Greg Banks thinks that the logistics industry needs to get better at developing contingency plans.
Banks is the executive vice president and chief revenue officer at Burnsed Trucking, a Miami, Florida, U.S.A.-based trucking company that specializes in the cold chain, primarily moving salmon and crab around the South and Northeastern U.S. He has spent nearly two decades working his way into leadership roles in the trucking industry, including at J.B. Hunt, USA Truck, and NFI.
Throughout much of the trucking industry, Banks said a “safety mindset” is missing, which puts businesses that ship via truck at serious risk of liability. He said many shipping businesses maintain relationships with trucking companies based on long-term friendships, not industry agility.
At a moment of widespread economic uncertainty in the U.S., Banks said one thing shippers have control over is who they hire to move their products.
Therefore, business leaders whose companies ship around the country need to be keenly aware of how their traffic managers are operating, Banks said, and though the upfront cost of higher-quality transport may be somewhat intimidating, being unprepared for accident liability could be catastrophic to a business’s future.
“[Companies are] one fatality or one bad accident away from being pulled into a major lawsuit. This is what I’ve been trying to educate our customer base [on],” Banks said. “The judge or jury … will say, ‘Wait a minute, ABC Fish, what was your vetting process of that trucking company?”
Massive corporations, Banks said, are more protected by their ability to pay settlements, but the seafood industry is populated by small businesses without huge cash reserves, making the need for a proper transportation vetting process more essential than other industries…
