Trucks at Work Blog

“You can’t handle the truth.” –from the movie A Few Good Men

It’s funny how one can lose focus on the really important issues of the day, sitting at the computer as I do, sifting through all manner of transportation issues, prattling on about traffic congestion, freight volumes, etc.

Take the recent WikiLeaks release of some 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables, including 15,000 or so classified as “secret.” Beyond the very valid concerns that U.S. diplomatic correspondence of this sort could be so severely compromised in such a far-reaching manner, what these cables reveal about the international dialog about Iran is truly frightening.

For when you have the leaders of Middle East nations such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt (along with others) actually encouraging the U.S. to take out potential Iranian nuclear weapon manufacturing sites, you suddenly realize just how bad things are getting in the world today. more

“Increasing traffic congestion places a tremendous burden on the economy as well as individuals. When traffic congestion increases in a region, it reduces the level of personal and commercial mobility, making a region less attractive to both employers and employees.” –William Wilkins, The Road Information Program’s executive director

If you survived a Thanksgiving holiday pilgrimage by car this year (I, thankfully, faced no such biblical journey this time!) probably the very last thing you want to discuss (or remember) is the traffic.

AAA, for one, projected that 42.2 million Americans would don their travellin’ shoes for the recent Thanksgiving holiday this year, with said holiday “travel window” starting Wednesday, November 24 and ending yesterday on Sunday, November 28.

Trips by automobile were expected to remain the dominant mode of transportation for 2010 Thanksgiving holiday travel, as well, with 94% of travelers – some 39.7 million people – projected to drive to their destination (and back again) this year.

So, in the spirit of such a “asphalt” holiday, NAVTEQ’s Traffic.com site compiled a “top 10” list of the U.S. cities with the worst traffic congestion, according to their own in-house pool of data compiled by 400 experts monitoring traffic 24/7 in 113 national markets. more

If you think the inclusion of a classic Diamond-T truck within the confines of a Peterbilt dealership’s annual calendar is surprising, think again, for not only did the dealership in question – Sioux City Truck Sales (SCTS) – help restore this piece of trucking history, back in the day, it used to sell them, too.

You see, SCTS started out as a Diamond-T franchise in 1954 and sold a group of five 630 Series heavy-service dump trucks in 1957 to Irving F. Jensen Co. of Sioux City.

By 1967, however, SCTS changed over to become an exclusive Peterbilt dealership – today operating four full-service Peterbilt Nebraska-based dealerships in: Sioux City, Des Moines, Council Bluffs and Norfolk. more

“Fuel economy mandates attempt to push more efficient designs and technologies into the new vehicle marketplace. [But] as a practical matter, unless fuel economy regulations are ‘appropriate, cost-effective and technologically feasible,’ as called for in the proposed regulations, prospective customers will not purchase new vehicles and engines, reducing sales and leaving stock vehicles languishing on dealer lots.” –Kyle Treadway, chairman of the American Truck Dealers group and also president of Kenworth Sales Company in West Valley City, UT

So I talked with Kyle Treadway by phone this week, not long after he’d returned to his Utah digs after testifying in Chicago at the first official hearing concerning the federal government’s proposed greenhouse gas (GHG)/fuel economy standards for commercial trucks and buses.

Treadway (at right) told me most of the commentary centered on the environmental, technological, and fuel saving potential of these new rules, put together by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in partnership with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Yet one topic remained noticeably absent from the discussion, one he pointedly stressed in his own statement for the record: the cost. more

“It’s interesting coming back to a third world country.” –Congressman James Oberstar, outgoing chairman of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, commenting on the U.S. approach to transportation compared to France

Didn’t know you lived in a “third world” country, did you? I didn’t either and was most surprised to find the U.S. characterized as such by outgoing Congressman James L. Oberstar (D-MN), who narrowly lost a re-election battle this month and so now is wrapping up a nearly 36-year legislative career.

Oberstar uttered the quote above in referencing his return to the U.S. after a recent vacation in France, where he travelled on high-speed trains (known as ‘Trains à Grande Vitesse’ or TGV for short).

