DRIVING THE NUMBERS:
A look at the trucking industry’s financial landscape
Failing U.S. Infrastructure Costs Companies Money, But So
Does Failing IT Infrastructure
Dan Kanabroski, Senior Business Development Specialist, Centrality Business Technologies
15
NAFC members know the impact of
what our nation’s failing infrastructure
can mean to not only our drivers, but to
our companies, and to countless others
who go to school, drive to work, pick up
groceries and rely on our highways and
roads to get them there and back safe
and sound.
Naysayers who argue otherwise do not sit
in our driver’s seats, if they did they would
realize that vehicle maintenance and the
costs off congestion take $1,600 a year
out of every driver’s pocket according
to latest numbers from the American
Transportation Research Institute (ATRI).
Sitting in traffic by itself adds $75 billion
a year to the cost of transportation,
Chris Spear of the American Trucking
Associations told senators at a Feb. 13
Senate Commerce Committee hearing
on the issue.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the
committee chairman, noted that “our
infrastructure system has fallen behind
on what is required to maintain America’s
competitiveness in a global market. Our
ports are congested. Millions continue to
be without access to high-speed internet
and Americans spend eight billion hours
stuck in traffic each year. These statistics
mean fewer jobs, less time with family,
lower economic growth, or worse.” The
issue is one of the few where both parties
agree, Ranking Member Sen. Maria
Cantwell, D-Wash., said “traffic isn’t the
only problem. We know that whether that
is bad roads or packed buses … can
have tragic consequences.”
It’s time to advocate strongly for greater
infrastructure investment. The safety of
the motoring public is a priority, as is the
economic well-being of our nation and
our companies. In addition to serving as
advocates for infrastructure investment,
businesses must also pay strict attention
to operational inefficiencies that can
occur at home. Idle trucks, maintenance
costs, insurance premium increases
and other threats to your profit margin
inhabit your world daily. You, like most
NAFC members, do not need to shoulder
additional burdens that will impact
your business. These fiscal impacts
and inefficiencies might prohibit your
company’s core business goals from
occurring: expansion, acquisition, or
simply serving your customer base more
effectively.
Most owners and CFO’s have never
stopped to calculate the loss or evaluate
how efficient IT and internal infrastructure
improvements might prevent inefficiencies
from occurring. Whether it’s downtime of
your data network, inability for off-site
employees to access (securely) critical
data, or the lack of accurate cost control
and budgeting - all create gaps in how
smoothly the company operates and how
you service your customers. Revenue
generation can be fiercely challenged
in the trucking industry where margins
are competitive and slim, many costs
associated with running the business are
out of your control, but look at everything.
“Over the past 20 years, our over-theroad
vehicles’ tire utilization has been cut
in half. So we’re using almost 100 percent
more tires to produce the same mileage
of transportation,” FedEx Founder
and CEO Fred Smith told a House
panel. “Why is that? Because the road
infrastructure has so many potholes in it,
it’s tearing up tires faster than what was
the case.” While you may not be able to
directly control whether Congress invests
in infrastructure, wouldn’t it make sense
to assess and address your company’s
crumbling IT infrastructure, operational
inefficiencies, and redundant sunk costs
– that are specific to your employees who
don’t drive a truck? If you could improve
your net profitability by 1% or 2%
simply by implementing ROI-generating
technology solutions that remove the
bottlenecks of your operations, while
creating a stable, secure, efficient, and
standardized working environment –
would that improve your overall cash flow
management and balance sheet? Would
that help offset fixed commodity costs
that are essentially beyond your fiscal
control?