Lou Smyrlis

It’s no big surprise that Stephen Harper’s election promise to cut the four cent per litre federal excise tax on diesel fuel in half was warmly received in trucking industry circles. Who would argue against a cut in their taxes? Hey Stephen, I'm willing to say a few nice things about you too if you're willing to save me a few bucks.

But before we get too enamoured about Harper, let’s call this announcement for what it is. A politically-motivated manoeuvre crafted and timed to curry favour as the country heads to the polls.

Of course it will give motor carriers a better chance of surviving the sky-high diesel prices they’ve had to endure the last couple of years. I’m not arguing that. (And hopefully it will translate in some savings to the fuel surcharges passed on to shippers.) But if Harper was truly sincere about helping out the trucking industry, why did he wait this long to suggest the tax cut? Where was he when diesel prices were at even higher levels?

Action back then may have prevented a few bankruptcies and saved some jobs. As the prime minister, if he truly wanted to lead, he could have done so. Ah, but then that would not have been smart politics. Politicians – and the Liberals would have been no different -- worry that people have short memories and may not remember a kindness offered too far in the past.

And in our jubilation over this promise let’s also not make it out be any more than it is. This is not, as some have suggested, an answer to our very real greenhouse gas emissions problem. I doubt the money saved would be used to invest in new green technologies by the majority of fleets. If anything, the lower cost of diesel, may serve the opposite purpose.

While I support the proposed tax cut, I also think it misleading to characterize it as the polar opposite of the Liberal plan to introduce a federal carbon tax. True, the Liberals still have important questions to answer about their plan. For example, how high does the levy have to be to truly change behaviour? The tax grab on cigarettes is damn high, yet I still see plenty of folks happily puffing away on their cancer sticks. If it doesn’t change behaviour, it’s just a tax grab.

But we’re doing ourselves no favors by quickly dismissing the carbon tax proposal
as “economically punishing and crippling” just because it’s a tax. A greener economy does not have to equal a weaker economy.

There are many examples of forward-thinking corporations that have gone green and come out ahead. Manufacturer Johnson and Johnson reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 7%, saving an average of about $40 million a year, while growing its business 300% in the past eight years. Germany created more than 250,000 jobs in the green sector in the past five years, with incentives to lure foreign companies, including a $35 million grant for an Ontario solar cell producer, ARISE Technologies. Can a green economy go mainstream in Canada if governments don’t adopt both a carrot (incentives) and stick (price on carbon emissions) approach?

I don’t know. What I do know is that these are important issues for the long-term future of our industry and our country. And that we need to have a sophisticated debate about them during this election rather than just throwing our support behind the party most quick to throw bucks our way.

This week I had the opportunity to participate in the 22nd annual Transportation Innovation and Cost Saving Conference, after once again being handed the interesting task of summing up the day’s proceedings.

The task is what I jokingly refer to as organizer Richard Lande’s masterful plan to get the media there and paying attention to every presentation from start to finish by giving the journalist the job of summing up so that everyone in the audience can tell if he’s been paying attention. I’m always happy to do it though because there is so much good information to sink one’s teeth into. The fact this conference has been going on for more than two decades now and is able to attract hundreds of attendees even during difficult economic times when the first thing companies cut is their training budgets says something about Lande and his team has been able to build here.

The startling news about the collapse of the US economy the previous week, and US president Bush’s plea for a $700 billion bailout the previous night, set an ominous tone for the conference. (As I watched former president Bill Clinton, interviewed on Larry King after Bush’s address, actually agree with a president most Democrats have come to loathe, I wondered just how deep the problems with the US economy really are; how much they’re not telling us). Anyway, it’s obvious there are troubled times ahead.

But managing supply chains during economic adversity is not something new. We did it 10 years ago when the dot com bubble burst and again after 9/11. But if you’re a supply chain professional or a provider of supply chain services, there is one key difference this time around. This time many of the leading CEOs have a good grasp of how important supply chains are to the health of their companies. They’ve come to understand that a well-managed supply chain can not only reduce costs but be a significant factor in growing customer satisfaction, market share and revenues.

The importance of supply chain professionals and providers of supply chain services is no longer the best kept secret in business.

Which means that the spotlight is on and corporate leaders are expecting miracles.

I’ll be writing a few blogs detailing the conference’s highlights but first I want to comment on the speakers Lande put together: an interesting mix of supply chain managers, carriers, 3PLs, lawyers and consultants. A wide mix yet there were two common characteristics among them.

One, the speakers were people who have become experts in dealing with change and, in fact, embraced change. As CN’s Peter Ladouceur said: “Change creates opportunity.”

The speakers were also people who realized that to change things you don’t have to start with huge and expensive projects. Rolling up your sleeves and tackling the low-hanging fruit is a good starting point. Or as Arlene Dalida of Resources Global Professionals, advised: “Don’t be afraid, just get started.”

I can’t think of better advice for our readers looking at the difficult times ahead and wondering how to approach them.