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Aug 11, 2017

TRUCKING INDUSTRY TRENDS * USA: Opinion

* Pennsylvania - A look at upcoming trucking industry trends

--- There are about 3.5 million truck drivers in the U.S. These truck drivers are moving about 70 percent of all freight tonnage... When you look at these statistics, it is no surprise that change is apparent in the trucking industry... 
In 2017, here are a number of trends that will definitely impact the future of the trucking industry: 
* Regulations: New regulations from government agencies may be the biggest challenge to the trucking industry... 
* Cost drivers: Pay for truck drivers is one major area of cost impact. ATA reports that the current average salary for an over-the-road trucker is $51,000 and $73,000 for a private-fleet trucker... 
* Fuel costs are another cost driver for the expenses of transporting goods... 
* New technologies to improve efficiency, safety and hiring, and retention of truck drivers, are going to be essential in the transportation sector... 
* Autonomous trucks: The continued research and testing of autonomous vehicles includes self-driving trucks... 
* Truck driver recruitment: The trucking industry is experiencing a real struggle in hiring drivers. There is a critical driver shortage, and this remains a major concern for trucking fleets... 
Reading, PA, USA - Reading Eagle, by Glenn Ebersole - August 8, 2017

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Mar 14, 2011

OPINION * Canada - Steering clear of freight congestion

Major drain on GTHA economy

Toronto,ONT,CAN -The Spec -Mar 8, 2011:  --  Truck-only lanes on highways, commuter buses and trains to carry parcels and tax breaks for companies making off-peak deliveries are among a host of suggestions to improve urban freight movement and head off growing gridlock in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area...  The ideas are among 17 action items to come out of a year-long study conducted by GTHA transit authority Metrolinx in conjunction with the Ministry of Transportation and industry players...   Metrolinx says there is a “pressing need” to improve goods movement in order to maintain economic competitiveness for the region. The study examines everything from tractor-trailers loaded with auto parts or apples to small courier trucks delivering mail...  Urban freight is sometimes described as the “the last mile” — the final leg of delivery of goods to retailers or consumers after those goods come off a ship or a rail car. But it also includes the movement of raw materials and parts between factories and warehouses and finished goods from producers to distribution centres...  Though Metrolinx cautions that data is incomplete, it’s believed the volume of urban freight could come close to tripling over the next 20 years...    (The Hamilton Spectator - Some bold changes and many smaller ones are needed to battle congestion in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, according to an urban freight report by transportation agency Metrolinx)


* Ohio trucking company president says congestion is choking economy



Northwood,OH,USA -Refrigerated Transporter -Mar 7, 2011: -- Keith Tuttle, president of Motor Carrier Services Inc, Northwood, OH, told the US House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that congestion is choking the nation’s supply chain and economy...  Tuttle, chairman of American Trucking Associations’ Small Carrier Advisory Committee, said congestion across the country can prevent his trucks from making their appointed rounds...  Tuttle told the panel those congestion problems would only be exacerbated by proposed changes to the hours-of-service rules that govern truckers since the Obama administration is contemplating reducing the allowable driving time to 10 hours from the current limit of 11 and making changes to the 34-hour restart that would require it be taken over two nights...  Those changes would put more trucks on the road, adding to already congested roads, he said.

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Nov 15, 2010

Opinion * Germany - DHL urges greater efficiency for sector

Emerging economies can reduce logistics costs by 30 percent, shorten transit time by 65 percent and gain 20 percent to 40 percent more trade by 2020 ...

Beijing,China -The China Daily News -November 11, 2010: ... if more efficient logistics practices are applied, an executive of leading logistics company Deutsche Post DHL said on Wednesday... The logistics company has identified three key approaches, which urge governments and regulators to decrease administrative burdens, reform customs and security processes, and focus on infrastructure investment, to help emerging economies improve their logistics efficiency, said Hermann Ude, chief executive officer of DHL Global Forwarding division... For example, BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - on average require twice as many export or import documents versus "best-in-class" countries such as Singapore and Germany, according to DHL... In terms of customs and security, BRIC countries carry out 10 times more physical cargo inspections than best-in-class countries, without notable improvements in security, DHL reported... (Photo: Truckers on a Russian's road)

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Oct 30, 2010

OPINION * Australia - Is this the start of something big?


