Life on the Road - Trucking News Blog

Today we are going to take a look at owner operator expenses, in particular Variable Cost. Last time we discussed fixed cost, the cost that do not change on a day to day basis, now we will look at the cost that do change.

Variable costs include items like:

• Fuel
• Tires
• Wages paid
• Some permits and usage fees
• tolls
• Meals

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 55% [?]

How stupid do people think we are?

Coming off a peaceful and productive weekend, I was surprised (well, not really) to see where one of my spiders had come up with this piece of gutter journalism. Feds outsource Mexican truck safety - Trilateral trade association becomes chief inspector.

I was less surprised to see some of the smear sites quickly pick up on it and run it front page.

Has it gotten down to this? The opponents of the Mexican Demonstration Program have exhausted all manners of rhetoric and need to resort to destroying a well established safety group? Apparently so.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 53% [?]

Jimmy Johnson drove the Lowes Chevy Impala to victory lane as the checkered flag and the caution flag waved at the same time. This is the third time in a row that Jimmy Johnson has won at Martinsville. The day saw a record number of cautions and The Lowes team was happy to see the last one. Lap number 496 of 500 saw caution number twenty when Bobby LaBonte and Casey Mears got together on the back stretch. This was the formula for another green white checker finish, something that Jimmy Johnson said was not one of his strong points. Well he didn’t have to worry about it because as soon as the green flag flew, Davis Ragan spun bringing out the race ending caution flag for the last time. Ryan Newman came in second and I am happy to see the pole sitter, Jeff Gordon come in third instead of first. I was just getting tired of hearing about him week end and week out. The rest of the top ten were Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Greg Biffle, Juan Pablo Montoya, Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 40% [?]

Please tell me that I am dreaming! I cannot believe that Jeff Gordon won the pole for the Subway 500 at The Martinsville Speedway this Sunday with a lap time of 19.938 seconds and a speed of 94.974 miles an hour. Why don’t they just give the Nextel Cup Trophy to him now and get it over with. Then we could add the rest of this years races to next season and get an early start. This is Jeff’s 63rd career pole and his seventh this season. It is also his sixth pole position at Martinsville and his seventh this year alone. Gordon is also the top man on the totem pole when it comes to wins by active drivers at Martinsville, he has seven wins there.

THE TRACK

Martinsville speedway is a flat track that looks like the shape of a giant paper clip. It is notoriously hard on brake systems and brake blowers are at a premium at this track. The winner of Sunday’s race will be from the crowd that manages the brakes the best. They run a much bigger rotor and pads at Martinsville than they do at say Atlanta. The difference in size would be very noticeable if you set both systems next to each other on a table. This is a track where tempers can get the best of just about any driver and probably will get the best of more than a couple. There will be some nasty hand gestures and maybe some equipment thrown at the offending cars to boot.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 36% [?]

According to a Logistics Management article; they most certainly could be. The first paragraph of the article states:

Shippers could be enjoying as much as $50 billion in savings through greater productivity from their motor carriers if longer and heavier trucks are allowed when Congress crafts the next federal-aid highway bill in 2009.

Economics are undoubtedly the primary push behind the effort to allow longer and heavier trucks to negotiate America’s highways but there are some environmental issues involved, as well. As ATA President and CEO Bill Graves recently said: “A great deal of the debate on Capitol Hill with the whole global warming thing has brought focus on the kind of fuel savings you get with more productive vehicles….”

The idea apparently being bandied about is to increase the gross weight limit on six (not five) axle trucks in the U.S. to 97000 lbs. If you’re wondering how the powers that be arrived at that number it should be noted that, as per the article, six-axle trucks in Canada and, according to Fleetowner Magazine, five-axle trucks in Mexico are currently allowed to gross 97000 lbs. The article doesn’t ever discuss the “Longer” part, and I haven’t been able to dig up any news articles regarding this aspect of the issue so, as to the new trailer lengths being considered, your guess is as good (or better) than mine.

