DON JERRELL
Associate Vice President, HNI

CSA promised to provide an unprecedented dose of transparency and accountability to the transportation industry.  But this isn’t possible if CSA scores aren’t accurately reported.

With the costs of health care continuously rising, employers need to arm themselves with the facts. The trends that emerge from benchmarking data are our only hope for predicting and planning for the future of health care.

On the football field, it’s pretty easy to know where you stand. The great quarterbacks — Manning, Brady, Favre — seem to have an internal clock, a rhythm for the game. They just know when the 30-second clock is about to run out.  The rest of us can look up to the scoreboard to see a quick summary of the game — the score, the time remaining, the play clock. 

You’ve been warned of the dangers of not having a well defined succession plan.  The potential problems run the gamut from family conflict to negative tax ramifications, to financial security issues putting your legacy at risk.  

We've held a couple HNI University events on this topic, Advanced Recruiting in Transportation, and it's always been a huge success.  We cover a wide range of topics related to driver recruiting with the growing shortage of qualified applicants including:

Of course, it’s much easier to talk about open communication and collaboration than to actually promote it in an organization.  Several social media platforms are emerging that can do a great deal to foster this type of dialogue and with it, employee engagement.    

MEGAN YOUNG
Account Executive, HNI

The transportation industry depends heavily on independent contractors who own their own rigs and lease their services to motor carriers. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, for-hire trucks haul nearly 45 percent of the freight shipped around the U.S. Since trucking remains one of the most dangerous occupations, motor carriers who offer inadequate occupational accident coverage - or none at all - are exposing themselves and their independent contractors to risk. 

A new wage tracking app has been released by the Department of Labor that allows hourly employees to record hours, breaks, and overtime pay.  DOL-Timesheet is intended to empower workers to ensure that they’re getting paid correctly by their employer.  The data gathered through this app could be used as evidence in wage and hour compliance cases, and may spark even more employees to file these type of suits.

NICK ZUPKE
Account Executive, HNI

A few weeks ago, Governor Scott Walker repealed many of the changes to Wisconsin insurance law that were made by his predecessor.  Changes that were included in the 2009-2010 state budget that affected the auto insurance industry have been reversed.  According to Wisconsin state law, these changes will go into full effect on the first day of the seventh month after publication, which in this case is November 1^st.

In a time when unemployment rates threaten to top 10 percent, the transportation industry is currently facing the worst driver shortage it’s ever seen.  Despite offering competitive wages, it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract qualified candidates to enter the industry.