(Video from YouTube, by tgilesau -28 Oct 2010: This A-double combination was built for Woods to run at 30 meters and 79 tonnes into Brisbane Port from Toowoomba. It's the first PBS vehicle of its type in Queensland)

Brisbane,Queensland,Australia -eTruck, by Tim Giles -October 29, 2010: -- This week the Performance Based Standards (PBS) scheme got a shot in the arm with the unveiling of three A-double combinations at O’Phee’s Trailers in Brisbane. They will run at 79 tonnes and 30 metres long hauling two 25 tonne containers at a time from Toowoomba on the Great Dividing Range down to the port in Brisbane. Currently the job is done with single trailers, the number of truck movements of grain in this particular application will be halved... Victoria do have quite a few extra long tipper and dogs on the road. There are also quite a few super B-doubles on severely restricted routes around Melbourne and Brisbane ports. These are hardly going to change the shape of the transport industry... Of course there will be problems and it certainly won’t progress anything like as fast as the trucking industry wants. New South Wales are still very negative about really useful innovation, but when operators there see the gains made the pressure will increase for change... As a cynic it is easy to believe this is yet another proof this extremely expensive and complex scheme will be wasted, getting just a few well designed and highly productive niche operations up and running while the rest of the industry have to continue to battle with overly restrictive prescriptive road rules and ever increasing compliance costs. It’s one of those ‘glass half full, glass half empty’, we have to hope the outlook seems bright but sometimes its is sometimes difficult to remain positive as state and local authorities seem to be forever nitpicking and raising last minute objections...

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Jun 13, 2010

OPINION: Regulation Fever! * USA - Now It’s Trucks

Downturn? What downturn? The Obama administration has moved to load massive new costs on yet another industry at a time when American businesses can least afford it

New York,NY,USA -N.R.O., by Henry Payne -June 07, 2010: -- The transportation sector is hit particularly hard in economic swoons, but this tone-deaf administration is now releasing its “earth-friendly” pit bulls on the trucking industry. Obama has ordered NHTSA to begin work on meeting a federal law requiring mpg standards for heavy-duty trucks for the first time ever... Trucking industry leaders looked none too happy flanking the president at his announcement, but in a Washington NHTSA’s presence is a concession to truckers who lobbied hard against EPA (which has no obligation to take costs into account) setting the rules... Ironically, federal particulate-reduction regulations enacted in 2003 have “decreased pollutants at a cost to fuel economy,” says Clayton Boyce of the American Trucking Association. That mandate added $30,000 in costs to a typical $125,000 truck... Unlike the automotive sector gas mileage is paramount to truckers... Steve Graham, a spokesman for Schneider, a major hauler, says that one-tenth of one mpg saved saves his firm $10 million a year... But now that Washington bureaucrats are inside the trucker’s cab, it will only get more uncomfortable...


* Improving Fuel Efficiency

Washington,DC,USA -Transport Topics -June 7 , 2010: -- President Obama’s recent announcement that he was kicking off a major effort to improve the fuel efficiency of commercial vehicles was welcome news to the trucking industry... But it was hardly a surprise... Officials at American Trucking Associations, some fleet executives and leaders at several of the largest trucking supply companies have been involved for some time in discussions with administration officials to help the White House shape this landmark policy... We all have seen the outline of the program now, but the really hard work is just beginning: crafting a plan to significantly increase fuel efficiency while at the same time ensuring that the nation’s goods are delivered in a timely, efficient and cost-effective manner...

