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. SHIPPERThat’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.
SHIPPEROne 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.”
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 SCHEMEThe 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 FRAUDThe 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.
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?
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.
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. <” 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.
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.
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.
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.
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Freight transportation is a very important need of every business these days. In fact this is the backbone of several industries and business. One cannot deny its importance in any respect. Although freight transportation depends upon three main modes of transportation Air Cargo, Railways and Road Transport (involving trucks), but trucks remain the major contributor of all time. Different Roles of Trucking Companies Trucking companies play an important role in moving freights from one place of country to another. For agro businesses and several small, medium and large industries these trucking companies are lifeline. Its impact can be felt in case of trucking companies’ strikes when the prices of all commodities go up. Importance of Trucks for Industries Importance of Trucks for Industries– Every industry needs raw materials and fuels to keep their operations smooth. To keep their output rate intact, they need proper supply of both raw materials as well as fuels to induce their production in provocative manners. To serve this need they have to maintain the flow of raw materials and fuels regularly, trucking companies help these industries in maintaining required flow. At the end of production process, trucking companies also help industries to transport their end product to their end customers. Thus, trucking companies are of great help to industries in both pre and post production operations. Importance of Trucks in Agro Business Importance of Trucks in Agro Business-Trucking companies are among one of the most vital factors for the success and failures of agriculture and other agro businesses. Right from the transportation of seeds, fertilizers and required machinery for agriculture, to the transportation of final products and by-products of agriculture, trucking companies help farmers and other people associated with agriculture based businesses or small industries. Trucking Needs of Common Man Trucking Needs of Common Man– Not only industries and business but also common man needs services of trucking companies at several point of time. People need services of trucking companies in home construction, transportation of their furniture and other home stuff in case of shifting to some other places. Even some business entities like packers and movers are completely dependent on trucking companies for all their operations.Thus, we can easily figure out how important trucking companies for everyone are. In first look, not everybody can understand its importance directly, but after an observation everyone can figure out the involvement of trucking companies.
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