EUGENE, Ore .- Icy, slippery conditions are adding to an already dangerous drive with a wave of recent crashes along Interstate 5, partly due to wintry conditions.
“It's slick, it's icy in spots," said Rick Arres, a Truck Driver for JR's Freight Services. "Most other trucks are doing 35-40, cars are going along 50, 65 and they spin out and cause major accidents."
Oregon State Police report responding to 372 crashes statewide on Monday and Tuesday, with 93 on I-5 alone.
“They're going way too fast for the conditions," said Matthew Riverman, another truck driver. "They never learn and this happens every year."
Some of the most dangerous winter driving has been north of Eugene.
Truck drivers at Travel Centers of AmericaTruck Stop in Coburg say years behind the wheel have taught them that being aware of the roads and the drivers around you are key to staying safe.
“We live in these things, we're in these weather conditions all the time," said Arres. "They pay attention to what the trucks are doing, they wouldn't have so many problems."
From January 27th through the 29th, there wasn’t a single crash along I-5 from Albany to Salem. However, in the last few days from February 3rd-5th, there have been three.
“You know I'm 80,000 pounds, there's no way I'm stopping that truck and people just don't get it," said Riverman. "They think to save two seconds they're going to risk their lives and I see it everyday."
Oregon Department of Transportation Public Information Officer, Angela Beers Seydel, says bridges and overpasses are some of the more risky spots along the corridor.
Both areas are more likely to have ice buildup causing slippery conditions.
“Slow down, you know you don't need to be doing 65 mph when it's 32 degrees,” said Riverman.
Safety tips from longtime drivers who are on the road every day.
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Connecticut police are searching for a suspect who opened fire on a man outside of a truck driver training school, leaving him seriously injured.
The shooting took place around 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, January 26, at the New England Tractor Trailer Training School in Bridgeport, according to the Connecticut Post.
Police say that 28 year old Eric Salters, who was a student at the truck driver training school, was shot at least six times as he went to his personal vehicle during class.
Police Lt. Christopher LaMaine details the incident, “The evidence indicates that when he (Salters) went to his car during class, he was confronted by a lone gunman, who opened fire on him without provocation. (Salters) was struck multiple times, including once in the head.”
Salters was taken to the hospital for treatment of serious injuries. He is expected to survive.
At this time, there is no known motive for the shooting.
Police are actively investigating the shooting, but no arrests have been made.
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There were no injuries when a truck tipped over on Fairfield Avenue near Pine Street in Bridgeport, Conn., on Jan. 29, 2019.
BRIDGEPORT — The worst that happened when a truck tipped over on Fairfield Avenue on Tuesday was a significant traffic jam, fire officials said.
There were no injuries reported when a truck tipped onto its side on Fairfield Avenue near Pine Street early Tuesday afternoon.
“It snarled traffic up heading into Black Rock and getting onto the highway,” said Deputy Chief Ronald Rolfe.
Only one fire unit responded to the scene, Rolfe said: a fire engine that happened across the incident as police were calling it in.
“The truck driver surely got lucky,” Rolfe said, adding that the driver was wearing their seatbelt when it tipped.
And this isn’t the first incident like this in that area. Rolfe said there have been a couple of similar crashes in the area of Pine Street and Fairfield Avenue.
He said though it’s not necessarily a dangerous area of trucks, he said it can become dangerous if truck drivers don’t safely maneuver through the area.
“Thankfully, today, no one got hurt,” Rolfe said.
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FedEx Corp., looking beyond Amazon.com Inc. for growth in e-commerce, is introducing a new late-night shipping option for retailers who want to speedily send orders directly to online customers.
The program will offer retailers the option to deliver items the next day when they are purchased online as late as midnight, said Brie Carere, FedEx’s chief marketing officer. Less than 1.3% of the courier’s total revenue comes from Amazon, she said — a figure that hasn’t previously been disclosed. The company doesn’t expect that to increase as it sees better prospects in helping customers compete against the e-retailing behemoth.
“We are not dependent on Amazon for growth,” Carere said. “We’re very optimistic and very, very confident in the growth of the market outside of Amazon.” The executive noted that FedEx sees $550 billion in potential sales in the global markets they’re targeting.
