DCs Eye VR Simulated
Training for Hostlers
February 17, 2021
Driven
by the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 ecommerce sales in the U.S. are more than 30%
above those of the preceding year. By 2024, ecommerce is projected to reach $1.2
trillion, accounting for over 19% of total retail sales. “Supporting this burst
of economic activity,” says John Kearney, CEO of Advanced Training Systems, “is
an equally fast-growing coast-to-coast network of distribution centers. Each
distribution center employs a staff of Hostler drivers whose job it is to handle
cargo trailers while they are in the yard. A rising accident rate among these
employees, and their importance as truckers of tomorrow, clearly shows the need
for better training hostlers commonly known as yard jockeys.”

A yard jockey, Kearney
explains, is a truck driver whose primary responsibility is moving loaded or
unloaded trailers from one point to another while they are in a distribution
center or other terminus. (Long-haul truckers, he notes, are governed by strict
Department of Transportation limitations on the number of daily hours they spend
behind the wheel, time more profitably spent on the road.) A yard hostler is a
jockey whose duties may also include loading and unloading trailers. As these
workers, primarily entry-level employees, normally do not drive trucks outside
the grounds of the warehouse or distribution center, they may or may not have
earned a commercial driver’s license.
Kearney, whose company is a leading designer and manufacturer of virtual
simulators for driver training, among other applications, notes that these
positions have traditionally involved a fairly low level of primarily on-the-job
training. The limits of this informal system, however, are being sorely tested
by the recent explosion of ecommerce. Amazon has recently added 33 new
fulfillment centers in the U.S., bringing its total to over 100. Walmart, which
runs one of the largest distribution operations in the world, currently has over
150 distribution centers. Home Depot, which has recently added three new
distribution centers in Atlanta alone, plans to spend $1.2 billion on
supply-chain facilities over the next five years.
In addition to adding thousands of new jobs, says Kearney, the ecommerce boom,
with its emphasis on rapid delivery, has raised the bar for performance at every
level of the supply chain—including yard jockeys and hostlers. “In a 10-hour
shift,” says Kearney, “a hostler might have to back, turn, and move 50 to 100
trailers, working in a confined space full of people and other vehicles. To do
that well and safely, a few hours of informal training is not enough. These
employees need to be given a well-educated understanding of the space they’re
operating in.”
The best way to provide that understanding, says Kearney, is through
virtual-reality simulator training, which enables workers to learn to operate
heavy equipment in a confined space without endangering themselves or anyone
else. Noting that employment in these off-road positions is a traditional entry
point to the better-paid profession of long-haul trucking, where new drivers are
urgently needed, Kearney says, “We have two major supply chain problems in this
country, an exploding ecommerce boom and a looming shortage of truck drivers.
Properly trained, yard jockeys and hostlers can provide part of the solution to
both.” |