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The purpose of this paper is to examine the past 50 years of driver research from a historical context linked to the political and economic developments of the US motor carrier industry.

A comprehensive literature review was conducted and studies were targeted that exemplified eras of historic change pertaining to trucking published within the top-tier logistics journals.

Distinctive categorizations of driver research emerged: organizing era from 1930 to 1949, era of the collective mind from 1950 to 1979, era of the individual from 1980 to 2009 and the era of the driver as extension of the firm from 2010 to present. Research streams are highly influenced by current industry developments, economic conditions and the political landscape.

The chronological framework of research established specific time-based eras. An alternative framework or other emerging eras may be conceived as scholars consider factors in addition to those explored within this research.

Managers within developing countries may leverage the research within a specific era to help resolve driver problems that have already been researched in the USA. Scholars are encouraged to further study truck drivers as critical extensions of the firm in light of the advances in autonomous vehicles, drones and other technology impacting the motor carrier industry.

For nearly a half century, the turnover of truck drivers has been a major issue. This research provides driver managers with the knowledge to better understand and to more adequately provide for the needs and welfare of truck drivers.

This research is the first to fully connect the research and developments pertaining to the motor carrier industry, the occupation of truck driving and the historical developments of US policy and the economy.

Competitive market pressures within today’s contemporary business environments have encouraged the partnership of many supply chain members. Of particular interest is the development of successful relationships between firms in an effort to gain product and service quality and efficiency that would otherwise go left unclaimed. This research specifically identifies the need for supply chain members to foster healthier relationships within the firm in order to realize more fully success and obtain the benefits associated with external partnerships. The concept of internal relationship marketing is employed and a model is proposed to aid companies in identifying the variables associated with marketing to the internal customer. The motor carrier industry provides an appropriate service setting for the analysis, and implications for retaining the very best customer‐conscious frontline employees are outlined.

The purpose of the current research seeks to understand what role supply chain (SC) collaboration plays in effectively managing customers of a firm. The research also investigates what role industry competitive intensity plays on SC collaboration formation.

The current research utilizes empirical survey data from professionals whose companies collaborate within a SC. Structural equations modeling is employed to assess the relationship of collaborative process competence on SC collaboration as well as the moderating impact of industry competitive intensity. A further boundary condition is examined with the partner interdependence SC collaboration relationship. Additionally the SC collaboration account management relationship is also investigated.

The paper provides empirical insights on how SC collaboration contributes to focal firm customer account management. Additionally, results suggest that collaborative process competence and its relationship with SC collaboration works differently in the presence of partner interdependence and the moderator of industry competitive intensity.

While the findings help to promote the generalizability of the new research, future research could seek to understand how firms could develop specific account management value propositions through SC collaboration in specific contexts.

The main contributions of the work include empirical analysis of a proposed theoretical model, a better understanding of the role collaborative process competence plays on SC collaboration formation and the discussion of customer account management as an outcome of SC collaboration.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the core literature pertaining to frontline logistics personnel and their managers that has been published in the leading logistics journals. An annotated, yet integrated, review presentation will aid researchers in better understanding the concepts developed and linkages between the most critical variables studied to date. The paper aims to present a comprehensive model containing the primary variables pertaining to the recruitment, development, supervising, and retention of high quality logistics personnel to meaningfully identify what is known and not known about personnel issues in logistics.

The findings in this paper are based on a comprehensive review of articles pertaining to frontline logistics personnel and their managers, which were published in the leading logistics journals. For analysis, the paper is divided into five related areas: student samples and student perspectives compared to those of corporate recruiters; research oriented toward the skills of managers and issues relating to career development; research pertaining to the work environment and success of non‐supervisory, frontline employees; literature relating to logistics reputation; and research pertaining to logistics diversity.

Prior to this review of the literature, substantially less is known about how research links together previous research findings to formulate an integrative depiction of important concepts pertaining to logistics personnel. The results provide a better understanding of the knowledge researchers have discovered to date, as well as identification of areas in need of further exploration.

Most conspicuously absent from the paper is research pertaining to the interaction of logistics personnel and technology, the importance of logistics personnel in securing the supply chain, and the importance of elevating frontline logistics jobs to the next level of professionalism to achieve supply chain excellence.

To assist organizations in preparing managers, this paper has compiled and integrated the research relating to logistics personnel issues. This compilation should be valuable in aiding managers in recruiting, developing, supervising, and retaining high‐quality logistics personnel.

While there is a growing body of literature in the area of frontline logistics employees and their managers, a comprehensive review of the literature has not been published that links the results of various studies together to help identify gaps in the literature or conflicting results that should be further explored. This paper provides such a review as well as two theoretical models to help us better understand the important components necessary in hiring, developing, motivating, and retaining supervisors and frontline workers in various logistics operations.

