Category: Trucker News

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Trucker News

How to Start a Trucking Business?

Trucking businesses have therefore flourished because of the necessity for trucking services in moving food and consumer goods. If you are planning to get into the trucking business, it is important that you know basic things about operating a trucking business.
Trucking business clients
Targeted market for a trucking business includes people and business organizations that manufacture, sell and distribute goods and materials. Getting big companies to work with you will be difficult though if your trucking company is just starting up and your trucking transport business has limited coverage. It is therefore important that you look for alternative potential clients which can include small business operators that are participating in trade shows to showcase their goods and products. These clients need trucking services when moving their goods from one location to another.

Marketing

Marketing your trucking business
You can increase the number of clients who avail of your trucking services by advertising your trucking freight business. You may, for example, post ads in trade magazines where prospective clients are able to find them. You can also offer better rates than other trucking businesses and highlight your special rates when sending brochures to potential customers. Word of mouth remains to be helpful so take the opportunity to provide the best service to your clients as this can help spread the world about the excellent trucking services that you offer.

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Trucker News

How does a truck driver know where to go?

These days everything is computerized. Eighteen wheelers are no exception. MOST trucks are equipped with a QUALCOMM™ Satellite System. OR some other type of satellite system to enable trucking companies to track their trucks to within three blocks anywhere in the country! These trucks now are highly stylish. Qualcomm is a messaging system with GPS built in which is tied into the truck’s computer and allows trucking companies to track where the driver is at, monitor the truck, and send and receive messages with the driver similar to email. It shows you within a few short blocks of where you are at about 3 blocks or so. It may be much closer now. You access the Qualcomm from inside the truck using what looks like a computer keyboard and screen. Each company can set it up to their own needs.
Truck drivers now do not have much need of a telephone. When the trucking company gets a load from a customer they then send a message over the satellite which the driver gets in his truck on an on-board computer telling him/her where to go and when to be there. It also tells the driver how many miles it is to the customer, directions, and any other pertinent information requested by that customer. New advances in technology are greatly enhancing the life of a trucker. These computers are getting very intricate. A trucking company can track how fast the truck is moving as it is moving, how long it has been on the move, fuel economy, idle time, engine rpm, and on and on! It is amazing what has come and what is upcoming soon!

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Trucker News

Diesel Drops

Since falling the week of Nov. 29, the price had increased 74.5 cents over 15 straight weeks of gains. The national average price is 96.1 cents higher than the same week last year. For the first time since late November, the national average retail price of diesel dipped 0.1-cent to $3.907 a gallon during the week ended March 21, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration.Since falling the week of Nov. 29, the price had increased 74.5 cents over 15 straight weeks of gains. The national average price is 96.1 cents higher than the same week last year.

Diesel
Although the national price slipped a bit, prices in some regions continued to escalate. Prices increased 3.7 cents in the Rocky Mountain region, 1.3 cents on the West Coast (exclusive of California) and 2.9 cents in California, the most expensive area at $4.199. The New England price also gained 0.6-cent.Oil slipped under $100 a barrel last week for the first time since March 1, following demand downturns after Japan’s big earthquake on March 11.Crude rose $1.26 Monday to finish the New York Mercantile Exchange trading day at $102.33 a barrel — the highest closing price since March 10 — following U.S. and allied military strikes against Libya, an OPEC oil producer, over the weekend, Bloomberg reported.Each week, DOE surveys about 350 diesel filling stations to compile a national snapshot average price.For state-by-state diesel prices, updated daily, click here.

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Freight Brokers Trucker News

Revenue of a Freight Broker

A freight broker is an individual or company that serves as a connection between another individual or company that needs shipping services and an authorized motor carrier. Though a freight broker plays an important role in the movement of cargo, the broker doesn’t function as a shipper or a carrier. Starting your own freight company can be close to impossible, especially if you don’t have any other businesses to rely on.
A freight broker does not require formal training, but for somebody who wants to go into this business with well build knowledge, there are some institutes that provide knowledge on the subject. Such an institute, like a freight broker training school, not only gives insight about the business but also provides certificates to students who successfully finish the course.

