Life on the Road - Trucking News Blog

Dan Goodwill has a great article (again) -

Coming Soon – A Truck Capacity Shortage and Higher Freight Rates

Those carriers that are still in business are trimming their truck fleets. Truckload carriers are cutting capacity at the highest rate in a decade to create a better balance between supply and demand. Bob Costello, chief economist of the American Trucking Association has supplied data that showed a 3.6% drop in capacity in January and February, “the largest since we began collecting the data”.

It’s what we’ve been talking about for months, except Dan has all the numbers. Manufacturers are also cutting back on production and even the used truck market is going to be tight because of all the foreign truck buyers.

The good news -

As demand increases, there will be a lot less truck supply than at the start of this freight recession. While some parked trucks will be put back into service, it will take time to ramp up truck production, hire and train drivers and replace the trucking companies that have gone to “trucking company heaven”.

Personally, I think the rise in rates will be more than 10% as the rest of the article states. This last month I’ve actually worked more than usual. I’ve even heard the cries of a shipper being desperate. Reality was they weren’t that desperate, but it’s a start.

It’s a good article and the point is that we may be at the bottom or at least close to the bottom of the slowdown and it may be picking up soon and the trucks / owners that have survived will be able to call the shots. I don’t think it will get much better till after the election. Shippers and manufactures are unclear about what the next President is going to do. Even though they’re all the same and have the same plan to destroy the economy, but that’s a different post.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Headlines all across the sports pages will read various ways, all of them proclaiming Kyle Busch the winner. But is he really a winner? I’m really not sure he is.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 11% [?]

Not really, but they’ve figured out that by connecting all of their to do list to the Green movement, they think they can convince people they want to save the environment.

Slower Trucks Could Save 31.5M Tons Of CO2 Emissions
The American Trucking Associations has launched the first-ever industry-wide environmental sustainability program under the banner Trucks Deliver a Cleaner Tomorrow.

ATA has produced a report (exec summary) and is making six recommendations to reduce fuel consumption.

The plan calls for governors on new trucks to limit speeds to no more than 68 mph, a call to reduce the national speed limit to 65 mph for all vehicles, and industry participation in the U.S. EPA SmartWay Transport Partnership Program. Also on the list is reducing engine idling, improving highways, using more productive truck combinations, and setting fuel economy standards for trucks.

I’ll have to admit, I didn’t read the executive summary, I tried but couldn’t get past the first page. There’s only so much BS I can handle. But I did sit through the video on the same Trucks Deliver A Cleaner Tomorrow website. Cleaner and Greener the latest buzzword catch phrase. The part about how they want to be proactive and not wait for directives? What? The ATA are the ones that want these directives, not the government or anyone else.

They’ve even given their long time request of longer and heavier trucks a Green argument saying it will not only be more efficient, but more fuel efficient, will relieve congestion and reduce emissions.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 11% [?]

Hey everybody, I’m back with the starting grid for tonight’s Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway! Before I get to that, Did you see the Nationwide Series race last night? Did you see Kyle Busch get spun out and wrecked? I almost fell out of my chair laughing at the whole thing. When they interviewed him afterwards he was a little baby about it wasn’t he? How soon he forgets that he did the same thing just last week. It was nice to see Tony Stewart get his first win at Darlington even if it was in the Nationwide Series. I really like his car in that series. I’m not a big fan of Old Spice but the paint scheme is cool on the car.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 12% [?]

When my oldest son turned 15 I knew I was in trouble because it meant time for Driver’s Ed. Well my youngest son just turned 15 in April so here we go again. Why am I discussing Driver’s Ed? Because I think there is something very important that all high schools AND driving schools should include in their courses. Safety awareness around big trucks!

I was very curious when I took my oldest to school on a summer morning when he had Driver’s Ed. Why? Because there was a Wal-Mart truck parked in the middle of the parking lot with all these signs, arrows, cars, people, and even measurements marked off. I thought maybe there was some sort of big truck training going on and didn’t give it a second thought.

By this time, my boys had already known all about blind spots because believe it or not we have literally made them sit in the seat of our truck and look in the mirrors so they could see or not see things. So when my son got home that day he was very excited to share that Wal-Mart was actually there teaching the kids to be safe around big trucks! Can you imagine that? I thought it was so cool!
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 12% [?]

I think that’s how a broker should answer their phones, don’t you think? As with anything in the transportation business, you will have two sides to the story when it comes to dealing with brokers.

There is the drivers view: I’m being ripped off! And then there’s the broker’s view: I have to make a profit to keep the boss happy!!

When I first started out brokering, I thought it was a breeze. I had been a telemarketer before and my greatest accomplishment was a million dollar sale I had made at the age of 18. So I knew I had the drive to get the money. Ok, I should say the greed was there. Think of the profit checks and the money in my pocket for me and my family!

The first few transportation loads I brokered I have to be honest, I had no clue what I was doing. Then I sat down with my husband and started talking to him about what he would expect out of a load. At that time he was a company driver. I did my own research and educated myself on what I thought was “fair.” The first company I brokered for had no preset expectations for profit just simply that I make one and get the load moved. At times it was just that I get the load moved. So I never had any problems or complaints. If I had complaints, it was the general complaint a driver would have like sitting to long, not getting loaded, etc. The stuff you EXPECT to happen.
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 15% [?]

Its that time of year again, time for “The Lady In Black” to come out and play. Its no woman of human proportions, its the egg shaped Darlington Motor speedway. A new look, A new time of day, and a new lease on life? Well that question will have to be answered after we see the ticket sales figures on race day.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 19% [?]

Before I start the article I would like to quickly introduce myself since this is the first article I am posting to this site. My name is Clark Schoeder and I am the President/CEO of Cerberus Subrogation Professionals, LLC. We are a company that helps commercial trucking companies, owner/operators, and commercial auto insurance companies recover money that is owed to them by other insurance companies. I am going to be writing articles on trucking insurance, the issues truckers face in the insurance industry, and how you can protect your recovery interests. I hope you find these articles helpful and come back to check out future posts. Let’s get to the article.

I suppose we will start at the beginning. What should a driver do when they are involved in an accident to protect themselves and their company?

1.) Do not admit fault to anyone other than your safety department or your insurance company. This includes saying something as simple as “I’m sorry”. I have seen cases lost because the other party has a witness saying that the truck driver admitted fault at the scene even though they were not at-fault for the accident. I cannot stress this enough. Let the insurance company determine which party is at-fault.

2.) Do not talk to the other driver about the accident. You should only ask them if they are hurt and if they need medical assistance. If they say “yes” to either of those questions call 911 and request medical assistance. Beyond that, exchange your insurance information and say nothing else.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 15% [?]

Some of the results actually shocked me, while others didn’t. But here are the results:

1) What percentage of profit do you think a Broker aims for?

Percentage 10% 25.0 14% 0.0 18% 0.0 20% 50.0 25% 0.0 26% or more 12.5 Whatever they can get away with 12.5 Other

The fact of the matter is - a lot of the larger, more recognized companies aim for anywhere from 10% to 14% profit. But, if you want to get in the good graces of your boss, you shoot for at least 18%.
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 16% [?]

The scene is Richmond International Raceway, formerly know as the fairgrounds speedway. There have been seventy two races since Dale Earnhardt Junior has won a race, and here he is in the lead with two laps to go and kyle Busch nipping at his tail. What followed was in my opinion, a blatant wrecking of the 88 car so kyle could win the race!

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 30% [?]