Can A Good Night’s Sleep Reduce High Driver Churn Rates In The Trucking Industry?
Lack of sleep associated with long-haul trucking might be a big factor driving astronomically high driver churn rates, amongst a host of other issues.
A hearty welcome to the 51th edition of The Logistics Rundown, a weekly digest that aims to put some perspective on what’s brewing within the logistics industry. This is a space where we religiously dissect market trends, chat with industry thought leaders, highlight supply chain innovation, celebrate startups, and share news nuggets.
It is common knowledge within the trucking industry that nuclear verdicts to trucking accidents are on the rise — be it in absolute numbers or the size of settlements. Nuclear verdicts are jury awards exceeding $10 million, which can quickly render a small trucking firm insolvent.
The cost to severity of accidents in the industry is getting worse, as it is stacked against nuclear verdicts, high litigation costs, and spiking medical and insurance costs. The latter, insurance costs, are of high significance as, unlike the rest of the factors, these are costs that every trucking firm contends with daily.
"Carriers typically manage the cost of insurance, but they never manage the underlying risk. Insurance companies create a risk profile for carriers within their portfolios, and their underwriters struggle to standardize a template to underwrite a truck fleet to date. While technology seems sophisticated with adaptive cruise control and collision avoidance, it does little to help if the driver falls asleep on the interstate at 4am in the morning," said Dean Croke, principal analyst at DAT.
One of the biggest mistakes insurance companies make in analyzing the risk profile of a trucking company is asking them to describe the accident rather than look at the causes that led to the accident. And sleeping behind the wheel, Croke pointed out, caused many of those accidents.
One of the biggest mistakes insurance companies make in analyzing the risk profile of a trucking company is asking them to describe the accident rather than look at the causes that led to the accident.
Most trucking fleets are guilty of not probing into the cause. And even if they do realize that lack of sleep causes erratic driving behavior, there aren't conscious attempts to alleviate the situation today. "Most trucking fleets tell their drivers to not speed, but do not ask them to go to sleep," said Croke.
"If there are three such run off-road incidents, a couple of them might be fender benders that cost the company around $600 to get fixed. But, it could so happen that the driver on the third truck slept and inadvertently mowed down a few pedestrians. Aside from the horrible consequences of such accidents, it will also financially sink the company in question. So when you think about it, a trucking insurance business is run well because of pure luck. Not because of good underwriting or risk management."
Having a good six hours of sleep is integral to staying safe on the road. Lack of sleep causes sleep deprivation, driving up the risk of having an accident. "The basic flaws in the hours of service (HoS) regulation is that they assume that by giving a 10-hour break window, drivers can be fit for duty for the next shift," said Croke.
Unfortunately, for humans, the time they get to enjoy the 10-hour break is critical. Data shows a 10-hour break from driving during the day yields about 4.5 hours of sleep, while the same time window at night yields about 7.5 hours. "This is why you hear many truckers talk of staying wide awake during their 10-hour break as the sun's lighting up their brain, even though they've been driving all night," said Croke.
Data shows a 10-hour break from driving during the day yields about 4.5 hours of sleep, while the same time window at night yields about 7.5 hours.
Croke has personal anecdotes to back this up. As a sleep advocate, he has taught thousands of drivers how to sleep right, which eventually helped companies improve their compliance levels and productivity. "In '07, I taught 1,500 drivers from CR England how to sleep during their break. We had another control group of 1,500 drivers that were just taught to be compliant. At the end of the year, my guys were 30% less likely to quit and 80% more likely to be on time. While my guys had one rollover in six months, the control group had 14."
Teaching drivers how to sleep within the confines of the hours of service makes a substantial difference to a trucking firm's loss cost and accident severity. It is bewildering how firms continue to get it wrong, even confusing driver fatigue with the lack of sleep. Croke contended that fatigue is a component of sleep deprivation, and focusing energies on that would be akin to attacking the symptom and not the cause.
For trucking companies looking to improve this facet of their drivers' lives, the directions are simple — ensure drivers start their days at the same time every day, every week of the year. "The human brain has an inbuilt drive for anchor sleep. It gets anchored to the timezone by the rising and setting of the sun to avoid social jetlag. If you lock in your driver's start time, you lock in the anchor sleep block. Truckers can make much better decisions while driving if the sleep block isn't truncated and all over the place."
