Trucks at Work Blog

“Both the year-on-year movement and rank order of challenges suggest that CEO focus has moved from crisis reaction to preparations for recovery. Clearly, CEOs in the U.S. in particular are returning their focus to the road to growth. We’re seeing a similar trend in the overall business questions we capture from our members.” –Jonathan Spector, CEO of the Conference Board

I hold no special crystal ball that forecasts the future; heck, at times I flub up basic mathematics and suffer headaches when wading through the complicated calculations of data that comprise economic projections.

Yet there seems to be a sense that things are improving, economically speaking. Not that jobs are suddenly springing out of the Earth in legion, replete with hefty health care benefits, mind you. Nor that the almost Herculean challenges choking our nation’s course (such as our $14 TRILLION worth of federal government debt, which is expanding faster than a batch of E. coli on a hot summer day) are suddenly dissipating. No, we’ve still got plenty to worry about.

But despite all that, there seems to be – at least incrementally – pockets of news indicating a shift may be occurring in our economic fortunes. Truckers are still pressed to find decent-paying freight, fuel prices are rising and equipment costs shot up due to the 2010 emission requirements, yet in a broader sense the groundwork for a recovery is being laid. Confidence is rising among CEOs at many U.S. corporations that stronger growth lays ahead – and that could very well lead to better freight volumes for truckers sooner rather than later.

Take, for example, the recent results of The Conference Board’s CEO Challenge 2010 Survey; it indicates that most of the CEOs polled appear to be emerging from recession mode and priming for a return to growth.

“In our late 2008 survey, worries about global economic performance, business confidence, geo-financial instability, and integrity of capital markets leapt up into the CEO Top 10 issues, but each has now dropped at least 10 places,” said Linda Barrington, managing director of human capital at the Conference Board and one of the report’s authors. “This year, all the challenges that jumped into the Top 10 in the crisis have now jumped back out.”

Now, only about 200 CEOs, chairmen, and company presidents participated in the Conference Board’s survey – not exactly a huge representative sample of the U.S. business landscape, mind you, but broad enough to provide some interesting insights.

In this latest survey – fielded from October through December 2009 – growth-oriented challenges started making the CEOs list of top concerns, such as how to sustain and steady top-line growth, improve customer loyalty/retention, and grow profits. All of those received higher ratings as “greatest concerns,” Barrington said. Also moving up were corporate reputation for quality products/services, and stimulating innovation/creativity/enabling entrepreneurship.

Interestingly, the challenge posed by increased government regulation is a growing concern among CEOs, rising from 19th place in the 2008 survey to 6th on this one in the U.S., while in Europe climbing from 28th place to 6th, particularly in the financial services industry.

“U.S. and European CEOs are bracing for the potential regulatory aftermath of the near collapse of the global financial system and the associated recession,” Barrington noted.

On top of this change in CEO outlooks comes other news that the U.S. economy expanded faster than expected in the further quarter last year. According to a revised look at the numbers by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) within the Department of Commerce, real gross domestic product – the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the U.S. – increased at an annual rate of 5.9% in the fourth quarter of 2009; higher than the BEA’s original 5.7% GDP estimate.

“The GDP estimates released today are based on more complete source data than were available for the ‘advance’ estimate issued last month,” the BEA noted. “The increase in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from private inventory investment, an acceleration of exports, personal consumption expenditures (PCE), and an upturn in non-residential fixed investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased as well.”

Motor vehicle output added a 0.44 percentage point to the fourth-quarter change in real GDP after adding 1.45 percentage points to the third-quarter change, the agency noted. Final sales of computers subtracted 0.01 percentage point from the fourth-quarter change in real GDP after subtracting 0.08 percentage point from the third-quarter change, BEA added.

On another front, the Commerce Department’s broader effort to try and ramp up exports from the U.S. added a new layer via an expanded partnership between the agency and United Parcel Service, designed to increase U.S. exports among small- and medium-sized businesses.

The department has tagged UPS with identifying small- and medium-sized companies that currently export to just one market. The Big Brown is supposed to go and analyze data about the companies, suggesting new markets based on factors including industry, geography, currency, and market access opportunities.

From there, the U.S. companies will be directly connected with trade specialists from the U.S. Commercial Service (USCS), a division of Commerce’s International Trade Administration. These trade experts, who are stationed in 77 countries around the world, will design targeted strategies to help identify new market opportunities and find additional buyers in existing markets to expand the companies’ ability to sell their products and services.

“Increasing the export of American products and services to global markets can help revive the fortunes of U.S. companies, spur future economic growth and support jobs here at home,” noted Commerce Secretary Gary Locke (seen here at left). “The Commerce Department, with its network of trade specialists posted around the world, and UPS, with its global reach, can be a significant resource for these companies.”

UPS has worked with Commerce’s export-promotion arm since 2007 and counseled more than 18,000 customers on how the USCS can help them boost exports and the hope is this expanded partnership will produce more of same.

In the end though, I think, it’s really more about attitude than anything else – something Jim Walton, president and CEO of PR firm Brand Acceleration talked about the other day in one of his business missives.

“Something has changed,” he said. “During the fourth quarter of 2009 there were hints of new economic activity, but 2010 seems to be different. Over and over, I hear the same thing. Activity is up – significantly! My construction industry friends are talking about increases in the number of RFPs [request for proposals], new funding for tabled work, and a flurry of new prospects. Attitudes are better; people are optimistic and they’re beginning to have fun again.”

Walton (at right) said if you watch the news, they’re still talking gloom and doom – but on the front lines of business, good things are beginning to happen.

“Everyone I talk with believes that the only reason for the rush of business activity is because people have had it with the malaise and have decided to move on with life,” he explained. “Businesses, tired of waiting, are saying, ‘Let’s get back to work.’ They are beginning to build again and there are indications that furloughed workers are being called back. They’re making things happen.”

Walton also touched on something the general news media almost always overlooks in its economic reporting: the resiliency of the American people. “We can be beaten, battered, lose everything and still fight our way back with a vengeance,” he stressed. “Given the freedom to do so, Americans will change the world. Throw in a little economic turmoil and some political anger and they’ll do just that.”

Not a bad outlook for 2010 if I say so myself.

“This technology will improve the speed of the distribution, helping us to keep the process as orderly as possible.” –Damaris Frick, manager of the Salvation Army’s camp in Port Au Prince, Haiti

A lot of folks look askance at all the information technology (IT) permeating this system – and often times for good reason. Many times, technology steps in and takes the place of human interaction, leading to all sorts of negative beliefs: that one carrier is just as good as another, it’s all about price, etc.