Freight Broker
A freight broker is legally a property broker, which is the term established by theFederal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), a division of the United States Department of Transportation. It describes licensed individuals or corporations that help make a shipper and an authorized motor carrier successful in the transporting of freight.If you have never been a broker, taking a good training program could prove beneficial in that it will teach you the process of finding truck freight and matching it to a truck driver.Another advantage of being a freight broker is that you can make a reasonable amount of money. It depends on how good a freight broker you are.
Manual Traning
The broker is held responsible for the freight until it is actually delivered so keep that in mind also.Becoming a freight broker is a time consuming process, but once you obtain your license you can now work as your own boss, or find job with an already established company.
Grab the chance! Online Training start with $99, REGISTER NOW!

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Trucker News

How to become Owner Operator?

Owner operators are those individuals, fleet operators, ship organizations that own and operate commercial vehicles themselves.Being an owner-operator has many advantages. It puts you in charge of your truck-driving career. Your truck your choices of where and when to go and what to haul. But it is also more difficult: you have to keep your truck running, find jobs,cover all of your expenses yourself, there is no carrier to do it for you.

OWNER OPERATOR
You long for the life of the open road, sitting behind the wheel of your truck, driving across the country hauling loads far and wide. But you want more than to be just a driver for a carrier, you want to be your own boss, and make your own decisions. Being an owner-operator can have many advantages over driving for a carrier. Owner-operators can make quite a bit more money than they would drive for a company. Many successful owner-operators even go on to buy more trucks and hire their own drivers as well, creating their own fleets.
OWNER OPERATOR
Because you don’t just have a job, you have your own business; you also have to pay for many things that normally a carrier would pay for: health coverage, dental coverage, truck insurance, life insurance, workman’s compensation, etc.Being an owner-operator is a very involved business, far more so than driving a truck. If you want to become an owner-operator, the most important thing is: be prepared. Before you make the step into the world of owning and operating your own truck, make sure that you know what you’re doing. You might be a great driver, but in order to succeed you also have to be a good businessman.

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Trucker News

Shippers Top Priority for Carrier Leaders

The unifying theme of a wide-ranging discussion among several chief executives at the Truckload Carriers Association conference this week was that trucking needs to make sure its customers have a clear understanding of the challenges the industry now faces.Shippers need to be as familiar as carriers are with the complexities of the driver shortage, industry costs, inflation and fuel prices, said the presidents of Swift Transportation, Knight Transportation and Prime, Inc. Talking about the coming driver shortage, Robert Low of Prime said that it is hard for shippers to understand but the truth is that drivers are not making enough money to reward them for their sacrifices.

SHIPPER
That’s in part because shippers are used to the truckload sector’s ad hoc business model, which makes for efficient trucking but is hard on the driver, he said. Over the past several years the industry has not made much progress on this issue because with business down there was not much need to. That’s going to change this year, he said. “It bodes well for rates but we need drivers.”Richard Stocking of Swift echoed the point: “The burden is on the industry to educate the shipper,” he said.

SHIPPER
One tactic Swift has adopted is to bring in unemployed workers for training to get a CDL and then indoctrination into the company as drivers. The average age of those novice drivers, by the way, is 43. “We’re not growing kids to be truck drivers,” Stocking said.Stocking stressed that it is important to create a driver-friendly environment. “(Drivers) have the hardest job out there and we owe them a lot of respect,” he said. Another Swift tactic is to start assigning several drivers to a single truck, so that it’s easier to schedule time off.Kevin Knight of Knight Transportation said that because his company has always hired experienced drivers, the recruiting job is getting more challenging. In preparation, the company a couple of years ago started a training business that takes on CDL holders and integrates them into the business, as a supplement to its recruiting efforts.Knight returned to his core message: “We need to work with customers to make them understand that this industry needs reinvestment. It is a difficult mission but if all speak loud and clear there’s a great opportunity that we will have breakthrough.”

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Trucker News

Trucker pleads guilty to theft through Gov’t Fuel Cards

A trucker faces sentencing July 8 after pleading guilty to using fuel cards without authorization to steal more than $300,000 from the U.S. Postal Service. On March 11, Vincenzo Bender, 36, of Collings Lakes, N.J., entered a guilty plea to one count of theft of government property before U.S. District Judge Joseph E. Irenas in Camden, N.J.

