Every year, The American Transportation Research Institutes (ATRI) delivers a study uniting the trucking world as one. If you close your eyes, you can almost feel the wave of head nods as fleet executives, operations leaders and maintenance professionals read the Critical Issues in the Trucking Industry-2022 survey.
Why is this survey so important to fleets? First, ATRI is one of the most respected organizations in the industry, composed of leaders from some of the best fleets in the country. Secondly, the data and subsequent results are trusted. ATRI has been publishing the Top Industry Issues (TII) for 18 years. Finally, the survey is utilized by fleets to evaluate their business and construct plans to mitigate the fallout from these issues. As the industry begins to discuss and collaborate, the pain can begin to lessen as evidenced by the changes in priority year over year.
Uptake Listens
As a predictive maintenance integrated partner of many fleets, Uptake pays close attention to the results of this annual report. You might be wondering, why would a company focused on maintenance care about these industry issues, when none of the issues are related to brakes, NOx sensors or batteries? The answer, similar to most facets of the supply chain, many of the issues are interwoven. After helping over 200,000 heavy duty trucks stay on the highway, our predictive maintenance can help your fleet address:
Fuel Prices
Driver Shortage
Driver Compensation
Economy
Driver Retention
Sounds familiar? If your fleet is struggling to find solutions for one or all of the these issues, here is a quick summary as to how Uptake can assist:
FUEL PRICES
High fuel prices have not been in the top 10 of the critical issues list since 2013. With that being said, everyone has felt the pain at the pump but when an industry as a whole burns 35.8 billion gallons of diesel fuel a year it stings a bit more. A good portion of the fuel price challenge may be out of your control including supply, pricing volatility, tapping strategic petroleum reserves and global tension. However, deploying predictive maintenance intelligence has demonstrated an ability to reduce fuel consumption to the tune of a 2.3% fuel cost reduction. Fleets using this technology are able to reduce extra trips to the shop, sending back-up trucks to the scene of a breakdown and ensuring their trucks are burning fuel optimally. Thismay not seem substantial but if your fleet is spending over $1 million a year on fuel, you can recoup in the neighborhood of $23,000. A great benefit of running a more productive fleet!
DRIVER SHORTAGE
After holding the top spot as the #1 issue in the industry for 5 years running, in 2022 the driver shortage sits firmly at #2. Currently, the estimated number of empty driver seats is 80,000. If this isn’t bad enough, the projection is for this to double by 2030. There are many factors contributing to this industry challenge including:
Retirement
Wages
Bad working conditions
Shortage of women in trucking
Home time
Uptake is fortunate to be working with many of the top fleets in the country, and is asking the leaders why they believe the shortage exists. While there is agreement with the above list, the CEO of a major truckload carrier, operating over 7,000 trucks, offered this insight: “After (3) equipment breakdowns, a driver is likely to leave the company”. While this could mean driving for another company, it could also lead the qualified driver to find a reliable position outside of the industry. Uptake will help you keep the drivers you have, by improving uptime, reducing roadside breakdowns and keeping your truck wheels turning. Imagine being able to tell a driver you are adding a future, predicted failure to their upcoming routine maintenance appointment to ensure they are back on the road, continuing to earn.
DRIVER COMPENSATION
Since 2019, driver compensation remains as one of the top 5 issues impacting the industry. Let’s face it, the life of a truck driver can be demanding with long, albeit regulated, hours and potentially significant time away from home and family. Wanting to be fairly and justly compensated should be easy to understand for any fleet. Your fleet can be the difference in the industry. Be known as the fleet that keeps drivers earning by ensuring their wheels keep turning. By being able to predict, in advance, when a driver could have a potential failure, therefore avoiding the unplanned downtime will give your driver the confidence you care for their well-being and their ability to support themselves and their family.
ECONOMY
Not since 2017 has struggles due to the economy cracked the top 10 of the industry's biggest challenges. With the ever looming uncertainties of international supply chains, fleets can’t help but be concerned. Not knowing if or when foreign parts shipments will make it through the ports or if manufacturers will be able to deliver new trucks with all components intact, is keeping fleet owners up at night. Fleet managers are needing to keep their trucks sidelined longer than usual, exasperating all of the other top industry challenges. Through the use of Uptake fault code clustering, sensor data and work order analytics, fleets are able to use future and historical data to get ahead of their own parts shortages. By being able to predict when a part is likely to fail, along with understanding previous parts survival behaviors, fleets can get a leg up on their competition using predictive maintenance from Uptake.
DRIVER RETENTION
Providing an environment where drivers are proud to call home will help with driver retention. Having worked with over 200,000 trucks, Uptake has developed a strategy with your fleet in mind to keep your drivers driving your trucks:
Driver shortage, driver compensation and driver retention are closely intertwined but each requires a different approach to solve for your fleet.
Uptake Predicts
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” - Albert Einstein
Einstein refused to believe in the inherent unpredictability of the world. It would suit fleets well to follow the same set of beliefs. The trucking industry is inundated with data but unfortunately the majority of it goes unused. Partnering with Uptake will bring a level of predictability to your fleet, giving your team an advantage over your competitors. While the industry issues discussed above can’t be 100% avoided or controlled, your fleet can gain better control with predictive insight from Uptake.