Life on the Road - Trucking News Blog

Hello again. This is Clark Schoeder with Cerberus Subrogation Professionals, LLC with another article about trucking insurance issues. Over the last few weeks, we discussed a few topics that should help you and your company recover the damages that result from an auto accident. We discussed what a driver should do when they are in an accident to protect their recovery opportunities , we discussed what an insurance company owes you when you are in an accident, and we discussed what is subrogation and how it affects your money. This week we are going to start a series of articles discussing common trucking accidents that your insurance company or claims department needs to deny. Let’s get to it.

This week’s article is about “Right-hand Squeeze” Accidents. While I am sure that you all know what a “right hand squeeze” accident is, let’s go over it just to make sure that we are all talking about the same thing. A “right-hand squeeze” accident is an accident that occurs while an 18 wheeler is making a necessary wide right turn and another vehicle attempts to pass the 18 wheeler on the right side in between the trailer and the curb. The other vehicle fails to consider the off-track of the trailer and is consequentially “squeezed” between the trailer and the curb. As the 18 wheeler proceeds through his turn, the trailer drags alongside the other vehicle and causes considerable damage.

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Popularity: 15% [?]

Apparently the rumor is true. The EPA has killed Cat.

According to a Forbes Article Caterpillar has had enough of the hassle and ” Its Mossville, Illinois truck engine plant will stop producing the power plants on December 31, 2009 — just before even tougher clean-air rules take effect.”

This is sad.

Other articles covering this same news here, here, here, and here.

I guess I’ll keep my 3406E for a while longer yet.

Popularity: 35% [?]

Hello again. This is Clark Schoeder with Cerberus Subrogation Professionals, LLC with another article about trucking insurance issues. Over the last few weeks, we discussed a few topics that should help you and your company recover the damages that result from an auto accident. We discussed what a driver should do when they are in an accident to protect their recovery opportunities and we discussed what an insurance company owes you when you are in an accident. This week we are going to discuss the term “subrogation” and why you and your company should care about it. Let’s get to it.

Let’s start with the definition of “subrogation.” “Subrogation” is a legal concept under common law where one party transfers their rights of recovery to another party granting them the right to recover damages from a different third party tort-feasor. Not much help? I understand. Think of it like this. When you are in an accident and your insurance company pays for your damages, your insurance company gains your rights to pursue repayment from the party that caused the accident. Just like you would have the right to sue the at-fault party, your insurance company gains the same rights under the law that you have to pursue repayment.

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Popularity: 38% [?]

What is it any truck driver hates worse than the high fuel prices (that is unless they are a company driver!): oh yeah, I would have to say it is a DOT Inspection! So heads up everyone because apparently on June 3rd there is going to be a road check going on again!

Thousands of law enforcement officers will be blanketing North America’s roadways for 72 continuous hours beginning June 3 to hammer home the importance of comprehensive safety inspections of trucks and buses and on enforcing safety belt use.

“Roadcheck,” sponsored by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, dispatches federal, state, provincial and local inspectors to more than 1,000 locations across the continent to conduct comprehensive North American Standard Level I Inspections.

This leads me to wonder how many drivers really know what their safety rating is if they own their own company or if they are a company driver. I think it’s a good idea to check into something, such as a safety rating, before you go to work for someone. For one thing, it gives you a pretty good idea of how good (or bad) the equipment is by the amount of DOT OOS inspections there are both on drivers and equipment. You can check this information out at: http://www.safersys.org.

At any rate with June 3rd just around the corner make sure your log books are in order, your lights are working, that you are wearing your seat belt, and wearing a big smile because the chicken coops will be open awaiting your visit on June 3rd!

Popularity: 37% [?]

Certain folks want to strike. Well they are about to get their wish.

There are two ways to interpret the word “STRIKE”. One, the way that our little buddies who could NOT understand supply and demand were advocating has to do with work stoppage. Our little buddies figured that if we stopped work then all our “demands” would miraculously be met.

What they failed to understand, what they apparently REFUSE to understand, is that we live in a global economy. Oil is traded on the global marketplace. (they shouldn’t feel TOO bad because apparently the US Congress doesn’t understand that either, sue OPEC indeed!!) Oil is a fungible commodity. If the US doesn’t buy the oil, why, Russia, China, India, Europe, or any of a whole lot of OTHER countries are in line to buy that same oil. If we don’t buy it then, on the Global Market, the demand falls. If the demand falls , and the supply is constant, THEN the price also falls.