Then there are moments when the value of IT is displayed in crystal clear fashion – especially in terms of disaster recovery efforts.

Take the Salvation Army’s ongoing relief efforts in Haiti, for example. It’s replacing handwritten paper index cards with high-tech barcode technology – donated by United Parcel Service – to ensure that more than 4,000 families at its refugee camp outside Port Au Price efficiently receive food, shelter and medical supplies.

What the Salvation Army is using is based on UPS’s Trackpad technology, which UPS customers use to track packages within campus environments as the packages move from the loading dock to distributed offices for delivery. Big Brown not only gave it to the Salvation Army’s camp in Haiti, it also adapted it specifically to handle disaster relief supply distribution

The technology allows Salvation Army staff members to confirm what goods each Haitian family within the camp receives by tracking the information embedded in a laminated card bearing unique barcodes tied to the number of family members, their needs, and their location in the makeshift camp that has sprung up in an adjacent soccer field outside the country’s capital city; ensuring that all these families receive the right supplies at the right time while reducing the potential for theft or fraud.

“At the moment we are struggling with paper cards which disintegrate in the pockets of the bearers. It currently takes a team of 40 people to sweep through the camp to accomplish a replacement of damaged cards,” said Damaris Frick, manager of the Salvation Army’s camp in Port Au Prince.

“That problem will be completely eliminated with this system,” Frick noted – which includes 4,000 laminated cards, two handheld scanners and a laptop. “We will no longer need to manually input distribution data, which will also speed up and increase the accuracy of our reporting process to other NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and donors.”

The system will also give the Salvation Army a way to track the families and their needs in the future, as they move from the temporary camp where they currently live to more permanent shelter, Frick added.

Ken Sternad, president of The UPS Foundation, said that the company’s logistics experts configured TrackPad system into a specialized “relief application” in less than a week.

UPS technology provider Cardinal Tracking helped out by providing the barcode cards plus donating labor and equipment for the project.

Beyond the immediate need to optimize food distribution, the Salvation Army said it plans to use the barcode cards and tracking technology to help with the distribution of hygiene kits and tarps to prepare for the upcoming rainy season – while also considering use of the system at four other relief sites in Haiti.

UPS’s Sternad noted that this is actually the second time Big Brown re-configured its Trackpad technology for disaster relief: following Hurricane Katrina, it got used to track displaced pets.

Just goes to show that the IT systems used in the freight industry can do a lot more than we think: in this case, it means helping families survive the devastation in Haiti. That’s something to be proud of.

“So goes traffic, so goes the economy. An excellent indicator of economic trends, traffic congestion can tell us whether businesses are shipping products, whether people are going to work, and whether shoppers are going to the mall.” –Bryan Mistele, president and CEO of INRIX

Sometimes, it seems, traffic congestion might not be a bad thing. In fact, it could be an indicator that better days (economically speaking) are close at hand – strange as that may seem.

At least, that’s the conclusion reached by traffic and navigation service provider INRIX. They use statistical analysis techniques, originally developed by Microsoft Research, to aggregate and enhance traffic-related information from hundreds of public and private sources, including traditional road sensors and the company’s own unique network of more than 1.6 million GPS-enabled vehicles and cellular devices.

Now, according to INRIX’s third annual National Traffic Scorecard, traffic congestion and commuter travel times started rising again in 2009 – and indication, the company believes, that the overall economy is emerging from recession. “Our analysis indicates that what happens going forward in terms of increasing gridlock can be summed up in one word: jobs,” said Bryan Mistele, president and CEO of INRIX.

That’s because the company believes – as illustrated by Mistele’s quote at the start of this post – that more congestion means more people are heading off to work, and that more trucks are on the road trying to make deliveries. That activity, in their view, forms a picture of an economy on the march. For truckers, that in turn should translate into more freight activity.

Yet traffic congestion as definitely a two-edged sword – make no mistake about it. Because more gridlock also translates into longer delays for freight deliveries and commuters alike; more fuel wasted as vehicles sit in traffic jams, going nowhere; and of course the sheer psychological frustration that comes from sitting in gridlock (even the joy of my “Best of Metallica” iTunes playlist wears thin very quickly when I’m stuck in traffic.)

According to INRIX’s analysis, gridlock across the U.S. bottomed out in March and April of 2009, then started rising again – ending the year slightly ahead of the congestion levels experienced in 2008.

In fact, 58 of the top 100 most populated cities in the U.S. experienced modest increases in traffic congestion levels last year, INRIX said.

While increased unemployment kept morning commutes lighter than normal, according to the company, traffic was up nearly every other hour of the day as individuals hit the roads in search of work or other trips - a 25% increase.

By analyzing traffic on major highways in the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, INRIX also compiled the ubiquitous “top 10 list” of U.S. cities with the worst urban traffic congestion last year:

1. Los Angeles, Calif.

2. New York, N.Y.

3. Chicago, Ill.

4. Washington, D.C. (up from 6th in 2008)

5. Dallas, Texas

6. Houston, Texas (down from 4th in 2008)

7. San Francisco, Calif.

8. Boston, Mass.

9. Seattle, Wash.

10. Philadelphia, Pa. (up from 11th in 2008)

These cities account for half of our nation’s traffic congestion with four of the “top 10” cities experiencing modest increases in traffic congestion in 2009 (L.A., New York, Washington D.C. and Philadelphia), INRIX’s data indicated.

Of the nation’s top 30 largest cities, Las Vegas, Baltimore and Washington D.C. experienced more than 10% increases in congestion during peak commute periods, year-over-year.

The increase in Las Vegas congestion was primarily due to major construction along I-15 that began in the summer of 2008, while congestion in the nation’s Capitol indicated – in INRIX’s words – a city “bustling with activity” as the federal government enacted policies and increased spending to combat the recession.

Here’s another “top 10” list with even less joy to share – the worst metro traffic bottlenecks in the U.S. Not surprisingly, New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago continued to dominate the rankings in commuting nightmares:

1. New York: The Cross Bronx Expressway/I-95 Southbound at the Bronx River Parkway. This stretch of road is so bad that traffic crawls more than 94 hours along it each week at an average of only 11.4 mph.