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Jan 21, 2010

OPINIONS * USA - 2009 likely the toughest ever for the trucking industry

Fort Smith,AR,USA -The City Wire -19 Jan 2010: -- The American Trucking Associations' notes that in 2009 “the motor carrier industry has potentially endured the most severe drop in volumes ever"... Lane Kidd, director of the Arkansas Trucking Association, agrees. He said most Arkansas-based trucking companies still operating were “significantly” damaged in 2009. He said they employ fewer people, have lower balance sheets and have incurred a lot of debt... The Arkansas association recently began calling about 250 small trucking operations in the state — typically firms with fewer than five trucks — as part of a membership drive. Of the about 170 calls made so far, 41% were no longer in business... Kidd explained, adding that the Arkansas experience is probably no more or less severe than what is happening around the country... The good news is that Kidd reports an increase in anecdotal evidence suggesting improvements... (Photo from freeengineer.org: Welcome To Arkansas)

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Jan 11, 2010

OPINION * USA - Lessons learned from the downturn

Arlington,VA,USA -Fleet Owner, by Sean Kilcarr -Jan 7, 2010: -- There many lessons to be learned from the “Great Recession” of 2008-2009 for truckers of all shapes and sizes, according to G. Tommy Hodges, chairman of the American Trucking Assns. (ATA). But perhaps the most important one, he believes, is this: no matter how well prepared a trucking company, big or small, might be in terms of capital reserves, fuel surcharge contracts, etc., sometimes it just isn’t enough to stave off disaster... “There just aren’t a lot of ways to prepare for what our industry is going through right now,” he told FleetOwner in a sit-down interview at ATA’s headquarters... A new perspective on the political front concerning regulation complicates the business scenario further, Hodges believes. “The new regulatory mindset now between government and business is that regulations are going to dictate how you do business,” he said. “While this doesn’t sound like a bad thing, it’s a problem when you couple this mindset to the philosophy of the entrepreneur, which seeks to turn over every rock to save costs and be as efficient as possible”... In Hodges view, those two approaches can’t coexists successfully. “That heavy layer of regulation is going to take away a lot of flexibility and touches every single part of our business – equipment, labor, the services we offer,” he said. “That is the real paradigm shift we face today, and it’s going to really put out ability as an industry to adapt to the test”...

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Nov 11, 2009

OPINION * USA - DOT needs to rethink truck route restraints

Truckers and their trucks, are the link from business to consumer, and the people who operate these trucks often do their work on days when we’re relaxing and at times when we’re sleeping

Rochester ,NY,USA -MPN Now/Daily Messenger -Nov 9, 2009: -- It’s easy to take a dislike to tractor-trailer trucks. They’re noisy and smelly and block our views, and they spew salty road spray on our windshields in the winter. But they serve a vital role in commerce, moving goods to the stores we shop at every day, carrying anything from milk and meat to TVs and toys... That’s why it seems so unreasonable for the state Department of Transportation to consider ways to make their already-difficult jobs more problematic... The latest attempt: A proposal to restrict truck traffic on rural roads, developed largely after complaints that truckers are taking back-road shortcuts while hauling garbage to regional landfills... The DOT wants to force truck drivers to use interstate highways instead of more direct routes, and would ban large trucks — defined as 45 feet in length or longer — from seven state highways, including Route 96... Now, if it were only garbage haulers affected by such a regulation, it would be one thing. They comprise only a fraction of the state’s truck traffic. But many business owners, particularly in the farming industry, which by definition operates largely in rural areas, say such rules could be crippling to their bottom lines... The DOT will say they don’t control the Thruway Authority, and they’d be right. But they should, and it’s time for our state government, larded up with authorities that appear responsive and responsible to no one, to scrap at least some of these quasi-government agencies... Beyond that, at a time when businesses, particularly in our highly taxed state, are struggling to survive, much less be profitable, we shouldn’t be adding even more regulations that will drive up transportation costs and will mean higher prices for businesses and ordinary folk... As Kendra Adams of the New York Motor Truck Association said, “All of the businesses across the state rely on the trucking industry in some way or another”... Truckers are an integral part of a business operation. When their costs go up, so does the cost of goods and services at a time when state businesses and residents can least afford them... (Photo from workingshowtrucksusa: Gallery)

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Oct 22, 2009

OPINION * USA - Dan Rather blasts trucking, industry blasts back

Dan Rather took the trucking industry head-on Oct. 20 during his weekly program on HDNet, especially blasting driver recruiting and competency ...

