posted by admin on Jun 1
LiberalTrucker contributed this post for Masslogics Trucking News. “Bigger is Better” has always been an American motto. And now many trucking companies are asking Washington to allow them to have bigger trucks. A coalition of truck drivers wants to ensure that a Bill can be reauthorized by Congress to allow for bigger trucks on the road at the end of next year. For the past several years, big trucks were banned from many of the highways in the country. Now, the truckers want to get permissi Tags: truckers, Trucking, trucking companies, Trucking Newsposted by admin on May 26
Heavy Duty Truck Tools - Truckingtools.com The tools of the trucking trade are available all over the Internet. From traditional stores that offer products online to specialty shops that offer trucking tools in addition to innovative products, and sometimes even novelty items, truckers have a wide variety of places to shop. But if you’re looking for trucking tools that you can use with ease, check out truckingtools.com, a web site featuring innovative tools that help truckers perform thei Tags: truckers, Truckingposted by admin on May 15
Oakland, CA. At the Union Pacific Rail Terminal truckers have had enough. Trucks are pulling over in solidarity to protest the rising fuel costs they must shoulder. Most of the truck drivers are only being compensated for 12% of their fuel costs. “We want to work.” Said many of the owner-operator drivers, but they can’t afford to when their fuel costs exceed the fees companies pay them to haul the loads. Four years ago companies negotiated to pay 5% of the fuel costs above $2.00 per gallon. Dr Tags: diesel, fuel, truckersposted 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.
posted by admin on May 8
Before I start the article I would like to quickly introduce myself since this is the first article I am posting to this site. My name is Clark Schoeder and I am the President/CEO of Cerberus Subrogation Professionals, LLC. 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. I am going to be writing articles on trucking insurance, the issues truckers face in the insurance industry, and how you can protect your recovery interests. I hope you find these articles helpful and come back to check out future posts. Let’s get to the article.
I suppose we will start at the beginning. What should a driver do when they are involved in an accident to protect themselves and their company?
1.) Do not admit fault to anyone other than your safety department or your insurance company. This includes saying something as simple as “I’m sorry”. I have seen cases lost because the other party has a witness saying that the truck driver admitted fault at the scene even though they were not at-fault for the accident. I cannot stress this enough. Let the insurance company determine which party is at-fault.
2.) Do not talk to the other driver about the accident. You should only ask them if they are hurt and if they need medical assistance. If they say “yes” to either of those questions call 911 and request medical assistance. Beyond that, exchange your insurance information and say nothing else.
3.) Call the police. This is important for a number of reasons.
A.) The police officer is going to write a police report detailing what happened in the accident. The police report is one of the most important pieces of evidence used to determine liability. If you plan on having the other party’s insurance pay for your damages, you are going to need a police report. There is no way around it.
B.) It is going to create a record of the other party’s account of the accident. This will protect you from the other party changing their story down the line. More often than not, people will admit fault to the police officer and then change their story when they talk to their insurance company. It is human nature to avoid blame. The police report will create a record of their initial description of the accident to ensure that they cannot change it later.
C.) The police officer is going to collect the other party’s contact information and insurance information. People are much less willing to give a police officer fake information. This will ensure that you and the insurance company have a party to pursue for recovery of your damages. If you don’t know who owns the other vehicle, you are going to have a very difficult time recovering your damages.
4.) Contact your insurance company ASAP. If you are driving for a company, call your safety department so they can contact the insurance company for you. This is important because it allows the insurance company to get out to the accident scene right away and collect evidence that is going to protect you and your company. It also ensures that any evidence that would help you is not destroyed. I know some drivers are concerned about reporting accidents to the safety department because they are concerned with losing their job or being punished in some way. That is an ungrounded concern. Safety directors understand that accidents happen. That is why they have the job they do. Their goal is to fix the situation. When they don’t find out about an accident you remove their ability to do their job. There is a much higher probability of being fired if you don’t tell the safety department and they get blindsided by an accident 3 months down the road. Nothing makes a safety director madder than finding out about an accident late when there is no chance to investigate and defend their driver.
5.) Get the contact information for any witnesses to the accident. Witnesses are the most powerful evidence in determining liability. If you have a witness on your side and the other party does not, you are going to recover your damages.
6.) Take pictures of your damages and the other party’s damages. Every truck driver out there on the road should have some sort of camera in their truck. If you don’t, get one. If you are a safety director, set up a program to give your drivers disposable cameras to keep in their trucks. Photos are great evidence.
If you follow these steps, you will put yourself, your company, and your insurance company in a great position to defend you and to pursue your damages against the other party.
Be sure to check back for our next article “What does an insurance company owe you for an accident?”
Clark Schoeder is the President and CEO of Cerberus Subrogation Professionals, LLC. Cerberus Subrogation Professionals, LLC is a subrogation firm that specializes in the commercial trucking sector. They have helped their clients recover millions of dollars in insurance claims and have developed several innovative strategies specifically designed for commercial auto subrogation and arbitration. Those strategies have achieved unparalleled results. Visit their website www.cerberussubro.com to learn more about the Cerberus Advantage.
2 Comments
- At May 9, 2008, Connie Wilson wrote:
Wow, I loved this article. It was loaded with great information. Even if one drives a 4 wheeler they can use this info.
- At May 11, 2008, Agency Saper wrote:
Very basic and good information. Thank you
Its best to have this information explained before the fact
Although events can take charge in an accident situation – as with most events in life , if planning and preparation are in force , the groundwork that is laid is money and time well spent
The information is there, it can only be of help. as opposed to leaving events in the whole car insurance debacle to chance.
posted by admin on Apr 22
With the introduction of the driving simulator Hard Truck 2, truck driving just got a lot cooler. The drivers goal is to deliver cargo to the townsfolk. Drivers start with a long-haul truck and successful drivers can upgrade their trucks or change trucks completely. Extremely successful truck drivers even have the ability to hire a bankrupted rival. The truckers goal is to get hired for deliveries and market goods from town to town, and eventually monopolize the entire delivery business. Tags: truckers, Trucking