Month: June 2011

Categories
Lifestyle Trucker News

Truckers Unhappy With Pricing Model

Less-than-truckload carriers are broadly dissatisfied with LTL pricing models, but not at all optimistic about changing to a new method for matching prices to freight.

That’s one of the findings of an LTL pricing survey conducted by Auburn University for SMC3 unveiled at the SMC3 Connections Conference in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

The survey conducted over the past year found 52 percent of LTL carriers were dissatisfied with the decades-old and much-maligned tariff and freight classification pricing model.

That compares with 25 percent of shippers and 38 percent of logistics providers who are unhappy with the densely complicated system, said Professor Joe Hanna, chair of Auburn’s supply chain management department.

The study, sponsored by SMC3, was launched last year after the collapse of LTL rates during the recession. It is the first LTL pricing study to include 3PLS, or freight brokers.

The trucker dissatisfaction reflects decades of discounting off base rates that divorced pricing from the actual costs of transporting LTL freight, Hanna said. Carriers, 3PLs and shippers questioned in the survey’s first phase said discounts “are getting ridiculous, and as a result the base rates are ridiculous,” said Hanna.

Far fewer shippers were dissatisfied with the pricing model, but most said they had “adapted” to what they saw as an imperfect system.
“Is the marketplace ready for change? There’s no consensus,” said Hanna.

LTL truckers were the least optimistic that the shipping industry is ready to change.
More than 60 percent of the truckers surveyed in the second phase of the survey said the market isn’t ready for re-indexing base rates or a density-based pricing.
Shippers were more positive, with 60 percent saying they were ready for density-based pricing, and almost 60 percent saying they were ready for re-indexing.

Categories
Lifestyle

TIPS ON PUMPING GAS

I don’t know what you guys are paying for gasoline…. but here in California we are paying up to $3.75 to $4.10 per gallon. My line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money’s worth for every gallon:

Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose , CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline.. One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium grades. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons.

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening….your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role.

A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps. When you’re filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. You should be pumping on low mode, thereby
minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you’re getting less worth for your money.

One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL. The reason for this is the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.

Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up; most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

To have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of gas buyers. It’s really simple to do.

I’m sending this note to about thirty people. If each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)… and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers !!!!!!! If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted!

If It goes one level further, you guessed it….. THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. How long would it take?

Categories
Lifestyle Trucker News

Shippers’ lot improves

Shipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship.

FTR Associates on June 14 reported a significant reversal in its Shippers’ Condition Index from the prior month.

FTR says the healthier environment for shippers is due to a slowdown in freight demand growth thanks to the current lull in economic activity, as well as further delays in implementing new federal trucking regulations.

The SCI sums up all market influences that affect shippers. Larry Gross, FTR senior consultant, said the current “soft spot” in the recovery is providing some breathing room for shippers as the growth in freight has slowed.

“At the same time, we have moved back our forecasts for regulation-based tightening of the supply of trucks, as the federal government has delayed the implementation of new driver regulations,” Gross said. “This is a temporary respite in our view.”

Gross sees the SCI starting to deteriorate once again as the economy begins to re accelerate later this year. As the new trucking regulations begin to kick in, shipping costs will increase through 2012, with transport costs such as fuel, equipment and labor rising faster than the general rate of inflation, he forecasts.

Categories
Lifestyle Trucker News

Bill would close drug/alcohol

Nearly half of all Americans over the age of 12 are consumers of alcohol. Although most drink only occasionally or moderately, there are an estimated 10 to 15 million alcoholics or problem drinkers in the United States, with more than 100,000 deaths each year attributed to alcohol. Among the nation’s alcoholics and problem drinkers are as many as 4.5 million adolescents, and adolescents are disproportionately involved in alcohol-related automobile accidents, the leading cause of death among Americans 15 to 24 years old.

STOP! DRUG/ALCOHOL

“For over 15 years, commercial drivers have been required to submit to drug and alcohol testing to ensure they aren’t impaired while on the highway,” says Bill Graves, ATA president and chief executive officer. “However, a loophole in the system allows drivers who test positive to evade the consequences of their actions by failing to disclose their complete work histories and positive test results to prospective employers. This important legislation will close that loophole and will improve the safety of our highways.”

ATA says the Government Accountability Office and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration both have found that a centralized clearinghouse for drug and alcohol test results is preferable to the current system that relies both on drivers to self-report their failed tests and on previous employers to provide test results to future employers. Currently, these prospective employers only learn of test results when drivers disclose the names of past employers for whom they tested positive.

Categories
Lifestyle Trucker News

FMCSA seeks Comments in EOBR Harrassment

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is asking for additional comments on whether its proposed mandate for electronic onboard recorders sets up the possibility of driver harassment.

FMSCA said it believes it reasonable address that constitutional requirement in both itsEOBR rule-making proceedings, but in light of recent litigation brought by Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.

The suit was brought by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association against last year’s rule requiring any carrier that violates the hours of service rules 10 percent of the time to install EOBRs in its trucks. In its suit OOIDA raised concerns about the potential for EOBR harassment.

The safety agency is looking for comments on the proposal it published earlier this year that would expand the EOBR requirement to most of the industry rather than just the 10 percent violators.

