2010 Truck Conference Overview

When Terry Williams asked me to attend the Truck Blue Book conference and do some blogging about it, he seemed to worry I'd be bored. "You can wander if you want to," he said. "You can start out in one program and then move into another track if you get bored or tired or whatever."

I fully expected to be bored. I had zippo knowledge of the trucking industry, and I couldn't imagine what I might have to say, as an outsider, that would be of interest to a tight-knit group of professionals who already knew each other and their business.

I was not bored. I was fascinated, amused, outraged and occasionally frightened (Keith Prather's economic forecast was mildly terrifying), but I was definitely not bored.

Mostly, though, I was enlightened. You know how sometimes you know something, but you don't understand it until somebody comes along and points out the obvious? That's the way I was with trucks. Generally trucks don't exist on my radar unless I'm trying to pass one on the highway.

I mean, I kind of knew, because I am very keen on the local foods movement, that the variety of fresh produce available in every grocery store is only there because some trucker made a long haul from California or Florida or Mexico over the past three days. And I knew, from working at Wal-Mart while I was in college, that big-box stores have strict windows of time in which merchandise must be delivered, which puts a logistics strain on truckers, especially the smaller owner-operators.

What I didn't comprehend, because I never thought about it, was how integral the trucking industry is to the lifestyle that I enjoy, as an American consumer. I've heard it said that "trucks are the backbone of America" but I dismissed it as a slogan of the industry. It is that, but it is also a bit of reality that should be drilled into American schoolchildren, along with the four basic food groups (yes, I know they don't teach that anymore, and they should).

Since I'm a bit of a foodie, I'm frequently appalled at the divorce people have from their food's origins. Farmers get no respect from your average pre-packaged, single-serving, fast-fooding American. Even though I grew up on the edge of farm country, at my high school the Future Farmers of America students were perceived as hicks: unsophisticated and obsolete. Most of the kids in my school were headed for college, for office jobs and hefty student loans. Vocational training was considered a taint.

At the Truck conference I heard complaints about a similar attitude toward the trucking industry. Trucks aren't portrayed favorably in popular media. They are noisy and smelly, they pollute the air and can wipe out a Prius in a single skid. Plus, everybody knows truck drivers are sleep-deprived and cooking their books. In short, mamas don't want their babies to grow up to be truckers.

Bryan Haupt, in his excellent presentation about the challenges facing used-truck dealers, conceded that trucking has historically been a mom-and-pop operation. But he also made a solid case for change—it's necessary, and it's coming.

Shipping is no longer merely coast-to-coast, it's continent-to-continent, often within a matter of days. Highly sophisticated third-party-logistics companies facilitate who takes what load where and when, and those high-tech 3PL's make it possible for the small owner-operators to stay in business under those tight deadlines. So trucking involves not only driving a rig, but maintaining a fleet (even if it's only 1-2 trucks), managing debt and profit on that fleet, getting the trucks where they need to be to pick up and deliver, and coordinating all of that with two sets of customers—one on either end of the haul. Gives me a headache just thinking about it! And people think trucking is just a roughneck job? Gimme a break.

On top of the day-to-day concerns, the American trucking industry is fighting the two-headed snake of rising oil prices and tightening environmental regulations. According to some estimates, worldwide oil production may peak as soon as 2012, followed by massive shortages in 2015. Trucks have to get more fuel-efficient in the short-term, and be open to alternative fuels in the not-very-long term. Meanwhile, emission-control regulations of the past decade have consistently reduced fuel efficiency. I did hear some interesting things about selective catalytic reduction (SCR) from David Hames at Daimler, but that's a subject for another post, and in any case it's more an immediate cost layout, rather than an immediate solution, for truckers and dealers.

I guess the feeling I mostly took away from the conference was a sort of hopeful desperation. It was thick in the conference rooms. These guys (and gals) are on the cusp of big changes, and no one can guess what they will be. I heard guest economist Keith Prather talk about foreign competition, potential oil shortages, and the unpredictable impact of natural disasters, like the bad hurricane season we're supposed to have this summer. Couple that with the certainty of rising diesel prices, aging fleets, tighter government regulations, and increased demand, it's easy to feel cautious, apprehensive, ambitious, maybe even a bit panicked.

But certainly not bored.