2. Chicago: I-90 Westbound at Cermak Rd. (up from 7th in 2008)

3. New York: Cross Bronx Expressway at I-895 (up from 5th in 2008)

4. New York: Cross Bronx Expressway at White Plains Road (up from 5th in 2008)

5. New York: Harlem River Drive Southbound at 3rd Ave. (down from 2nd in 2008)

6. New Haven, CT: I-91 Southbound at Hamilton St. (up from 62nd in 2008)

7. Los Angeles: US-101 North bound at Los Angeles St. (up from 13th in 2008)

8. Chicago: I-90 Westbound at 18th St. (up from 24th in 2008)

9. New York: Cross Bronx Expressway at Westchester Ave. (up from 11th)

10. Chicago: I-90 Westbound at Ruble St. (up from 26th in 2008)

Finally, a few other interesting tidbits INRIX’s National Traffic Scorecard reveals:

• Showing the after effects of a battered economy, 2009 congestion levels were still one-third less compared to peak levels set in 2007. While varying by region, on a national level, the clock on traffic congestion has been turned back to at least 2005 – a silver lining of the tumultuous past few years.

• The nation’s “Travel Time Tax” in 2009 was 8.9%, indicating the typical random peak hour trip took 8.9% longer than it would in uncongested conditions resulting in the typical urban commuter with a 30 minute commute sitting 22 hours a year stuck in traffic.

• Wednesday from 8 to 9 a.m. continues as the busiest morning peak travel time nationwide and Friday from 5 to 6 p.m. continues to be the busiest evening (and overall) commute hour - with a travel time tax of 18.8%.

• Get this one: the best day to commute is MONDAY with a Travel Time Tax of just 7.1%; the worst day is Thursday with a Travel Time Tax of 9.7%.

• Population centers experiencing high unemployment, reduced tourism and/or less convention activity experienced the highest drops in traffic congestion including Detroit, Honolulu, San Diego, and Chicago. Detroit, where the jobless rate reached a high of 17% in 2009, dropped from 18th to 27th in the rankings.

• Los Angeles has the nation’s highest metropolitan travel times during peak commute hours, followed closely by Honolulu, Washington D.C. and San Francisco.

• The worst region and time to be on our nation’s roads is between 5 and 6 p.m. on Thursdays in Los Angeles, where the travel time tax is 69%

• Stimulus spending on road projects nationwide is starting to have an impact on congestion, particularly in off-peak periods – and not in a good way. Delays across the country during off-peak periods – mid-days, evenings, overnights and weekends – were up 25%. Of the nation’s biggest new work zone slowdowns in late 2009, more than half were directly tied to stimulus projects.

• More than 2,500 miles of the U.S.’s most important roads are congested more than 5 hours each week. Drivers on more than 437 miles of these roads experience more than 20 hours of congestion each week, or 4 hours each work day.

You can learn a lot from tracking traffic congestion, it seems.

“Fuel cell vehicles have been an elusive goal for the automotive industry “but they are on the verge of commercial reality. With substantial support from the largest automakers, the pressure is on gas companies and governments to make sure that hydrogen fueling stations are available to support this emerging market.” –Dave Hurst, transportation industry analyst, Pike Research

As I’ve noted before in this space, fuel cell technology is getting a lot more attention these days in the commercial trucking arena – both as a primary source of propulsion as well as for auxiliary power in order to reduce excessive engine idling.

Indeed, the Port of Los Angeles and <strong>Vision Industries are right now testing fuel cell powered drayage trucks to see if the technology can reduce emissions and costs while preserving vehicle performance requirements.

Though I’ve still got big doubts about whether fuel cell-powered vehicles can truly be affordable – much less practical – in the motor vehicle world, others say the indicators are all rapidly turning green for this form of alternative power.

According to a new report from Pike Research, fuel cell vehicles will be commercially launched in most regions of the world by 2014, and cumulative sales of fuel cell cars and trucks will surpass 2.8 million vehicles globally by 2020.

“For a decade or more, fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) have been touted as the ‘next big thing’ in automobiles, featuring the promise of zero emissions, other than water and heat,” said David Hurst, Pike’s transportation industry analyst. “Now, with fleets of FCVs in the hundreds and the increasing utilization of fuel cells in commercial vehicles, it appears that light duty FCVs will be commercialized by mid-decade.”

Hurst added that five key automakers are early leaders in FCV programs: Daimler AG, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, and Toyota.

Pike also believes that Western Europe will be the leading region for FCV sales with a 37% share of the world market, followed closely by Asia Pacific with 36%. FCV sales in North America will represent approximately 25% of global sales during the period from 2014 to 2020. In total, Pike predicts that FCV revenues will reach $23.9 billion annually by 2020.

Fuel cell technology is also being touted as an anti-idling solution for truckers, as well. While this isn’t a new concept, Oorja Protonics recently introduced a new fuel cell platform that uses methanol, not hydrogen, to generate electricity to power forklifts or auxiliary power untis (APUs) on trucks.

The OorjaPac Model 1 direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) produces 4.5 kilowatts (kW) of power, and with an operating cost of just 18 cents per kW-hour, Sanjiv Malhotra – the company’s founder, president & CEO – believes it will be an economical solution for forklift operators and fleet managers.

“The biggest hurdle with fuel cells has also been that word ‘hydrogen,’” Malhotra told me recently. Is it ever, for many wags in the industry note that negative feelings around hydrogen stem from what’s known as the “Hindenburg effect” – a reference to the horrific destruction of the German airship Hindenburg in 1937 when the lighter-than-air hydrogen gas used to keep it aloft suddenly ignited during a landing attempt in New Jersey.

“So the challenge we think is to find a way to power fuel cells without hydrogen, yet maintain their clean-air benefits,” Malhotra noted. “Methanol is a widely available and easy to handle energy source. Produced from natural gas, land fill gases or bio-waste, the process of fueling the OorjaPac is as simple as refueling a car.”

Hydrogen must also be stored at high pressure to used in fuel cells; not so with liquid methanol, he said. And, as a liquid, it can be more easily distributed to filling stations and truckstops. “And it’s really no more dangerous than windshield wiper fluid,” Malhotra added.

He said the OorjaPac’s 11 gallon methanol fuel tank is sufficient to power two eight-hour shifts in a forklift, with a similar scope of operation for a truck’s APU. “A single refuel of the new Model 1 takes less than one minute, and can last two eight-hour shifts,” Malhotra noted. “We’ve seen payback in as little as six months, with companies seeing full payback in 12-15 months.”

