Life on the Road - Trucking News Blog

There are literally hundreds of thousands of tractor-trailer drivers in the U.S. with valid commercial driver’s licenses. What makes this disturbing is the fact that a large number of them also qualify for federal disability benefits and have been prescribed medications to treat unconscious spells, seizures or heart conditions. Despite warnings from the government and the unsettling combination of injuries and deaths caused by commercial drivers with serious health issues, far too many of them continue to hop behind the wheel and endanger the lives of unsuspecting travelers.

According to a recent review by the Associated Press, truckers have been caught violating U.S. federal medical laws in every state. Violations compiled by the Transportation Department reveal that Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania make up the states where these laws were broken the most frequently.

Sadly enough, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration admits to not completing any of the eight recommendations proposed by U.S. safety regulators in 2001. At this point, it remains unclear whether any of these eight recommendations will be put into effect before the upcoming Presidential Election.

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Michelin, one of the largest tire and automotive supply makers, has announced that their products and services can now be purchased in 32 more truck stops. When truckers need work done on their rigs or they need a tire, there are only so many places they can get that done. They come to rely on truck stops because most standard tire stores or mechanics can’t handle a big truck.

At a lot of truck stops though fuel, food and a shower are all a trucker can get – so they’re forced to call roadside assistance. It’s helpful in an emergency but it’s also very costly, and truckers and their companies lose money when problems occur. Michelin is helping truckers avoid this by expanding their services and their products to more places that truckers need them.

Most of the truck stops are thrilled to get Michelin as a partner. They know the reputation that the company has, and having a big business partner helps some of the smaller, independent truck stops get more business and put themselves on the map – that way, everybody wins.

The biggest win comes for the truckers, because they have more options and having more choices helps to keep the market competitive and the prices low.

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A rain delay didn’t douse Patrick Carentier’s hopes for his first pole, He knew that a cooler, faster race track could be just the ticket that he was looking for. Reed Sorenson was on the pole when a rain shower delayed qualifying with 21 more drivers to go at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. A cooler faster track relegated reed back to sixth when all was said and done and the Canadian road course driver was at the top of the speed charts for the first time in his new career in Nascar Sprint Cup racing.

Sunday Carpentier will lead the field to the green flag in the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Another road racing giant, Dario Franchitti will start the race in the top ten with a seventh starting spot on the grid. And to think that I thought at the beginning of the season that the road racers would have a rough time of it this year trying to adjust to the new, much heavier car? Well, win one first, then I will be sold completely. And I would be remiss if I did not mention that Dale Earnhardt Junior qualified solidly in the top ten in the fifth position. You have to go way down the chart to the twenty seventh position to find points leader Kyle Busch.
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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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For about fifteen minutes I was enthused about the road course race out in California. That was probably because it was in high def. After I got used to it being in high def I quickly lost interest with it. Folks, I have to say this again, Road courses are just boring and a gross waste of a racing weekend.

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Found this at Dan Goodwill’s blog. Dan has the best technical analysis of trucking on the net. Quoting a truck industry stock analyst, “The freight recession is over.” According to tonnage indices and demand trends, the freight economy is on an upswing.

Don’t start throwing parties yet. Dan goes on -

This view is supported by a number of trucking companies and shippers with whom I have spoken in the past six weeks. Several interesting events have been taking place. They include:

• Carriers are deciding to no longer serve certain accounts (e.g. “firing customers”) and are allocating capacity to better paying accounts.
• Carriers are no longer providing capacity to certain freight management companies either on specific lanes or no longer doing business with these companies altogether
• Carriers are submitting freight bids on specific blocks of traffic and then pulling their bids
• Carriers are submitting rates on designated lanes of traffic and then not showing up to meet with the shipper
• Shippers are finding a tightening of capacity and are experiencing more difficulty covering some of their loads

The upshot of all this activity is that there is a “buzz” in the industry that has not been there for the past year or two. There is an optimism that this incredibly difficult freight drought is coming to an end.

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It’s been a long time coming, roughly twice as long as the FCC normally takes to perform a merger review, but it looks like a decision is finally on the horizon.

The primary factor in prolonging the review has been the fact that the FCC originally granted licenses to XM and Sirius on the condition the companies never merge; and government regulatory bodies are loathe to make 180 degree reversals. Their thought, back in 1997, was that a merger would stifle competition and result in a condition in which satellite radio consumers weren’t well served.

But the Department of Justice Anti-Trust Division, the folks charged with reviewing proposed mergers, so as to prevent potential monopolies, issued a statement that begins with the following statement:

“Evidence Does Not Establish that Combination of Satellite Radio Providers Would Substantially Reduce Competition”

I’m not entirely sure, with a decision by the DOJ (issued March 28, 2008) indicating a lack of anti-trust issues, why it’s taken so long for the FCC to bring this matter to a head but it may be that they had additional concerns. FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin said, on June 15th,

“As I have indicated before, this is an unusual situation. I am recommending that with the voluntary commitments they (Sirius and XM) have offered, on balance, this transaction would be in the public interest.”

Soooo…just what might those voluntary commitments be?

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It amazes and disgusts me at the same time to see how disconnected and stupid the government really is.

Trucking in general is in tough times, everyone agrees on that. Companies and owners are going under on a daily basis. The drivers that were employed by those companies and small fleets are now unemployed and are looking to drive for someone else.
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The drought is over finally. Yea I am talking about Dale Junior winning at Michigan, and the missing Nascar writer here at Life On The Road. Where have I been you ask, well in my job I drive a dump truck and we had a job re-paving the main highway going into the military base here. Because of the traffic on it during the day, the state made us pave it at night. So I have been on night shift for the better part of the last month.

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Regarding who to blame about the high cost of fuel.

And what to do about it come November.

There is a LOT of comment regarding the high cost of fuel on the internet. Some of you might have missed it so here are a few links of interest…

As reported on Power Line

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