Bald Eagle Valley Trucking, Essay Example

The major challenges trucking companies face today are fuel costs, stronger environmental pollution laws, a shortage of drivers, and new limits on driving-time. The solutions lie in planning, technology, and training. In order to get funding from SCOR, Bald Eagle Valley Trucking (BEV) will have to prepare a comprehensive written business-plan for addressing those issues in a straightforward manner. BEV’s success will depend on it.

One issue is warehousing space. Fortunately the product is water, and the demand for it is somewhat predictable. Its regional bottler, Coca Cola, has its own warehouses. But BEV’s retail customers may not. BEV must do more direct-to-customer shipping, but an expansion of its service area may mandate intermediate-route warehousing to save on fuel costs. Storage and fuel costs must not go up at the same time. Probably the single best investment would be to expand the fleet with natural-gas powered trucks. They will hold fuel prices down for the foreseeable future, and will likely be in compliance with present and future environmental laws.

The mandated reduction in driving hours is another variable. BEV may require more drivers. In the future, those drivers may be unionized. In July of 2013, Toll Global Forwarding’s truckers in New Jersey voted to join the Teamsters. BEV can help prevent this by keeping to the law regarding excessive driving time and not imposing stressful schedules. Satellite truck-tracking and route-planning software to help drivers in real time complete their routes with minimal delays due to weather and traffic will help keep costs down and trained truckers happy.