New Y7ork,NY,USA -The Trucker By LYNDON FINNEY -22 Oct 2009: ... And it didn’t take industry officials long to take Rather head-on... Rather used three primary sources to build his case that a lot of men and women become drivers as a last resort, and that drivers are basically put in a cab and sent out on the highway... "Their sources were suspect, a disgruntled trucking company employee, a disgruntled driver who presented rumor as fact, the Americans for Highway and Auto Safety with its routine recitation of erroneous stats. I do not trust any one of them,” Clayton Boyce, the American Trucking Associations’ vice president of public affairs, said the day after the episode aired... The program’s producers went to Las Vegas to interview Dave Osiecki, ATA’s vice president of safety, during the organization’s annual meeting... “The circumstance where a person can go and take a one-hour, two-hour, eight-hour training course, operate a truck around the block and then go pass a test, that’s a problem in oversight,” one of two short clips of the interview with Osiecki said... “They cut down Dave Osiecki’s interview to eliminate statistics that show trucking is much, much safer and getting safer every year,” Boyce said... Rather did refer to Osiecki’s comment that trucking was as safe as ever, but then followed with an interview from safety advocate Jerry Donaldson, research director for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety... “If it's safe as it's ever been, then it isn't a very good story because it's not very safe,” Donaldson told Rather. “We've averaged about 5,000 deaths over the past decade. Those numbers have not significantly changed in many years. The fatal crash rate is still the highest of any type of surface transportation. So unfortunately, the same disproportionate impact on human lives and suffering is the same now as it has been for many years” ... “Overall it was very biased against trucking,” Boyce concluded... (Photo: Dan Rather)

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Oct 5, 2009

OPINION * Europe - Moves towards a freer road freight market

The 'EU Road Transport Package', does have important implications for the working of the continent's road freight market

London,UK -Transport Intelligence, by Thomas Cullen -5 Oct 2009: ... The agreement addresses the difficult question of 'cabotage' or movement of goods by trucks from another country. Although in theory a free-trade zone, in reality truck drivers cannot work freely across the different countries of the European Community. The new regulations on cabotage now permit drivers who have entered a foreign EU state to deliver goods, to make one collection and delivery in that state within a seven day window. The driver may go on to make a collection and delivery in a further two states that he crosses in order to return to his country of origin... This represents a significant move towards a freer and more coherent road freight market in Europe. The regulations are expected to be enforced around the beginning of 2010... An important corollary to this is the movement towards standardisation of operating licenses for road freight companies in the EU... The issue of foreign drivers operating in national transport markets is an increasingly important one for the global transport market as the quantity of material being moved across foreign borders increases... (Photo from acea.be: An EU Trucker)

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Sep 5, 2009

FREIGHT ECONOMY * USA - Signs are afloat that it's slowly recovering

Upswing in consumer spending and sustained growth needed for freight transportation to fully recover, say analysts

Waltham,MASS,USA -Logistics Management,Jeff Berman -4 Sept 2009: -- Some recent economic indicators point to the possibility of the recession coming to an end, but before that is made official, more needs to happen, according to freight transportation and logistics experts... In the last two weeks there have been an abundance of signs signifying positive economic activity... Some examples include:

· the Institute of Supply Management’s manufacturing index—the PMI—which covers the overall health of the manufacturing sector, rose four percentage points to 52.9 percent, marking the first time the index has climbed above 50 since the recession began—the 50 percent mark is typically viewed as the dividing line between “growth” and “contraction”;

· the Department of Commerce’s recent report that durable goods orders were up by its largest amount in two years, with a 4.9 percent bump, that has seen the increase up in three of the last four months;

· the Cass Information Systems Freight Index, which measures freight expenditures and payables, was up 1.3 percent in August compared to July.

