Fear, Resistance, or Anticipation? Older Truck Drivers’ Reactions to the Adoption of Automated Vehicles

The forecasted adoption of autonomous vehicles (AVs) will lead to major changes to the job of truck driving. These changes may be particularly challenging for drivers, as the population of truck drivers skews much older than that of other occupations. In this study we sought to understand truck drivers’ attitudes towards AVs and the longevity of their job. We conducted focus groups with truck drivers, their supervisors, and upper-level managers of trucking companies. We relate supervisors’ and managers’ experiences working with drivers through the rollout of new technologies to further understand drivers’ initial reactions to automation and how their attitudes may develop. Based on qualitative open coding our analysis uncovered two overarching themes. The first theme is the unknown. With AVs, companies expect that experience will be less important, so they can hire younger workers. In response, drivers have expressed fear of being displaced and anxiety over the uncertainty of not knowing how their jobs will be affected. The second theme is adaptability, and desire to adapt. Older drivers have expressed resistance to adapting to AVs and to their job changing. Concerningly however, managers envision the need for a driving workforce that has experience working with technology and is adaptable. Our study identifies key challenges concerning older workers’ reactions and career decisions in response to automation. Accounting for driver reactions to AVs is necessary not only to build theory and understanding on worker reactions to automation, but also for workforce planning and to support employees, particularly older workers.

To Green or Not to Green? Exploring the Adoption of Green Initiatives in Canadian Trucking

The topic of environmental sustainability has become a central theme in recent years. To-date, ample scholarly literature has focused on the application of environmental sustainability in manufacturing, with scant attention on the logistics industry – particularly in Canada. Given the lack of research on the topic in Canada and the significant negative environmental impact of trucking transportation in the country, I use case study methodology to uncover: (1) the types of green initiatives that have been adopted by Canadian trucking companies, and (2) the drivers and barriers that can affect trucking companies’ adoption of green initiatives. Moreover, I conduct semi-structured interviews with high-level employees from eight small-to-medium sized trucking companies in Ontario. The results illustrate that the implementation of green initiatives in trucking is at an early stage and that trucking companies in Ontario face a multitude of drivers and barriers when adopting green initiatives. Additionally, I reveal three new findings.

To Green or Not to Green? Exploring the Adoption of Green Initiatives in Canadian Trucking

The topic of environmental sustainability has become a central theme in recent years. To-date, ample scholarly literature has focused on the application of environmental sustainability in manufacturing, with scant attention on the logistics industry – particularly in Canada. Given the lack of research on the topic in Canada and the significant negative environmental impact of trucking transportation in the country, I use case study methodology to uncover: (1) the types of green initiatives that have been adopted by Canadian trucking companies, and (2) the drivers and barriers that can affect trucking companies’ adoption of green initiatives. Moreover, I conduct semi-structured interviews with high-level employees from eight small-to-medium sized trucking companies in Ontario. The results illustrate that the implementation of green initiatives in trucking is at an early stage and that trucking companies in Ontario face a multitude of drivers and barriers when adopting green initiatives. Additionally, I reveal three new findings.

Smart Mobile Application for Short-Haul Cargo Transportation

Smart service systems have been dealing with various wicked social and cultural problems by providing diverse solutions for society. Cargo transportation is one of the most challenging issues in logistics; in this paper, we explore multiple stakeholders’ information environments surrounding containerized cargo transportation by a design thinking approach. Throughout the analysis, the latent problems are summarized in the following two manners: (1) miscommunication with inefficient information flow among multiple stakeholders; and (2) a lack of resource management coordination among service providers. With these two identified problems, the objective of this work is to develop a prototype information and communication technology-based service application for both trucking companies and customers. This work makes two contributions. First, it methodologically proposes a customer-centered design approach for logistics management by adopting a design thinking approach. Second, it suggests a practical ICT-based solution for the mentioned problems.

Assessing Causes of Driver Job Dissatisfaction in the Flatbed Motor Carrier Industry

Trucking companies play a critical role in the U.S. economy but face many challenges. The trucking industry’s greatest challenge may be the persistent driver turnover problem. Trucking companies regularly report turnover rates exceeding 100%. Each driver costs between $2200–$21,000 to replace and new drivers often impact carrier customer service and safety performance. The purpose of this article is to qualitatively explore the challenges drivers face with hopes of uncovering unique methods to improve job satisfaction and ameliorate turnover and retention issues. Results indicate that driver job satisfaction is related to compensation, management quality, equipment quality, home time, and wait time. Proactive managerial actions in the form of pre-planning loads are proposed as a method for carriers to resolve many driver concerns and possibly provide carriers with a competitive advantage in driver retention.

Occupational risk assessment of passenger bus drivers

The aim of this work is improving the procedure for professional risk assessment of passenger bus drivers, taking into account ergonomic, psychosocial, individual, and hygienic factors. To develop the methodology for assessing the professional risk of drivers the theory of analysis was used, which allows to establish alternative solutions of the problem by determining an integrated criterion that depends on a number of individual indicators characterized by ergonomic, psychosocial, individual, and hygienic factors influencing the working conditions of the passenger bus driver. A checklist has been developed to quickly assess the occupational risk of passenger bus drivers, which takes into account the impact of several harmful production factors that contribute to the creation of unfavorable conditions for the occurrence of occupational diseases. A feature of this approach is the ability to distinguish the level of risk for each harmful production factor and determine the overall level of occupational risk. It is recommended to reduce the effect of occupational risk on the driver of a passenger bus to improve the system of medical examinations, the system of admission to the vehicles driving in the implementation of passenger traffic and strengthen control over the technical condition of vehicles. The relationship between the integrated criterion of occupational risk of the driver and indicators that are characterized by ergonomic, psychosocial, individual, and hygienic factors, which are formed by the working conditions of the driver in the carriage of passengers. As a result, a new approach (checklist) is proposed, which can be used in trucking companies without any additional equipment after training in testing.