That’s a big deal in the Class 8 world, where truck engine idling consumes three billion gallons of fuel per year and costs the industry some $9 billion annually – that’s the cost of fuel plus 15 to 20 cents per engine hour to cover the cost of maintenance, Malhotra stressed.

Is liquid methanol cheap? Compared to diesel fuel it is – at least for the moment – running about $1 to $1.50 per gallon. Might that change if demand were to rise? I’d say absolutely. But then diesel fuel isn’t getting any cheaper these days, either.

So, will fuel cells really take off as a both primary and auxiliary power sources for truckers? That’s still an open question. One thing’s for sure – the technology seems to be coming down in price and complexity. That might be the winning combination when all is said and done.

“The global recession reshaped the manner in which the freight and logistics industry conducted business. Operating decisions and business models were dissected and resources were reduced to survive. Moving forward in 2010, it’s time to rethink and alter our approach to business sustainability in order to reflect changing economic dynamics.” –Simon Clark, business development manager for Europe-Middle East-Asia (EMEA) region for logistics technology supplier CargoWise

One of the most perplexing challenges facing logistics and transportation providers these days is “business continuity,” or how to keep your business healthy and thriving despite big shifts in customer demand.

This isn’t news for truckers, certainly; I mean, this is an industry under enormous fiscal pressure. G. Tommy Hodges, chairman of the American Trucking Associations (ATA), told me trucking used to be a business where profits were measured in pennies; today, however, profit is measured in quarters of pennies.

Then add in the demanding needs of trucking’s customer base: Noël Perry, industry analyst and former economist for carrier Schneider National, told me that most shippers consider anything less than a 95% on-time delivery rate to be a failure. How about THAT for high customer expectations?

That’s why it’s so important to remain as nimble as possible in the freight world these days, noted Simon Clark, business development manager-EMEA region, for logistics technology supplier CargoWise. He, for one, believes freight and logistics companies need to carefully evaluate lessons learned from the still-ongoing global recession and address future business sustainability in order to avoid future operating risks.”

“In a global economy, the business environment will always fluctuate depending on market demand,” Clark said recently. “Recognizing this, businesses must always be alert to changing conditions in order to maximize variable business opportunities. Doing so also ensures that companies themselves will not be at risk when moving forward. The success of any enterprise and its operating environment are critical elements in sustaining an ongoing workload and ensuring long-term success. Corrective, proactive and resourceful continuity measures should be taken regularly.”

OK – now, obviously, Clark (at left) believes that adopting CargoWise’s information technology (IT) systems can help alleviate some if not most of these problems; he’s a salesman, of course. But put that aside for a minute, because Clark makes some very interesting points here – especially when talking about the disconnect in how information is shared and stored in the transportation industry today, compared to the rest of the business world.

“Despite the fact that our industry is increasingly dominated by web-based transactions and social media, we remain a heavily paper-based industry,” he explained.

“Masses of paperwork in the form of job files are still created, kept in offices for months and then sent to a warehouse facility for storage,” Clark added. “These are not always secure areas; and if damaged or lost, businesses are impacted when the authorities perform audits. The vast number of emails sent via computer or smart phone between parties is also at risk if a server fails and information is not recoverable.”

He stressed that as businesses continue to create enhanced types of communication with trading partners, it’s important to regularly reassess how information is compiled, stored and accessed in order to avoid the risks entailed if it’s corrupted or lost. Taking preventative steps, Clark said, such as archiving all transactional documentation electronically in a single software platform, can help.

“Virtually all transactional data can be automatically archived electronically, eliminating the need to store paper documents that can be damaged or lost,” he explained. “Electronic documentation also provides the ability to have email and content automatically added to the document archive and indexed back to the job file, which offers obvious continuity benefits.”

Clark added that eliminating manual data processing also saves labor and time, plus avoids the need to keep scraps of paper notes scattered about without required access, thus ensuring an improved, reliable and real-time business continuity process.

“An automated IT solution can store notes on all business documents, including job files, client records, credit history discussions and other critical information for each job file,” he said. “These notes can then be used as electronic ‘post-its’ that can be stored and passed internally between members of staff, or used as constructive formatted notes that can then become part of a cohesive documentation process. They can even automatically appear on client facing documents.”

Now, “business continuity” as a concept comes into play here by taking into consideration the involvement of work done by key personnel for specific customers. “A high-quality business continuity management process considers if employee account knowledge is also documented elsewhere so others can access it when necessary to ensure workflow continuity,” Clark said. That’s a fancy way of saying that everyone can quickly be on the same page with a customer, knowing their specific needs, so “hiccups” in service become a much rarer event.

“Regardless of market conditions, IT-based planning tools enable management, team leaders, sales teams, and others to act proactively to keep accurate records on all transaction histories through secure data centers that are safe and sound,” Clark said.

“Practical, constructive and accessible electronic data that tracks all critical information, identifies new trends in spending patterns, trade lane analyses also prevents potential risks,” he noted. “This helps support business continuity planning by ensuring the day-to-day success of logistics operations regardless of the economic climate and business model required to meet changing market dynamics.”

Even despite a predicted uptick in the global economy this year, Clark knows business management challenges will still exist – so how the logistics industry approaches changing customer profiles while addressing business continuity planning will be critical for logistics and transportation providers to achieve both sustainability and success in their enterprises.

Something to think about as we wait for better economic times to unfold.

“CSA 2010 is not a big, ugly monster. There’s nothing too earth-shattering about it for carriers with an above-average approach to safety – all they may need to do is tweak a few things. It’s only going to make life harder for the ‘bad apples’ in the trucking business.” – Johnny Schrunk, vice president, Professional Safety Consulting

I had a refreshing talk with Johnny Schrunk the other day about the new comprehensive safety analysis (CSA) 2010 program now being put in place by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

In his opinion, CSA 2010 isn’t a bad thing for the trucking industry – in fact, it could be a GREAT thing for those fleets that take safety seriously.

He also believes complying with CSA 2010 shouldn’t be a hugely expensive deal, especially for those fleets that already invest in safety initiatives.

As a result, those types of fleets should view CSA 2010 as an opportunity to make “safety” a marketing tool for their business; to show shippers that safety is valuable to them and their cargoes and that it’s worth spending more to obtain it.

It’s an unusual take, to say the very least, on CSA 2010 – but Johnny (at right) told me it’s a viewpoint grounded in his many years in the field spent dealing with a wide variety of fleet operations, blended with his father’s safety philosophy honed after decades spent working as a safety director for several trucking companies.

