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Aug 21, 2014

TRUCKS ACCIDENTS' * USA - Great decline

* Rhode Island - Fatal crashes involving trucks have seen great decline 

Providence,Rhode Island,USA -The Providence Journal --August 20, 2014: -- Comment by Christopher J. Maxwell, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Trucking Association: The Aug. 5 Commentary piece (“Tired truck drivers pose deadly risk”) by Karen Levy provides an inaccurate and offensive picture of an industry that not only moves the vast majority of our nation’s goods but has done so while making marked safety improvements and investing more than $7.5 billion annually on safety-related technologies... In 1979, the year before the industry was economically deregulated, large trucks were involved in more than five fatal crashes for every 100 million miles they traveled. More than 30 years later, that figure is down to just one fatal crash per 100 million miles — a decline of more than 75 percent. At the same time, the number of trucks on the road and the volume of freight being moved have all dramatically increased... The industry is pressing for universal implementation of electronic logging to improve compliance with work and rest rules. Technologies like speed limiters to reduce crashes and further improve safety are being introduced... Contrary to Ms. Levy’s claim, fatigue is not the leading cause of crashes involving large trucks — and neither are drivers’ paychecks. The leading cause of crashes involving large trucks are factors like speeding, aggressive driving, distracted or impaired driving — and the bulk of truck-involved fatal crashes (70 percent, according to our government) — are not caused by the truck, but by passenger vehicles they share the road with... Trucks move America, to portray the 7 million professionals in trucking as egregiously unsafe is not only irresponsible but counterproductive and harmful...

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Aug 6, 2008

Trucking is Lost ? * USA - Trucking as an industry is lost

USA -Life on the Road, by Wayne Weisser /From A Courtesy Flush. -Aug 3, 2008: -- ... Trucking and drivers are lost. Lost in the fog of misdirection. Fuel prices skyrocketed and drivers got lost in the story of how the Evil Oil Companies are destroying trucking, when the truth was trucking is eating itself from the inside. Always does, but with the focus on fuel, no one wants to mention the fact that there are too many trucks chasing too little freight... While older drivers are having some success at staying in business, schools and companies are still feverishly recruiting new soon to be disillusioned drivers, while a lot owners and companies are giving up completely at alarming rates. Which is why myself and V.Grumpy have been really busy these last couple of months. Not making as much money as I was last year, turning down ridiculously cheap freight and trying to balance work bills, home bills and home life as much as possible...

Striking for fuel will fix what? ...Fuel is just one piece... How do you fix overcapacity? Stop recruiting. Make the CDL rules and even the physical a little tougher. Make CDL schools more than CDL Test Passing Centers. Stop importing drivers. This is a Canadian company recruiting in England, but they have a huge US presence and a US branch. Make Broker and even Carrier authority bonds higher. Enforce the laws...

What if there were fewer trucks? ... Rates would come up... That would make consumer stuff more expensive, Make trucking a real career choice. A real driver shortage will force companies that want to stay in business to respect and treat their drivers, right and haul freight only from customers that respect a drivers time and labor. If I walked into a large shipper and was actually welcomed and treated with respect instead of being treated like I was a pain in their backside interrupting their solitaire game, I’d probably fall over dead in shock... None of this will happen because truckers are lost. Wondering around blaming everyone but themselves for the industry’s problems. Not wanting to quit because we are in too deep and know nothing else. Thinking that striking will gain us respect and get us what we want, when it will actually have the opposite effect. Most of us just want to be left alone and let us drive, feed our families and pay some bills...


* Truck Driving Jobs on the Rise Due to Job Transfers Within the Trucking Industry

USA -OneOnes Blogoshpere Community -August 4, 2008: -- You wouldn’t think it to look at any of the nation’s highways but there’s a severe shortage of truck drivers out there in the job market. With most transportation companies having to park many of their trucks up against the fence because they have no one to drive them, the industry is in a real bind... Because of the reality of economic growth in this country, the need for delivery drivers is expected to continue to grow at a high rate for many years to come. The rate of driver turn-over in the industry is currently at 35% and is one of the highest rates of employee turn-over in any industry in the nation. For continued economic growth, most transport companies realize that this rate must be brought back under control... As can be expected with a volatile industry such as the trucking industry, the recent high cost of diesel fuel and a slow-to-react economy, has caused some trucking companies to actually find it necessary to start cutting back on the number of drivers they have on the road. This shouldn’t deter anyone wanting to make a career in the trucking industry, however, as the market for new drivers is one that will always bounce back, looking to hire as many new and qualified drivers as possible and potential truck mechanics to keep the trucks on the road...

