Giving You the Business

When I was in Kelowna, B.C., this past June at the British Columbia Trucking Association convention, I was able to spend some time with one of the event’s keynote speakers, Jeff Mooney, the chairman and CEO of A&W Food Services of Canada.

Mooney is one of the architects of the B.C. Business Summit, a meeting of about 860 business leaders who are taking it upon themselves to lift the province from its economic funk. Uniting the group is the ideal that businesspeople can no longer sit back and wait for government to screw up before they react.

The way to do it, Mooney stressed, is to get every employee to think and act like a businessperson. Company owners need to give individuals reason to care, knowledge to work with, the power to act, the desire to compete. They should open their books.

At dinner that night, I asked several trucking company owners what they thought. The idea had as much fizz as warm root beer.

Unfurl your P&L statements? They’re too complicated for employees to understand, and besides, the staff could figure out how much you take home. Information might leak to customers, who could try to beat you down on price, or to your competitors, who might try to undercut you. Well, folks, it’s up to you to decide what to divulge, but enlightened employees will appreciate that owners should be be rewarded for the financial risks they take (and if you think your staff doesn’t already speculate about what you make, you’re spending too much time in your cigarette boat). As for your customers, presumably they get fair value for your price. And your rivals know your routes and rates. Don’t think they can’t guess your margins.

Yes, financial statements are complex. (An accountant friend of mine suggests that few fleet owners share the financials because they’re in the dark themselves. His advice? Have the accountant explain the numbers to the staff.)

But give your workers some credit: for all you know, the guy running the forklift might be spending his evenings managing his stock portfolio on the Web, or budgeting the family finances with Quicken on the home computer.

Sharing the numbers isn’t right for every company. But given a basic business background, your salespeople might actually understand the cost of what they’re selling and hold rates in check. You might be able to cultivate young managers into top executives. Drivers might see the value in operating economically and providing higher level of customer service.

The biggest problem with capitalism in Canada is that there aren’t enough capitalists. Teach the basics of business. Let people make decisions based on what they know. Devise ways to share in the company’s success and failure. Open the books.

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One of the rewards of working at this magazine is the opportunity to talk business and hardware with a stream of fascinating people. Another is to work with Rolf Lockwood every day. Rolf and I met seven years ago, when he interviewed me for a job. It was a typically easy-going exchange (in Rolf’s kitchen) that only turned serious when I asked him what he thought readers valued most about Today’s Trucking.

He said people look upon the magazine as an indispensable part of their day-to-day work life. They count on us to be accurate, relevant, and clear-without ever suppressing our sense of humor and irony.

It didn’t take long for me to see how right he was-something I won’t forget as I take over as editor this month. The magazine may evolve over time, but you can count on us to pack it with the insight on equipment trends, business strategies, and news analysis you’ve come to expect.

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BOOK OF THE MONTH

I don’t have many good words about the way governments communicate with truckers (or, for that matter, with us and the rest of the industry press). So I was dubious when I received a copy of “Your Guide to MTO’s Facility Audit,” released last month by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. It turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The 100-page booklet outlines Ontario’s new facility audit standard (the province has started to assign safety ratings to carriers) and provides step-by-step procedures on how to audit your own fleet in advance of the real thing. You may not agree with all of the MTO’s audit standards, but at least you can be clear on what the rules are before the inspectors knock on your door.

And there’s no excuse to cheap out: the book is free. For a copy, fax a request to 905/704-2016. Just in case, the MTO’s phone number is 905/704-2500.

STREET SMARTS

Speaking of good reads, we’re thrilled to launch highwaySTAR this month, a magazine written for Canada’s over-the-road company drivers and owner-operators. Drivers are a hot commodity these days, and we want to connect with them as much as anyone. Every month, you can find highwaySTAR at nearly 400 truck stops and other locations across the country.