Trucks at Work Blog

Most folks (myself included) loathe television commercials. Indeed, if you are of a certain age group (and that certainly includes me), you’ll recall a time when only four or five television channels existed: all of them laden with commercials that couldn’t be avoided.

Now, in the age of cable television, TiVo, direct TV and the like, you can skip over them or even edit the dratted things out of your favorite shows completely.

Yet, despite all that being said, television commercials remain a distinctive and very powerful marketing tool. Indeed, every year, those that make them for a living generate vignettes that – despite their necessarily miniscule length – capture our attention and imagination.

And often times, not surprisingly perhaps, the “best of the best” in the world of television commercials center around motor vehicles. more

“Our findings continue to show the challenges transportation organizations, and those employing commercial drivers, face when monitoring their drivers and trying to meet compliance standards.” –Hayley Hitchcock, director-vertical strategy, LexisNexis Risk Solutions

It’s a study with results no one likes to see, documenting a steep rise not only in truck driver employment application discrepancies but in positive drug tests as well.

Yet while those trend lines are definitely worrisome, they also require a good bit of context to be interpreted fairly – especially as fleets are only now, in the wake of renewed regulatory focus on these areas, really starting to take a hard look the data encapsulated within driver applications.

It must be remembered, too, that a spate of new drug tests with far more sensitive chemical analysis are being used within the industry today – especially ones that test hair follicles for drugs – and thus could be uncovering narcotics use that, until now, had remained hidden from view.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the findings of the LexisNexis Risk Solutions 2011 Commercial Driver Safety Report. more

“For U.S. automakers and suppliers, the past year can best be described as 12 months of mixed results, leaving unanswered questions about the future direction of the industry and what is required for manufacturers and suppliers to thrive.” –Scott Corwin, partner, Booz & Co.

The automotive industry generates a lot of freight for the trucking industry in a host of different ways, from raw materials and components headed to assembly plants to parts for dealer and store shelves, not to mention of course the gleaming, finished cars and trucks headed to the showroom floors of dealerships across the U.S.

With all of that in mind, how’s the automotive industry shaping up for 2012? And does trucking stand to benefit?

Global consulting firm Booz & Co. recently compiled an “outlook brief” to help provide some insight into these (and other) questions concerning the automotive industry; an outlook that seems to discern some pretty good trends, which – if they become reality – will no doubt boost freight demand from this sector of the U.S. economy.

Booz & Co. partners Scott Corwin, Evan Hirsh, Jan Miecznikowski, and Brian Collie – along with Mike Beck, the firm’s senior executive adviser, and Senior Associate Patrick Mulcahy – noted that U.S. light car and truck sales should exceed 12.5 million at the close of 2011; a number they characterize as “a nice bump up” from 11.6 million in 2010 and 10.4 million in 2009.

Yet those figures are what the group calls “a far cry” from the 17.3 million units worth of annual sales witnessed in 2000 – indeed, even the most overly optimistic analysts forecast that U.S. vehicle sales will rise to no more than 14 million units in 2012. more

“This somewhat positive outlook for the domestic [U.S.] economy is at odds with a global economy that appears to be losing steam. In particular, a deeper-than-expected recession in Europe could easily derail the outlook for the U.S. economy.” –Ken Goldstein, an economist with The Conference Board

The economic picture – both for the U.S. and the world – remains unfortunately no clearer now than in weeks past, despite the addition of new data (some of it quite positive, truth be told).

Of course, that doesn’t leave freight carriers with an awful lot to go on as they make final tweaks to their strategies for 2012 as 2011 draws to a close. Then again, is anyone in the trucking community really surprised by the heavy amount of uncertainty clouding everyone’s crystal balls of late?

First, some news on the positive side of the ledger: The Conference Board reports that its “leading economic index” or LEI metric for the U.S. increased 0.5% in November, which followed a 0.9% increase in October and a 0.1% increase in September.

Not ticker-tape-parade numbers, by any means, but three months of steady, positive upticks in the group’s LEI is a good sign for the U.S. economy, noted Ataman Ozyildirim, one of them many economists at The Conference Board.