[You can watch Johnny explain his take on CSA 2010 – and how fleets need to approach it – in more detail below.]

Johnny’s father started Professional Safety Consulting (PSC) in 1987, a business Johnny joined in 1995 the old fashioned way – at the bottom, travelling all over the country meeting with anywhere from five to 15 fleets a week, with some running no more than 10 trucks on up to big 500-unit operators.

Over those long years, Johnny told me he had a gradual epiphany of sorts. Fleets that approached safety the right way, that did the right things – such as tightening hiring standards, reward drivers for safe performance, diligently keep up to date on records, vehicle maintenance, etc. – never had any real worries. [Much of that is reflected in his blog, which makes for interesting reading: you should check it out.]

From folks using nothing but No. 2 pencils and yellow legal pads of paper, right on up to the latest in technology, always posted above average safety ratings – and tended to be more profitable as well.

Steve Keppler , interim executive director of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), shares a very similar outlook on the subject of safety and trucking, as well – with numbers to back it up. “Safety should be less about rules sand subsets of rules than a mindset; a particular philosophy that drives a company’s actions,” he noted in a speech before the Arizona Trucking Association last year.

“It is NOT just about regulatory compliance. It is something you have to practice every day. It is about going above and beyond the typical … as the ‘typical’ will not allow you to separate yourself from the crowd,” he said. “Investing in the safety mindset pays dividends in many ways. Some of these dividends are tangible, and some are not. However, they ALL help to improve performance and results.”

Keppler (at left) pointed to detailed safety statistics compiled by his group every year – data that goes into what CVSA calls “SAFER” runs on the group’s above-average motor carrier members to see how they stack up against more “typical” motor carriers.

CVSA’s last SAFER covered the time period from 2004-2006. For 178 CVSA member motor carriers, the following were the results:

• Vehicle OOS [out of service] rate: 8.4%, vs. the national average of 23.4%

• Driver OOS rate: 1.4% vs. the national average of 6.6%

• 74.7% had Satisfactory Safety Ratings vs. the national average of 57.9%

• 4.5% had Conditional Safety Ratings vs. the national average of 30.1%

• 0% had Unsatisfactory Safety Ratings vs. the national average of 9.2%

Finally, CVSA’s member fleets recorded a 1.15 per 100 million miles fatal involvement crash rate, versus the national average of 2.15. “Clearly, these data show that the safety mindset DOES pay dividends AND helps separate you from the ‘typical’ carrier,” Keppler noted.

That “mindset” in how fleets approach safety overall should help them comply with CSA 2010 as well, PSC’s Schrunk added. “If you look at this as just another compliance program, then yes, you’ll probably be very pessimistic about it,” he told me. “But if you wade in and say, ‘OK, let’s look at this and find out what we’re doing right and where we need help,’ then I thing you will benefit from it enormously.”

[Here’s an overview of CSA 2010 compiled and narrated by Johnny’s father. More information is available at PSC’s dedicated CSA 2010 web page.]

One of the reasons Johnny takes such a positive view of CSA 2010 stems from the wording used by FMCSA.

“When I saw the words ‘creating efficiencies’ in the CSA 2010 document, I knew the FMCSA was on the right track with this,” he explained. “The ultimate goal here, then, is if a fleet puts strategies in place to make CSA 2010 a part of their business, they are going to gain efficiencies from doing that – and from greater efficiency you can create profits.”

Now, Johnny does stress that this isn’t going to easy – it’s require fleets to roll up their sleeves and invest some sweat equity in re-tooling their operations.

“We’re not talking about money so much as how you approach the business,” Johnny said. “For example, I talk to some fleets about why they don’t have a driver award program for safety compliance. They’ll tell me, ‘Oh we tried that years ago and it didn’t work.’ Well, maybe it’s time to try it again – maybe you need to go back and try things that failed in the past to see if you can make them work to your advantage now.”

[Here’s some insight into how fleets can make CSA 2010 work for them.]

One the things fleets forget about CSA 2010, in Johnny’s estimation, is that by driving out “bad operators” – those that cut corners and rates, that treat drivers poorly – it will make life better for those that remain in the business.

“You can fear CSA 2010 as the final straw that breaks the camel’s back … or you can say, ‘Hey, this will put my low-ball competition out of business and boost mine,’” he said. “If you’re willing to roll up your sleeves and look behind the curtain of CSA 2010 – to let this program point out the flaws in your business, in terms of hiring practices, etc. – this could work to your advantage.”

He knows this isn’t what a lot of fleets want to hear, wither. “Change is hard right now, with the economic environment so difficult – with freight scarce, fuel prices climbing, etc.,” Johnny told me. “So many people in this business are licking their wounds right now, it’s hard to find clarity about CSA 2010. But like anything else, it takes time and effort to work through – and fleets that do the hard work should significantly benefit in the end.”

“We consider gasoline tankers, and to a lesser extent, propane tankers to be the most attractive options for terrorists seeking to use highway-borne hazmat because they can create intense fires in public assemblies and residential properties.” –Brian Michael Jenkins, director of Mineta Transportation Institute’s National Transportation Security Center of Excellence

A new report from the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) about the potential use of gasoline tanker trucks are terrorist weapons is sure to raise the hackles – not to mention the ire – of many within the trucking industry.

I mean, fuel tankers perform a fundamentally crucial yet thankless service in this country; and if we start raising a ruckus about the security measures surrounding these kinds of trucks, all kinds of things could happen – especially a slow-down in deliveries, which will of course trigger a very different kind of public outcry.

But let’s face it – the terrorist use of tankers shouldn’t be considered far-fetched. The author Larry Bond – a contemporary of Tom Clancy; they worked on the novel Red Strom Rising together – provided a fictional example of how a tanker could be used in a terrorist attack in his 1996 novel The Enemy Within.

In its opening pages, Muslim jihadists hijack a petroleum tanker truck, murder the driver, wire the big rig with explosives, and have a suicide bomber detonate on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Before you dismiss this as a mere plot device, remember this: In Tom Clancy’s novel Executive Orders a hijacked airliner is purposefully crashed into the White House; eerily presaging a similar attempt by the 9/11 terrorists aboard Flight 93, before a counter-attack by that plane’s passengers forced it into the ground outside Shanksville, PA.

