David A Kolman
David Kolman has shaped the trucking industry through his extensive hands-on experience as a truck owner and operator and communications professional throughout the past 25 years. His...more
I was startled awake the other night around 3 am by a low-flying helicopter. My guess is it was a medevac chopper.
Unable to fall back to asleep, I fired up the TV and began flipping channels. I was pleasantly surprised find that black-and-white movie classic, They Drive By Night.
George Raft and Humphrey Bogart play two play brothers - Joe and Paul Fabrini, respectively - who own a small trucking company and share the duties of driving their one truck, all the while encountering conflicts from rivals and loan collectors.
There are some dramatic scenes of falling asleep at the wheel, murder, and a screaming courtroom breakdown.
After watching this classic melodrama from 1940, I got to thinking about other memorable trucking movies I had seen. What came to mind was one that was as schlocky as They Drive By Night was great: Truck Stop Women.
I recall the posters promoting this B movie that was released in 1974. They proclaimed: “No rig was too big for them to handle. Double clucthin’ . . . gear jammin’ mammas who like a lot of hi-jackin’ by day . . . a lot of heavy truckin’ by night.”
It was a different time 35 years ago.
The movie told the story of a mother and daughter who operate a brothel and theft ring out of a highway truckstop, and battle the organized crime members who are trying to take over their operation.
The movie featured a Playboy Playmate of the Year, Claudia Jennings, and was filled with tons of nudity, violence, and country and trucking songs
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say this was an exploitation movie that treated sex, violence, and sensationalism with love and affection.
You know what’s even more staggering? I can remember all this in the wee hours of the morning but can’t recall what I had for dinner a week ago.
I welcome your thoughts and comments.
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It’s not what you might be thinking. The Death Van isn’t some comic book or movie character that goes around killing bad guys by running them over or blowing them up.
Well, that’s not entirely true.
This truck does go around killing people. But it kills them legally.
The Death Van is the nickname for China’s fleet of mobile execution chambers. The inconspicuous vehicles, which resemble a tour bus crossed with a police squad car, measure 20 to 26 feet long.
The manufacturer is the Jinguan Group in China The company also makes bulletproof limousines and armored trucks for banks. Talk about technology transfer.
The Death Vans travel to areas where executions by lethal injection might not otherwise be possible.
With the vehicles, small town and cities don’t have to have their own execution faculties or have to be bothered with disposing of the dead bodies. The Death Vans handle both.
Executions in the Death Vans are viewed on closed circuit television so that local law enforcement authorities can view the lethal injections to make sure they are carried out legally. Thoughtful, don’t you think?
Another “nice” thing about the vans is that prisoners sentenced to death can be executed locally, closer to communities where they broke the law. The idea being: to better deter others from committing crime in the area.
China, the world leader in executing convicted criminals, you may interested to know, is slowly phasing out public executions by firing squad in favor of lethal injections.
Another interesting item: Jinguan Group’s glossy brochure on its mobile execution chambers are in Chinese and in English.
I imagine it takes a certain type of individual to want to become a Death Van driver.
How’d you like to have to write the driver recruitment ad for that position?
I welcome your thoughts and comments.
To leave yours, click on the “No Comments” link below.
Deciding on a location for a facility is an overwhelming, often times expensive, process.
Among other things, you have to find available properties that are right for your business, decide upon the right city or county to locate the facility, and figure out geographic advantages of different business locations.
When it comes to real estate, we all know that it’s a matter of location, location, location. Select the right location and your business can thrive. Settle in the wrong location can it could be costly.
The key to finding the best location is to have good information upon which to make the decision.
How’d you like to be able to do a lot of this “prospecting” without having to travel to visit multiple sites, and without having to deal with brokers?
If you would, you might want to give ZoomProspector a try. It’s a free web-based service that provides demographic data on thousands of communities across the US.
These cities and counties have detailed map information, along with particulars on such matters as transportation, taxation, city planning, and more.
You define the community and property characteristics important to you, and the service uses a variety of technologies, including matchmaking technology (like that used for finding a date/mate), to find and display the locations that are a match.
The result: a faster process of site selection analysis so that companies can quickly identify the optimal location for their business start-up, expansion, or relocation.
Ain’t technology something.
I welcome your thoughts and comments.
To leave yours, click on the “No Comments” link below.
I was visiting with some colleagues the other day and one of them asked: “Read any good books lately?”
“As a matter of fact,” I piped up, “I just finished a very interesting book, and I highly recommend reading it.”
