Join us for a look back at the intersection of trucking, civil unrest and an examination of how logistics planning and management software helps keep freight moving in spite of upheaval and disruption.
There are striking similarities between today’s civil unrest and the late 1960s when Buffalo Springfield wrote the iconic song, “For What It’s Worth” referenced in the title of this post. For good or for ill, truck drivers (and by extension, logistics planning) seem to always play an integral role during these challenging times, serving as a flash point for the consciousness of America.
Trucking is essential to the American economy. Truck drivers have recently enjoyed renewed recognition for the vital and essential nature of the work they do, ensuring food, medicine, and other critical goods keep flowing into every community in the US. Whether it’s a natural disaster, pandemic, or in the most recent case civil unrest, truckers dutifully show up to work and deliver their loads. Perhaps due to this dedication to keep cargo moving in spite of any obstacles, there is a pattern of drivers being caught in the crossfire during times of civil distress/unrest.
The images of truck driver Reginald Denny pulled from his tractor and beaten to near death during the LA Riots in 1992 are eerily similar to the beating of driver, Bogdan Vecherko on a freeway bridge during civil unrest in Minneapolis last October. Drivers were forced to ford dangerous floodwaters in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy and others to ensure deliveries to devastated areas at great personal risk. In 1973 during the unrest fueled by the oil embargo crisis, tanker truckers banded together to shut down commerce in protest of oil prices. The list of examples is long and storied.
The common thread in all these harrowing tales is the need for trucking to ensure the perpetuation of the American economy. For our part at PCS Software, we support the safety and security of truckers, trucking operations and logistics planning at every level. In this article on trucker safety from Freightwaves, a former trucking company owner and police officer affirms that no cargo is worth a trucker losing his or her life over. Yet, he also notes how there is more ready access to information to warn drivers of possible trouble on the routes ahead of them.
PCS Software and TMS software in general plays an integral role in enabling the real-time modification of routing, logistics planning and scheduling to help shippers avoid sending their drivers into harm’s way. Real-time shipment visibility in transit, multiple digital communications channels to convey changes and confirm status, the ability to quickly change routing plans and more are all supported in TMS solutions. And they’re accomplished in ways that do not add to the cost of transportation logistics to the shipper.
In today’s socially-connected world, corporate responsibility is under the microscope. Those shippers not prepared to take every measure to protect their workers and contractors – truckers or otherwise – often sustain damage to their reputations when preventable danger befalls their employees. PCS offers sincere thanks to the American trucker and tools to their employers which are vital to the protection of not only the freight, but the men and women moving it all for every American. Stop hey, what’s that sound, everybody look what’s going down (with visibility provided by PCS Software).