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May 14, 2008

ADVISE * Europe - Oil price surge should prompt rethink about supply chain networks

Amsterdam,The Netherlands -Transport Intelligence (London,UK) -14 May 2008: -- Oil prices are now pushing up to levels where companies need to start seriously re-evaluating their supply chain networks, both in terms of major infrastructure such as warehousing locations and individual elements like pallet sizes and delivery frequencies... That was one of the key points to emerge from today's (May 14) opening session of Transport Intelligence's two-day 'Global Distribution Strategies' Conference 2008 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The issue was highlighted by Martin Whitcombe, customer logistics director Europe for multinational manufacturer Unilever... "Right now, I don't know what the answers are but what I am saying is that we have to start thinking about the sort of things which when oil was $20 a barrel, no one really did. However, at $150 a barrel, these factors start to become important."...

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Jan 8, 2008

Talking Transportation * USA - The Truth About Trucks

Westport,CT,USA -The Westport Now, by Jim Cameron -January 07, 2008: -- ... Hardly a week goes by without some spectacular highway pile-up involving a truck. But check the facts and you’ll find most of those accidents were caused by motor cars, not the trucks drawn into the incidents... But for every overweight truck or over-worked truck driver there are doubtless hundreds of unsafe cars and equally road-weary warriors behind the wheel whose reckless disregard endangers us all... Truckers drive for a living. They are tested and licensed to far more rigorous standards than anyone else. And because they drive hundreds of miles each day, overall I think they are far better drivers. When’s the last time you saw a trucker juggling a cellphone and a latte like many soccer moms?... Excessive speed and drinking cause most accidents, and the majority of accidents involve cars, not trucks... Let’s be honest about this mess of our own making and stop trying to blame truckers as our scapegoat. As the great philosopher Pogo once put it, “We have met the enemy and he is us!”...

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Jul 3, 2007

* USA - America depends on big rigs

... the dangers faced by early over-the-road truckers becomes evident.

USA -On and Ron/F+W Publications Inc., by Ron Kowalke -2 July 2007: -- ... Bad roads, primitive equipment and no rules governing the amount of time spent behind the wheel were the norm... "Ice Road Truckers" is fascinating viewing, and watching men work in temperatures as low as 40 below zero makes you want to pull on a blanket, even in summertime! ... In reading about the history of long-haul trucking in fine publications such as those put out by American Truck Historical Society (ATHS) "Wheels of Time", and the Antique Truck Club of America (ATCA)'s, "Double Clutch," we highly recommend these club publications as must reading... (Gilliguy's Photo Gallery)

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Trucking Operations * USA - Can Be Costly, Complex, but Can Generate Revenues

Ashland,VA,USA -Pallet Enterprise, by Matthew Harrison -1 July 2007: -- There are plenty of considerations a pallet or sawmill company needs to take into account before adding its own trucking operations. There is a lot of federal red tape associated with trucking, and it must be navigated... Commercial trucks operating only in one state generally must obtain a number from the federal Department of Transportation. In addition, commercial trucks operating in more than one state must be registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)... Depending on the type of commodities a company plans to transport, it also may have to apply for an Operating Authority or Motor Carrier (MC) number; the MC number is used to classify the goods transported by truckers into two primary categories, exempt and non-exempt...

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Apr 21, 2007

TRUCKING INDUSTRY COMMENTS * USA

* Trucking fortunes take high, low roads - Trucking is one of the first industries to suffer when the economy lags and one of the first to recover

Phoenix,AZ,USA -The Arizona Republic, by Stephanie Paterik -Apr. 20, 2007: -- Two Phoenix-based trucking giants released vastly different earnings statements this week, with Knight Transportation Inc. announcing a 5 percent uptick in first-quarter profits and Swift Transportation Co. reporting that its profits plummeted 74 percent. Most American trucking companies can sympathize with Swift, which said it took a hit from higher fuel costs, bad weather and waning demand...

* Trucking industry hitting slower gear
Chicago,IL,USA -- Medill News Service/The Chicago Daily Herald, by Jackie Keenan -April 20, 2007: -- The 2006 trucking industry boom is stepping on the brakes in 2007, according to a report by New York-based Fitch Ratings Ltd. But even though truck shipments will be fewer this year, the sector’s labor market is enduring a dangerous driver shortage that causes many companies and industry leaders to worry about the future... George Billows of the Illinois Trucking Association said even though growth is slowing, the shift to a global economy will become stronger. He said “75 percent of the imports and exports in this country go by truck, and as we import more, you need truck drivers to deliver that.”... Illinois estimates 85,000 drivers will be needed here by 2014, a 14-percent increase from 2004, and the expected supply falls far short...

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