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TRUCKING INDUSTRY COMMENTS
* USA - Preparing for 2010
Alexandria,VA,USA -TTNews (Editorial) -2 Apr 2007: -- Just as the first new heavy-duty trucks equipped with engines that meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2007 emission standards are hitting the road, EPA reminded us of what’s to come in just a few years: another new generation of diesel engines... The agency on March 29 released its “guidance” to truck and engine manufacturers as to what it will expect from companies that offer engines that employ selective catalytic reduction (SCR) to reduce emissions when the new standards go into effect with 2010 models... It’s a good sign that these guidelines are being published while the new engines are still being designed. It gives us hope that EPA and the OEMs will be ready well before the new emission rules go into effect...
* USA - Falling Freight Gives Shippers Leverage
Alexandria,VA,USA -TTNews, by Jonathan S. Reiskin -2 Apr 2007: -- A loosening of the tight capacity for freight hauling now makes the fuel-surcharge programs — upon which motor carriers depend to insulate them from fuel price spikes — vulnerable to demands for change by shippers... While the surcharges are not disappearing, parties on both sides of the negotiating table said shippers are now in a much better position to insist upon altering important details than they were a year ago... Competition among diesel fuel sellers has made it easier for medium-size and small firms to get better fuel-purchasing agreements that take advantage of price fluctuations...
* USA - EOBR comments due April 18
Grain Valley,MO,USA -Land Line Magazine -April 2, 2007: -- Comments are being accepted on a proposed regulation that would mandate the use of electronic on-board recorders for motor carriers that have chronic HOS violations... The proposal also offers incentives for carriers that voluntarily use the so-called “black boxes.”... The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration unveiled its “notice of proposed rulemaking” on the use of EOBRs at a press conference Jan. 11. The notice was officially printed Jan. 18 in the Federal Register and the comment period closes April 18...
* USA - OOIDA, Speed limiters will hurt, not help highway safety
Grain Valley,MO,USA -Land Line Magazine -April 2, 2007: -- The idea of putting speed limiters on heavy-duty trucks is a bad one, according to the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association... The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sought comments on a proposal by the American Trucking Association and several large motor carriers that seeks government-mandated use of speed limiters on heavy-duty trucks and a ban on tampering with them once they are implemented... The petitions claimed highway safety would be improved by installing the speed limiters. Not so, OOIDA officials said in the Association’s official comments... Rather than beefing up highway safety, limiting the speed of heavy-duty trucks will actually increase the occurrence of road rage, rear-end collisions of four-wheelers into trailers and the side-swiping of trucks, according to OOIDA’s comments...
* Canada - Why Ontario legislators should stop sticking their head in the sand and deal with the LCV issue
Ont,Canada -Truck News, by Lou Smyrlis -2 Apr 2007: -- It’s hard to appreciate just how fast global warming has gone from a confusing issue shunned by politicians and the public alike to an issue that may very well decide the next election... If as a country we are going to get serious about bringing our GHG emissions under control, obviously transportation, and trucking in particular, will have to play a large role. All options for reducing trucking’s GHG footprint should be considered based on their individual merits. That task will be a challenge not only for our industry but also for politicians, lobby groups and a public that has over the years become used to allowing fear to override logic when it comes to transportation policy. The saga of long combination vehicles (LCVs) in Ontario is a perfect case in point... A recent study by Transport Canada examining costs of traffic congestion for Canada’s nine largest urban areas estimated that about half a billion litres of fuel are wasted annually because of congestion. This amounts to between 1.2 million tonnes and 1.4 million tonnes of GHG emissions. LCVs, long in use in Western Canada and Quebec, can play an important role in reducing congestion and GHG emissions. Studies show that using LCVs can reduce vehicle kilometres by 50% for the same volume of cargo... Early results from a soon-to-be released study on LCV use, conducted on behalf of the Ontario Trucking Association in collaboration with the Canadian Trucking Alliance and Natural Resources Canada’s FleetSmart program, showed an average saving of up to 28L/100km (2 MPG) for LCVs against tractor-trailers for the fleets included in the study. This adds up to a savings of up to 1.8 billion kilometres of truck travel annually, and energy savings of 260 million litres of fuel annually. The magic number is GHG reductions is 730 kilotonnes... It is the responsibility of elected officials to show leadership, particularly on complicated issues such as global warming. Rather than shunning LCVs because of unfounded public safety concerns they should be doing their utmost to educate the public on the benefits of LCVs and rushing to get them on the road...
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