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	&quot;Carriers are Bricks&quot; was a quote from a 3PL Executive I heard several years ago at an industry conference.&nbsp; I remember how this turned my stomach especially since he was the CEO of a large &quot;non-asset&quot; based 3PL.&nbsp; For those of you who don&#39;t know what &quot;non-asset&quot; means simply&nbsp;think of&nbsp;a truck without wheels and you&#39;ll get the picture.</p>
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	The reality of today is that owning and operating a trucking company is not an easy job, nor is it getting any easier with the new regulatory changes that are taking place over the course of this year.&nbsp; The FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier safety Administration) has implemented the new CSA (Compliance Safety and Accountability) standards and is quickly moving to adopt new HOS (Hours of service) rules that will limit carriers in many ways from recruiting talent to keeping trucks on the road.&nbsp; The FMCSA is planning on sending out 23,000 warning letter to carriers in April of 2011 alone.&nbsp; (Transport Topics March 7, 2011 Edition)&nbsp;</p>
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	Many shippers I talk to think this issue is between the government and the trucking companies, but the reality is that the issue is as much a shipper issue because eventually it is the shipper that will be paying for all of these changes.</p>
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	So what can we do?&nbsp; Below is a list of some ideas that you can work into your plan with your carriers that can prove beneficial and economical as the new regulations go into effect and eventually are enforced.</p>
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	<strong><u>Know your carrier CSA scores in advance</u></strong>and meet with them to discuss their plan for maintain service and capacity</p>
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	<strong><u>Offer help by developing a more efficient loading and unloading procedure at your dock</u></strong>.&nbsp; When and if the new HOS rules go in place the loss of an hour&rsquo;s work to a driver/freight handler is the equivalent of a 10% reduction in driver capacity.&nbsp; Drivers will no longer be able to &ldquo;cheat&rdquo; for their customers as the mandatory use of EOBR&rsquo;s (Electronic On Board Computers) will track data and feed it directly back to the &nbsp;corporate offices and be subject to audit by FMCSA officials.&nbsp;</p>
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	<strong><u>Don&rsquo;t even consider offering your carrier reimbursement for fines for over hours, overweight loads</u></strong>.&nbsp; Fines will not only be levied, but now carriers and drivers will be subject to violations that will eventually take equipment off of the road, limiting capacity even further.</p>
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	<strong><u>Pre-planning your contract carrier&rsquo;s routes may be going away.&nbsp; Plan for this.</u></strong>&nbsp; Shippers that have had the luxury of doing this in the past will lose this ability if the new HOS goes into effect.&nbsp; Drivers will have to rigidly watch their hours and this rigidness will affect the flexibility to the shipper to meet the needs of their customer.</p>
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	<strong><u>Find out what your customers are doing about this and their expectations.</u></strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;Communicate this to Executive Management and your Sales Department to help relieve stress on your supply chain and &ldquo;pre-sell&rdquo; the reality of shifting capacity and reduced flexibility to your customers.</p>
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	For more information on CSA and HOS see <a href="http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov"><u>http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov</u></a></p>