The book is What a Job is Worth, How To Come Out on Top, written by Sylvester Stevenson. It is most enlightening and educational, providing some keen insight into surviving and thriving in the corporate world.
Stevenson is a veteran sales and marketing executive with more than 30 years of experience in the world of business. In his book, he shares the lessons he has learned to help others put the business world into perspective, set realistic expectations and understand the evolution of a career.
He offers some fundamental rules business people ought to follow in order to be successful, and talks about what their role should be in achieving objectives.
Early on in the book, Stevenson observes: “In the corporate world, it’s not enough to just do the right things. You must do them in the right way, as the methods in accomplishing the task at hand is as important as the work itself.”
Of particular interest to me were the mind “exercises” Stevenson provided as a way to get co-workers to act and think differently, or where the business person himself must act and think differently to prevail. One of my favorites was the “Zombies” game.
A key message that I took away from Stevenson’s What a Job is Worth, How To Come Out on Top is that life in the corporate world is not all about getting to the top, but more about enjoying the ride.
I would call this short, easily read and understood book a survival guide to bring reason into the workplace. It’s well worth a read.
If you’re not a big reader, not to worry, the book is also available as an audio book.
What a Job is Worth, How To Come Out on Top can be found in many bookstores through Tate Publishing or Amazon.
I welcome your thoughts and comments.
To leave yours, click on the “No Comments” link below.
Remember that British television show from years ago, “The Prisoner?”
Actor Patrick McGoohan played a British secret agent who resigns his job and then finds himself captive in a mysterious seaside village under the rule of Number One.
There, McGoohan is under constant surveillance. He comes to know this, and that influences his behavior.
When we know we’re being watched, we’re more likely to do things the proper way. Conversely, when we don’t think we’re being observed, there’s the tendency to find shortcuts and take risks.
That’s just human nature.
That principle is being applied to warehouses and forklift operators to improve safety.
Even trained, experienced operators have an inclination to cut corners when in a hurry, or when management isn’t around. And that’s not a good thing, as accident-inducing behavior creates dangerous situations.
I was surprised to learn that one person is killed every 3½ days by forklifts, and some 20,000 workers seriously injured each year. Those stats come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Forklift-monitoring technology is being developed to allow managers to know what’s happening in the warehouse and on the docks when they aren’t watching.
These technologies help promote operator accountability for reducing accidents and damage, and they’re proving effective.
Consider a study done by ShockWatch, a company that specializes in damage prevention, with a major warehouser.
At first, forklift operators performed their daily tasks but didn’t know they were being observed.
Then, operators were verbally reminded to stay safe, and told that an alarm system would sound in the event of an impact exceeding a pre-determined threshold.
The final phase of the study involved accountability. Operators were assigned keys that allowed them operate their forklifts. The warehouse managers also were issued keys.
When the impact threshold was exceeded, the forklift slowed to a creep, the lift was interrupted, and an alarm sounded continuously until a manager came to the forklift, turned off the alarm and returned the forklift to operational status.
The threat of having to face responsibility for improper driving was dramatic. Daily threshold-exceeded impacts dropped by about 94%.
Maybe there is something to be said for this big-brother-is-watching thing after all.
I welcome your thoughts and comments.
To leave yours, click on the “No Comments” link below.
In my previous blog, I shared some thoughts and observations about the increase in data breaches, and how some companies aren’t doing enough to protect themselves.
I referenced a study on corporate data breaches by Verizon Business that, in addition to discussing the increasing problem, concluded that simple actions, when done diligently and continually, can help businesses protect themselves.
Among the recommendations to help prevent unauthorized individuals from breaking into restricted computer systems and compromising sensitive information stored within them:
- Align process with policy. In 59% of data breaches, the organization had security policies and procedures established for the system, but these measures were never implemented.
- Create a data retention plan. Some 66% of all breaches involved data that a company didn’t even know was on their system. It’s critical that an organization knows were data flows and where it resides. Identify data and prioritize its risk to the organization.
- Control data with transaction zones. Investigators concluded that network segmentation can help prevent, or at least partially mitigate, an attack. In other words, wall off data when and where appropriate.
- Monitor event logs. Evidence of events leading up to 82% of data breaches was available to the organization prior to the actual compromise. Data logs should be continually and systemically monitored and responded to when events are discovered.
- Create an incident response plan. If and when a breach is suspected, an organization must be ready to respond, not only to stop the data compromise, but to collect evidence that enables the business to pursue prosecution when necessary.
