thetruckingsoftware.com

posted by admin on May 19

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.

When you run a power only fleet you have to make several decisions. Not just for yourself but also for the safety of the drivers. You get put in ethical situations as well. You have a driver that you know just ran his full 11 hours to deliver to point A and he wants to get to point B he really needs the miles. But you know if you give him another load you are giving it to a fatigued driver, so what do you do? Make the driver happy but know if there is an accident you are partially to blame? Or have the driver get mad at you for having a conscious? Sorry drivers, but I always went with my conscious on this one. I could not see giving a driver more miles and keep him on the road fatigued when I knew I had family and loved ones sharing the same road as that driver.

You are probably wondering how I came to the conclusion of knowing the hours they had right? Well, I am a pretty smooth talker on the phone and I would always ask how the weather was where they started from. By doing this I was able to know exactly how far they had driven and whether or not to give them an extra load or not. I would literally sit there and log the time and throw in a couple of hours for using the bathroom, fueling, etc. I did this to protect the driver and the people around the driver.

Then you have the drivers that are part of a small company that runs their fleet through the power only services  of a bigger company. So you have the driver yelling at you (I want extra money on this load) which you have nothing to do with because you have made the contract with the company to pay them so much per mile (again it works just as an owner operator/lease purchase driver getting so much per mile plus FSC that is agreed upon between the company and the driver/company that signs up to be power only) so you have to tell them to go back to their boss and take up with them. It is a very confusing non-circle at times.

Power Only is a good advantage for those who cannot afford a trailer and do not mind being told where to go (unless you get someone willing to work with you and then you tell them where you will and will not go). There is definitely money that can made being power only, but you really have to have the skill of negotiation in order to get the highest per mile rate and FSC you can out of the company you may sign up with or you will not make any money at all.

I hope that I answered some questions about Power Only and if you have any questions, ask and I will do my best to answer them!

posted by admin on May 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.

A national speed limit would be okay if it was for everyone, cars (not going to happen) and trucks. Bump up the I-5 corridor to 65. Everyone is going to go 70 anyway, unless they’re governed.

Governing Truck Speeds, if the ATA members want to govern their trucks, knock themselves out. But why force everyone to do it? (Rhetorical question, I know the answer).

Why stop at double 33’s? If they’re going to go long, go double 48’s or 53’s.

My problem is that if these ideas are so great, why wouldn’t companies voluntarily do them? (Some do.) Why don’t they force their own ATA membership to do them, instead of pushing for more legislation and forcing it down everyone’s throats.

The statement from the EPA, what a load. If the EPA wanted trucking to use less fuel, they wouldn’t have been increasing the weight, the complexity and the inefficiencies of truck motors since 2002. They regulated emissions, not fuel economy. What a bunch of dolts.

Whoever thought up the Sustainability Initiatives and hooking up all of their long time requests to the Green movement and getting the EPA involved is a genius and will probably get them past their current nemesis’ PATT and Public Citizen, especially on the longer heavier truck issue and if it works they’ll probably be able to convince the government the Hours of Service are reducing emissions too.

4 Comments

• At May 11, 2008, Everitt Mickey wrote:

  Actually some of it makes a little bit of sense.

  You can’t deny that driving slower saves on fuel. The “sweet spot” for fuel efficiency is somewhere around fifty five miles per hour. That’s the speed at which rolling resistance and air resistance are about equal. Going much faster than that then the additional energy is mostly needed to push the air out of the way.

  If folks want to go faster it’s fine by me. I can’t afford to pay for all that extra fuel. I just wish they wouldn’t wreck so often and shut the highways down and cause so many delays. It doesn’t do anyone any good to be barreling down the highway at high rates of speed only to have to sit in a “backup” for hours waiting to sponge the idiots off the road who got in such a hurry and crashed.

  I think longer and heavier are inevitable. I have no problem with turnpike doubles, triples or even road trains. One tractor pulling a road train at 2 or 3 miles per gallon is overall more efficient than several tractors pulling a trailer each at five or six mpg. You have to realize that the whole point of trucking is t get “stuff” from point A to point B as cheaply as possible. If some truckers can make a living doing it that’s ok..if not…too bad, so sad…..taking care of truckers and providing them with employment is not the point. The point is moving “stuff”.

• At May 11, 2008, william s janoch wrote:

  longer heavier trucks who repaves the roads? They have rethought the max speed for fuel but I don’t remember what the new speed is.I also stick with my point of we have been told that all new trailers over 45ft wound not go into town but be reloaded outside of town onto smaller trailers for in town delivery.how many drivers stop an cross dock today to smaller trailers I think we all want trucking to be as green as possible.I think the ATA an the TLC are both just trying to close any wholes for others to take loads from them an that is what is really behind this

• At May 11, 2008, Wayne Weisser wrote:

  Everyone knows that driving slower saves fuel, but why force a speed limiter on trucks? It should be left up to the company / owner.

  The ATA has been pushing longer and heavier for a long time, the problem is that it’s more work to drive 97,000 lbs, doubles / triples with no plan on more pay or training.

• At May 11, 2008, Mark Spearman wrote:

  They are trying to push any legislation that puts non-ATA trucking out of business. They know small operators can’t keep up with “green” initiatives.

  Longer trailers and heavier loads, that places the burden on the driver. If a new driver gets caught on a roadway that doesn’t allow them, who pays the fine? How many times has your company gave you directions that put you on questionable trucking routes.

  It’s all about shippers and brokers. Find one thing that the ATA promotes that is good for drivers and not so good for shippers and brokers. If you do find something, like being “greener” it will be harmful to their competitors.

  Speed governors? That’s all about drivers leaving ATA companies to make more money in ungoverned trucks. There are many types of freight were time is of the essence and time trumps fuel price, even in trying times. Look at how FedEx utilizes Eastern European immigrant drivers in leased owner-operator trucks. Those guys are going at breakneck speeds with doubles on dangerous routes like the PA turnpike. FedEx can benefit from all of the other ATA directives while ignoring speeds. If a Eastern European gets in trouble for tampering with a governor, who cares? They get rid of that driver and find another.