases as the amount of available loads increases and the number of drivers remains the same (or goes down).  With this happening, there has never been a greater opportunity for good, service-minded trucking companies and owner operators to step up and truly become profitable.

Every mile that a truck is driven costs money – weather it is loaded or not.  Once a load is delivered, both the number of days from that delivery date and the number of miles required to complete the next trip all “belong” to this new load.  Regardless of whether you are hauling paying tonnage or sailboat fuel, deadheading or traveling to the next pickup, if your truck is rolling, there is money going out the exhaust.

To maintain lane density you must think in straight lines.  You must keep your loaded truck on the most direct path between pickup and delivery to save on operational costs and driver’s hours-of-service.  The idea that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points works here.  As you start making pickups and deliveries, you should not have to deviate very much from the straight line.  When you have to stray from the line for a pickup or delivery, the rate for that load should reflect the time and distance required to go out of route.  Small package trucking companies do this, why shouldn’t you?

Don’t be fooled by the rate per mile of a specific shipment or load.  What counts is the actual distance the rubber rolls and the amount of time required to accomplish the entire trip.  A rate per mile is nothing more or less than a means by which you can figure the amount to be charged to the customer.  That rate per mile is usually figured on some arbitrary mileage table that has absolutely nothing to do with the actual miles that will be covered.  You must compare your revenue to the actual miles to be driven and time required to complete the trip.  Moreover, those miles and that time must start from the place and time you delivered your previous trip’s load (not from origin to destination, but from destination to destination).

Once again, I will use a four-letter word that I believe sums it up – PLAN!  But don’t get caught with the wrong plan.  Too many truckers and small fleets operate under the day-to-day plan.  In the morning, they see which trucks are going to be empty that day and start searching for loads for them.  That’s a plan, but not a good plan.  Instead, you’ve got to have a Traffic Lane Strategy; one that not only looks at today but as far into the future as possible.  If you haven’t located a return load before you accept an outbound load, you have a failing plan.  To have the best plan, you must have the right strategy.

Here are some guidelines that your Traffic Lane Strategy should include.  Set up dedicated routes for each of your lanes and look for tonnage along these lanes before you need it.  Try to find loads long before you need them and always have more tonnage available than trucks.  Set up a bread and butter run for each truck and driver.  Don’t look for loads at the last minute – always plan two to three loads ahead for each truck.  Don’t just think about going out and then coming back – think multi-directional – and never send a truck out without a return plan.  Remember, there are plenty of choices out there for your customers, so be sure that you provide them with quality service so that they will call you back next time.

Today, to compete successfully in this new era, you must always look beyond the horizon and stay hungry – somewhere out there, at least six very hungry truckers are trying to take your success away from you, and they may be willing to work harder to get it than you are to keep it.  Now is the time to stop focusing on how it’s always been done, and time to start looking for ways to improve.  Someone will eventually make the methods of today obsolete, so it might as well be you.

And lastly, stop looking for “security” out there – your only real security is your ability to embrace rapid changes.  And stop trying to look busy – survival is about productivity, not just activity.  If you strive to never stop learning, your chances for survival will go up significantly.  Proper load planning is an important step to becoming more profitable.  Remember, it’s your company and it’s your truck – start treating them accordingly!

 ~ NTA remains a name you can trust.  Our website (www.ntassoc.com) is your official U.S. DOT Internet Training Site and we are administrators of a Nationally Accredited Drug and Alcohol Program.  If you have any questions, call me at (562) 279-0557 or send me an e-mail to wayne@ntassoc.com.  Until next month, “Drive Safe – Drive Smart!”