2017 STS - THE “HOW-TO” OF HARMONIZATION
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This document contains the presentation slides from Scott Marion from the Missouri Department of Transportation on the topic of overweight and oversized vehicle permit harmonization. Some key points discussed include: why harmonization is important to reduce costs for carriers, shippers, and taxpayers; how difficult harmonization is to achieve given the need to get agreement across 50 states; and strategies that can be used to further harmonization efforts and improve customer service, such as focusing on regional cooperation, updating rules and regulations, attending meetings, and prioritizing efficient processes.
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2017 STS - THE “HOW-TO” OF HARMONIZATION
- 1. The “How-to” of Harmonization Scott Marion
- 2. The “How-to” of Harmonization Scott Marion Missouri Department of Transportation
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- 4. The “How-to” of Coronary Micro Revascularization Surgery Scott Marion Missouri Department of Transportation
- 5. The “How-to” of Wobbly Restaurant Tables Scott Marion Missouri Department of Transportation
- 6. The “How-to” of Take Your Kid to Work Day Combining the Two Most Annoying Things in Your Life Scott Marion Missouri Department of Transportation
- 7. OSOW Permit Harmonization IS Hard • Why is harmonization important/worth the effort? • Why is harmonization so tough to accomplish? • Harmonization not limited to the AASHTO “Phases” • Ideas/strategies to improve harmonization and customer service • Call to action
- 8. Why is Harmonization Important/Worth the Effort? • Current situation is costing carriers, shippers, government agencies, taxpayers, consumers – everyone – tons and tons of money
- 9. Putting the Cost Into Perspective • Pre-Clearance/ Bypass Services – $8.68 to pull into a weigh station (just for a static weigh and quick credential check – no inspection) – Just one of the weigh station bypass services, has saved carriers over 54 million hours and 263 million gallons of fuel, adding up to over $4.7 billion in operational costs
- 10. Do You Remember This? Preferred Route I-270 S/ MO 370 W/ I-70 W/ MO13 N/ US 24 W/ I-435 S 271 Miles Total
- 11. Do You Remember This? The Maze I-270 S/ Exit 31B/ MO 367 N/ US 67 S/ I-270 S/ MO 370 W/ I-70 W/ Exit 210B/ US 61 N/ US 54 W/ I-70 W/ **Bypass 15’9” Vertical Clearance by Use of Ramps on I-70 at Exit 131(Boone Co.)**/ I-70 W/ US 63C N/ US 63 N/ US 36 W/ MO 11 S/ E Chariton E/ F Chariton S/ M Chariton W/ MO 11 S/ US 24 W/ MO 291 S/ I- 470 W/ I-435 S 413 Miles Total
- 13. • States have individual OSOW authority for permitting and regulations • It’s hard to get 50 states to agree (on much of anything) • Not a national priority – lack of public awareness Why is harmonization so tough to accomplish?
- 14. • 2012, AASHTO Started Phase 1, and then Phase 2 • Phase 3 Here! • Appreciation and thanks to Randy Braden, AASHTO, the AASHTO regions and SC&RA But, We Have Made Progress!
- 15. An Old Tibetan Saying… “If you have failed seven times, at least you have failed seven times trying.”
- 16. “If you have failed seven times, at least you have failed seven times trying.” This is good advice unless you are a: – Brain Surgeon – Structural Engineer – Air Traffic Controller – My Accountant
- 17. • Work on things within your ASSHTO region or neighbor state (small things make a difference for carriers) • Work on policies, procedures, business rules • Improve your systems, technology and processes • Good Book: Government That Works, by John Bernard Harmonization not limited to the AASHTO “Phases”
- 18. • Review and update your state rules and regulations • Missouri: – 64% of all state rules proposed for rescission, clean up obsolete language, made more understandable and less restrictive Harmonization not limited to the AASHTO “Phases”
- 19. • Attend meeting like this - and your regional meetings • Get your DOT/agency involved in national organizations (public and private) • Be a magnet for information and Innovate! • Passion for customers Ideas/Strategies to Improve Customer Service
- 20. Ideas/Strategies to Improve Customer Service
- 21. Ideas/Strategies to Improve Customer Service
- 22. Ideas/Strategies to Improve Customer Service
- 23. • Keep trying to harmonize – in any way you can • Get engaged with industry, listen and let them help you • Industry: Don’t Give Up On Us – In Fact, Pester Us More! • Get into your state rules and regulations • Efficient Processes, Measure Results and Innovate • Passion for customer service and servant leadership Call to Action
Editor's Notes
- This should be a “duh” moment for those of us in the room. We all know that the myriad of different regulations, rules, standards, and procedures from state to state cost carriers and everyone a lot of wasted time, money, and efficiencies. And many times, these barriers have no proven benefits to safety. We know the barriers the lack of harmonization causes, all of us, and as public servants (if we truly feel we are public servants) have a duty to work with industry and policy makers to make an effort to improve the current situation. Note I said “tons and tons” of money. Can you imagine this lost money? It’d probably be about a dozen 1.3 million pound superloads, but of course it might be months before anyone could spend it, because of all the delays in getting permits, escorts, etc.
- It’s really is an honor to have the opportunity to visit today with my fellow state permit officials and especially the SC&RA members, a group I have grown to respect so much. But first, I must mention that Steven Todd is responsible for the title of this presentation, “The How-to of Harmonization”. It implies that I have a clue. Thanks a lot for this “easy” topic Steven, Next year maybe I can talk about [Next Slide]
- Or maybe another easy topic…[Next slide]
- You know, easy topics. Or how about a really important topic of national importance like…[Next slide]
- I can’t resist, one more….[Next slide]
- Or have you ever wondered why it’s so hard to find a Phillips head screwdriver at your house when you know you have dozens of them?
- But we all know the harmonization efforts we’ve been working on are pretty darn hard and the progress seems to go too slow. Today, I’d like to visit with you about: 1) Why it’s important and why it’s worth our effort and focus. 2) Why it’s so hard. 3) Harmonization doesn’t have to be limited only to the AASHTO “Phases” [There’s other things we can do to help improve safety and industry efficiency] 4) Give you a few ideas and strategies to improve your harmonization efforts and customer service. And finally, 5) A call to action.
- This should be a “duh” moment for those of us in the room. We all know that the myriad of different regulations, rules, standards, and procedures from state to state cost carriers and everyone a lot of wasted time, money, and efficiencies. And many times, these barriers have no proven benefits to safety. We know the barriers the lack of harmonization causes, all of us, and as public servants (if we truly feel we are public servants) have a duty to work with industry and policy makers to make an effort to improve the current situation. Note I said “tons and tons” of money. Can you imagine this lost money? It’d probably be about a dozen 1.3 million pound superloads, but of course it might be months before anyone could spend it, because of all the delays in getting permits, escorts, etc.
- If this is the savings from bypassing weigh stations, can you imagine the extra costs OSOW carriers have trying to navigate the myriad of state-to-state permit regulations, policies, and statutes? The complexity and size of the OSOW and Superloads is an undertaking in itself, but when you add in the costs of government compliance it’s breathtaking. We routinely work with SC&RA carriers for months on special loads: finding them a route, waiting for untility approvals, and that’s just the time in Missouri. It’s the same deal with many of the other states the load will be traveling through.
- Some of you may remember seeing this slide from Missouri at this meeting in the past. It was part of a presentation we put together called, “You Can’t Get There From Here – A Transportation Story of Oversized Proportions”. The purpose of the story was to show Missourians and policy makers the trouble that OSOW carriers have in finding a direct route through our state due to our poor bridges and vertical clearances.
- Due to posted weight limits on bridges, turning radius and vertical clearance issues, and work zone restrictions, the load had to be routed “all over the place”, including lettered routes. A 271 mile trip increased by 142 miles to 413 total miles, a 52% increase. This type of situation occurs hundreds of times every day, adding time, fuel, and cost to carriers, shippers, and customers, and increased stress on many of our secondary roads and bridges. These infrastructure problems are what carriers have to endure in Missouri, IN ADDITION TO THE PERMIT/REGULATION/POLICY HOOPS WE HAVE TO PUT THEM THROUGH. So in many states, including my own, we are costing carriers, their customers, and consumers millions of dollars between bad routes and the lack of harmonization!
- I worked for Wal-Mart for 23 years before I came to my senses. Atrial Fibulation, ulcers, and a nervous tick were a pretty good sign it was time to try something else. I used to tell our store associates that “There’s almost nothing FUN about going to Wal-Mart. The full parking lot with loose carts denting your car, the aisles to packed to shop, empty shelves, rude people, long checkout lines, your kids screaming, after you get to the front of the checkout line you realize you forgot the bread, bathrooms that remind you of bus stations, etc. But yet, they still keep coming. We owe it to these customers who pay for our salaries to AT LEAST DO EVERYTHING WE CAN TO MAKE THE EXPERIENCE AS PAIN-FREE AS POSSIBLE. We’re not shooting for fun and relaxing, just bearable. When I see the maze we put OSOW carriers through in Missouri and then add on top of that, the permitting process, regulations, and safety compliance, it reminds me of Wal-Mart in a sense. HARMONIZATION IS IMPORTANT AND WORTH OUR EFFORT.
- It’s probably a good thing that states are allowed to generally make their own OSOW rules, regs., policies, and statutes. Each state is different in terms of geography, economics, and political climate. I know I sometimes get frustrated with federal mandates as a state official. When I went to my first MAASTO SCOHT meeting, I was dismayed when I heard what carriers go through and I heard people talking about the height and width of a brush stroke on an “Oversize Load” sign. I thought to myself, “Gee Whiz, someone make a decision! It’s not that hard. We made a lot more difficult decisions at Wal-Mart in five minutes”!! Little did I know how hard it would be to get us all together and make some pretty basic, minimum decisions. And as permit officials, it’s been hard to elevate the importance of harmonizing with our DOT leaders, politicians, etc. We needed a bigger voice to help us. In some states, all it took to harmonize a little was a policy change, sometimes it was a rule or regulation change (harder) and sometimes it takes a statute change. It’s not sexy for a state legislator to file a bill about a brush stroke on a sign. And until just a few years ago, the harmonization need was just not a top-of-mind awareness for politicians and policy makers.
- Steve sent out an email appreciating the big turnout for this meeting. 44 govt officials from 30 states and recognizing the higher than normal harmonization victories the past couple of years. There’s obviously more work to be done, but we have made progress! There’s still times though, when I wish the federal government would just say, “We’re all going to do such and such this way”!
- But we can’t stop trying!! And Lord knows many of us have tried more than seven times.
- I guess this explains why Tibet is a third world country with poor roads and bad plumbing.
- We surely need to get more momentum to make sure we’ve done all we can to finish up the AASHTO Phases, but there’s lots of other things under the umbrella of harmonization that can help carriers without hurting safety. There’s lots of examples from the regions like: multi-state permits, coordination between states about a series of loads (wind energy, etc.), truck parking initiatives, etc. WHAT’S THE NEXT THING YOU ALL ARE WORKING ON? Continually look at your policies, procedures and the way you do business in all areas. Almost anything can be made more efficient for you and the carriers. Meetings like this are great to hear and learn from each other about what is or isn’t working. I encourage you to read the book. A few states in this room are mentioned and reading it motivated me to be a better public servant. We don’t have a lot of money (sound familiar) I got you beat. Missouri state government employees rank 49th or 50th (depending on the source) with the lowest pay in the nation. 14% of all MoDOT employees qualify for some type of government assistance. But, after many years of tough negotiations, and a grant, we are now converting our 10 year old permitting and routing system to the best thing on the street! It will make our office and carriers more efficient.
- Most state officials cringe when they have to open up their rules. “Oh now, we’ll have to deal with public comment, criticism, and industry will come out of the woodwork with all the things they want. Plus it’s a pain and a lot of work in most states, with approvals needed, etc. In our case, 2 times approval needed from our Commission. Debbie Bradshaw kept a list. Gave us a chance to get harmonized with a couple of the AASHTO items. Huge thanks to SC&RA and individual members who gave fantastic feedback and comparisons to other states. Steve kept hounding and we are finally going to get to do away with escorts for weight only in almost all cases! Still have more work to do. Need 80,000 pounds on a quad. Embarrassed at how old, obsolete and hard to understand some of our rules were. I encourage you to review your rules and get with the industry people in this room to help you, along with other external partners and customers. This was Huge for us. Slight hold up on effective date as new Governor put a freeze on new regulations, which is usually a good thing for business but not when we were eliminating and making our rules less restrictive. MAASTO BOD just started a new Motor Carrier Committee, which one of it’s goals is to give the MAASTO SCOHT a bigger, louder VOICE
- In my mind, customer service is just as important as harmonization. Many of us have travel and budget restrictions, but meetings like this one make a big difference: You learn new ideas, meet vendors, get motivated to try again to harmonize something, hear what would make industry more efficient. If you can’t travel much ( I haven’t been allowed to attend the AASHTO SCOHT meetings the last couple of years) you can still stay in the loop through conference calls and picking up the phone. Find out what’s happening out there. Some of the most engaged state folks never get to attend out-of –state meetings, but they are still contributing. I have folks in my MCS division that are: IFTA Executive Board, IRP Peer Review Committee, UCR national board, several working sub committees, FMCSA CSA Continuous Improvement Work Group, etc. HELP, Inc. the PrePass BODs, Truckers Against Trafficking, MOTA, etc. It makes a difference: I’m sure this is the same for many states, but in Missouri Electronic Credentialling (IRP, IFTA, OSOW, UCR, Haz Waste, Operating Authority saves carriers that do businees with us over $5 million dollars/yr. versus the old manual ways. A calculation we found from FHWA that considers the Time Value Savings, etc. Magnet for information and innovate. Don’t be afraid to fail. MCS has a Little Successes Document where we track little efficiencies or improvements in customer service. Almost every one of our over 100 successes each year comes directly from our front-line agents that have an idea or it came directly from a carrier customer. You have to have a passion for customer service. I almost said or QUIT. We call it Servant Leadership at MoDOT (internal and external customers)
- This ugly looking sign hangs on my office wall by poster putty or fun tac, whatever it’s called. I see it dozens of times each day and it’s a constant reminder that for almost every decision we make, to ask the customer. SC&RA, state trucking associations, individual customers. If you’re really listening and seeking out what they need, you’ll probably have a good idea. Communicate, email blasts, newsletters, go visit trucking companies to learn their business. We regularly send our phone agents to their customers places of business to learn and see the folks they work with everyday. Weekly updates, a culture of innovation and improvement. If your passionate about customer service, your’e probably a good leader for your people too and they’ll follow your lead. Telecommuting is a great example. Our people love it, and we’re still open when bad weather hits. Smile when you’re on the phone, your customers can hear it in your voice. Turn the org chart on it’s side. If everyone is trying to please the boss, who is listening to the customers.
- We are big proponents of results and performance management. We measure tons of stuff to see how we’re doing: phone queue times, productivity levels, bad checks, number of auto –issued transactions, system down time, CMV crashes, injuries, fatalities, seat belt usage by truck type, hours of in house training, budget, etc. If you’re measuring your performance, have goals, you’ll improve your customer service and results.
- I have no choice but to brag on my folks. Jan Skouby started our culture of customer service and we keep improving. Every month surveys and rolled up into quarters and year. Everything bad about government: Tax collectors, govt. red tape, audit you, put you out-of-service, license suspension orders, non-compliant, fine you, etc. and still find a way to satisfy 96-98% of our customers and 70% of them are very satisfied. We have a huge poster on our wall that says, “Every phone call, fax, document and email we process has a person and a livelihood attached.” We are very fortunate at MoDOT: Commission run, leaders that call on us to serve and innovate and not run our operation like a govt. agency.
- It’s a crazy and kind of scary world we live in and we all have so much to do. And I would be lying if I made the statement that harmonization is the most important thing you will work on when you get back. There’s so much on everyone’s plate. But it is important and deserves as much attention as you can give it. Customer Service is of paramount importance in my opinion (and harmonization is a part of it). Don’t forget to have fun. If your job’s not fun, make it fun. It’ll help everything go better.
- This is one of the ways I have fun at work. Being a goof ball.