Package couriers face a rising threat from Amazon — which is also one of their biggest customers — as the online giant has begun expanding its own delivery capabilities by leasing aircraft and hiring independent contractors to establish a ground-delivery network. Online sales now make up about 15% of U.S. retail, and are growing at three times the pace of traditional brick-and-mortar.
FedEx sees potential profit in the competitive pressure online stores face in keeping up with Amazon’s drive to reduce delivery times on purchases. About half of online purchases occur after 4 p.m., Carere said. FedEx’s new extended-hours service seeks to help retailers such as AutoZone Inc. and Best Buy Co. meet those demands.
Under the program, FedEx Express drivers will pick up packages as late as 2 a.m. from retail stores and take them to sorting hubs. Deliveries can happen as soon as the next day within the local market, and within two days for destinations elsewhere in the U.S.
FedEx began testing the idea in Los Angeles and Dallas in late 2017 and has since rolled it out to 100 markets. The service hasn’t required additional investment or setting up new routes, Carere said.
“We’ve really seen a change in the market where retailers have recognized that their physical distribution is a competitive advantage and it allows them to actually get things faster to market,” she said. “This is from point of fulfillment to delivery, all within a 24-hour cycle. That’s very, very competitive.”
FedEx expects the U.S. market to jump to 100 million packages a day by 2025, up from 44 million in 2017, and about a quarter of those will be local deliveries. So far, retailers in the program have offered overnight deliveries without requiring a subscription or charging an annual membership fee, Carere said.
“We think this is really the tipping point,” she said. “We think big retailers are really leaning into this and it’s going to provide great differentiation for them.”
Amazon charges $119 for its Prime membership, which gives shoppers free two-day delivery, and in some cases, same-day service.
FedEx Corp. ranks No. 2 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America.
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Dart Transit Company opened a new operating center in Ellenwood, Georgia near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, south of Atlanta recently.
A statement from the company said the new facility provides Dart with the opportunity to grow its customer base in the state, and region.
Dart previously operated in Buford, northeast of Atlanta. The new Ellenwood Operating Center is larger than that location and includes more amenities for owner-operators and company drivers in the Dart Network.
Dart Chairman Donald Oren (Dart photo)
The new 21,000-square-foot facility includes an operations center, conference rooms, a driver orientation area and a drivers’ lounge with laundry facilities. An on-site shop covers 11,000 square feet, with a layout that can accommodate simultaneous service on nine trucks and seven trailers. The new facility sits on 10 acres and provides secure truck and trailer parking.
“We began this project about 15 months ago,” said Dart Vice President of Maintenance Brett Wacker, who oversaw the company’s development of the Ellenwood Operating Center. “It’s awesome to see it today with everyone here, especially when you think back on how everything has come together. We built this with our people in mind. We wanted to provide a nice, comfortable facility, with good amenities and plenty of space. It’s been great to see people’s reactions as you go through the building.”
Dart’s Chairman of the Board Donald Oren and President James Langley attended the opening.
“The facility is very impressive, and I give Brett Wacker a lot of credit,” said Oren. “He made the decisions on how to lay things out here, and that’s really important because it has to be efficient and it has to be safe for the people who work here. It was a great event. It’s always fun to meet the drivers and spend time with everyone here. There’s always something to learn.”
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MARKHAM, Ont. — The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) and CarriersEdge today announced the 2019 Best Fleets to Drive For, including three from Canada.
“When it comes to working with drivers, our Top 20 Best Fleets to Drive For are North America’s best-of-the best in the for-hire trucking segment,” said CarriersEdge chief executive officer Jane Jazrawy. “This recognition program is now in its 11th year, and each year we’ve seen fleets up their game – making a positive difference in the lives of drivers with innovative programs.”
The 2019 Top 20 Best Fleets to Drive For are:
- American Central Transport, Inc. – Kansas City, Missouri
- Bennett Motor Express – McDonough, Georgia
- Bison Transport – Winnipeg, Manitoba
- Boyle Transportation – Billerica, Massachusetts
- Central Oregon Truck Company, Inc. – Redmond, Oregon
- Crete Carrier Corp – Lincoln, Nebraska
- Epes Transport System, LLC – Greensboro, North Carolina
- Erb Transport – New Hamburg, Ontario
- FTC Transportation, Inc. – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Garner Trucking, Inc. – Findlay, Ohio
- Grand Island Express – Grand Island, Nebraska
- Halvor Lines, Inc. – Superior, Wisconsin
- Landstar System, Inc. – Jacksonville, Florida
- Maverick Transportation, LLC – North Little Rock, Arkansas
- Motor Carrier Service LLC – Northwood, Ohio
- Nussbaum Transportation Services, Inc. – Hudson, Illinois
- Prime Inc. – Springfield, Missouri
- Thomas E. Keller Trucking Inc. – Defiance, Ohio
- TLD Logistics Services, Inc. – Knoxville, Tennessee
- Transpro Freight Systems Limited – Milton, Ontario
In addition to the Top 20, TCA and CarriersEdge identified five Fleets to Watch (honorable mentions).
