Just-in-time works against highway safety

RE: Road safety

It’s good that the OPP is demanding action from the trucking industry on inattentive drivers. For every horrific fatal crash that makes headlines there are dozens more that block highways or ramps for hours on end.

But what needs really looking at is the just-in-time (JIT) delivery and manufacturing practice in which goods have to be delivered sometimes less than an hour before going into use. For example, most of the major auto plants, all of whom use JIT delivery, require many parts to be delivered as little as 20 minutes before they go onto the assembly line.

Manufacturers of all kinds keep no inventory of parts because it’s more efficient to get them shortly before they’re needed.

But if parts aren’t delivered on time, the assembly line has to stop — and the resulting contractual financial penalties to the shipper are astronomical. We’re talking millions of dollars if an auto assembly line is down for even a very short time.

So the pressure is on drivers, who need to keep their jobs as much as anyone else, to make up for time lost. No wonder so many go barrelling down the highway at what turn out to be unsafe speeds.

If police and government want to see an improvement in trucking safety, they have to look at what is driving them to be unsafe. And that, in many cases, is the practice of just-in-time. Rob Howard, Hamilton