The soon-to-be-former congressman lavished praise on these billion-dollar technological wonders: trains capable of going over 170 mph with nary a “quiver” to be detected in the delectable red wine the good legislator from Minnesota sipped. “And they carried over 700 passengers, too; you can’t stuff that many people on an airplane,” he noted. more

“This [economic] improvement, along with a strong desire to spend time with friends and family, is expected to propel a significant increase in Thanksgiving travel this year.” –AAA Regional President Brad Roeber

Here’s an early warning for the freight industry: AAA is projecting that the number of Americans traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday this year will increase 11.4% from 2009, with approximately 42.2 million travelers taking a trip at least 50 miles away from home.

Trips by automobile are expected to remain the dominant mode of transportation for Thanksgiving holiday travel, too, with 94% of travelers – some 39.7 million people! – expected to hit the road this year. By contrast, passenger airlines are only expected to account for 4% of overall Thanksgiving travel with 1.62 million holiday flyers, an increase of 3.5% from last year’s 1.57 million flyers.

That all basically adds up to one thing for truckers over the Thanksgiving holiday travel period this year (defined as Wednesday, November 24 to Sunday, November 28) – a lot more crowded roads than usual. more

“When you consider that light-duty electric vehicles have a per mile cost of operation 70% to 80% lower than petroleum-powered light duty vehicles, those are numbers that really get your accountant’s attention.” –Frederick Smith, chairman, president and CEO, FedEx Corp.

FedEx’s Fred Smith believes the wholesale electrification of light-duty commercial vehicles is an absolutely vital transportation strategy the U.S. needs to embark on right away, for the most fundamental of reasons.

It’s not because all-electric vehicles (EVs) would help the U.S. transportation sector be “greener” (although that’s nice) by reducing vehicle exhaust pollution, nor is it because EVs can cost a lot less to operate while delivering significant life cycle cost savings for fleets (which is even nicer).

No, Smith boils the needs for EVs in the country down to one single word: survival. more

“Employing the lean logistics business model to reduce risk and drive ROI [return on investment] remains very popular even as the global economy revives.” –Simon Clark, business development manager–United Kingdom for software provider CargoWise

The above quote from Simon Clark (at right) – who’s been quoted in this space before – is but a polite way of saying that the pressure on supply chains to keep delivering bottom line savings for business isn’t going away, even though the global economy continues to improve (albeit slowly).

“While logistics service providers (LSPs) began to execute leaner logistics strategies during the economic downturn, that strategy is now being utilized more than ever in the logistics industry,” Clark, business development manager–United Kingdom for software provider CargoWise, noted recently. “LSPs are looking for ways to provide customers more efficient supply chain solutions by capitalizing on existing resources and minimizing waste to reduce future expenses.” more

“War, disguise it as you may, is a dirty, shoddy business.” –Winston Churchill

We’ve been at war for nearly a decade now, the U.S. and many of its allies, fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq against all sorts of enemies. Many have fallen in these conflicts – men and women alike – so the very least we can do is pause for a day and reflect on their sacrifice on behalf of our societies as a whole.

One such trucking tribute involves an F-350 turned into a rolling memorial for U.S. Army medic Ryan Walker, killed in a roadside bomb attack back in January 2006. Though on the cusp of rotating home – with his bags literally packed and ready – Walker went with his fellow troopers out on one last mission to make sure they had medical support close at hand; a mission, sadly, that proved his last. more

“Truck traffic through Laredo has tripled since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into force 16 years ago. If customs inspectors examined every truck, it would cripple free trade. Instead, one out of every five trucks is unloaded and inspected. So drug traffickers play the numbers game.” –from a National Public Radio story by John Burnett

It’s a major side effect of more cross-border trade that no one wants to talk about: the increased movement of illegal narcotics via commercial trucks.

According to a well-written story this week written by National Public Radio’s John Burnett, The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents seized 96 tons of marijuana from trucks at southwest ports of entry in the U.S. this year; more than twice as much as in 2006. more