FUEL CARD SCHEME
The USPS contracts with trucking companies for long haul delivery of mail, including with a trucking company that employed Bender. The USPS gave special fuel credit cards called “Voyager cards” to the company, which its drivers were to use to buy fuel for trucks used to transport the mail. The USPS was billed directly for all charges incurred.Bender admitted that from November 2005 to October 2008, he used the cards to make numerous unauthorized purchases of fuel for his personal use, including for a side towing business and to sell to others at a discounted price. Bender used a number of cards – issued to trucks he drove and to trucks operated by other drivers – and visited multiple gas stations, often hear his home. As part of the scheme, Bender installed a large rubber bladder in his personal truck which held approximately 100 gallons of fuel.
FUEL CARD FRAUD
The theft of government property charge to which Bender pleaded guilty carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000, or twice the amount of loss caused by his offense. In addition, Bender agreed to pay restitution of $335,972.U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of USPS, Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Elizabeth Farcht, Eastern Area Field Office, for the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea.

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Trucker News

How to become a driver in complete package?

If it seems as if more and more big and small rigs fill the highways every year, it’s not just your imagination – over 3 million Americans drive trucks for a living.

Most of us while driving tend to drive subconsciously while we are engrossed in our other tasks like field phone calls, chat, eat or drink. The most crucial and the most important step of safe driving is ‘paying attention’. Now don’t try and fool yourself with those counter points of your saying ‘no, we pay attention’ but the truth is you don’t. If you want to talk, then go park the car and talk. What’s the matter with parking and taking your call? But we don’t get that point until we ourselves get into the worst situation.

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DRIVES BADLY

1) Everyone else drives badly– if you assume everyone else is going to be doing something dangerous, then the chances are that you will be more prepared when someone does.
2)Open your eyes– read signs around you, watch people other than just in front of you, and keep an eye on the road.
3)Keep a good distance from the driver in front – if you give yourself some space, then you also buy yourself time.

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FOCUS

4)Use your seat belt – seems like a bit of a no brainer but studies show that people tend to have accidents closer to their houses, which means that that pint of milk may be more dangerous than you think.
5)Don’t fight – just be calm. If someone cuts you up, ignore them, don’t flash your lights madly or tailgate them. It’s not courteous, and will invariably end up with trouble.
All in all, be cautious of other drivers. To keep your no claims bonus on your Car Insurance, you want to avoid accidents at all costs.

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Trucker News

Underride guards fail even at low speeds

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has asked federal officials to require greater rear impact protection for commercial trailers.On Feb. 28, the group of insurance companies and associations petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to upgrade Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards for underride guards, which are meant to prevent a car sliding under a truck or trailer in a crash.

Underride Guards?
Of course, some trailers are better than others, but there is no testing standard for evaluating the underride guards and their attachment points and hardware. Despite this, there is a federal safety standard for the guards, and there’s also a more stringent Canadian specification that requires the guards to be stronger and absorb more crash energy.
trailer.gif Pictures, Images and Photos
Despite major advances in passenger car safety since the mid-1970s, it seems the guards on tractor trailers still fail to reliably prevent vehicles from sliding under trailers in the event of a collision – a similar result to studies conducted over 30 years ago.In analyzing the Large Truck Crash Causation Study, a federal database of about 1,000 actual crashes from 2001-2003, the Institute determined that of the 115 crashes where a passenger vehicle struck the rear of a truck or semi, nearly 80 percent involved underride, and nearly half of those vehicles suffered severe or catastrophic damage.
However, it concluded the decrease was not statistically significant. The Fatality Accident Reporting System does not list trailer model years, so conclusions could not be drawn from this data either, the researchers said.

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Trucker News

Ports react to Japan quake tsunami

The massive earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan has pushed down the price of oil today and may affect traffic at the West Coast intermodal ports.

Ocean shipments going in and out of Japan, including those going through U.S. West Coast ports, have come to a standstill. The quake could disrupt shipments of Japanese vehicles to the U.S., which some trucking operations haul to dealers. Longer term, the disaster may translate into more shipments headed toward Japan as the country rebuilds from this disaster.

Meanwhile, truckers along some West Coast routes today are reportedly running into additional traffic congestion following a tsunami warning that was issued earlier, causing people to evacuate some coastal areas The Port of Los Angeles has suspended the transfer of hazardous materials at the facility, but normal cargo operations have not been affected. A similar move was made at the Port of San Francisco.