Stay in your lane, and hope trucking industry does too

When your 20-ton paper shipment shows up the wrong way and the driver can’t explain why, it’s a crash course in today’s trucking industry: expect the unexpected.
That’s the name of the game these days when working with the U.S. trucking system, which has become an increasingly complex (and frustrating) piece of American commerce I don’t even pretend to fully understand.
Fortunately, as co-publisher of a weekly newspaper, I don’t have to book an 18-wheeler very often. But a recent experience stocking up on newsprint left me scratching my head, and it turns out, I’m not alone. Conversations with other local business owners revealed a shared sense of trucking fatigue.
This eye-opener began rather routinely, when I called a newsprint broker in Illinois to order a semi-full of newsprint. The News-Register operates its own printing press, for those who weren’t aware, producing not only this publication but several other area weeklies as well. That requires yours truly to order several tons of newsprint about twice a year, something I’ve done consistently for the past 25 years.
This latest order was scheduled to arrive in early August, but when news broke that a 25-30 percent tariff could be implemented on goods bound from Canada to the U.S. I picked up the phone. Newsprint is one of our largest line-item expenses -- second only to payroll -- so a double-digit increase is a hit I wanted to avoid.
The broker explained that regardless of when the order was placed, if the tariff was in effect at the time of delivery, we’d be responsible for the full added fee. Ouch. So, I requested that delivery be moved up a week to land in July, thinking the problem was solved, at least for this shipment. I was wrong.
In the rush to shift the timeline, delivery instructions didn’t get relayed between the broker and the trucking company. The truck showed up with our entire load of newsprint stacked upright, which is not good. Our standard procedure is to receive the 600-pound rolls in a rolling position so the production crew can offload them directly into the back shop with the help of a forklift.
To make things worse, I couldn’t communicate with the confused driver, who didn’t speak English. So I called the broker and said, “Houston, we have a problem.” He told me to stay out of the middle of what could become a tense exchange and assured me he’d handle it.
Five days later we finally received the shipment, after the load had been taken off roll by roll and reloaded correctly. The truck had been rerouted to Illinois (not Grand Island, as I would have suggested) which cost sometime a lot of time and money. Our price didn’t change, but the stress level sure did. The ordeal included more than 20 phone calls and some scheduling changes, all unfolding during an already hectic county fair week. The truck driver lost five days of productivity and somebody lost their margin, though I didn’t ask who.
A friend of mine who works closely with the trucking industry offered some sage advice that came in handy during this ordeal. He told me he’s no longer surprised by transportation crises. In fact, he expects them daily.
“You can’t spend time getting upset because that won’t solve it,” he said. “And the people around you feed off that negative energy. Just deal with it and move on.”
That seems like a pretty good philosophy these days, in business and in life. That, and stay in your lane.
KURT JOHNSON can be reached at kjohnson@ hamilton.net