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Someday's I like to play Devil's Advocate, and here are some of my initial thoughts for discussion amongst the Insidetransport Community (I think this forum is the most direct way to communicate to the most relevant and innovative people in this business, btw):
First off, for some reason I keep hearing about the Mr. Bedard @ TFI quotes about Driver Inc. and frankly it sounds weak, desperate and complacent from one of the largest trucking companies in the industry the way this sounds, no?; Especially from a company who's business model has basically been to bully its way around for the last decade or so in the trucking industry using its economies of scale to push competitors out of markets (Or maybe this is their way of setting up a deflection/excuses if TFI's bottom line results are less than expected to shareholders, because I am sure saying "sorry, the industry sucked for another quarter" is getting old for investors, and how many times can you buy companies to add revenue to help manipulate results). This sounds very similar to how I recall hearing the Taxi industry complain about Uber. Where he comes up with his numbers is not cited, therefore not confirmed, and some of the Driver Inc. companies DO actually pay WSIB premiums on the Driver Inc. employee earnings to avoid these penalties, negating this argument completely). We should all look at this as an opportunity to think differently, and if anyone, this guy is someone with the power and influence that could push that!
In dealing with both private insurance and WSIB, has anyone else not found that the WSIB runs exactly like any government organization (?) Fat (as it not lean, and inefficient), expensive (consistent increases, often more than the private insurance premiums), lack of clarity (as in denial/delay of benefits or extremely slow/non-transparent to work with, both as an employer or as an insured)? We all MUST pay WSIB on our employees, but does this really help us, or is it simply the law? Dare I say that we question the relevancy of WSIB, and that it could not be done better (better = more value for our employee insurance dollars as employers). Because we ALL must pay in to WSIB based on our industry performance as a whole, we will all pay based on the crappy standards and performance of others. I guess what my point to all this is maybe it is time we re-evaluate the WSIB system as a whole (even if only specific to "trucking" at this point), and perhaps trucking employees would actually be better insured, through alternative insurance, potentially at better costing to the employer, rather than industry worker injury rates collectively?!
Are we any better protected by WSIB than we are private insurance? I would argue that our O/O's are less exposed than employees and better protected in an incident, particularly in the cross-border line of work; at the very least get better value for the cost. I am curious how others who have experiences feel about this entire situation?
This industry as a whole just seems to be a mess these days in SO many ways, and it seems even the OTA focus has turned to complaining about things, and whining about things being unfair rather than working towards innovative solutions and a genuinely better future in our highly competitive and often extremely low margin business? If something is unfair or inefficient, human nature is to find a better way, yet conformity is the solution for trucking!?
There is a visible ethnic majority that now controls a large capacity of this business, but this majority is not at all close enough to represented within these Industry groups that pioneer legislation, and some would argue, these are the same companies that have grown and taken advantage of the Driver Inc. model. I would also argue the Driver Inc. model has helped these “Law Breakers” solve their driver shortage problem!
Is there a correlation here...possibly!? Maybe we all need to step back and rethink the inclusiveness, collaboration, future well-being, and even the aspects that are “(over) regulated” in our “unregulated” business (Oxymoron’s rarely make logical sense) so we can all be more competitive, safe and efficient. The crappy part is, and I have seen it happen myself over the past couple of years; when profit turns to loss (or even just less profit), pressure and panic mounts, and sometimes our focus on core values unintentionally drift.
I guess my point to all of this: There are a lot of very smart, innovative people in this business, and in a world of technology and disruption our mind-set and discussions should be to think outside the box, and challenge the norm to find better solutions! Maybe we need to rethink even how we come to lead and direct this industry positively. More discussion topics to come…
First off, for some reason I keep hearing about the Mr. Bedard @ TFI quotes about Driver Inc. and frankly it sounds weak, desperate and complacent from one of the largest trucking companies in the industry the way this sounds, no?; Especially from a company who's business model has basically been to bully its way around for the last decade or so in the trucking industry using its economies of scale to push competitors out of markets (Or maybe this is their way of setting up a deflection/excuses if TFI's bottom line results are less than expected to shareholders, because I am sure saying "sorry, the industry sucked for another quarter" is getting old for investors, and how many times can you buy companies to add revenue to help manipulate results). This sounds very similar to how I recall hearing the Taxi industry complain about Uber. Where he comes up with his numbers is not cited, therefore not confirmed, and some of the Driver Inc. companies DO actually pay WSIB premiums on the Driver Inc. employee earnings to avoid these penalties, negating this argument completely). We should all look at this as an opportunity to think differently, and if anyone, this guy is someone with the power and influence that could push that!
In dealing with both private insurance and WSIB, has anyone else not found that the WSIB runs exactly like any government organization (?) Fat (as it not lean, and inefficient), expensive (consistent increases, often more than the private insurance premiums), lack of clarity (as in denial/delay of benefits or extremely slow/non-transparent to work with, both as an employer or as an insured)? We all MUST pay WSIB on our employees, but does this really help us, or is it simply the law? Dare I say that we question the relevancy of WSIB, and that it could not be done better (better = more value for our employee insurance dollars as employers). Because we ALL must pay in to WSIB based on our industry performance as a whole, we will all pay based on the crappy standards and performance of others. I guess what my point to all this is maybe it is time we re-evaluate the WSIB system as a whole (even if only specific to "trucking" at this point), and perhaps trucking employees would actually be better insured, through alternative insurance, potentially at better costing to the employer, rather than industry worker injury rates collectively?!
Are we any better protected by WSIB than we are private insurance? I would argue that our O/O's are less exposed than employees and better protected in an incident, particularly in the cross-border line of work; at the very least get better value for the cost. I am curious how others who have experiences feel about this entire situation?
This industry as a whole just seems to be a mess these days in SO many ways, and it seems even the OTA focus has turned to complaining about things, and whining about things being unfair rather than working towards innovative solutions and a genuinely better future in our highly competitive and often extremely low margin business? If something is unfair or inefficient, human nature is to find a better way, yet conformity is the solution for trucking!?
There is a visible ethnic majority that now controls a large capacity of this business, but this majority is not at all close enough to represented within these Industry groups that pioneer legislation, and some would argue, these are the same companies that have grown and taken advantage of the Driver Inc. model. I would also argue the Driver Inc. model has helped these “Law Breakers” solve their driver shortage problem!
Is there a correlation here...possibly!? Maybe we all need to step back and rethink the inclusiveness, collaboration, future well-being, and even the aspects that are “(over) regulated” in our “unregulated” business (Oxymoron’s rarely make logical sense) so we can all be more competitive, safe and efficient. The crappy part is, and I have seen it happen myself over the past couple of years; when profit turns to loss (or even just less profit), pressure and panic mounts, and sometimes our focus on core values unintentionally drift.
I guess my point to all of this: There are a lot of very smart, innovative people in this business, and in a world of technology and disruption our mind-set and discussions should be to think outside the box, and challenge the norm to find better solutions! Maybe we need to rethink even how we come to lead and direct this industry positively. More discussion topics to come…
