User-agent: Mediapartners-Google* Disallow: Trucks World News
Google
 
Loading

Mar 30, 2007

Put the brakes * USA - On bigger trucks for roads

The juxtaposition of news reports out of the state Legislature reveals clashing objectives

Ketchum,ID,USA -The Idaho Mountain Express and Guide -March 28, 2007: -- While lawmakers are struggling to find $246 million for minimal work on the Connecting Idaho highway repair and improvement program, they are at the same time considering opening up another 400 miles of state roads to monster trucks weighing up to 129,000 pounds... Politically courageous, strong-willed legislators with a heap of common sense should put the brakes on this scheme pushed by a veritable juggernaut of 38 agriculture and trucking groups with a team of lobbyists, all descended on Capitol corridors with tales of a bonanza of economic benefits trailing behind the trucks... Those driving the some 800 miles of roads now designated for heavy trucks will understandably raise their eyebrows about the proposal to add 400 more miles...

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 10:14 AM  0 comments

Mar 19, 2007

Truck Speed * USA - ... Too Fast, Too Slow?

NY,USA -Forbes, by Robert Malone -6 Mar 2007: -- Big truck speed is up for grabs... There are truckers and there are truckers. Fleet truckers and independent truckers are upstairs and downstairs. The former are big owners with big staffs, in contrast to the proudly independent truckers. The former are served by the American Trucking Association (ATA) and the latter by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA)... If a motorist is asked, trucks are always going too fast down hills or too slow up hills. Trucks can go very fast, but there is both a cost and a gain depending upon the context. If a truck goes fast it delivers faster and spends less time on the road. If a truck goes too fast it uses more fuel and may cause more accidents... Each year about 5,000 die on U.S. highways as a result of truck crashes. Excess speed is often given as the cause but the issue is, to a degree, clouded. In the large truck causation study by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), traveling too fast was found to be the critical precrash event in 18% of all crashes where trucks were analyzed as the core cause of the accident... In the American Transportation Research Institute's (ATRI) high-risk study, it was shown that of those drivers convicted of 15 mph speeding offenses, 56% were found to be involved in a truck crash the following year... Speed of a truck picking up or delivering can be perceived as a value in a world of just-in-time. However, whatever value is attached would have to be measured against the loss of life. The issue is not merely independent truckers as against fleet managed truckers, as speed can be a value for either and yet neither side wants to advocate a life threatening standard... The issue is also a green issue and a cost issue, as slower speed saves fuel. All the parameters of the truck speed issue need closer examination and a great deal more attention to the correlation between speed and fuel use, and speed and logistics savings... Further the issue needs closer monitoring of exactly how many fatalities are produced by every mile in excess of 68 mph, or other standard speed. Certainly there are many contributing factors and some of them can be more or less the cause of the accident: environmental conditions such as ice, sleet, rain or fog... These are targeted by the FMCSA and ATRI but it is not clear from the information presented as to the correlation between factors...

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 9:23 AM  0 comments

Mar 15, 2007

* USA - Why trucks shouldn't pay more

Yorktown,VA,USA -The Daily Press (Newport News,VA), by John Thayer-Smith -March 14, 2007: -- ... Yes, trucks are on the roads, but there is not one item that we all own or use that is not carried by trucks - items for building homes, food for the stores, on and on is the list. It may even surprise some people that the roads were built by the use of trucks... So before we stick it to the trucking industry with increased fuel and registration costs, think about who is going to have to pay for these costs in the long run. You don't have to be too smart to work that one out. Now where will the money come from? It will come from everybody, not just the people who drive on the roads... The trucking industry is already struggling. Increasing its costs without a return will only put more trucks out of business - a sure way to increase the price of products we purchase...

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 12:06 PM  0 comments

Feb 3, 2007

Comment * USA - Caterpillar exec addresses industry group

Las Vegas,NV,USA -Truck News (CAN), by James Menzies -2 Feb 2007: -- Rather than focusing on vertigal integration, truck makers should adopt a philosophy of ‘virtual integration’ – working as one with component manufacturers... That was the message from George Taylor, director and general manager for Global On-Highway Business at Caterpillar, at the Heavy-Duty Manufacturers Associations’ Heavy-Duty Dialogue 07 event in Las Vegas recently.He said that due to the major technology development required, as well as the cost of meeting new emissions standards, cooperation between vehicle and component manufacturers is required.

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 1:53 PM  0 comments