Category Archives: Transportation

Auto Transport – What Time?

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When transporting your vehicle across country, you should be thinking how much time is needed to get it picked up, transported, and then to deliver. Generally speaking you need a three day window during the days of pickup and three day window during the days of delivery or drop off. That means during pickup and delivery you should give yourself three days of free time to meet and greet the driver. That way you can get a better idea of what kind of person this driver is. What if you meet this driver and he/she seems very flakey. At this way you can cancel the order at the last minute and quickly find some other driver to transport your vehicle. Now it is not highly recommended to cancel at the last minute, but at least you know your car won’t be in the hands of a bad auto transporter.

As for the three day window for the time of delivery. Well, many factors can lead to a later delivery of your vehicle.

1. Auto transporters don’t have all the cars they need lined up for pickup right away. It may take an extra day or two to find enough vehicles to fill up their trailer. If the trailers are now filled up with enough cars then the auto transporters won’t be making enough money and thus would not make the auto transport business viable.

2. These auto transporters are using semi-trucks and trailers that are at least 5 years old. To the average person that may not be too old. But think of it this way. An average mileage for an average passenger car gets 15,000 to 20,000 thousand miles a year. Depending on their route, semi-trucks gets an average of 50,000 to 60,000 thousand miles a year. And add 2 tons per car passenger car with a 5 to 10 car trailer. Well with a little math that is an extra 10 to 20 tons of extra weight a semi-truck has to lug around. And with all that extra weight and miles, these semi-trucks and trailers have to go though a lot of stress, thus breaking down after 1 year of use. And with each break down it takes from 1 hour to a whole week to repair. So next time a car carrier breaks down and your car ends up getting delivered late, don’t say its not your problem, because it is, since your car is on that trailer, and it costs a lot of money and it takes time to repair.

3. Another unexpected reason to delay and auto transport is bad weather. Extreme rain, snow and icy roads will slow down the semi-trucks if not stop them completely. So if a car gets delivered a day or two later than expected do not get angry at the drivers. They put their very lives on the line so that you don’t have to drive across country.

Moving Forward With Successful Transport Recruitment

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The transport and logistics sector has always been one of the most competitive and dynamic sectors in which to work. Today, that is still very much the case. Whilst the strategy behind winning contracts and maintaining core business is at the heart of any continuity and growth, the single most important aspect will always be the staff.

Getting the right staff on board is as equally competitive a marketplace as anything else in the industry. It is for this reason that the whole transport recruitment process is critical to success. Making the right decision over who to put in place can result in profits and increased market share. Making the wrong decision could similarly see the opposite.

When recruiting a new member of staff, the process should start with a defined target as to what will be required of the person. These agreed upon, questions centred on these skills should be included into the application form, and should play a major role in any interview process.

It is a good approach to seek the guidance of the outgoing member of staff, where practical. However, whether this is at a low level, in providing advice to the interviewing team or playing a more active role in the search and selection process, or helping conduct interviews is a decision which needs to be taken internally.

In any transport recruitment process, it is important that as many viable channels are used as possible. The Internet is an obvious place to start of course, but more traditional channels should also be given serious consideration. Local newspapers may work for example, whilst partnering with the JobCentre Plus can achieve results.

The channels that the positions are advertised in very much depends on the position being recruited for. For example, a director level appointment will most likely require advertising in key national press pages, and industry specialists. Likewise, certain managerial positions will also need similar approaches.

However, other roles, of a more manual and temporary nature in particular, should most likely not need as widespread coverage. Minimising an advertising campaign too much though, could allow potential candidates to slip through the net though, resulting in costly delays.

Such are the many variables that can affect transport recruitment today, it is often sensible to work with dedicated professionals. Working with recruitment agents with proven experience allows the decision makers to focus their efforts on the interview stage, rather than the critical but time consuming screening process.

They will also be able to contribute to and enact the decisions made with how widespread the advertising process should be. Drawing on their experience and the skill sets of the individual consultants working for them, they will be able to manage the operation without the risk of any delays or risk viable candidates being missed.

Possibly the biggest single area where specialist transport recruitment agencies can really come into their own is with the speed they can fill vacancies. With job seekers registering with them constantly, they are likely to be able to forward suitable candidates, that have been screened, checked and validated within hours of taking the instruction.