The Top 5 Fleets to Watch:
- Fortigo Freight Services Inc. – Etobicoke, Ontario
- Leavitt’s Freight Service – Springfield, Oregon
- Liberty Linehaul Inc. – Ayr, Ontario
- Roehl Transport, Inc. – Marshfield, Wisconsin
- TransLand – Strafford, Missouri
Two fleets have also achieved the milestone of five consecutive years on the list: Boyle Transportation and Nussbaum Services.
To be considered for the Best Fleets program, companies operating 10 or more trucks had to receive a nomination from at least one of their company drivers or owner-operators. The fleets were then evaluated using a scoring matrix covering a variety of categories, including total compensation, health benefits, performance management, professional development, and career path/advancement opportunities, among other criteria. Driver surveys were also conducted to collect input from drivers and independent contractors working with the fleets.
“The winners have set the bar high when it comes to keeping their professional truck drivers engaged while also providing a superior work environment,” said John Lyboldt, TCA’s president. “This coveted contest reveals the tremendous efforts put forth by these driver-centric companies.”
“We do a very thorough analysis and take a deep dive into each fleet’s programs,” added Jazrawy. “An important component in the scoring process is analyzing driver feedback on the company and then comparing it with management’s comments. The two need to align in order for fleets to score well. This year’s Top 20 had an average driver satisfaction rate over 91%, and annual driver turnover under 35%, so what they’re doing is obviously working.”
An overall winner — in the large and small fleet categories — will be named during TCA’s Annual Convention, being held March 10-13 at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort.
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Velvac’s LaneOptics Mirror Cam integrates a color camera to help enhance visibility in traditional blind spots.
The 50-square-inch mirror incorporates the camera in the upper corner, delivering a 73.7-degree field of view. The lens is also pre-positioned. Once the mirror head is adjusted for the best viewing angle, the camera is aligned.
The unit comes with a five-pin (B) type cable connector.
The mirror’s overall head measures 9×7 inches, and is attached with one-inch stainless steel arms. The black powder-coated four-stud universal mounting base uses the same hole patterns as Velvac Pod or Mod Pod mirrors, and will mount to almost any truck hood, the company says.
The unit is also offered with a monitor and backup camera.
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Amid a mass nationwide truck driver shortage, Walmart has upped the ante by raising driver salaries to $87,500 a year, on average, beginning this February, in a bid to attract the hundreds of workers it needs to fill out its fleet in 2019.
The retail giant hired more than 1,400 new drivers last year, but as roughly two-thirds of the nation’s freight is transported by truck and consumer demand for its wares increased last year — same-store sales grew 3 percent during 2018 — the company needs another large batch of fresh drivers to keep it running.
But the ultra-low unemployment rate and the job’s challenging on-the-road lifestyle mean there are fewer workers interested in taking these roles. The American Trucking Association estimates there are 48,000 vacant trucking jobs, which may be why Walmart announced its wage increase.
Its drivers will earn an additional one cent per mile and extra pay for every arrival, bringing the average annual compensation to $87,500 and its all-in rate close to 89 cents per mile.
A salary just shy of $90,000 will definitely tip the scale in Walmart’s favor as its competes for potential drivers. The median annual wage for most tractor-trailer truck drivers across the U.S. is $44,500, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or about $43,000 less than what Walmart says it will pay employees. And only 10 percent of truckers earn above $64,000.
Walmart also offers drivers three weeks of paid time-off in a driver’s first year and quarterly bonuses for safe driving, according to Business Insider. They also enjoy a rarity in the trucking word: two days a week at home.
In addition to its benefits, Walmart is also making its on-boarding process faster in hopes of increasing its new driver recruitment. It slashed wait times between a candidate’s initial review and their mandatory driving assessment in half, and added targeted one-on-one mentoring from veteran drivers to its new driver orientation practices.
