What’s Your Brand Got To Do With Recruiting?

By FrancisBUSINESS, Communications, Trucking, Uncategorized

Everything. (This column was written for Randall-Reilly‘s January, 2011  e-newsletter) Having served my first truck-firm client in the early 1990’s, I’m often surprised by how much companies will invest in their recruitment advertising budget, without first investing in clearly defining their core branding strategy. With the likelihood of CSA 2010’s cumulative point system forcing a … Read More

FMCSA Asleep At The Wheel?

By FrancisBUSINESS, Trucking, Uncategorized

(This column was written for the November, 2010 issue of Randall-Reilly‘s RPM For Truckers magazine) Coping With The New HOS Rules. We’ve already used this space to point-out the one unintended consequence of CSA-2010’s points system that seems obvious to everyone except the FMCSA: Forcing companies to replace a lot of good veteran drivers with … Read More

What To Look For In A Trucking Company

By FrancisBUSINESS, Trucking, Uncategorized

(This column was written for Target Publications, November, 2010) If you’re a driver considering a change of employment, the words of Samuel Butler (1612 – 1680) still ring true: Look before you leap. Look At Their Equipment For starters, you can tell a lot about a trucking company by the kind of equipment they put … Read More

CSA2010 Generating Mixed Reviews.

By FrancisBUSINESS, Trucking, Uncategorized

(This column was written for the  October, 2010 issue of Randall-Reilly‘s RPM For Truckers magazine) Details of the impending CSA2010 regulations are making their way into conversation among truckers these days, and it’s safe to say not everyone is enthusiastic. One Southeastern-based driver—whose comments were offered off the record at the request of his employer—says, … Read More

Better Health: More Than Just A Pipe Dream.

By FrancisBUSINESS, Trucking, Uncategorized

(This column was written for the December, 2010 issue of Randall-Reilly’s RPM For Truckers magazine) How much would you pay for a good night’s sleep? If you’re Lincoln, Nebraska-based Crete Carrier Corporation, the answer would be somewhere in the range of $1.5 million. Which is what Crete’s Vice President of Risk Management Tim Aschoff estimates … Read More

Time To Get Your Career In Gear?

By FrancisBUSINESS, Trucking, Uncategorized

(This column was written for Target Publications, October, 2010) Whether you’re young and mapping-out the future, or your career is at a crossroads, remember: Everyone looks up to a truck driver. How many stuffed-shirt MBA’s can say that—even after seven years of quote-unquote “Higher Education”? At the same time, it’s clear that the Information Age … Read More

It Ain’t Easy Being Green. Or Is It?

By FrancisBUSINESS, Trucking, Uncategorized

(Column written for the November, 2010 issue of Randall-Reilly‘s RPM For Truckers magazine) Going Green. The term alone sounds expensive—which, in the current economic environment, probably makes it a great idea for most trucking companies to postpone. At the same time, if going green means minimizing fuel costs as much as it means reducing one’s … Read More