The agency is required by law to consider the possibility of harassment – defined as an invasion of driver privacy – in drafting an EOBR requirement. The agency notes that the same law permits EOBRs to be used to monitor driver productivity, and there are rules that prohibit carriers from using EOBRs to harass drivers for productivity reasons.

for the meantime, The American Trucking associations announced its membership endorsed an EOBR mandate but that it believes the regulation or law several issues including:

–>Cost-effective device allowing for accurate recordings of driving of hours.
–>Access in order to protect privacy.
–>Relief from current burden of retaining additional documentation.

Categories
Business Lifestyle

Groups push for safer trucks

The American Trucking Associations and the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association on June 8 called on the federal government to begin researching how standards for crashworthiness for heavy trucks could benefit truck drivers.

“NHTSA has continuously developed crashworthiness standards for automobiles and light trucks, but to date has generally not applied crashworthiness standards to commercial trucks,” the two groups wrote in a June 6 letter to David Strickland, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “We believe there may be opportunities to enhance the survivability of professional truck drivers if appropriate, research-based uniform standards are developed.”

Specifically, ATA and OOIDA highlighted the need for improving cab structure and occupant restraints such as safety belts and airbags, strengthening windshields and doors to prevent occupant ejections, and installing more forgiving interior surfaces. “Our organizations believe that improvements in truck occupant safety can be achieved,” the letter concluded.

“Making our highways safer, especially for our drivers, is one of ATA’s highest priorities,” said Bill Graves, ATA president and chief executive officer.

Todd Spencer, OOIDA executive vice president, said his group is “more than glad to join ATA in making this request to hold the safety of professional truck drivers to as high a standard as all other motor vehicle users.”

Categories
Trucker News

Fewer drivers

Trucking’s well-publicized driver shortage will grow next year and beyond because of fewer new hires to replace retiring drivers, a smaller number of illegal aliens and regulations removing truckers, said an FTR Associates economist at an online meeting today, June 9.

Saying it will be “very negative” for finding new drivers, Noel Perry, an FTR senior consultant, noted that with the end of the Baby Boom generation, the number of people available to trucking to replace those retiring will drop to about 500,000 a year from 1.5 million previously. He added that tougher immigration laws will keep many other potential drivers out of trucks compared with the last decade. In addition, many truckers who were laid off during the recession have either left the industry or found jobs with other carriers, he said.

“It’s going to be fundamentally harder to recruit people before we talk about anything else,” Perry said.

Take away about 300,000 drivers who will be forced to the sideline because of poor driving records and the driver shortage will grow from about 150,000 positions this year to 300,000 next year and almost 350,000 in 2013, he estimated.

Perry said that productivity gains, primarily by shippers and receivers making changes in their operations, could absorb a large piece of the impact of the driver shortage. Yet, he said, many shippers aren’t convinced of the problem’s size and haven’t acted. That could change quickly if shortages begin appearing.

Categories
Lifestyle Trucker News

Great West Truck Show seminars

The Great West Truck Show will feature a broad range of educational seminars and panels June 9-11 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Included will be sessions on Compliance, Safety, Accountability; hours of service; and how to pass a U.S. Department of Transportation audit. Partnering on the presentations will be representatives from the California Trucking Association.

Overdrive will host a free two-hour Partners in Business program presented by Kevin Rutherford June 10. Rutherford, an accountant, small-fleet owner and satellite radio host, will discuss how to increase revenue and reduce costs. He will be joined by a representative from financial service provider ATBS. The show begins at 2 p.m.

Attendees will receive refreshments and a copy of the 2011-2012 Overdrive Partners in Business manual for owner-operators.

Also on hand will be Custom Rigs’ Pride & Polish truck beauty show, part of the National Championship Series.

Categories
Trucker News

FMCSA proposes intermodal defect report rule

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has proposed to delete a requirement for drivers operating intermodal equipment to submit and intermodal equipment providers to retain driver-vehicle inspection reports when the driver has neither found nor been made aware of any defects on the intermodal equipment used.

FMCSA’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking responds to a joint petition for a rule from the Ocean Carrier Equipment Management Association and the Institute of International Container Lessors. FMCSA previously had extended until June 30, 2012, the compliance date of the requirement for drivers and motor carriers to prepare a no-defect DVIR while it considered the groups’ joint petition.


FMCSA said that all other requirements concerning drivers’ preparation of DVIRs to report damage, defects or deficiencies to intermodal equipment providers remain in effect, as well as for intermodal equipment providers to take action in addressing the safety issues identified by such reports.

Categories
Business Lifestyle

Trucking jobs added

The surge in trucking employment came to an abrupt end in May as the industry added a mere 100 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the preliminary estimates released June 3, by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Through April, payroll employment in trucking for the year had risen by 18,000. BLS did revise its initial April estimate upward by 1,100, however. Compared to May 2010, payroll employment in trucking is up 3.2 percent.

The overall economy put the brakes on hiring as well. While the nation added 232,000 nonfarm jobs in April, it mustered only 54,000 net new jobs in May. The unemployment rate ticked up a tenth to 9.1.

Total employment in trucking in April was just over 1.274 million – down 179,100, or 12.3 percent, from peak trucking employment in January 2007. The BLS numbers reflect all payroll employment in for-hire trucking, but they don’t include trucking-related jobs in other industries, such as a truck driver for a private fleet. Nor do the numbers reflect the total amount of hiring since they only include new jobs, not replacements for existing positions.