For trucking companies looking to improve this facet of their drivers' lives, the directions are simple — ensure drivers start their days at the same time every day, every week of the year.
Uninterrupted sleep is another critical measure of good sleep. Croke recommends six hours of uninterrupted sleep every day. The brain keeps track of the number of hours of lost sleep, with them accumulating daily — "it's the sleep debt," pointed out Croke. "If you needed 40 hours of sleep over a time period and you got only 30 hours, you have a debt of 10 hours. This is why it takes just about three months of low-quality sleep to turn a bright new hire into a dribbling idiot — there's no way of getting past sleep that's due."
To erase sleep debt, two successive nights of good sleep are recommended. Two periods of back-to-back night sleep at the end of the week refresh drivers and get them ready for the next week.
Conversely, accumulation of sleep debt can cause higher churn rates. With the trucking industry — especially, large trucking fleets — witnessing over 90% in annual driver churn, lack of sleep weighs heavily in this equation. Croke mentioned this warrants revamping the entire load scheduling practices.
With the trucking industry — especially, large trucking fleets — witnessing over 90% in annual driver churn, lack of sleep weighs heavily in this equation.
"For instance, while I was at CR England, we matched people based on their sleep type — a morning lark who likes to wake up early and a night owl who likes to stay up late in the night. By pairing one of each together for a long haul and making them run schedules matching their sleep traits, we minimized our risks and improved our productivity as well," said Croke.
Ultimately, a driver falling asleep is a problem that extends beyond the person behind the wheel and, ergo, requires an all-hands-on-deck approach. The FMCSA must look to enforce driver sleep-centric regulations, insurance agencies must focus on accident causation than on its impact severity after the collision, and trucking firms must ensure biocompatible scheduling to help drivers stay sane.
"Finally, it's not about the miles per hour — people get tied up on speed and speed limit. It's the number of miles done each hour," added Croke. "If I can do more miles each hour than another driver running 70mph and pulling up all the time because he's exhausted, I'm more efficient. Ask any fleet manager, and they will tell you if drivers are well-rested, they can run more miles. They also quit less, are safer, and are more vigilant. Simply put, giving drivers a good night's sleep has no downsides."
The Weekly Roundup
There is little anticipation of seeing port volumes drop any time soon. West coast ports in the United States witness record-breaking numbers, even as the highest overall performance belongs to the Gulf and East Coast ports. Import volumes have risen 9.2% while export volumes have dropped 1.8% year over year. As China’s Shanghai emerges from lockdown, a summer surge in container traffic is expected. Empty container movement is also on the rise, at 16.9% year over year, at a total of 298,039 TEUs.
While 2023 might show signs of easing, 2022 is expected to continue to be a rough ride. According to the National Retail Federation, near-record high port volumes are expected to continue through October of ‘22, roughly 20% higher than pre-COVID volumes in 2019. US imports in June are predicted to be 7.5% higher than the same period last year. This will be further complicated by Shanghai-based manufacturers ramping up production to recoup losses that occurred during nearly two months of lockdowns.
The global supply chain isn’t expected to reach pre-COVID levels of normalcy in 2023, however, there are positive signs it is heading in the right direction. Port congestion is beginning to soften as demand begins to drop from pandemic highs. As major manufacturing hubs in China begin to reopen alongside the Shanghai port, expect to see higher volumes of imports hitting US ports ahead of the holiday season. The supply chain strain should start to ease in 2023, but it won’t disappear completely.
Tensions are rising as dock workers could be facing obsolescence in the face of automation. West coast dockworker’s unions are currently renegotiating their contracts with shipping lines during one of the biggest reported disruptions in history. While the unions have given some ground in regards to automation they’re drawing a line against the use of automated cranes, self-driving vehicles, and other autonomous equipment that could replace the highest-paying union jobs in the country.
…said who?
“You’re going to see demand for space go down and rental rates will stop going up at the pace that they’re going up, there’s just not any way around it. They’ll continue their trajectory maybe 12 months from now, but…there’s going to be a correction that people don’t see coming where they can’t get rental rate increases, because there’s competitive space, which there hasn’t been competitive space for —in the market, spaces haven’t had competition with other spaces for 12 or 18 months.”
- Ward Fitzgerald, CEO of EQT Exeter, on the warehousing market plateauing amidst slowly cooling demand and slight increase in capacity availability.
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