The U.S. economy added 216,000 non farm jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis during March, and trucking companies accounted for 1,600 of those jobs, according to the preliminary estimates released April 1 by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Con-way Truckload announced that 71 percent of its 3,000-driver fleet is using electronic logs (e-logs), with full integration of the technology expected in June 2011.The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is expected to make the adoption of e-logs mandatory for all carriers by 2014.
Con-way Truckload began testing e-logs in February 2010 and started integrating the system in its trucks fleet wide in November. Currently 2,145 drivers are using e-logs, with another 75 drivers transitioning to the system each week, on average.One of Con-way Truckload’s long-time drivers, Gary Sorell, was selected to use e-logs first.”When I started using e-logs in March 2010, I wasn’t sure what to expect; now, I wouldn’t give it back,” said Sorell. “With a computer to do all of the work, a driver doesn’t need to spend time filling out a paper log or calculating hours manually. There is no way to make a mistake, which eliminates log violations and makes it easy to work with the Department of Transportation.”
The number and rate of traffic fatalities in 2010 fell to the lowest levels since 1949, despite a significant increase in the number of miles driven, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported April 1.According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s early projections, the number of traffic fatalities fell 3 percent from 33,808 in 2009 to 32,788 last year.
Since 2005, fatalities have dropped 25 percent.NHTSA projects the fatality rate will be the lowest recorded since 1949, with 1.09 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, down from the 1.13 fatality rate for 2009. An estimated 21 billion miles were traveled last year.
Not only do truck drivers travel on the open roads but they also journey down the internet! Modern Technology gives truckers a big boost in countless areas and can make life on the road easier or at least a lot more tolerable as they are away from home. Truck driving software programs help to make all of the book keeping and paperwork less difficult to handle and keep organized. Laptop computers assist with keeping in touch with family, pals and also the trucking corporation they work for.
Truckers by nature are fiercely independent and they don’t like being told what to do. They also face impossible cost pressures that force many to drive far more hours in a day than may be safe – or legal. Replacing paper logbooks with electronic ones could improve compliance. But faced with rising fuel costs and EPA mandated equipment, most see information technology as just another cost burden. Electronic logbooks could make hours of service and other data logging faster and easier. Widespread use could also make roads safer by making it harder to falsify driver logs and drive beyond the 11 hours legally allowed per day per Federal Moter Carrier Safety Administration rules. But in the battle between these groups, electronic driver logs are viewed as a competitive weapon – or threat.