Although these signs are encouraging, it by no means reflects a healthy and prosperous economy or freight transportation market. And they can easily be quelled by some less-than-rosy indicators, including: sluggish back-to-school retail sales, which typically signal increased consumer spending activity; improving but still down truck and railroad volumes; and low import totals at various U.S.-based ports, among others... (Images from limucross: "Our Limu has benefits!")

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Aug 25, 2009

TI's OPINIONS * USA - Smaller carriers need good sales pitch

Smaller carriers might be how they sell themselves to their customer base

Lancaster,PA,USA -Fleet Owner, by Sean Kilcarr -Aug 21, 2009: -- In some ways, the biggest challenge facing smaller motor carriers may not be depressed freight rates, the specter of higher diesel prices, or even rising equipment costs due to emission reduction mandates. In the view of Richard Clepper, founder and president of Clepper Consulting Group LLC, the Achilles heel of smaller carriers might be how they sell themselves to their customer base... Clepper – a 35-year veteran of the motor carrier industry who retired from Yellow Transportation in 1996 – believes small carriers especially must stop viewing sales as a “dirty word” and more actively court both current customers and prospects in order to differentiate themselves from the competition... Getting in front on the customer on a regular basis, said Clepper, helps smaller carriers find out how they are performing and – more importantly – if there are other areas of the customer’s business they can serve...


* Analysis: Trucking failures drop in 2nd quarter

New York,NY,USA -etrucker/Gerson Lehrman Group's Intelligent Conectly, by: Jay Thompson -August 24, 2009: ... A dramatic reduction in trucking business failures in the 2nd quarter ’09 as compared to previous and year-over-year quarters. Also noted was the principal reason carriers are remaining in business - creditors are allowing otherwise insolvent companies to stay in business so that they don't have to take back used equipment. We agree that problems have slowed, but differ on some other points... There is no question that 2008 went down as a record year of trucking business bankruptcies, failures and closures... It was quoted that the average size of failed companies was 18 trucks for the quarter, as compared to those almost double that size last year and closures are now at their lowest level since the first quarter of 2007. We see the same, but our fleet data show it’s been more a function of lower fuel costs than anything else...(Photo from workingshowtrucksusa)

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Jul 13, 2009

OPINION * USA - Still trucking

Texarkana,ARK,USA -The Texarkana Gazette, by Kristie Avery -12 July 2009: -- An 18-wheeler travels west on Interstate 30 Friday afternoon. The trucking industry is the first to see a hit from a bad economy and the first to see it come back... The economic downturn has hit many industries but trucking is one industry most people don’t take into consideration... “The average person doesn’t understand how food gets on shelves or clothes get to the racks. Rail is great to move freight but it’s not going to pull up behind a Wal-Mart,” said Bill Morel, HM&M Trucking president in Texarkana, Ark. “When it comes to the economy, trucking is the last industry people hear about”...

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Jul 2, 2009

OPINION Consultant * USA - Overcapacity hurts trucking

The declining overall economy and freight demand both are starting to find a bottom, but overcapacity remains a major concern

Birmingham,Ala.,USA -eTrucker, by Dean Smallwood -1 July 2009: - ... Freight may be the backbone of the trucking industry, but with industrial production at its worst since the first quarter of 1975 and other significant continuing issues – including demand and overcapacity – trucking is experiencing its worst environment since the 1980s, Eric Starks, president of FTR Associates said. Many economic indicators – including the ISM Manufacturing Index, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index, employment figures, the Consumer Price Index, durable goods orders, retail sales, inventory levels and housing starts – reveal mixed signals and are near historic lows, but some of these indicate stability and the possibility of improvement in the next few business quarters, he said... Credit is available, but banks are reluctant to lend to trucking, Starks said. Another phenomenon contributing to overcapacity is what Starks called “zombie truckers” – fleets kept alive by banks that would rather keep them afloat instead of repossessing their equipment. Regarding the used market, many companies are upside down on their trucks, and replacement cycles have been extended because of better equipment and fewer miles being put on it, which Starks said will lead to no measureable prebuy of less-expensive equipment prior to Jan. 1, 2010, when tighter emissions regulations mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency go into effect...

