***image1***”I can’t count how many times a day I see truckers swerving in and out of traffic going over the speed limit.
They need to be slowed down to about 5 to 10 miles slower than passenger vehicles and they need to stay out of the left hand lanes.”
“Why do truckers stay in the left lane and not get back in the slow lane more quickly?”
“I’m sick of truck drivers tailgating me at 80 miles per hour, and most of them look and act like slobs.”
“I hate truckers, but what’s an expediter?”
We’ve all heard these comments before. Perhaps it was on the editorial page of a local newspaper or maybe in an interview on a local TV station. The subject of trucks and truck drivers comes up and out come the anti-truck comments and those are the ones that get the press.
Just saying the words “big trucks” is enough to put the typical motorist on edge. This fear and loathing comes by way of personal on-the-road experience and hearing years of news reports of terrible truck-car collisions.
Still, the overwhelming perception today is that there are too many trucks, driven too fast, by too many unprofessional drivers.
But what does the public think of expediters? They drive trucks, too don’t they? Sure, many of them drive cargo vans and straight trucks, but they’re professional drivers, right?
“Well,” says Scott Hancock, Express-1 recruiter, “there’s never been a song written about a 6-wheeler taking a skid of auto parts to a plant in Alabama and I don’t think there’s been TV series about expediting.”
“The public doesn’t know who or what expediters are except that they drive smaller trucks. If expediters have a public image, it would probably be one of maturity. We have lots of older, second or third career people in this business as opposed to over the road, big truck drivers with many of them comparatively younger people.”
Hancock goes on to say, “We don’t get a lot of respect from the 18-wheelers, and the general public doesn’t have a clue. The only true peer group we have is composed of other expediters.
“Generally, expediters are received well on the shipping/receiving docks (if they’re dressed appropriately) because they’re usually hauling something that the receiver needs. The expediter typically presents a professional image that separates them from the average truck driver.”
It’s interesting that in the twenty-five years or so that expediting as we know it has been around, so few people in the general population know who we are and what we do. It’s not all that unusual to get a blank stare in return when you tell someone you’re an expediter. Indeed, unless the person has a relative in the business, the word expediter has no meaning to them.
One would think that this invisibility could have benefits, but unfortunately, the drivers of this industry are lumped in with the worst of general trucking.
“I would think five percent of the general public who are aware of this industry would be a big number compared to an awareness of general freight,” says Jeff Brown, manager of Contractor Support and Development for Panther II.”
“I don’t think the general public has a clue about us, it’s all trucking. From UPS to Panther II to package carriers to wide-load heavy haul, it’s all trucking to them.”
“I think the media pushes a negative image of trucking of any kind, we’re an easy target. People are scared of trucks and that’s pretty natural; you’re riding along in your car at 60 miles per hour and you’re worried about that big truck because it can hurt you the worst.”
“Whenever the media wants to sell deodorant or beer, they put something on that they can sensationalize. We’re already in the public’s mind because they see us every day, so we’re easy to sensationalize.”
As a rule, the general public does not understand the significant economic impact the trucking industry has on the national economy. They don’t often hear about drivers who are highway heroes. The result is trucking professionals who receive little or no respect. Jeff Brown gives an example of this media assault he mentioned before.
“You read articles all the time about communities not wanting truck stops in their neighborhoods because of drug problems and prostitution that truck drivers attract.”
“You know, when I was driving big trucks, I used truck stops for years and years. I slept in one every night for ten years and I bet there was only a handful of times that I saw prostitution openly practiced. This is not unique to truck stops, it’s something you would see on street corners in every decent-sized city in America, but it’s got nothing to do with truck drivers.”
“You know, the people who understand the difference between expediting and general freight will be found working on the docks. They, more so than most people, are able to see the side-by-side comparison, especially when they’ve seen their stuff lost, they’ve seen their stuff in a drop yard somewhere that they can’t get anyone to go pick up even if they can find it.”
“Those people have seen the expediter come in and rescue the freight, get it to its destination and hear the boss say the next day, ‘it’s OK, we’re all still employed.”
If this lack of understanding by the general public of what an expediter does ever leads to frustration, just explain your industry the way Bob Campbell, an expediter from Youngstown, Ohio used to explain it: “When a shipment is lost and winds up hundreds of miles from where it’s supposed to be, we’re the one’s they call. Or, if a plant has a production line breakdown and it’s costing the company thousands of dollars for every hour that it sits, they call us.
If a shipment has to be there to catch a plane, we’re the ones they give the freight to. We’re freight ambulances.”
