Trucks at Work Blog

It’s more than a little weird to envision a car being transformed by “fashionistas” into jewelry, shoes, even a trench coat. But Lexus – the luxury car division of Toyota – apparently felt this would be a good way to demonstrate the “recyclability” of the modern-day motor vehicle.

One thing’s for sure with this, however: whether you love or loathe the “fashion art” wrinkled out from the Lexus CT hybrid sedan, the project surely proves its ultimate point – vehicles today can be recycled into just about anything once they’ve reached the end of their life cycle.

For this “fashion project” (if that’s what we can call it) Lexus challenged four fashion designers to create “fashion art” from the more than 2,000 individual parts of a completely dismantled Lexus CT hybrid – a vehicle Lexus claims is more than 90% recyclable. more

“For nearly 10 years, the importance of ease of use [for on-board navigation systems] has been emphasized by owners, and the continued high level of problems in this area begs the question: is the industry listening to how owners want to interact with their system?” –Andy Bernhard, director, J.D. Power and Associates

I had a dream the other night (no, NOT one of THOSE! Please! This is a family-friendly blog!) which followed a theme that I’m sure is familiar to many – getting lost in what seems to be familiar surroundings. And, like many such dreams, it seems far more humorous and outlandish in the cold light of day than it did to me whilst under its spell.

You see, I’d somehow returned to the house and neighborhood I’d grown up in … only to find it being rapidly transformed by the construction of a strip mall, fuel stop, and other businesses. I couldn’t believe my (dreaming) eyes of course, so I started wandering around trying to figure out what happened to the old playground, park, and forested glen I’d spent so much of childhood roaming in and about.

Instead, of course, I got seriously lost – nothing looked even remotely familiar to me anymore. So I whipped out my cell phone and tried to find my way back to my childhood home using a navigation application.

It should surprise no one who knows me and my total lack of technological know-how that I spent the rest of the dream trying to figure out how to use the navigation “app” on my phone – becoming more and more panicked along the way as I just knew (the way one always “knows” in dreams) that my chances of getting home kept diminishing the longer it took for me to figure out how to use the blessed system. more

“We are concerned that policy-makers fail to see the urgency of taking decisive action to tackle the real and growing risks to the global economy.” –Pier Carlo Padoan, deputy secretary-general and chief economist, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Economists, by the very nature of their work, can’t afford to be too optimistic in their outlook; for a rosy picture of the future often leads to the kinds of “irrational exuberance” that helps get us in messes like the Great Recession. Thus, from the outset, most expect economists to be – at the very least – conservative in their outlook for the future.

Yet the most recent global economic outlook released this week by Pier Carlo Padoan (at right), deputy secretary-general and chief economist for Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) certainly paints a far darker and more dangerous picture than ones that have come before.

“The global economy has deteriorated significantly since our [OECD’s] previous economic outlook; advanced economies are slowing down and the Euro area appears to be in a mild recession,” he noted in a press briefing released today from the OECD’s headquarters in Paris, France.

“Concerns about sovereign debt sustainability in the European monetary union are becoming increasingly widespread [and] recent contagion to countries thought to have relatively solid public finances could massively escalate economic disruption if not addressed,” he added. “Unemployment remains very high in many OECD economies and, ominously, long-term unemployment is becoming increasingly common.” more

“The fun part is that you never know what kinds of trucks you’re going to find.” –Tom Schoening, marketing-communications manager for the Sioux City Truck Sales Peterbilt dealer group

I always eagerly await the yearly calendar crafted by former newspaper-journalist-turned-truck-dealer-PR-man Tom Schoening, because he’s developed a true aesthetic sense of the artistic qualities both modern-day and classic iron embodies and puts it on display for all to see.

His work is again on display in the third such yearly calendar he’s created for Peterbilt dealer group edition of Sioux City Truck Sales (SCTS). The new 2012 calendar – dubbed Working Trucks of the Midwest – is available for free at SCTS three Iowa dealerships (Des Moines, Council Bluffs, and — obviously — Sioux City) and its lone Nebraska outpost (in Norfolk, to be precise) while supplies last.

Tom told me by phone that he really focuses on capturing images of “real working trucks” for SCTS’s calendar, using his hard-won shoe-leather reporting skills canvassing the company’s employees to glean tips on where some sharp looking iron might be found. more

“I venture to project that over the next generation all nations will turn to joint border management and wonder in retrospect, as we do, how they could have functioned otherwise. As philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer aptly noted: ‘Every truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed; Second, it is violently opposed; and third, it is regarded as self-evident.’” –Alan Bersin, commissioner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, from an October speech before the Brooklyn Law School

One of the more controversial topics in the freight community – on almost any level – is what to do about making U.S. borders more secure without impeding the flow of either people or cargo.

It’s not an easy task, to say the least, but it falls to folks like Alan Bersin (at right), commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to make it happen.

Bersin addressed the complexities he must confront concerning this extremely ticklish topic during a speech given back in October before the Brooklyn Law School.

For starters, he explained, borders define a homeland. “They are the primary reference points for national defense strategy and homeland security policy,” Bersin said. “Throughout history, borders have been the site of fortification, intended variously to shut in or keep out people or things.”

Sovereignty asserts itself aggressively at the border threshold, he noted, to determine who and what has the right or privilege of entrance (inbound) and exit (outbound).

