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Headlines
August 2000

A Look at Bad Luck

In Africa, bad luck has the flavour of witchcraft. Make no mistake about it, many drivers are deeply influenced by traditional ideas of possession by spirits.

Is bad luck in transport really bad luck or is it a product of bad planning, bad management, bad maintenance and bad driving?

The notion that "it just happened" runs counter to the idea that things are, to some extent, predictable by the laws of probability. At least within margins, we should know roughly what could happen, looking at all the factors in a situation.

But this is not necessarily so.

FleetWatch has previously carried an award-winning article on so-called "chaos theory" and its links with trucking. Extreme complexity in the environment surrounding a transport business makes it very difficult to predict, even within wide margins, what could happen.

Bad weather and road conditions, crime and hijackings, the state of mind and health of the driver, faults in the logistical plan being followed by the fleet manager, mechanical problems, and so on, all combine to unsettle the certainties of the business.

Things will go right most of the time but some of the time they can go horribly wrong as various factors combine to bring "bad luck".

In Africa, bad luck has the flavour of witchcraft. Make no mistake about it, many drivers are deeply influenced by traditional ideas of possession by spirits. For longhaul drivers who are isolated for long periods away from base, crossing terrain where fear stalks in the form of hijacking and warfare, the dread of evil spells may be more than a weak superstition. It could come to dominate their minds.

With all of this in mind, fleet managers in these uncertain times should remain attuned to the signals of driver fatigue, fear and uncertainty. The best asset a transport company should have is its drivers, for without efficiency and professionalism at the wheel, the trucks themselves become dangerous missiles on the road to chaos.

Counselling of drivers, finding out what bothers them, and supporting them in their jobs, will go a long way towards dealing with those mysterious jinxes that can cause disaster.

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