All of this is a departure from the company’s old system, in which candidates were given one chance to perform an assessment, and were judged based on their driving skills and ability to accurately complete safety scans before departure. This “one and done” test was so rigorous that only about 10 percent of candidates made it through the trial run, according to Yahoo Finance. Now, about 80 percent pass under the new trial process, Walmart told Business Insider.
But becoming a Walmart driver still requires that you not only pass this initial on-boarding process and driving checks, but that you have 30 months of experience in the past three years and a clean safety record.
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WINCHESTER — A state proposal being floated to put tolls on Interstate 81 to pay for $2.2 billion in improvements to the road’s 325-mile stretch in Virginia continues to draw opposition from the trucking industry.
“We’re opposed, I can tell you that,” said Tom Smith, president of Charles W. Karper Inc., a trucking business based in Chambersburg, Pa., that employs 25 drivers at its outpost in Frederick County. “We need less expenses, not more.”
Smith, whose company hauls construction materials on flatbed trucks within a 250-mile radius, said tolls wouldn’t likely cause layoffs in the trucking industry, but they would increase the cost of production, which would be passed on to consumers. “It’s going to make operating costs go up — that gets passed on.”
Locally, more than a dozen transportation firms employ hundreds of truck drivers.
Numerous transportation lobbying groups have also expressed their opposition to I-81 tolls.
On Friday, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association Inc. — a Missouri-based trade association — sent an open letter to Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam “vehemently” opposing “what effectively amounts to a truck-only toll on I-81.”
“We support equitable investments in transportation infrastructure,” the letter states. “Transportation projects that enhance safety, reduce congestion, and improve operational efficiency are good for the trucking industry. However, there is nothing equitable about this toll proposal. Many people don’t believe truckers pay their fair share to support our nation’s transportation network... They couldn’t be more wrong.”
The I-81 Corridor Improvement Plan, which was created by the Virginia Department of Transportation at the direction of the General Assembly and passed by the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) in November, recommends six toll terminals along I-81 with rates between 5 and 7.5 cents per mile for cars and 7.5 and 15 cents per mile for trucks, depending on time of day.
The General Assembly in Richmond is expected to take action on how to fund the road improvements, but pricing for the tolls would be decided by the CTB.
A manager at HH Omps trucking company in Frederick County, who asked not to be named, agrees that “something needs to be done” to make I-81 safer and less congested, but she prefers a fuel tax to tolls.
Pennsylvania’s fuel tax, for example, is about 75 cents per gallon for diesel fuel. In Virginia, which has some of the lowest fuel taxes in the nation, it’s just over 20 cents. The disparity in taxes on regular unleaded gasoline is similar.
She said raising Virginia’s gas tax would be a more equitable way to pay for road improvements.
“People don’t understand how much tax the trucks already pay,” she added, citing an annual $2,000 per truck federal license; a 0.035 cent a gallon additional fuel tax that must be paid to the commonwealth at each quarterly filing; and a federal tax on truck purchases, which amounts to nearly 10 percent in additional sales tax.
Researcher finds the safest positions for raising and lowering the trailer landing gear.
Cranking landing gear on trailers is one of the more common jobs for drivers, but it can cause pain and injury if done improperly. What is the best way to reduce injuries?
Researcher Jia-Hua Lin of the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries wanted to find out because there has been no definitive guideline for best cranking practices among truck drivers, he says. To learn this, he and his team, which included researchers from North Carolina State University, built a mock-up of landing gear and asked 12 male drivers to crank while they measured their shoulders' range of motion and muscle activity.
Their findings were that while raising a trailer – which has more resistance compared to lowering – it was safer for drivers to stand parallel to the trailer (the trailer was at their side). This position allows more full body strength to be used and thus less strain on muscles and bones. While lowering the landing gear, the researchers found that standing facing the trailer was safer and caused less strain.
Drivers tested cranking standing parallel to the simulated trailer and facing the trailer. For raising a trailer, parallel was best. For lowering, facing the trailer was safest.
"When you face the trailer and crank, you throw a circle with your whole arm in front of you; you are rotating your shoulder. When the resistance is low, it's OK. The shoulder can handle that kind of torque. But when the resistance is high the shoulder joint itself is not as powerful," Lin said. "This goes to the biomechanics of the shoulder joint. It's harder to throw a circle in front of you. When you rotate the shoulder in front of you, then the elbow is useless. You have to use your shoulder joint mostly to throw this circle in front of you. The shoulder muscles are not that good at generating this kind of torque."