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Popularity: 46% [?]

I’m sitting in an IdleAire site in Oklahoma City.

I’m “surfing” the Internet as I usually do when stopped and find this.  It turns out that IdleAire has gone Bankrupt.  Doesn’t surprise me.  I’ve been hearing rumors for some time.  In fact there was a post on Life on the Road some time ago relating to IdleAire’s probable demise.

IdleAire hasn’t been all that popular. Some folks don’t like it , at all, at all.

I used to number in that group.  I thought that it was a waste of space.  That was before summer set in with ninety degree temps and high humidity (Oklahoma City right now, worse to come, this is only May), my air conditioner is on the blink right now and I’m a little shy of the thousand bux it’s goning to cost to fix it.  Also fuel just broke the five dollar a gallon mark in some places.  Since my kitty Cat gulps fuel at a gallon and a half an hour that equates to seven fifty an hour to idle.

IdleAire at a buck eighty an hour sounds pretty good.

So, like I said, I’m sitting in an IdleAire space in Okie City.  Nice an cool in the truck by the way.  It’s a sauna outside.  And IdleAire is bankrupt.  What gives?

They got a loan.

IdleAire will be open for a while yet.  I’m glad because I’m cool, for now.

Popularity: 35% [?]

This is Clark Schoeder from Cerberus Subrogation Professionals, LLC ( www.cerberussubro.com ). 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. We are writing a series of articles about trucking insurance issues. Last week, we discussed what you can do to protect yourself and your company when you are involved in an accident. What to Do When You Are In an Accident

This week, we are going to discuss “What does the insurance company owe you when you are in an accident?” The answer to that question depends on whether you are filing a 1^st party or a 3^rd party insurance claim. Let me explain the differences.

1^st Party Claims

A 1^st party insurance claim is a claim that you file with YOUR insurance company under your “collision” or “comprehensive” coverage. These coverages are a contract between you and your insurance company that states that the insurance company will pay to fix your vehicle regardless of which party caused the accident. Under this contract, the insurance company does not owe all of the damages that you suffered; they only owe certain damages that are stated in the policy.

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Popularity: 36% [?]

Since this was something brought up as a response to the Transportation Broker Survey Results, I thought I would elaborate on something that I do know to be true.

First to address one of the comments:

Comment by Robert Blair

2008-05-15 10:16:13

While a bidding system has its merits, ultimately shippers want to deal with people. They don’t want their freight and its proper handling to become a tracking number in a faceless, paperless and impersonal system.

Shippers may want to deal with people but in all reality,  the bigger companies have a series of processes by which they receive their loads and even by how they go down a chain of command in order to end up being brokered by Joe Driver.

A big company will receive a load from say a soda distributor. Do they know it’s going to be a brokered load? No. Someone in customer service handles that part. First checking capacity of their own fleet, then their owner-operators, lease purchase, and power only trucks. Then it is decided if they are confident enough to be able to broker the load out for the shipper. Customer service negotiates the price (which may or may not have been given to customer service set up as a sliding fee scale or perhaps they refer to rates that the broker will want in order to sell the load) and then puts in the company system.

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Popularity: 27% [?]

As I mentioned before, I was really shocked to find out 75% of people that took the survey did not know what Power Only was. So I am here to shed a little light on exactly what it is and what it entails.

Power Only means that you provide only the power to pull a load. In other words, you provide the tractor the company provides the trailer AND freight. Sounds like a great deal right? No worries with having to buy a trailer, insure it, or make repairs to it. Oh but wait a minute, that also means by pulling a company’s trailer you are strictly to confined to pulling their loads. And most of the time they run a power only driver (or fleet) as if they were a company driver. Ouch. I don’t know if I like the sounds of that!

I can guarantee if you are an owner operator, you will not either! Speaking from the experience of running a small fleet of power only drivers, it is just like being a company driver. The person (at the time I was a broker running power only) works as a dispatcher. You book the loads, you dispatch the loads, you keep track of the drivers, and you hope all goes well. All of the wonderful headaches are included in it to like late loads, bad pickup numbers (there goes the start of the long chain of calls to make!), drivers wanting more miles, and drivers wanting to be home since it IS their truck.

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Popularity: 25% [?]

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.

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Popularity: 31% [?]