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Jun 26, 2009

* USA - Let’s Sell Some Trucks!

USA -The Big Money, by matthew.debord/Reuters -Jun 25, 2009: -- Here at Shifting Gears, we genuinely believe that a key to recovery in the U.S. auto market—and the renewed fortunes of General Motors and Chrysler, post Chapter 11—isn’t a new fleet of small cars but revived sales of trucks... Joseph White of the Wall Street Journal bases his analysis on how the recently passed “cash for clunkers” legislation will actually reward truck purchases more than those who want to buy cars (he crunched his numbers before the legisaltion passed). He acknowledges that “[e]nvironmentalists aren't happy with the way that the debate is tilting toward selling more trucks. ‘Clunkers for clunkers’ is how Dan Becker of the Safe Climate Campaign describes the latest plans.” But the way in which he otherwise lays out the incentives makes it pretty clear that the current program is explicitly intended to move pickups and SUVs off dealer lots... And hooray for that! The big players in the U.S. truck market—formerly referred to as the “Big Three”—need to sell trucks in order to make the kind of profits that will be required to pay off taxpayer loans and get their businesses moving again. The truck market is insanely depressed at the moment, so “cash for truckers,” combined with a possible auto industry recovery next year, could mean that trucks will be the first segment to really take off... (Photos from s39.radikal.ru)

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Dec 11, 2008

TRUCKING INDUSTRY OPINIONS * USA - For U.S. transport sector, future looks ever bleaker

Chicago,ILL,USA -Reuters, by Nick Carey -Dec 10, 2008: -- For transportation companies, it was never meant to be like this... By now the U.S. transport sector -- especially trucking -- was supposed to be in recovery mode, benefiting from a positive change in U.S. economic fortunes that many inside and outside the sector had predicted for the second half of 2008... Instead, deepening economic problems have meant more suffering, despite a 70 percent drop in oil prices since July's highs of over $140 a barrel... Now it looks inevitable that things will get even worse before they get better -- even for major U.S. railroads, which have so far maintained solid profits on strong pricing power...



* Trucking Still Stalling

Chicago,ILL,USA -Zacks.com -10 Dec 2008: -- ... Yesterday, Con-way Inc. lowered its 2008 guidance. The company expects profits to total between $2.20 and $2.35 per share, down from its previous forecast of $2.60 to $2.80 per share. (The numbers exclude certain charges)... CNW justified the wide range by citing "turbulent market conditions" and a "lack of reliable visibility"... Throughout 2008, trucking companies have been struggling with a lack of pricing power. This has been particularly evident in the spot market for less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers, though full-truckload carriers have also struggled. Bluntly put, there have been too many trucks... Adding to the weak prices has been competition from rail for long-haul freight. Not only has this affected prices and volume for the long-haul segment, but it also sent more companies looking for LTL business... The trucking industry is also more susceptible to economic fluctuations than their rail counterparts. Trucking companies are more likely to ship retail items, whereas railroads move coal. As a result, the benefit of the 45% drop in diesel prices is being more than offset by the recession. (Less demand means fewer items being shipped)...


* Truckers Head Into a Ditch

New York,NY,USA -Barrons' by Randall Forsyth -December 10, 2008: -- There may be more to Tuesday’s big, 5.6% hit to the Dow Transports than the lowered guidance from FedEx and others. ISI, the perennially top-rated economics advisory headed up by Ed Hyman and Nancy Lazar, is telling clients its own survey of trucking companies has fallen into “uncharted territory” to the lowest in a decade. They admit their survey doesn’t go back to the 1990 recession let alone the 1981-82 deep downturn. But ISI says the steep plunge in its trucking survey would correlate with a 7.2% plunge in fourth-quarter gross domestic product...

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