Lin says: "It's better to crank each way (parallel or facing the trailer) depending on which posture will give you the best mechanical advantage."
Another reason to stand parallel during high resistance is possible danger from your hand slipping off the grip. "Especially for the high-resistance part, drivers are afraid that their hand can slip off the handle, and the reaction or the coiling force may hit them. That is if you try to rotate and push – they push forward – and then if your hand slips, the handle may strike back."
One stumbling block that researchers have to overcome is setting up laboratory experiments to mimic truckers' jobs. "We asked about drivers' most common task, and we got several ideas for our experiment. Cranking of the landing gear was just one of them, and so was pulling the fifth wheel pin, raising the hood and pulling the back of the rolling door."
Lin looked at all of these and decided that some were too difficult to simulate in the lab, but that the cranking operation was doable. "We wanted to do a controlled study. Some of the other tasks were not easy for us to produce in the lab."
Another reason to look at landing gear was that no one had done it before. "There was nothing in the literature about it. There's nothing about these kinds of cranking actions. "
One factor that Lin would like to address in future work, aside from measuring other tasks, is the question of clockwise versus counterclockwise. "Our experiment was clockwise because it was a limitation of our equipment. The motor used to simulate the load could only generate the force in one direction."
Lin and others conduct research for the Trucking Injury Reduction Emphasis (TIRES) a project developed by the SHARP program at the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries
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Idaho State Police last week arrested a driver at the East Boise Port of Entry after a routine inspection found the truck was loaded with 6,701 pounds of marijuana. This is the largest pot bust in Idaho history, according to the ISP.
Thirty-six-year-old Denis V. Palamarchuk of Portland was arrested Thursday, Jan. 24, and charged with felony trafficking of marijuana. He posted $100,000 bail and is out on bond.
According to a statement from the ISP, the truck’s bill of lading identified the 31 bags of cargo as industrial hemp. However, the trooper from the Commercial Vehicle Safety section who did the inspection suspected it was actually marijuana, according to the ISP.
The trooper used a narcotic identification kit to test a sample of the cargo; it tested positive as marijuana. The trooper also requested a canine drug-sniffing team examine the load and the dog indicated it was indeed marijuana, according to the ISP’s statement.
“This is the largest Idaho State Police trafficking seizure of this type in any present-day trooper’s memory,” said Colonel Kedrick Mills, ISP director. The previous largest seizure was 2,131 last year.
The bust is similar to one earlier this month in Oklahoma when a cargo said to be industrial hemp was identified by police as marijuana.
Police in Pawhuska, Oklahoma stopped a tractor-trailer Jan. 9 for running the only red light in the small town in the northeast corner of the state. A resulting search found the trailer filled with what cops say was more than 18,000 pounds of marijuana.
However, employees of a company accompanying the truck claim the load was 60 pallets of industrial hemp being shipped from Kentucky to Colorado to be processed for medical use. Still, four people were arrested, including the truck driver.
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DALLAS, Texas – Goodyear is working on producing petroleum-free truck tires, by replacing conventional oil with soybean oil.
The company is already producing several consumer tires with soybean oil, which offers performance benefits in cold weather. Mike Kerns, global R&D leader with Goodyear, explained during the company’s No Limits customer conference, that soybean oil boasts a lower glass transition temperature – the point at which material stops becoming elastic and becomes more “glassy.”
“It lowers that transition temperature so it can maintain pliability at much lower temperatures,” Kerns explained.
Soybean oil is North America’s most abundant bio-oil and is a by-product of production. As such, producers have been looking for new uses for the oil. Initially, Goodyear researchers felt it would improve tread wear over petroleum.
“We thought at first, this is really going to improve our tread wear,” Kerns said. “It didn’t really dramatically improve our tread wear. There was maybe a marginal improvement. But what really stood out was the low-temperature pliability. That really changed the game. We knew that was an advantage.”
Goodyear now produces an all-season three-peak snowflake rated passenger car tire using soybean oil as a complete replacement to petroleum. It’s working on bringing the technology to commercial truck tires, but Kerns said it’s likely one to five years away from becoming commercialized in that market.
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