Traffic congestion has a negative impact on planning transportation routes and makes life more difficult for logistics companies. It occurs when freight demand exceeds the capacity of the transportation system. Route planning is an integral part of an executive’s job. This is why increasingly transportation and logistics companies use the services of executive recruiting firms to make sure they can hire the best people for an executive position.

The impact of traffic congestion

Traffic congestion may happen at any place, at any particular point in time and as a consequence of regularly occurring factors. This type of congestion is predictable, but random in terms of severity and duration. Although it has its negative effects, it gives an opportunity for proper route planning.

The thing that causes the most headaches for transportation and logistics companies is non-predictable or non-recurrent highway congestion. It occurs as a consequence of large, unexpected events such as accidents, road work, or special events, and affects the transportation systems in random ways.

Congestion has many negative impacts on the reliability and the cost management of transportation and logistics companies, as well as the drivers. In order to avoid being slow and inefficient, these companies have to focus their efforts on effective route planning. Therefore, they are turning to executive recruiting companies for help.

Highway congestion impacts drivers on many levels. For example, the inevitable negative effects on the driver’s psychological state may affect his productivity. These effects can also lead to aggressive and dangerous driving, increasing the risk of accidents.

The prolonged travel time caused by congestion impacts the effectiveness of the transportation and logistics companies. It also increases fuel loss, which means higher, often unexpected costs. Highway congestion impacts vehicles’ maintenance costs because of “stop-start driving” conditions.

The use of highway congestion studies

As highway congestion grows, transportation and logistics companies get challenged to maintain reliable schedules. There are many cost implications of delay and reliability that arise as congestion affects supply chain management, hence the need for effective use of highway congestion studies.

These studies are used to measure and quantify the congestion and suggest proper counter measures. The performance of a congested highway is measured by factors such as extent, duration, intensity and reliability.

Extent

The extent of congestion is estimated by the vehicles or people affected and by the geographic distribution of the congestion. Congestion severity can be measured by the number of trips affected by congestion, persons or vehicle meters affected by the congestion, and the percentage of the system being affected by said congestion.

Duration

The duration of congestion specifies the time frame of congestion affecting the travel system. There are measures that are used for quantifying the peak hour – a period that has to be taken into consideration.

Travel rates that indicate congested travel and traffic density measurement techniques can help indicate the duration of congestion. Therefore, the performance of a particular highway can be measured in terms of handling traffic.

Intensity

Measuring congestion intensity helps in differentiating the levels of congestion on particular highways, as well as defining the total amount of congestion. Intensity is measured in terms of the relative rate of delay time, delay per vehicle or person, delay in vehicle or person hours, and the average speed of the highway.

Reliability

Reliability is measured by the ability to plan for a certain period of time. Non-recurrent congestion has a huge impact on the reliability of the highway. The more unplanned events occur, the less reliable the highway is.

Executive recruiting firms are searching for top decision makers to plan routes

Transportation and logistics companies are constantly struggling with highway congestion issues. Since truck management jobs are the crucial link in providing reliable routes and strategies, logistics companies have to focus their efforts on hiring the right people for these managerial spots. Supply chain recruiters play an essential role in finding these people.

Due to congestion, especially non-recurrent highway congestion, executives have to possess certain skills and knowledge in order to overcome all unplanned obstacles. Therefore, hiring a person for an executive position is a risky investment.

Executive recruiting firms are constantly evaluating candidates for top level executives and decision makers. They are aware of the job requirements and are searching for people with great potential and experience. Having in mind the variety of decisions that the executive job requires, executive recruiting firms are evaluating the candidates based on many aspects.

Executives have to be able to study congestion which will help in defining delivering areas and the use of vehicles by type and fleet size. Route planning influences reliability and costs which directly affect your profits.

With the increase of highway congestion, the delivering areas that one driver and vehicle can serve are shrinking. Peak hours become peak periods, so cross region movements are getting more and more difficult to plan.

This imposes the need for adding more vehicles on the road and changing the routes more often. Apart from the costs to adding new drivers and vehicles, the adjustments in scheduling drivers and deliveries cost you money as well. The ability to cut down the costs is one of the many skills that executive recruiting firms are looking for.

Congestion growth combined with market growth is increasing the need for additional inventory. The issue with reduction of driver productivity increases costs, too. Adding more vehicles helps in increasing reliability, but on the other hand, it adds to vehicle costs and boosts the volume of truck traffic.

More vehicles means more labor and higher fuel costs, but not adding vehicles means fewer deliveries and completed assignments per one crew trip. Reliable route planning and scheduling can provide better efficiency, but you need to have carefully selected decision makers.

Executive recruiting firms choose people who can provide flexibility when dealing with routes. Many companies are developing strategies for adjusting routes on the fly. However, sometimes large and heavy loads provide little space for flexibility. In case of slower turn-around, the options include adding more vehicles or adding more working shifts.

Research shows that transportation and logistics companies have an urgent need for enhanced routing and scheduling. Therefore, they need reliable people who can develop and make use of highway congestion studies and help in dealing with all the congestion issues.