So I’m thinking…for longer and heavier vehicles to be more productive, in economic terms, truckers will have to haul more freight for about the same amount of money. Doesn’t really sound like a great idea to me. What do you think?

Popularity: 66% [?]

According to the LA Times the cause of the wreck was a truck that lost control when it exited the tunnel on the wet road. The force of that crash caused the engine block to fly over the guard rail onto the northbound I-5.  While other trucks slowed down to avoid the wrecked truck, back at the tunnel, trucks that couldn’t see the wreck around the curve started causing the chain reaction.

CHP is still investigating the initial wreck, but the mystery is - Why are there 31 vehicles and only 22 driving age people accounted for. Authorities are very sure there are no more fatalities inside the tunnel.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 54% [?]

In about 4-6 generations, I am positive that elementary students will read about the century we live in and they will laugh. What they will be laughing at is a simple fact, we are living in the computer age where the boundaries of business are ever expanding and we use perhaps one of the most confusing methods for reporting the simplest unit of measure…and that measure is TIME.

Take a second and just browse over to this link, it will open in a new window so you don’t lose where you are here.

This link shows you some cities across the globe and what “time” it is there. If I asked you “what time it was” you’d instantly rattle an answer off, but if I asked you “what time it was in Prague?” you’d have to stop and think, and most of us would not know without consulting some resource…my question is why?

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 45% [?]

As fall is in the air in most of the country, so are the signs of the second severe weather season. Although it is not as long as the spring season, it is just as deadly. When fall approaches the country we start to see a shift in the jet stream that has great influence over our weather in this country. The jet stream takes a shot up into Canada and then runs back down to the Gulf of Mexico. As it does this it brings with it the cooler air from Canada and pushes it into the warm, moist gulf stream air that permeates the south. As you know when cool air and warm, moist air meet, the warm air is pushed up above the cold air causing storm clouds to build and the formula for severe weather is set in motion.

There are conditions forming as I write this, that are developing across the mid west and the deep south. as this cold front pushes to the east, severe weather is occurring along the front. Nine reports of tornado’s have been reported as of Wednesday evening from Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, and Texas and Louisiana. This trend will continue across the mid west and the south east through Thursday bringing locally heavy rain and damaging wind, plus hail up to golf ball size. This is not the only month that we can expect severe weather in the fall. November can be a little rough also. Case in point? Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 38% [?]

It appears there is more action on the Mexican Truck issue Tomorrow, Mary Peters, Secretary of Transportation and Mexico’s Secretary of Communication and Transportation, Luis Tellez, will hold a news conference on Capital hill where they will demonstrate to Congressional leaders, a hands on level 1 inspection of an American truck and the 2007 Freightliner that was the first to receive authority to participate in the Pilot Program. In the end, they will ask Congress to cease and desist. This should be interesting.

Oshkosh, best known for heavy duty construction and military applications appears to have developed a fully functional remote control Class 8 truck, The Terramax Check it out. It makes one wonder if the professional trucker will soon be obsolete and replaced with a systems manager in the future. Oh well, I’ll be retired!

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 48% [?]

The Money The Wages are not too bad for Australian’s around 700 a week the average wage in Australia is about 500 a week in Australian Dollars the Australian dollar is less than the U.S. Dollar.

The good part of doing the job is there is no boss looking over you shoulder and every trip is different. You are so far away you have to do your own thing ,you have to be a jack of all trades if the truck stops you have to try and get it going by yourself, help is hundred’s of miles away.

The bad part of the job is that you have a time table to keep up with and you are paid only when you are working. If you breakdown and have to wait for someone to come out hundred’s of miles to get you going you do not get paid for the waiting time, a good time to catch on your sleep.

All the photos I have taken my self, I am not the best at taking photos, you can use any of my photos as you like. I will be happy to answer your questions. Most trucks these days are air conditioned and some trucks have small fridges.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 100% [?]