Life on the Road - Trucking News Blog

Everyone has GOT to sign this. It only takes a second. This is the only real solution for the trucking industry. Strikes and anything else are either worthless or only short term. They’re looking for 3 million signatures. My previous post about this. Go to American Solutions.com - Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less.

We currently have 393,582 signatures.

Popularity: 37% [?]

Wonder who was behind this “temporary” legislation? It’s in the Senate, so it’s not law yet.

Senate bill proposes temporary weight increase
A bill in the U.S. Senate would temporarily increase weight limits on federal highways from 80,000 pounds to 100,000 pounds for a trial period of two years when diesel prices are above $3.50 per gallon.

The Commercial Truck Fuel Savings Demonstration Act of 2008, S. 3059, was introduced May 28 by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Olympia Snowe. R-Maine. The bill, which has been referred to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, also would require the Government Accountability Office to complete a report about safety and other concerns at the completion of the pilot program.

In the rest of the article, they use Maine as an example of how trucks weighing more than 80,000 lbs must exit the turnpike and travel smaller roads. Which doesn’t make sense, but both Senators that introduced this bill are from Maine, maybe they should fix Maine. I’m sure they’re only using that as an example, but the people that don’t know any better are going to assume the rest of the country is like that and think this is a good idea.

And notice how they name it the “Fuel Savings” Act? The only fuel it’s going to save is for the shippers. Think you’re going to get a better rate hauling 100,000 lbs of beer out of Colorado? Or a 100,000 lbs of produce out of California? I may be wrong and I hope I am, but I really don’t think the rate is going to be much better to cover the trucks lower mpg. That’s what doesn’t make sense!

Popularity: 38% [?]

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% [?]

Ice Berg Ho!

Possibly you’ve heard the term “Re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic” as a derogatory term used to berate people who are busily doing something which is not the least bit useful in terms of the current situation.

Congress is often like that. Often Congress spends lots of time and ungodly amounts of money mandating things which are useless.

Often congress does active damage.

Congress is proposing to do active damage to the American Economy next week.

Congress is proposing a bill which will spell doom for many more in the trucking business. At a time when the cost of fuel is at an all time high the Warner-Lieberman Energy Bill
will increase the cost of fuel even more.

This goes beyond merely re-arranging the deckchairs as the Titanic sinks. This is akin to actively directing the Titanic toward the iceberg.

Like I’ve said all too many time in the last few decades.

What are they thinking?

Popularity: 34% [?]

Trucking has been a big topic in the news lately, and it hasn’t all been positive. So International Truck  has decided to do something about it. Last year they started interviewing truckers on video at Walcott, truck shows and truck stops about why they drive. Now they’re making a documentary (premiering late summer/early fall) to tell the real story of owner-operators.

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Popularity: 39% [?]

I’m not big into petitions and all of that, but a lot of our discussions and comments lately have centered around oil and the fact that we need to drill in our own backyard. Newt Gingrich has started a website, a petition and a drive to get our own oil on our own land, before someone else does…

China and India are building oil drilling platforms 50 miles off the coast of Florida. These platforms are Slant Drilling platforms. They will be able to reach the oil that is under Cuba and the oil that is in our territory as well. I believe US oil companies would take better care of the environment and can be held responsible for any spills or accidents better than some foreign country that is thousands of miles away from their own homeland or maybe it’s just me. What if a China or an India platform has an accident? Who is going to clean up a spill 50 miles from Florida?  China and India? Guess again.

On a side note, the same Slant Drilling technology was going to be used in ANWR so they could reach more than just the footprint of the platform. They would have access to the oil under the entire ANWR without disturbing any more envirnonent then they had to. The small area where the oil companies in ANWR is a postage stamp compared to the rest of just the ANWR reserve. That same area is 700 miles from a tree. It’s barren artic landscape. Not the plush Alaskan forest the environmentalists lead everyone to believe.

Go to American Solutions.com - Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less.

Popularity: 36% [?]

Park n View…..latter to call them selves PNV.net was a forerunner of today’s IdleAire

in that it provided communications to trucks in the parking lot. They, like Bear Stearns recently, and Enron a few years ago suffered a liquidity crisis and went bankrupt. Their bubble burst along with the dot-com bubble in the late nineties.

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Popularity: 34% [?]

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% [?]

Speedway Motorsports Incorporated has purchased The Kentucky Speedway for a reported 78 million dollars. That is a heck of a deal for a track that cost a Hundred and fifty million to build ain’t it? This sounded fishy from the second that I heard of it. It has under the table dealing all over it and stinks to high heaven!

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Popularity: 21% [?]