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.
Volvo Trucks North America in Pulaski County, Va., will recall approximately 700 employees between May 2 and June 13, according to a March 30 announcement.The New River Valley plant, which employs about 1,500 people, is facing a surge in orders for heavy-duty trucks, the Roanoke Times newspaper reported. Volvo’s U.S. and Canadian sales grew 46 percent in 2010 and were 47 percent higher through February compared with a year earlier.
Trucks sales boost has company adding a second shift back at Pulaski County plant.
Unionized production workers recently agreed to a two-tier compensation plan that requires recalled workers to be paid less than those currently working in the factory, the newspaper reported. It is a provision of a recently signed 5-year contract that runs through March 2016.
Truckers against Trafficking, an industry program to fight human trafficking, will be at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville. Human Trafficking is a crime against humanity. It involves an act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring or receiving a person through a use of force, coercion or other means, for the purpose of exploiting them. Every year, thousands of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers, in their own countries and abroad. Every country in the world is affected by trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit or destination for victims.
The non-profit Chapter 61 Ministries started the project two years ago to educate and empower the trucking field to battle the problem on the job. TAT produces educational material for the industry to distribute to locations such as trucking schools and truck stops. The project seeks to inform the industry of the problem and how to recognize and report it. A 2010 Congressional Research Services report stated human trafficking happens in the United States to U.S. citizens and non-citizens and in every state. About 17,500 people are trafficked to the U.S. each year for use in labor and the sex industry.
The trucking industry in the United States has a affected the political and economic history of the United States in the 20th century. Before the invention of automobiles, most freight was moved by train or horse-drawn vehicle.Trucks of all kinds occupy the roads, from semi-trucks carrying mega payloads across major highways to stylish Studebaker personal truck models from the middle of the twentieth century being carefully maintained by classic truck enthusiasts.People have long used truck-like vehicles to transport goods, though before mechanical engines they were often drawn by pack animals or humans. But as civilizations have advanced, the need for better, more powerful methods of transportation has evolved alongside the evolution of society.The trucks of today fulfill many job descriptions, but their usage is solidly defined in the human consciousness: a truck is not mistaken for any other type of vehicle. From its early use as “a cart for carrying heavy loads” to the modern “motor vehicle for carrying heavy loads,” the word “truck” definitively embodies the idea of moving goods—but the idea has come a long way.
Before motor trucks, railroads controlled inland transport of goods and services in the nineteenth century. The powerful railroad industry was the focus of technological innovation in an era when intermediate transportation needs were largely met by vehicles drawn by pack animals.The “flexibility of the horse” in transportation had no equal until self-propelled steam-powered vehicles began emerging, first in Europe and then in America, in the late eighteenth century.
Trucks are not just commercial motor vehicles. They have profound importance in the freight business, specifically in the trucking industry. For practical reason, there is no individual who wants to purchase trucks and trailers if he or she does not engage in a trucking business. A multibillion-dollar industry, the trucking business has a huge impact in the supply chain, in the economy, road transformation and in the employment aspect. It contributes a great portion in the US economy and is a very important link in the supply and demand activities.
I understand that we are not the greatest driver and sometimes make mistakes when driving, however there are some drivers that doing dreadful things. <” Turn SignalNO TURN SIGNAL-Turn signals are meant to help other drivers understand what you are going to do next. Help us all out by using your turn signal each and every time you are going to turn or switch lanes. WRONG TURN SIGNAL-If you are changing lanes understand which lane you are going to go then use turn signal accordingly. NOT TURNING TURN SIGNAL OFF -It wasn’t until pulled off of the exit that this person finally figured out that their left hand turn signal had been on the whole time and they shut it off.
<” DOING OTHER THINGS DRIVING WHILE DOING OTHER THINGS-Putting on makeup, combing your hair, shaving, brushing teeth those are all things you should do in the bathroom. SITTING AT GREEN LIGHTS, RUNNING RED LIGHTS– In the same vein running red lights is simply crazy and dangerous and even with the red light cameras that are out and about I still see so many drivers. I hope that this helps us all to drive a little better. Really it’s just simple rules of the road. Can’t we all just drive together?
