Kimberly Clark Doing Their Part-Facility Upgrades for Driver's Benefit

Kimberly-Clark Corp. KMB -0.40 % , maker of Scott toilet paper, has a plan to reduce potential headaches from a nationwide trucker shortage: more bathroom breaks for drivers.
The American Trucking Association estimates the industry needs another 35,000 to 40,000 drivers to keep up with demand. When drivers are scarce, shippers get hit with increasing transportation costs and delays.
To ensure it gets its pick of drivers, Kimberly-Clark is upgrading more than 20 distribution centers, including better-maintained restrooms and rest areas to serve the hundreds of drivers who pass through every day, said Scott DeGroot, the company’s vice president of transportation.

The goal: to make the company’s loading areas attractive to trucking carriers. That way they won’t skip Kimberley-Clark, which also makes Huggies diapers and Kleenex tissues, when they don’t have enough drivers to make all their contracted stops. When that happens, the company must turn to the spot freight market, where trucks can be hired on-demand but at volatile prices, Mr. DeGroot said.

“Thousands of shipments aren’t moving...because of the lack of qualified drivers in the marketplace,” Mr. DeGroot said. “We have to overcome this driver shortage.”

 

Mr. DeGroot said Kimberly-Clark’s executives have stepped up efforts in the last two years to train people in their distribution centers to be more aware of the driver’s experience. Previously, the company’s distribution centers sometimes only had portable restrooms available to drivers, and they weren’t always well kept, he said. The company’s rest areas now also have chairs, tables, water fountains and snack machines. The company tries to minimize load times and the number of miles it asks drivers to go so they can spend less time away from home.

Restrooms are among the top complaints of drivers, who are sometimes barred from using these facilities in loading areas even after 10 hours on the road. Drivers, who like to be able plan their shifts so as not to be stranded far from home, also complain that some companies leave them waiting in line for hours, said Gail Rutkowski, executive director of the National Shippers Transportation Council.
“They’re treated like second class citizens,” she said, adding that with the driver shortage shippers are catering more to truckers’ needs.
“The shift in shipper attitude is new, it’s still emerging as shippers are realizing this driver shortage is actually happening now,” Ms. Rutkowski said.
Meanwhile, Kimberly-Clark is also urging customers to make similar improvements in their unloading areas, because earning a bad reputation among drivers can leave a shipper stuck when demand surpasses supply.
“Truck drivers I think many times are mistreated,” Mr. DeGroot said. “We want to make sure that doesn’t happen on our sites ... We’re about 70% there.”