Truck Drivers

This chapter examines the monumental campaign to raise labor and environmental standards in the trucking industry at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports. Building on the blue-green coalition launched in the CBA and big-box contexts—and incorporating central lessons from a decade of community–labor organizing in Los Angeles—the Campaign for Clean Trucks emerged as a fight over air quality but ultimately advanced as a local policy struggle over working conditions for roughly sixteen thousand short-haul port truck drivers. For these drivers, the central problem was their misclassification as independent contractors. Misclassification forced drivers to bear all the costs of operation—contributing to poorly maintained dirty diesel trucks causing air pollution—while depriving them of the right to organize unions to improve labor conditions. Restoring drivers to the status of employees was the mutual goal bringing together the labor and environmental movements in this campaign. It rested on a novel legal foundation: The ports, as publicly owned and operated entities, had the power to define the terms of entry for trucking companies through contracts called concession agreements. The campaign—led by LAANE, the Teamsters union, and NRDC—leveraged this contracting power to win passage of the landmark 2008 Clean Truck Program, which committed trucking companies seeking to enter the Los Angeles port to a double conversion: of dirty to clean fuel trucks (thus reducing pollution) and of independent contractor to employee drivers (thus enabling unionization). However, the program’s labor centerpiece—employee conversion—was invalidated by an industry preemption lawsuit that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. As a result, the policy gains from a blue-green campaign built on mutual interest were split apart and reallocated, resulting in environmental victory but labor setback. Why the coalition won the local policy battle but lost in court—and how the labor movement responded to this legal setback through an innovative strategy to maneuver around preemption—are the central questions this chapter explores.

PECULIARITIES OF USING BUSINESS ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES IN ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT DURING THE COVID PANDEMIC-19

The current state of motor transport enterprises, which is characterized by negative dynamics of development in all sectors of the transport sector, is studied. The research of scientific works determined the direction of the article and the object of research was business processes in administrative management. That is, it is impossible not to agree with the authors to solve the crisis of modern enterprises. It should be noted that all of them are solved through the mechanisms of the administrative management system. Therefore, it became necessary to form conceptual features of the use of business analyst in administrative management during the Covid pandemic 19. Modern approaches to administrative management are considered, providing reliable administrative management of the motor transport enterprise. Management of business processes in motor transport enterprises of business provides their constant improvement and optimization therefore the most important tools of process management are approaches and methods of improvement of business processes managed by administrative management systems. The researched approaches are aimed at identifying duplication of functions, bottlenecks, cost centers, quality of individual operations, missing information, the possibility of automation and quality management. The main directions and software products for automation of business processes in the system of administrative management are established. It is proved that the holistic application of approaches and elements of business analyst in the administrative management of the enterprise will lead to great chances of maintaining the competitiveness of motor transport enterprises and ways out of the post-crisis crisis. The measures of administrative management concerning improvement of activity of the motor transport enterprises are offered. Therefore, in order for trucking companies to develop and differ from their competitors in the level of services provided and the level of comfort, in the critical conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic it is necessary to radically change the methods of administrative management, ie reengineer business processes.

FORMATION OF INNOVATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL DIALITY

The ecological state of Kyiv and Kyiv region is considered in the article. This helped to strengthen the innovation direction in improving the environmental situation. At the present stage of development it becomes necessary to expand environmental priorities in the areas of innovation policy: investing in innovation in environmental rehabilitation and the revival of natural potential; development of innovative ecological entrepreneurship, creation of eco-socio-technological parks; continuous improvement of environmental management systems; formation of ecological and innovative potential of regions and corresponding innovation infrastructures. The article identifies the main objects that have a significant negative impact on citizens living in Kyiv and Kyiv region. It is determined that road transport harms humanity by 85% more than other objects of study. The ratings of Ukraine on the index of environmental efficiency and the main indicators of the impact of air pollution on the health of citizens of Ukraine and the city of Kyiv have been studied. As shown, Kyiv ranked fourth in Europe in the number of deaths due to poor ecology. On the basis of the researched material innovative measures for improvement of nature protection activity of the country were offered. Studies of the impact of air emissions became the basis for proposals to change the technical and economic re-equipment of motor transport enterprises. An innovative proposal to reduce material costs in trucking companies, namely fuel costs, through the introduction of combined fuel consumption systems (methane / diesel), which will reduce fuel costs by up to 40-45%, as compressed methane (CNG) by almost 60 % cheaper than diesel and reduction of negative emissions into the environment. The application of the proposed environmental actions is proved. The above proposal is the most up-to-date, as the analysis of the market of enterprises in the field of "Transportation of goods by road" showed that this innovative environmental action has great potential for development, both economically and environmentally.