Drunk driving is the act of operating or driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and or drugs to the degree that mental and motor skills are impaired. Holidays are some of the most dangerous times of the year on the road. Two to three times more people die in alcohol-related crashes on U.S. roads during Christmas and New Year’s than over comparable periods of time during the rest of the year, according to the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Holidays should be a time to spend with loved ones, not bury them.BE SAFE! Every single injury and death caused by drunk driving is totally preventable. Although the proportion of crashes that are alcohol-related has dropped dramatically in recent decades, there are still far too many such preventable accidents. Most drivers who have had something to drink have low blood alcohol content or concentration (BAC) and few are involved in fatal crashes. On the other hand, while only a few drivers have BACs higher than .15, a much higher proportion of those drivers have fatal crashes. Drunk driving, like most other social problems, resists simple solutions.
However, there are a number of actions, each of which can contribute toward a reduction of the problem just remember the three letter “D” “Don’t Drive Drunk“.
Truck drivers are a unique group of people, a group of men and women from all races and religions. The one thing that they have in common is that they spend their days and nights driving the highways of the world. There are drivers that only drive close to their home town, which allows them to be home with their families most nights. Truck drivers today have cell phones, computers, and nice sleeping quarters in their trucks. This makes their days a little more comfortable. The truth is they still spend the majority of their time alone.Unfortunately this technology does not make it possible for them to hug their spouse and kids before they lay down to sleep each night. REALITY LIFE Woman who is married to a truck driver doesn’t have the luxury of having her husband physically available to help with maintaining the household, and more important, he often isn’t available when needed in the most critical times.Loneliness is just one aspect of a truck driver’s life; they also deal with a heavy stress load. They pull large heavy trailers through bumper to bumper traffic, sitting for hours in traffic jams, as well as driving in terrible weather conditions in order to make a delivery deadline. They deal with irate customers because a load is an hour late due to a wreck that had the highway shut down. So the next time you are sitting at a traffic light grumbling about how slow the truck in front of you is moving, please remember that the driver of that truck makes it possible for you to have access to most of the things that you have around you. Remember that driver might have been away from his family for weeks or months, so instead of grumbling or making mean gestures, smile and wave. You might just make their day, and let them know that the unconventional and lonely life that they lead is appreciated.
Is trucking industry’s a man’s world? Certainly, if you had asked this question to anyone fifty years ago, you would have gotten the same sentencing answer: yes, indeed. Leaving aside the exceptions that did not confirm the rule, being a truck driver was not considered a dignifying career for a respectable woman. WOMEN DRIVEREven now, many women choose this career because of the flexible schedules, job availability and call of the open road. Whether they want to escape the routine of an office job or the boredom of their homes, truck driving is not just a job for many ladies rather a real life style. In fact, if there wasn’t a lot of devotion and passion in the cocktail, few women would be willing to assume the dangers of the road just for the money.
WOMEN DRIVEREven today, there are certain men who are skeptical about female truck drivers and regard them through old-fashioned spectacles. “You should be at home in the kitchen with kids. This is a man’s world and a man’s job,” women truck drivers are sometimes told. However, this isn’t an obstruction for daring women to assume the dangers of the road.
The Trucker driver challenges the norms of the city as a gendered space because she works and well as because she moves. Running a truck, of course, is not merely a process of learning how to negotiate those city streets with that machine, but of negotiating the internal space of the car.. I wonder and worry about the dangerous people . However empowering it is to learn to drive, being at the vanguard of gender equality and working as a driver is a risky place.
BE PROUD!
Women always point out that they are more scrupulous, while men boast about their reaction quickness. Women and men are very different. And our driving habits make this evident. At some things men are more successful , at some – women. In this lens I am going to analyze and compare female and male driving from various aspects.
In addition to the one-third of men living in fear of the passenger seat, one-fifth said they’d literally grip the seat cushion due to their anxiety. (Fraidy cats!) And, of course, a large majority boasted the superiority of their own driving prowess over their spouse’s. Women VS. Men DriversYes we are! Sorry ladies but it’s not because that we feel that you are better drivers than us, but our main fear stems from the fact that we know deep down inside, that women might lose control in any moment and get involved in an accident.When a woman panics behind the wheel, they usually do the opposite of trying to avoid the accident. They either slam the gas, let go of their steering wheel or just scream with their eyes closed. So now that’s out of the way, women, does this sound accurate? What are some of your most harrowing moments driving at the wheel? Ladies, is this total BS and guys are just too controlling in the car?
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