So, back to MTI’s tanker truck report – compiled by its National Transportation Security Center of Excellence (NTSCOE) – given the almost unwieldy title of Potential Terrorist Uses of Highway-Borne Hazardous Materials.

Authored by Brian Michael Jenkins and Bruce R. Butterworth, along with Douglas Reeves, Billy Poe and Karl S. Shrum, the report analyzed a number of studies done on terrorists and their methods. It conclude (not surprisingly) that terrorists most often seek soft targets that yield significant casualties; that they prefer attacking public buildings and assemblies; and that they more often choose simple operations promising modest consequences rather than complex and uncertain operations promising catastrophic ones.

Terrorists are discussing substituting fire for harder-to-acquire explosives, according to MTI’s analysis of counter-terrorism intelligence – and gasoline tankers are becoming more appealing because they can easily produce intense fires, operate in target-rich environments with predictable routes, and pose few security challenges.

As a result, MTI’s report calls for a clear strategy to increase and sustain tanker truck security, including: resolving significant jurisdictional issues between federal and state authorities; strengthening hazmat security measures in the field; plus implementing vehicle tracking technologies, panic alarms, and immobilization capabilities for vehicles carrying specific hazardous materials, including gasoline.

OK, lest you think the authors of this report are just some armchair general wannabes, consider this as well: Brian Michael Jenkins, director of MTI’s NTSCOE group and the principle investigator for this report, is a combat veteran – commissioned in the infantry at the age of 19, serving three tours in Vietnam as first a paratrooper and then a captain in the Green Berets. He’s also one of the leading authorities on terrorism and sophisticated crime, working with government agencies, international organizations, and multinational corporations as an analyst, investigator, and crisis-management consultant.

In short, a guy with these kinds of chops usually has a very good idea of what really poses a threat and what doesn’t. So note just some of the details from MTI’s report below:

• The number of significant jihadist terrorist attacks outside of Afghanistan and Iraq declined in 2007 and 2008, with a greater number of terrorist plots uncovered and thwarted in the early stages. Terrorist plots uncovered in the U.S. since 9/11 have been characterized by local planning and low skill levels.

• Al Qaeda-inspired terrorists, currently the most formidable terrorist threat, remain committed to large-scale bombings requiring vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs); these continue to be a preferred attack mode when high body counts and massive damage are the objectives.

• The acquisition or manufacture of large quantities of explosives by terrorists is difficult, and it has been made more so by increased security and monitoring of ingredients such as ammonium nitrate fertilizer; a common ingredient in explosive devices when mixed with fuel oil.

• Terrorists, notably in Iraq, have attempted to increase the lethality of their devices by adding propane tanks or toxic chemicals to them. Reports indicate that terrorists have also discussed substituting available hazardous materials for explosives, although it is not clear whether these discussions relate exclusively to the continuing conflict in Iraq. This possibility has also been mentioned in recent U.S. threat assessments. Recent assessments also suggest that terrorists are considering how to weaponize gasoline tankers.

• While any specific type of terrorist attack against any specific category of target remains unpredictable, although of low statistical probability, the use of vehicles carrying hazardous-materials cargos as surrogate truck bombs must be considered a plausible mode of terrorist attack.

Now, most tanker truck fleets in the U.S. already maintain a high degree of security in and around their operations – they can’t afford not to. What this report should do, however, is help them look at where potential gaps in their security coverage might exist and how to fill them.

This isn’t to imply hordes of bearded, wild-eyed fanatics are hiding along highway on- and off-ramps, ready to spring out and grab any tanker truck they see. That would almost be too farcical. It surely such a report reiterates how vital security measures are for fuel carriers in this country. That’s a reminder we can all benefit from.

“Increasing the export of American products and services to global markets can help revive the fortunes of U.S. companies, spur future economic growth and support jobs here at home. This initiative will correct an economic blind spot that has allowed other countries to chip away at U.S. international competitiveness.” –Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, from remarks concerning the new National Exports Initiative given at a National Press Club luncheon Feb. 4, 2010

If you want to roll your eyes at the new National Export Initiative or “NEI” proposed by President Obama during his State of the Union speech a few weeks ago, be my guest – for you have good cause to do so. Getting broader federal government support for U.S. trade exports is nothing new – something Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, in charge of getting the NEI up and running, fully understands.

“There have, of course, been previous endeavors by the government to elevate the importance of exports,” he explained during a recent luncheon at the National Press Club to lay out the “what” and “why” of the NEI.

“But what sets this effort apart is that this is the first time the U.S. will have a government-wide export-promotion strategy with focused attention from the president and his Cabinet,” Locke (at right) said. “Because for all of America’s economic strengths, we stand out among developed nations as one of the few whose government does not have a focused, comprehensive and agile export strategy.”

Why does any of this matter for truckers? I’ll sum it up in two words: more freight. That’s because more exports translates into more raw materials being delivered to factories and more finished goods being hauled to ports.

The NEI aims to double American exports over the next five years – a pretty ambitious goal, if I say so myself. Total U.S. exports at the end of 2009 stood at $1.55 trillion, according to the Commerce Department – a decrease of 15% from 2008, with the trade deficit for the year standing at $381 billion as total U.S. imports numbered $1.93 trillion. Doubling U.S. exports, then, would not only help erase our trade deficit and increase demand for freight services, but create a lot of jobs, too – some two million more, according to the Commerce Department’s analysis.

“The real American economy demands increasing volumes of trade if it is to continue to grow,” according to a broad study conducted by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). “The economic sectors that remain robust will require far more trade and travel per unit of output than was required 30 years ago.”

AASHTO’s research stressed that the longtime “Western” focus of the global economy is shifting permanently in many ways. Instead of European countries and the U.S. dominating the world economy, Asia is now the dominate force – for decades to come. Not only will Asia produce more exports which America will want to buy, but Asia also will have the world’s fastest-growing consumer population—which American producers will want to reach, AASHTO noted.

But the only way to get American products to those consumers and to get Asian imports to America is by ocean shipping – so port capacity and, just as importantly, the highway and rail connections into those ports will be under increasing and unrelenting pressure, the group said.

That may not be completely true now, due to the so-called “Great Recession” affecting the world, but that trade pressure will no doubt reassert itself as the globe’s economies start down the recovery path.

AASHTO, for one, predicted that imports and exports together would provide 35% of the U.S. gross domestic product [GDP] by 2020 and 60% in 2030 – up from a mere 13% in 1990 and 26% in 2000. Will that still happen? It remains to be seen – but the NEI is supposed to be one way to help insure that U.S. exports stay on that rising glide path.