Over the past decade, there have been a number of studies that examined either shipper or carrier selection and evaluation factors. However, there has been little comparison between how these two groups perceive these factors with regard to their partners. This study examines the similarities and differences with the rankings of factors between shipper and carrier groups. Furthermore, the results highlight the various levels of satisfaction between the two groups.

This work seeks to examine how front‐line employee performance and interdepartmental customer orientation affect the service, supply chain, and financial performance of US distribution centers.

The authors approached this subject by utilizing works from the supply chain management, services marketing, total quality management, and logistics personnel literature. Surveys were administered in 18 distribution centers across the USA and canonical correlation was employed to test the propositions that front‐line employee performance and interdepartmental customer orientation have a positive effect on distribution center service, supply chain, and financial performance.

Findings indicate that high levels of front‐line employee performance and interdepartmental customer orientation a positive effect on distribution center service and supply chain performance. The relationship of the two independent variables to distribution center financial performance was only partially supported.

The research did not explore how higher levels of front‐line employee performance may be obtained and may not be generalizable beyond a distribution center setting. For researchers, the results may be utilized in studies of logistics best practice. Moreover, studies investigating market orientation may find the results useful, as previous contributions have shown interdepartmental customer orientation to be positively related to the market orientation of the firm.

The results provide managers with evidence supporting the value of front‐line employees and the importance of encouraging departments to service other departments in a customer‐oriented manner.

This is the first study to detail the relationship between interdepartmental customer orientation and firm performance in a logistical setting, and adds further credence to the importance of front‐line distribution personnel in the delivery of quality output.

This study empirically explores one of the important channel issues – the relationship between various channel support given to channel partners and the perceived (by managers) goal‐orientation of a firm. Results from an emerging market, India, indicate that perceived orientation towards both profitability and market share is not associated with any of the channel support considered. Growth orientation however is strongly associated with most of the channel support activities – both business (e.g., business advice, pricing and ordering assistance, and personnel training) as well as marketing (advertising support, sales promotional material, and inventory management assistance) oriented activities. In contrast, perceived sales volume orientation is only associated with advertising support and business advice, however, the relationship is negative. These findings have interesting implications for channel management and channel motivation.

To examine warehouse worker development associated with managerial coaching in the logistics industry.

Examine the efficacy of this developmental approach in a logistics context, a survey method was used to provide an overview of supervisors' coaching behavior at 18 distribution centers in the United States. Warehouse workers answered questions about their interactions with their supervisors and their own job satisfaction while supervisors answered questions pertaining to the job‐related performance of warehouse workers for whom they were directly responsible.

The study findings indicate that warehouse workers at these distribution centers encounter low levels of supervisory coaching behavior. However, despite these low levels, significant positive associations were found between supervisory coaching behavior, warehouse worker job satisfaction and supervisors' perceptions of their subordinates' job‐related performance.

The findings are based on the perceptions of respondents at the specific distribution centers in our study and therefore should not be interpreted as being generalizable. However, we hope that they will stimulate further empirical research on the growth, development and retention of front‐line logistics workers – an important, but relatively under‐researched, area of supply chain management.

The logistics industry is becoming progressively more service‐oriented and technologically‐driven and greater front‐line worker competence in these areas will be required for many firms to survive.

As the greatest aggregation of labor in the supply chain is in distribution center operations, our findings may encourage logistics organizations to evaluate the feasibility of adopting more people‐oriented supervisory approaches like coaching that focus on personnel development and the provision of more intrinsically‐rewarding work environments.

The chemical industry is struggling to improve its supply chain performance, and improved asset utilization may help get the industry headed in the right direction. Since most chemical firms own or lease their rail fleets, rail utilization can have a substantial impact on overall asset utilization. The paper aims to focus on current managerial processes and situational factors that impact railcar asset performance.

Rail car cycle data are analyzed, focusing on major sources of variation in transit inventory as railcars move from plant to customer and back.

Findings include the importance of establishing and adhering to policies regarding supply chain practices; substantial differences exist between hopper and tank car performance; distance is not a major predictor of total cycle time variance; and vendor‐managed inventory relationships can operate with less customer inventory.

This paper addresses only one component of supply chain performance: railcar cycle time. Further analysis is needed to investigate differences between hopper car and tank car transit times. Additional research should also involve the railroad companies as participants in chemical firms' supply chains.

The paper provides several practical recommendations for chemical company supply chain managers relating to process controls, focusing on large customer accounts, managing transit time and variation of rail cars between plant and factory. The findings and recommendations can be applied across many industries.

This paper focuses on supply chain practices in the chemical industry, which has been slow to adopt supply chain practices. In particular, this paper investigates railcar coordination as one means of enhancing supply chain performance, reducing both inventory and transportation assets.