Life on the Road - Trucking News Blog

With SiriCOMM going the way of Truckstop.net I thought it might be time to get in touch with a certain senior official at Flying J Communications. He prefers I keep his name out of print but over the last couple of years, especially while I was writing “Over the Road Wireless For Dummies”, he’s been especially open, honest and helpful.

When Truckstop.net folded, still holding the funds of many a good trucker, Flying J offered to honor the obligations left unfulfilled by Truckstop.net. So I asked him; “will Flying J be stepping in and coming to the rescue as it did in the previous debacle?” His emailed answer included a surprising revelation along with an invitation to call and discuss the situation further. I accepted that invitation, earlier today, and I now know that Flying J is offering the solution to nearly every trucker’s complaint concerning WiFi services. Read the rest of this entry »

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It seems that Dart Transit is making an attempt at bringing reality into the Hours of Service Debate. Not complete reality, mind you, but more realism than has been considered to date. eTrucker has reported, in an article published yesterday, that

“Dart Transit Co. wants a two-year exemption from two provisions of the hours-of-service regulations so that 200 of its owner-operators can operate under a fatigue risk management system that encourages quality nighttime sleep and uses electronic onboard recorders (EOBRs) to monitor drivers’ rest schedules.”

The two provisions in question are the 14 hour clock and split-rest limitations; all other HOS provisions will apply. The goal here is to place the specified 200 drivers into a scientifically valid test in real world conditions. The on-board recorders will be used to ensure that the truck isn’t moving for at least six straight hours between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m. (meaning, presumably, that the driver is sleeping and not playing some silly video game). The idea is to provide night-time sleep while, at the same time, affording drivers a little more flexibility in choosing when and how they manage to get in their full ten hours of rest during any 24 hour period.

They’ll also, according to the article, use

“…software from Circadian Technologies to analyze driver fatigue risk on a daily basis. Exempt drivers and their fleet managers would get these scores, along with instructions on how to improve them, such as temporary reductions in workload.”

Dart applied for the exemption in June and the FMCSA published a notice of the exemption request, seeking comments, on Monday; the comment period closes on December 26. If the exemption is granted, Dart will begin taking applications and providing health screening from and for O/Os seeking the opportunity to participate in the study. The health screening is being done to eliminate anyone from the study who might have an undiagnosed sleep disorder.

On the face of it, this study would seem to go a long way toward bringing scientifically backed, and reality based, evidence into the HOS debate - rather than the unending litany of bias-ridden statistics. But do I think this’ll be groundbreaking or earth-shattering? Nope, but the proposed study, as well as its method and practice, is rife with interesting implications….

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…and maybe out!

Subscribers to the Siricomm Truckstop Wifi service may have noticed that they cannot get on-line through Sircomm at this time. A statement on their website reads:

Effective November 19, 2007, the SiriCOMM network is not providing service to customers. The outage is the result of a dispute between SiriCOMM and its network service provider, ViaSat. SiriCOMM is working to resolve its issues with ViaSat.

From Market Wire:

The network will remain inactive pending resolution of certain key issues, including non-payment. “We are very disappointed at the actions taken by ViaSat and we are continuing to work diligently to remedy the situation,” said Mark Grannell, President and CEO of SiriCOMM, Inc.

Siricomm stock closed at .04 today after a $1 high last December and has shown a steady decline since July.

I seem to remember an almost identical statement fromTruckstop.net a few years ago when they went belly-up. Siricomm provides wifi service mainly to Pilot and Loves truckstops. Hopefully they are able to resolve their dispute, loss of service for a second time in these facilities will leave a large hole in wifi access.

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Some time back I wrote a post on Hybrid Trucks. Things are a happening. Here’s an update.

Peterbilt.

Peterbilt has the only commercial class 8 truck that I am aware of…but things are happening fairly fast…I could be wrong.

This is their Green Machine.

It’s either on the road NOW or will be real-soon-now. But you can’t have one.

WalMart is apparently involved and is “supporting” it’s development.

This could be bad news for a lot of folks. How are you gonna like it when WalMart has a fleet of these babies on the road which get half again better fuel economy than you do? Guess where the rates are going? And you can’t buy one? Well maybe you can buy one……maybe. Read the rest of this entry »

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I don’t know why it’s not all over the internet, but it’s not. It hasn’t shown up on Drudge nor on Google News. Those two places are where I get most of my news.

It seems that a gas well near the interstate blew it’s top. I’d expect that to be all over the media. The media hates the oil and gas industries and loves to embarrass them. I can’t figure why they’re passing up this chance.

At any rate. As of Sunday evening it’s still closed.
The shutdown section of I-10 between Lafayette and Baton Rouge is not expected to re-open until December 4th.

Alternate Routes

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I thought I would wait till everyone woke up from their turkey coma before we started a few posts about truckers health. This is such a big subject (sorry! couldn’t help it), that we’ve gone from Trick My Truck to Trick My Trucker on CMT. If you’re not familiar with the show, each 30 minute episode, they take a trucker and give him a personal trainer and a stylist. Showing them how to exercise and eat right, even at truck stops. I’m not sure what the stylist is for, but I could guess. Read the rest of this entry »

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Here’s hoping all of you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving Day with your families.

Today is “Black Friday” the traditional start to the holiday shopping season. Merchants view this day as a predictor for the coming holiday season and traditionally is the day that puts merchants in “the black”!

I’ve been running around Atlanta Georgia all day making deliveries and have been noticing the lack of traffic to the malls, to Wal-Mart and Target. Several WM’s that I passed had maybe 30 - 40 cars in an otherwise empty parking lot the entire day.

I was down in East Point around one of the large shopping plaza’s off of I-285. The Police were out in force, parked on the medians to the entrances to control traffic, but there was no traffic to control.

Traffic on I-285 at mid day and again at 5 pm was as if it was 3 in the morning. I’ve never seen it this light.

If this is an idication of what this season is going to bring, we’re all in trouble. No shoppers, no freight. It’s already beginning to slow on the border.

At the moment, I am sitting in the Flying J in Carnesville Georgia. There is exactly a dozen trucks in here. At least some got home for the holidays.

Scales are closed, it’s a good time to be out here running.

Take care out there. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

And oh yeah!

HOW ABOUT THEM HOGS

ARKANSAS 50

LSU 48

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“Your mission…should you decide to accept it…is to transport this:

To another location….far….far….away.

Read the rest of this entry »

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You know about using Google’s SMS service from Ben’s very informative post. How else can you use Google on your phone? Google 411. Google’s free 411 service integrates a normal 411 service with SMS. Dial 800-GOOG-411 (800-466-4411), say the city name or press the zip code (get zip codes from your truck stop book) and either the business name or category you want to look for.

Read the rest of this entry »

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The scene in “victory Lane” at “The Homestead Miami Speedway” was energetic and upbeat. Matt Kenseth won the Ford 400. It was about time for the “17 crew” to post a win. On the other hand, that scene paled in comparison to the victory celebration going on a short distance away, where Jimmy Johnson was having the time of his life celebrating his second championship, and two in a row to boot. Read the rest of this entry »

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