“While the U.S. is a major exporter, we are underperforming,” noted Commerce Secretary Locke. “U.S. exports as a percentage of GDP are still well below nearly all of our major economic competitors. Today, less than 1% of America’s 30 million companies export—a percentage that is also significantly lower than all other developed countries. And of U.S. companies that do export, 58% export to only one country.”

In this increasingly interconnected world—where 95% of consumers reside outside our borders—these are opportunities American companies cannot afford to miss, Locke stressed.

That’s where the NEI comes in, he explained, focused on three key goals:

• A more robust effort by the U.S. government effort to expand trade advocacy in all its forms, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises. This effort includes educating U.S. companies about opportunities overseas, directly connecting them with new customers and advocating more forcefully for their interests.

• Improving access to credit with a focus on small- and medium-sized businesses that want to export.

• Continuing the rigorous enforcement of international trade laws to help remove barriers that prevent U.S. companies from getting free and fair access to foreign markets.

The NEI also creates an “Export Promotion Cabinet,” reporting directly to the President, made up of personnel from agencies that can contribute to the export effort, including: the Commerce, State and Treasury Departments; the U.S. Trade Representative; the Small Business Administration; the Export Import Bank; and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Within 180 days, all of the agencies in the Export Cabinet will be responsible for submitting a coordinated, detailed plan to the president about how they will collectively enhance U.S. exports – and that clock started ticking a few weeks ago.

“Many American companies don’t export, or export less than they should, because they simply don’t have the resources to identify promising new markets or the necessary contacts in foreign countries,” said Locke. “This is an area where the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA) will be escalating its already substantial efforts.”

As part of the NEI, the president’s 2011 budget is requesting a 20% increase in funding for ITA – totaling $78 million. Locke said that money would be used to hire 328 additional trade experts—mostly in foreign countries—to advocate and find customers for U.S. companies, allowing its Commercial Service to assist more than 23,000 clients to increase export sales in 2011.

The ITA, by the by, has a global network of trade specialists posted in 109 U.S. cities and at 128 U.S. embassies and consulates in 77 countries. As part of the NEI effort, the agency plans to: put a special focus on increasing the number of small- and medium-sized businesses exporting to more than one market by 50% over the next five years; to increase their presence in emerging high-growth markets like China, India and Brazil; and to develop a comprehensive strategy to identify market opportunities in fast-growing sectors like environmental goods and services, renewable energy, healthcare and biotechnology

In the next month, ITA is also set to launch a one-year program to help create jobs in America by: Identifying new markets for existing U.S. exporters; Increasing the number of foreign buyers to U.S. trade shows; Working with private sector partners to increase exporting through our market development cooperator grant program; and getting more clean energy companies involved in promising new markets.

It all sounds good, for sure – but what does it all translate into out in the real world? Locke shared this example: In April 2009, General Electric requested U.S. government support for its campaign to provide the Kuwaiti Ministry of Electricity and Water with a combined cycle power plant. At stake: a $2.6 billion contract being battled over by GE and European companies.

“Commerce Department staff, working in Kuwait with their colleagues in the U.S. Embassy, began an intense round of engagement with their local Kuwaiti contacts on behalf of GE – ultimately involving 20 embassy meetings, dozens of e-mails and about 50 phone calls,” Locke related.

Following those efforts, GE signed a contract to provide a 2,000-megawatt power plant in Subiya, Kuwait on Sept. 14 last year. “What’s crucial is that this plant will contain approximately $1.1 billion in American export content, which according to GE, will provide business for 240 suppliers located in 24 states,” said Locke – and its these kinds success stories he hopes the NEI might foster in the future.

I stress the word MIGHT here, however; it’s an ambitious effort, no doubt, but the federal government has tried similar initiatives before without much success.

Yet there’s also a lot at stake, too: Exports support nearly 10 million jobs in America and almost seven million jobs in manufacturing—and for every $1 billion in exports, 6,250 manufacturing jobs are created or supported. That’s outside of the freight demand export volumes create as well; the kind of demand that generates miles for truckers. So let’s hope the NEI gets some legs and sees some success; for truckers stand to benefit if it does.

“I am no smarter than a lot of guys in town … but I work harder.” –John Ruan, founder of Ruan Transportation Management Systems, who passed away at age 96 on Feb. 13 this year

It’s hard to sum up the impact John Ruan – a one-time gravel hauler, with a single truck to his name –had on the trucking industry, the city of Des Moines, Iowa, and the world. One thing is for certain – his long and rich life shows that, no matter the circumstances you face at birth, you can go quite far in this country on sheer grit and determination.

Yet in some ways, though, Ruan – who died this week at aged 96 – left behind a many-hued legacy that occurred due in no small part to grave family misfortune. Born on Feb. 11, 1914 – the eve of World War I, when much of the world still relied on horses to move around – Ruan grew up in the “Roaring ‘20s,” a heady era of American society, in a small town outside of Oskaloosa in Mahaska County, Iowa.

However, his father – a doctor – lost most of the family’s money in the 1929 Stock Market Crash. As a result of that financial cataclysm, Ruan’s family moved to Des Moines in 1930, where his father died in 1931. Though Ruan wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a doctor, he could only afford to attend Iowa State College for a year. With no money available, Ruan left school to find work – not an easy thing to do in the depths of the Great Depression.

Yet according to a short biography by Bill Friedricks, the hardships didn’t faze Ruan one bit. In fact, they seemed to fan the fires of an inner source of gumption. On the advice of a friend, Ruan traded one of the family cars for a truck in the summer of 1932 and began hauling gravel for a local road builder. A year later, he owned three trucks and was hauling coal. A fellow trucker who knew Ruan at the timed noted that, “he was aggressive, always moving; he pushed hard and never eased up.”

By the mid-1930s, Ruan’s growing fleet began moving freight and later hauling petroleum – soon becoming the largest trucking operation in central Iowa. After World War II, his trucking operation grew even faster, becoming the nation’s largest hauler of petroleum products by the end of the 1950s. Along the way, he acquired the taxi service in Des Moines as well as the city’s Avis Rent a Car franchise.

The following decade, he expanded into truck leasing business (eventually selling it to rival Ryder System in 2003 for $145 million), while broadening the scope of his trucking operations to include logistics, supply chain services, and dedicated contract carriage. Today, Ruan Transportation Management Services (RTMS) operates a fleet of 8,700 trucks nationally.