“Yet the levying of customs fees and duties has generated critical revenue streams for governments since biblical times,” Bersin stressed; noting how cross-border trade fueled significant economic growth. “Thus it was no accident that one of the earliest acts of the First Congress during the [President George] Washington administration was to establish the U.S. Customs Service in 1789.” more

“Customers demand a high quality experience across all touch points, starting with their first service experience and continuing over the course of the customer’s lifetime. [Thus] the only way to earn loyalty is through deeper customer engagement.” –Rebecca Prudhomme, vice president of product and solutions marketing, Amdocs

The famous (and often infamous) architect Frank Lloyd Wright (at right) once uttered this simple three-word phrase when he received word that one of his students received a contract to design a building: “Hosanna! A client!”

An excellent documentary of Wright by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick explained why Wright uttered this expression: at its most basic level, architecture is nothing without clients, for nothing an architect constructs within his or her mind or designs on paper will ever be built without a client putting up the money and saying, “Yeah, build that for me.”

In large measure, the same holds true anywhere in the business world. Apple is as successful as it is because people buy its products and rave about the service they receive. Honda and Toyota upended and reordered the U.S. automotive market with them on top because they built better, more fuel efficient products and provided better service for them (and it’s taken almost three decades for U.S. automakers to catch back up).

Yet, apparently, the whole concept of “customer service” which thence leads to “customer loyalty” seems to be lacking in many corners of the global business community. more

“I’d been looking over these old truck ads for years and just wanted a chance to resurrect that ‘classic’ style of advertising campaign.” –Roger Snider, truck photographer extraordinaire

I got lucky in terms of meeting Roger Snider (or, more precisely, his excellent photographic work) over three years ago almost wholly by happenstance after one of my compatriots forwarded me link to his one-of-a-kind website, Ultra Rigs of the World.

To say I was blown away by his photography is an understatement; to characterize his photographs as “gorgeous” doesn‘t do them an ounce of justice.

Since then, he’s graced this space many a time and for good reason – his globe-trotting photographic sprees produce some of the most amazing shots of custom trucks you’ll ever see, in some truly eye-popping locales as well.

His latest effort, though, allowed him to meld together two very distinct aspects of his career; his early work as a fashion photographer and his current passion for custom trucks. more

“The most advanced criminals are going to ride the waves of personal devices, personal social media use, and personal web activities of employees to create more advanced, social engineering attacks to get in. Many of the business and government attacks in the coming year won’t necessarily be about how complex the code is, but how well they can convincingly lure unsuspecting victims to click.” –Dan Hubbard, chief technology officer, Websense

Yes, yes, I know: I’ve harped on the information technology (IT) security topic a lot of late – a subject only tangentially related to the work trucks perform for our nation.

Yet IT now permeates everything we humans do now, both in our work and personal lives – and this is especially true for truck drivers. Cell phones and “smart phones” are but two of the many tools drivers use to stay in touch both with the company and the family whilst performing their vital (if often taken for granted) tasks.

Now, “social media” such as Facebook, Twitter, and the like are becoming more integral parts of the truck driver’s life – and that of his company.

So when internet security experts such as Websense Security Labs predict that 2012 will be the year we witness a significant increase in criminal activity designed to exploit social media, then it’s something the trucking community needs to sit up and take notes about.

Here are the firm’s top predictions when it comes to the kinds of internet-based criminal activity all web users should keep a wary eye out for: more

“The recession certainly took a toll. [But] despite their pessimistic outlook, Americans are resilient. They will find a way to rise above financial challenges.” –Keith Brannan, vice president of financial security planning, Country Financial

As I’ve noted before in this space, it’s not been a pleasant year in many respects (and THAT is putting it VERY mildly) for the trucking industry and for the U.S. as a whole.

Right now, as we start to look at 2012, the economic portents are cloudy at best and decidedly dark at worst, with the threat of defaults by both Greece and Italy fueling concerns that a second recession my indeed come to pass.

That aside, however, there’s some good news to be had amidst the gloom – especially in terms of how the freight picture might shape up for next year.

For example, take the “positive vibe” exuded from a survey of 300 small business owners along the Eastern seaboard (Maine to Florida) conducted by TD Bank. Now, small businesses struggle mightily in times like these as they simply don’t have the resources (or the clout) large companies can access. more

“The simple fact is that we have not been getting enough freight revenue per tractor to justify serving all of our lanes.” –David Parker, chairman, president, and CEO of Covenant Transportation Group

In many ways, Covenant Transportation Group’s recently released third quarter earnings report neatly presents the struggles the industry is facing in microcosm.

The carrier watched its revenues drop 2.1% to $161.4 million compared to the same period last year, leading to a net loss of $11.2 million versus profits of $1.9 million in the third quarter of 2010. Though an after-tax non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $9.4 million represented the bulk of Covenant’s red ink, David Parker, the company’s chairman, president, and CEO, stressed in written comments that rates simply aren’t keeping up with the costs the carriers is facing these days.

“The simple fact is that we have not been getting enough freight revenue per tractor to justify serving all of our lanes,” he explained. “We have been working with our customers on improving this over the last year, and will continue to evaluate decisions in coordination with our customers as to which freight is worth transporting. Then, we need to agree on rates, lanes and freight levels that make sense for both of us.” more