- Increase awareness. Only 14% of data breaches were discovered by employees of the victimized organization, even though employees are the first line of defense in safeguarding data. Educate them to be aware.
- Engage in mock-incident testing: Making sure employees are well-trained to respond to a breach. Run drills and test people’s abilities, judgments, and actions during a mock crisis.
When it comes to data security, keep in mind the words of Daryl White, a former chief information officer for the US Department of the Interior: “You can’t hold firewalls and intrusion detection systems accountable. You can only hold people accountable.”
I welcome your thoughts and comments.
To leave yours, click on the “No Comments” link below.
My other brother Lloyd is a computer whiz. His depth and breadth of computer and information technology is impressive, and he never ceases to amaze me with what he can do.
Something he told me the other day left me dumbfounded. He said that with budgets under extreme pressure these days, companies are cutting back on information security, yet, data breaches have been increasing significantly.
That makes me wonder what the management of those companies is thinking.
Cybercrime typically goes up during economic hard times, as does the risk organizations face from employees who are laid off, fear being laid off, or face personal financial trouble.
What’s more troubling, my brother noted, is that despite advances in technology, data thieves are as clever - and busy - as ever.
The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) reports that data breaches jumped by nearly 50% last year compared with 2007.
According to ITRC, breaches are committed by both outsiders and insiders, and they share one common trait: they’re easy to pull off.
That suggests that many companies can appreciably boost security and reduce their exposure by following basic and inexpensive data security measures.
An investigation into data breaches by Verizon Business Security Solutions found that nearly nine in 10 corporate data breaches, the majority of which are caused by external sources, could have been prevented had reasonable security measures been in place.
Consider the words of former White House cybersecurity advisor Richard Clarke: “If you spend more on coffee than on IT security, you will be hacked. What’s more, you deserve to be hacked.”
The Verizon study concluded that simple actions, when done diligently and continually, can reap big benefits.
I’ll share those key recommendations with you in my next blog.
A couple of blogs ago I talked about how fleets are using visuals to drive home safety messages.
That prompted a truck driver to contact me and let me know about something his fleet tried for the first time. During a January safety meeting, it discussed the accidents the fleet incurred last year, including one fatality.
Photos of each wreck were shown and the reasons for each accident talked about. Then came a discussion of measures that could have been taken to prevent the accidents.
“But what was really interesting,” the trucker told me, “was that the company shared the costs of each accident. “Even the ones that didn’t look that bad were more costly then we (other drivers at the meeting) imagined.”
The fleet went a step further. It translated those costs into the number of loads that would have to be delivered for free in order to make up just for those costs.
“That really put safety into perspective,” the trucker said.
Clearly, the world of trucking is going through some very difficult times, and there’s much to contend with as we all go through this rough ride.
Compounding our worries, we’re confronted with doom and gloom business news reports and forecasts every time we open a newspaper or turn on the radio or television - and this doesn’t help matters. It causes damage.
If you believe something to be true, or expect something to happen, whether correct or not, the tendency is to adjust one’s behavior to match so that the original expectation becomes true.
I know of companies in the temperature-controlled trucking segment that were doing okay business-wise but pulled back because they figured from all that they’ve been reading and hearing that it would be just a matter of time before their business would drop off.
Seems like more and more managers are limiting their field of vision and running around espousing Chicken Little’s theory: “The sky is falling.”
These doomsayers have the wrong perspective and attitude. To them I say: Take another look at the sky. It’s not falling. It’s expanding.
Granted this is a painful period for most businesses, with difficult decisions having to be made, but there is way too much panic and stupidity.
This prevailing economic storm too shall pass. We’ve all been through bad times before.
Change is unavoidable, but it brings with it opportunities - although they’re harder to spot.
Trucking is the essential driving force that moves the economy forward, and this won’t change.
Two other things haven’t changed: the value of the customer, and providing solutions to their problems.
Critical to this is building and maintaining relationships. The better you know and understand customers’ businesses and goals - as well as their changing needs, the more effectively you will be able to make changes to serve them better.
My suggestion: Work to cultivate relationships that are so strong your customers feel they can’t go to the competition because doing so would be like “dumping” on a trusted friend.
Comments, observations and thoughts on the world of trucking from editor-in-chief David A. Kolman. These entries are based upon his diverse experience in many facets of transportation, including truck driving; truck owning and operating; fleet and driver management; safety; warehousing; commercial truck sales; industry trade associations; and trucking radio and TV.