But he didn’t focus on just trucking – Ruan was nothing short of a jack-of-all-trades when it came to the world of business. In 1964 he purchased a majority interest in Bankers Trust Company, eventually buying out the entire company, then branching into other areas including real estate and property management, the import-export business, and a securities firm.

In addition, Ruan was one of the most influential leaders in the revitalization of downtown Des Moines in the 1970s and 1980s. So significant was his role that Robert Ray, former governor of Iowa, said: “John Ruan is the father of the renaissance of Des Moines. Because of him, the city started to prosper and grow and come alive.”

His 36-story Ruan Center, which was the state’s tallest building for 15 years, became the anchor for the new downtown. As general partner, he was the prime mover behind the construction of the downtown Marriott and soon thereafter erected Ruan Two, another office building adjacent to his original tower – all while playing a central role in the planning and layout of the skywalk system.

Yet those weren’t his real accomplishments, for it would be in philanthropy that Ruan really laid down his legacy. Multiple sclerosis or “MS” afflicted both his wife, Elizabeth Jayne, and daughter, Jayne Ruan Fletcher (who would later die of complications from MS) – and Ruan spent millions on charity efforts devoted to trying to find a cure for this terrible disease.

He formed the John Ruan MS Charity, which became one of the largest one-day charity golf events in the U.S., to fund research in an experimental MS regimen at Rush Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago.

In the late 1980s, Ruan personally donated $2 million for the establishment of the Ruan Neurological Center (now the Ruan Rehabilitation Center) and the Ruan Neurology Clinic at Des Moines’ Mercy Medical Center, which cares for patients with MS as well as other neurological disorders such as stroke and Parkinson’s disease. $2 million for the establishment of the Ruan Neurological Center

Then there was the World Food Prize – a global award Ruan stepped in to support after its major corporate sponsor backed out in the 1990s.

Following discussions with Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug – a fellow Iowan – Ruan agreed to back World Food Prize, establishing a foundation in 1990 to support it and helping honor the award winner with a $250,000 prize in a ceremony held in Des Moines.

In 1997, he endowed the World Food Prize with a gift of $10 million and in 2001, Ruan and his family pledged $5 million for buying and renovating the downtown Des Moines Public Library building to make it the permanent home for the World Food Prize organization.

[For more insight into Ruan’s contribution to this global award, watch the The World Food Prize and John Ruan below, written and narrated by Michael Gartner.]

Yet despite being one of the wealthiest and most powerful people in Des Moines, despite hob-nobbing with U.S. presidents and other elites, Ruan never changed. By his own admission, Ruan possessed “a hard-charging personality” that led him to the office seven days a week and a business style that was often described as “sheer determination.” And he wore bow tires and wire rimmed glasses, whether fashionable or not.

Never completely divorced from his work, Ruan was always thinking about “ways to make a buck,” noted biographer Friedricks, and he was fastidious about jotting down ideas on note cards. When out of the office, he carried a small leather address book, which included a pad of paper and pencil, in his pants pocket so that, even when hunting or playing golf, he could write down possible opportunities so they would not “get away from him.”

His is survived by his sons John Ruan III and Thomas Ruan, six grandchildren and seven great grandchildren, who to this day still operate the family business.

“Our family is grieving. We have lost our mentor and dear companion,” said John Ruan III, RTMS’ chairman and CEO. “My father’s influence in the industry and with his employees and customers built the strong foundation for the company that exists today.”

“John Ruan was a recognized leader in business, education, and community. He was the visionary who formed the World Food Prize,” added Thomas Donahue, president and CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the former head of the American Trucking Associations (ATA), who knew Ruan for many years. “But most importantly, he was a man of courage and conviction, a leader who made others stronger and better because they knew him.”

Not too bad for a one-time poor Iowan that started out with a single truck hauling gravel to make ends meet.

Not too bad at all.

“The theme of this year’s show – ‘Change Happens Here’ – is meant to demonstrate our commitment to working with the decision makers and innovators in the industry; to ensure the right connections are being made with the thought leaders of the industry to capture the best thinking and values in our products.” –Charles Stringfellow, CEO of Brown’s Automotive and chairman of The Washington Auto Show.

It was almost too big for one person to cover – 65,000 square feet of space packed with more than 700 vehicles from over 42 domestic and foreign manufacturers, along with a gaggle of other products – from fast re-charging system for electric vehicles to new processes for turning waste paper and other “organic trash” into vehicle fuel, with engines re-designed to efficiently burn such biofuel.

Indeed, it took me three hours just to conduct a cursory walk-through of the 2010 Washington Auto Show – barely scratching the surface of all the interesting things laid out for viewing.

[Here’s a quick “snapshot” of just a few of the many sights at the 68th annual Washington Auto Show.]

SAE International and the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) co-located with the auto show this year, bringing top thinkers in advanced technology and public policy together under one roof.

In particular, the electric vehicles and related technology displayed under the auspices of the EDTA demonstrated some of the new paths being blazed in this area vehicle technology.

[Click here to view a photo gallery of these all-electric vehicles.]

All-electric cars and trucks weren’t the only “alternate fueled” models on display at the show – not by a long shot. Cars and light trucks that operate on hydrogen-powered fuel cells, natural gas, gasoline-electric hybrids, even ethanol-electric hybrids, got some time in the spotlight.

[A photo gallery of these vehicles is available for viewing here.]

Then there are the concept vehicles: cars and light trucks sporting prototype designs and powertrain that represent some of the latest thinking going on in the automotive realm, both in the U.S. and overseas in Europe and Asia.

[You can take a gander at the concept vehicles displayed at the show by clicking here.]

But of course, what’s an auto show without luxury vehicles, I ask you? Big money sedans and sport cars built for the rich and shameless right alongside fully-restored classics from the past; vehicles only affordable for folks with a working knowledge of two words the rest of us are quite unfamiliar with these days: disposable income.

[Here are just a few of the sharp rides that were at the show – click here to see them.]

It wasn’t just about the products, either, as many company executives were on hand to describe some of their future strategies when it comes to the market – from green technologies to safety systems.

Below are some of Ford Motor Co.’s CEO Alan Mulally comments from the show

Mulally also took questions from the attending journalists, discussing everything from green technologies to safety systems.

My only regret about attending the 2010 Washington Auto Show is that I only had but three hours to try and take in everything on display. Next year, I’m going to try and carve out a lot more time for it.