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For the third consecutive year, Kenworth has donated a T680 Advantage to the Transition Trucking: Driving for Excellence program recognizing the top rookie military veteran truck drivers. Armed Forces into a career in trucking. Around 200,000 service members transition out of the military into the private sector every year, and the program is part of an outreach to veterans informing them of career opportunities within the trucking industry, according to Fastport President Brad Bently.Kenworth recognizes the importance of our veterans, and the donation of our on-highway flagship Kenworth T680 …
We encourage those transitioning from military service to consider the trucking industry as their future career, and urge fleets in America to nominate their best drivers who have served to protect our country.The donated T680 Advantage is equipped with a 76-inch sleeper, Paccar MX-13 engine with 455 hp, and a Paccar 40,000-pound tandem rear axle.The top driver will be determined by an expert panel of judges.
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Starsky Robotics ” might have you believe, the world of long-haul trucking isn’t a slam-bang adrenaline-fueled thrill ride. But Florida startup wants to change all that by making autonomous semi a reality.Starsky is doing a pretty good job of taking autonomous trucks out of the realm of the theoretical and getting them onto the road. Just this month, the company conducted the first ever fully unmanned autonomous truck drive on a public highway. Unmanned means unmanned too, there were no emergency drivers or engineers onboard. The truck traveled for 7 miles on a stretch of Florida highway, admittedly one that was dead-straight and empty, without incident.
Starsky has previously used manned but autonomous trucks to deliver aid in the wake of Hurricane Irma. One of its trucks on an aid trip was able to complete a 68-mile trip with no safety driver interventions. The thing that makes the Starsky approach a little different than that of some other autonomous trucking companies is that it’s only focused on autonomy on the highway, where it’s simpler to do cleanly and safely. For “first mile” and “last mile” portion of a truck’s trip, a remote driver takes over and navigates the more complex city streets.Starsky isn’t so much trying to replace truck drivers as take away the tedious and dangerous parts of their jobs while keeping them around for the parts that require real human skill.
There are a few other, infrastructure-based limitations to be worked out — who puts the diesel in the autonomous semi in the middle of the night at a rural truck stop? But the Starsky Robotics approach seems to have a real chance of actually becoming a thing, even if it isn’t the sexiest solution.Now I just need to convince Starsky to let me remote drive a semi-truck.
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It’s a big turnaround from recent years when there wasn’t enough freight demand to fill up all the nation’s trucks and drivers struggled to get attractive rates. This year will be the best for the trucking industry since 2005, said David Ross, an analyst at Stifel Financial Corp. “There are real serious constraints on capacity – mainly a lack of sufficient amounts of qualified drivers – that should drive trucking rates much higher as we move through the year.” “The rates are the best I’ve seen in several years,” Jim Kienbaum, an independent refrigerated truck driver from White Water, Wis., told Trucks.com. Both were about double previous rates.
Rates “were astronomical coming out of Arizona last week,” he said. and inclement weather has pushed the need for more for trucking services, bumping up rates significantly from a year earlier, said Mark Montague, an analyst at DAT Solutions, which tracks freight and rates. Rates for the week of Jan. Rates for refrigerated freight remained unchanged at $2.70. Freight rates still remain higher than at any time in 2017, according to DAT. Freight rates should remain high throughout the year, despite a possible dip because of less freight in February and March, before spring rates surge, Montague said. attributes the surge in rates partially to the ELD mandate, which took effect Dec. get more involved in being proactive to solve these issues like reducing wait times, better communication with carriers so trucking operations become smoother and more efficient,” Montague said.
Shippers expect rates to continue to climb because there are not enough trucks or drivers to handle freight demand, according to the analysts at Stifel. “We are seeing some really crazy high rates right now,” said Linda Caffee, who is half of a driver team with her husband, Bob, of Silex, Mo. “The freight is there and the rates are there.” Last year was the best year the Caffees have experienced in their 13 years as owner-operators.
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He was cautious a year ago about investment, exports and government three of the five elements that make up TEA, the other two being consumption and imports but by the end of the year, government spending was the only area of caution.Dieli uses a tool called the Enhanced Aggregate Spread to help him forecast market conditions.
At the end of the third quarter of 2017 (the latest period for which figures are available), all areas of TEA have shown growth, aided by truckable investment and truckable exports, but truckable consumption was the true driver of the growth.
He expects this to continue with employment continuing to rise.Looking forward, Dieli said TEA is continuing to follow the path normally associated with the expansion phases of the economic cycle.Dielis forecast model shows that for 2018, the expansion will continue and TEA growth will remain positive. The drag on TEA seems likely to persist this year.
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The topic of women in the workforce has been and continues to be, a trending topic. Our representation in trucking shadows our male counterparts: federal labor statistics show that women comprise just 27% of the transportation workforce. Overall, women represent only 3% of drivers, technicians, and mechanics. Trucking HR Canada highlighted the lack of women in the trucking workforce as an issue in 2014 when our national Women with Drive advisory committee was formed. The committee is led by 18 accomplished women and men, including company presidents, senior managers, and HR leads.
We came together with a common vision to support employers in recruiting and retaining more women in trucking. With women comprising 48% of the Canadian labor force, this effort isn’t simply a question of “Doing the right thing.” It is first and foremost a business issue for an industry facing significant shortages in key occupations. Occupations from funeral directors to architects have managed to increase women representation over the past couple of years. Each year, we bring transportation professionals together, both men and women, to learn from each other, share success stories, and nurture our networks. We have fun doing it! And each year, there are more young women in attendance. As someone born in 1990 and has attended the event since its inception, here are some of my key takeaways from my experiences at our Women with Drive Leadership Summit: 1. Recruiting and retaining women is a business issue At our event last year, Stephania Varelli from the Women of Influence organization told us that economies do better when women do better.
The Women with Drive Leadership Summit brings together a variety of people in transportation. This diverse mix shows young women, whether they’re in high school or already in the workplace, that a career in our industry is not only an option but a career of choice for many. I hope you’ll join me at our 2018 Women with Drive Leadership Summit, starting with a reception on February 28 and continuing with the full-day event on March 1 in Toronto.
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