Speeding the freight: MTMC encourages truckers to make faster transshipments

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (USTCNS) --- The last time it was the Military Traffic Management's Command's ocean shippers who heard the message.

This time it was the truckers.

Veteran transporter Frank Galluzzo was on the road again.

The message from the Director, Distribution Analysis Center, to the Government Traffic Policy Committee of the American Trucking Association was the same: Join MTMC in attempting to identify and eliminate time lost at transshipment points.

"We want trucks in-and-out (of depots)," said Galluzzo, at the Feb. 13 meeting at a Crystal City, Va., hotel conference room.

The process of identifying lost time at nodes is the heart of the Strategic Distribution Management Initiative. The overall effort is by the U.S. Transportation Command and the Defense Logistics Agency.

The goal of reduced shipping time is a crusade for Galluzzo.

There have already been big results.

Dozens of days have been cut from total shipping times from the United States to both Europe Southwest Asia.

The average time now for a shipment order and receipt of freight between the U.S. and Europe is now 56 days. Galluzzo's goal is 40 days.

The military and government are part of the blame for slow truck deliveries, said Committee Chairman Tom Boyle, President, Boyle Transportation, Billerica, Mass.

"I don't know of any other industry in America that works with a four-day work week," said Boyle.

If connections are missed, some truck deliveries are delayed three days, he said, due to a long government weekend.

MTMC will seek solutions with any military service, Defense Logistics Agency or General Services Administration facility where there is a delivery problem, said Galluzzo.

Boyle presented Galluzzo with his first challenge.

Look at Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center, a weapons
testing facility in Crane, Ind., said Boyle. Separate military commands have different work schedules. The Army works a five-day week while the Navy works a four-day week.

Galluzzo countered, "We don't want trucks waiting around."

Boyle said flexible work schedules for federal workers are a big
problem nationwide for truck deliveries.

"When you call on the phone so many places no one answer the phone," said Boyle.

"It is unbelievable. It is not just the Department of Defense - it is the government."

Boyle said federal agencies should return to a five-day workweek.

He had another suggestion: Deliveries could be speeded up using e-mail to make unloading appointments.

Ruth Tetreault, program coordinator, provided a briefing on MTMC's new automatic fuel surcharge adjustment.

"This is a far better program than you had before," said Jim Knight, director of Government Traffic, TRISM, of LaPlata, Md.

The program goes into effect April 1.

(FROM MILITARY TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS).