The Logistics of Logistics Eliminating Detention and Delighting Drivers with Erik Malin
Erik Malin and Joe Lynch discuss eliminating detention and delighting drivers. Detention and dwell time is upsetting and expensive. As driver satisfaction and hours of service (HOS) become increasingly important to the industry, detention and dwell time must be addressed. Baton has developed an innovative solution to eliminate detention and dwell time.
About Erik MalinErik Malin is the Head of Operations and a member of the founding team at Baton, a freight tech startup focused on eliminating dwell and waste in truckload transportation. In his current position, he is responsible for ensuring promises to customers are kept and scaling Baton's operations. Erik Malin was the Vice President of Operations strategy at Loadsmart, a digital freight technology company. In this position, he was responsible for leading strategy development and strategic initiatives focused on enabling growth and operational scale. Previously, Malin hailed from AFN, a truckload broker, where he served as Director of Corporate Strategy and was responsible for strategy development and change management initiatives. In a previous role, he was the Executive Vice President of a boutique strategy consultancy, CarrierDirect where he advised publicly-traded and hyper-growth private logistics companies like Werner, Worldwide Express and BlueGrace Logistics on growth opportunities and related change management initiatives. Malin earned his Bachelor of Arts in Finance from Michigan State University.
About BatonBaton's motto is "no wasted hours in trucking." Baton is a technology platform that eliminates detention and dwell for truck drivers. Baton's goal is to divide long haul routes into two segments - an urban "final mile" segment and a highway-only segment. Local drivers in the final mile will have the flexibility to deliver off-peak when there is less traffic and lower wait times at warehouses. Long-haul drivers will spend more time on highways allowing them to earn more money with greater predictability on working hours. This all leads to improved profitability for carriers and a decrease in the cost of goods for all of us. Baton is based in San Francisco, CA.
Key Takeaways: Eliminating Detention and Delighting Drivers- A detention fee is assessed when the truck is held at the pickup or delivery location longer than the allotted "free time." Now, the "free time," varies depending on the carrier. Generally, it's two hours at pickup and two hours at delivery.
- Usually, detention charges are only applied in truckload shipping. Though it is possible to get these fees in LTL, they are rare.
- Detention and dwell time is a big problem for everyone involved in shipping:
- For carriers and drivers, detention and dwell time reduces their opportunity to drive and earn. Since detention and dwell time is hard to predict, drivers and carriers struggle to plan around it. With hours of services (HOS) and driver satisfaction becoming more important to the industry, limiting and or eliminating dwell time is very important.
- For shippers, detention results in additional costs in the form of detention charges. Additionally, carriers and drivers will be less likely to work with shippers who make them wait to load and unload. Carriers and drivers will eventually charge shippers with long dwell time higher rates.
- Baton eliminates detention and dwell time, which will reduce detention costs and help carriers and drivers to better plan their time and log more miles.
- Baton is a logistics service that eliminates waste (wait time, traffic, empty miles) for carriers (trucking companies) in the final mile of long-haul trucking through a nationwide network of drop zones positions just outside major metro areas.
- Carriers drop off and pick up loads at these drop zones, and then Baton local drivers handle the final mile of delivery so long-haul drivers don't have to waste hours in detention or traffic. Baton's software infrastructure coordinates the operation between carriers, drop zones, warehouses, and local drivers, and uses convex optimization to optimize our network and minimize cost.