Heartland Express introduced a new driver pay package called the “GREEN MILE$” program, offering rates as high as 50 cents per household goods mile for company drivers and 95 cents per HHG mile for owner-operators before any additional fuel stabilization pay per mile. Company drivers and owner-operators will earn an additional 7 cents per mile for all HHG miles driven in what will be known as the “Green Zone” – an area north of the southern border of Maryland and east of Interstate 81 running through Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York.
Comdata Corp. introduced an online permit order system, known as PermitLink, to allow fleets to order permits through the Web 24/7.
Washington State Department of Transportation is planning to overhaul the Mount Vernon, Wash., overpass on Interstate 5, which at 14 feet, 4 inches has the lowest clearance on the West Coast highway. After the project, the clearance will be 18 feet, 7 inches.
FedEx Ground does not expect to raise prices or implement a fuel surcharge before January. President and CEO Daniel Sullivan says the carrier is using technology to help plan routes to become more efficient and lower costs.
Boyd Bros. Transportation last month completed the merger of BBT Acquisition Corp., resulting in the privatization of the Clayton, Ala.-based flatbed carrier and the delisting of its shares on Nasdaq. BBT is owned by certain members of the Boyd family, including founder Dempsey Boyd and President and CEO Gail Cooper.
You can’t fix something if you don’t know what’s broken. If you are repairing a truck, you have a variety of diagnostic tools available to pinpoint the problem. But when owners or executives of a company want to fix a business process, few of them use systematic tools to diagnose what needs to be changed in the operation.
Suppose you decide to improve the process for paying drivers or owner-operators. You want not only to ensure that pay is accurate and timely but also that each driver believes he received all the pay he deserves. To achieve this goal, you must establish a process that measures hard results, such as payroll accuracy, as well as subjective results, such as drivers’ perceptions. Both are important. You can have the most accurate payroll possible, but a driver still may leave because he felt cheated.
