Category Archives: Industry News

Written by Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum. This is one in a series of periodic guest columns by industry thought leaders.

Ask the average person on the street what comes to mind when you say the word “diesel.” The majority will respond “truck.” Will it still be that way 10, 20 or even 50 years from now? Yes.

Some are predicting a rise in the use of natural gas engines and even electric motors. Tesla Motors last week said it was moving into the market with an electric semi-truck.

But diesel engines are the overwhelming powertrain of choice for the commercial trucking industry. Because of their transformation to clean diesel technology, gains in efficiency and use of renewable diesel fuels, they will be the dominant player in the future of trucking.

With a fuel that has a 10-percent higher energy density and 20- to 30-percent efficiency advantage over a gasoline engine, more freight and work can be done using a gallon of diesel fuel than other alternatives.

By Jeff Berman, Group News Editor · July 14, 2016

The trucking industry is fighting back against a lawsuit by owner-operators attempting to delay a mandate that would eliminate paper log books by some 3.5 million long-haul truck drivers.

The Trucking Alliance for Driver Safety and Security (Trucking Alliance) and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety have filed a joint “friend of the court” brief in the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on the matter. In the brief, truckers support of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) effort to fend off a legal challenge by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) to stop the agency’s electronic logging device (ELD) rule for truck drivers.

Research was presented at a recent conference that indicates diversity can help alleviate the driver shortage.

“Ethnic diversity is becoming a competitive differentiator,” said Jane Jazrawy, chief executive of CarriersEdge, a provider of online safety and compliance training tools. “Companies with ethnic diversity have higher earnings and are better able to win top talent.”

Jazrawy cited research by global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company that shows companies in the top quartile for both gender and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely to have above average financial returns and those in the top quarter for gender diversity only are 15 percent more likely.

Jazrawy’s presentation at the Truckload Carriers Associations’ Workforce Builders Conference, June 30, also included data from a new report that indicates the overall the fastest growing populations are non-white.

Arlington, VA – The American Trucking Associations has named Chris Spear as its next president and CEO. Spear will succeed Bill Graves, who is retiring after almost 14 years. Spear is scheduled to assume the post July 9.

Most recently, Spear has served as vice president of government affairs at Hyundai Motor Co. Before joining Hyundai, he worked for ATA as senior vice president of legislative affairs from 2014 through 2015. He also served as assistant secretary of labor from 2001 to 2004 during President George W. Bush’s administration.

In a trucking landscape that often seems tilted toward large players, smaller companies need to be innovative to survive and thrive. Increasingly, that means turning to new technology and partnerships to offer shipper customers services that make smaller carriers more competitive.

Nebraska Transport Company, a regional less-than-truckload carrier with about $25 million in annual revenue, is taking both routes. The company is implementing new billing technology from DDC FPO and handling electronic logging with onboard computers from Zonar Systems.

In addition, NTC also cemented an alliance with a larger regional LTL carrier, AAA Cooper Transportation, that expands its footprint, giving the Midwestern carrier access to customers and consignees in the Southeast. The two carriers have integrated key computer systems.

“We’ve made several strategic moves to better our business and lower our costs in the last four or five months,” Phil Holliday, executive vice president of sales for NTC. “That combined has allowed us to get much more competitive and start to place more freight in our trucks.”

Cargo theft firms CargoNet and FreightWatch International have released warnings and recommendations ahead of the July 4 holiday weekend.

CargoNet said between July 2 and July 9 from 2012 to 2015, truckloads of non-alcoholic beverages, major appliances and copper were some of the most popular thefts. With July 4 falling on a Monday this year, CargoNet warns thefts could be worse than normal.

“Cargo theft has always spiked during holiday weekends, but we expect a particularly bad July 4th since it falls on Monday,” the firm said in its warning. “Many truckers will park their trucks on Thursday or Friday and will not check on them again until Tuesday.”

The trucking industry invests at least $9.5 billion in safety annually according to a report released June 29 by American Trucking Associations.

The investments include technologies on trucks such as collision avoidance systems, electronic logging devices for driver hours of service compliance and video event recorders. In addition, they include driver safety training, driver safety incentive pay, and compliance with safety regulations that include driver drug testing and records checks, according to the ATA report. The investment numbers were based on data compiled in two industry surveys taken in 2014 and the fall of 2015, ATA said.

The fines for violations of federal safety regulations underwent a makeover during the adjustment for inflation process.

Some fines are higher than previous years, and some are lower, as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration made the adjustments based on the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015. An interim final rule, published in the Federal Register on Monday, June 27, announced the changes to the fines. The new penalties will go into effect Aug. 1.

After many delays, the larger locks of the Panama Canal opened this weekend, allowing larger ships carrying intermodal shipping containers coming from Asia to access East Coast and Southeast ports. While there has been much speculation that this could shift cargo traffic away from the busy West Coast ports, how exactly things will play out is yet to be seen.

The new locks can handle container ships that carry up to about 13,000 twenty-foot-equvalent units, or TEUs, depending on the design — nearly three times the 4,500-to-5,000-TEU capacity of Panamax vessels previously using the canal.

The trucking industry is undergoing profound shifts and changes. In fact, you could argue that we haven’t seen this kind of all-encompassing change since the industry made a wholesale move to diesel power in the late 1940s. But long before that technological revolution took place, trucking’s mission was carved in stone: The load would always go through and arrive on time.

It was a mantra that defined all aspects of trucking and led to the distinctly American-style swagger that lingers to this day. Everything in trucking, including vehicle design, was set around the concept of freight getting through, No Matter What. Vehicle design, driver comfort, hours of service and yes, even fuel economy, were all simply means to an end in achieving that overriding goal.

It was an article of faith in trucking that one day — far off in the future — fuel prices would rise. They had been doing so for years, in fact. But the process had been slow and almost predictable. The industry watched, aghast, as trucking companies —many small fleets, but also longtime, nationally recognized names — went out of business by the thousands because they couldn’t weather the storm.