“November’s increase in the LEI for the U.S. was widespread among the leading indicators and continues to suggest that the risk of an economic downturn in the near term has receded,” he explained. more

“It will happen to all of us that at some point. You get tapped on the shoulder and told not just that the party’s over, but slightly worse: The party’s going on, but you have to leave.” –Christopher Hitchens, noted essayist, journalist, and war correspondent, prior to his death from esophageal cancer this year

It’s an inelegant term at best, “change agent,” but it really does fit the late Pat Quinn, co-founder, co-chairman, and president of trucking conglomerate U.S. Xpress Enterprises, who sadly passed away December 13 this year after a long battle against brain cancer.

Quinn (at right) – along with his long time business partner, fellow U.S. Xpress co-founder and co-chairman Max Fuller – in many ways helped reshape the trucking business, as they were some of the first executives to make a huge push into the world of in-cab communications and deliberately focus on recruiting more women to enter the truck driving career.

[You can view more photos of Quinn over his career in trucking by clicking here.]

Indeed, U.S. Xpress now employs about 1,000 women drivers – more than three times the industry average – and has gone so far as to make spec’ing changes to its trucks to accommodate them.

In fact, I remember covering U.S. Xpress’ forays into the world of automated mechanic transmissions (AMTs) 15 years ago in my junior reporter days not only to make the truck driver’s job simpler and easier by eliminating the need to shift gears, but also as a way to make it less daunting to female applicants. more

“The problematic combination of private-sector deleveraging, public-sector austerity and the lack of confidence in political leaders’ ability to navigate these choppy waters will continue to plague the U.S. and Europe … [but] the U.S. economy can be expected to muddle through.” –Nariman Behravesh, chief economist for consulting firm IHS Global

It’s been a long, exhilarating, frustrating and often strange year and now, as the last days of December start to drift away, we start trying to figure out what 2012 will be like.

Can we top 2011 for sheer historical importance? I truly doubt it, for by the close of 2011, Osama Bin Laden lay dead at the hands of U.S. Navy SEALs (may their names be praised), decades-long regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya stood overthrown (with erstwhile dictator and terrorism supporter Col. Moammar Gadhafi killed in Libya’s nearly year-long civil war) and Syria’s dictatorship left hanging by ever slimmer threads at year’s end.

Even North Korea’s notorious dictator Kim Jong-Il finally got placed on the ash heap of history after dying of an apparent heart attack, leaving the Korean peninsula unsure of what the future holds in store for the people of both North and South.

U.S. armed forces finally left Iraq after a long often nightmarish eight and half year struggle, while a different struggle back home over the future of federal spending and taxation efforts grew ever more contentious and at times insurmountable.

The biggest unknown as we stand here awaiting 2012 concerns the future fiscal direction of what were once the economic titans of the world – the U.S. and Europe – as concerns over sovereign debt, unemployment levels, and fears of recession darkened their respective crystal balls. more

“We are now joining forces to further develop environment-friendly technologies and to expand our innovation leadership in each of our segments.” –Norbert Reithofer, chairman of German automaker BMW, on the company’s recent alliance with erstwhile Japanese competitor Toyota

As is well known on this side of the pond, Japanese automaking juggernaut Toyota has been building up a light truck presence for many years now in the pickup segment with its Tundra model – a fine vehicle, to be sure, but one that lacks that critical option common to its rivals from Ford Motor Co., General Motors, and Chrysler: the diesel engine.

Though Toyota made noise several years back about developing a diesel-powered Tundra model, the company ended up quietly spiking the idea for reasons of its own.

Now, a newly-minted development partnership forged with Germany’s luxury car maker BMW may – and I say “may” here with an awful lot of uncertainty – revive the potential for a diesel powered Toyota trucks for the North American market, though any such occurrence would at best still be many years off over the horizon. more

“While the headwinds remain strong going into 2012, there are indications the economy and the housing market are gaining ground, albeit slowly. All told, though, next year will be another bumpy ride.” –Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist, Freddie Mac

While there’s no doubt been a spate of good economic news of late, chronicled adeptly by my esteemed colleague David Cullen last week, the outlook for 2012 still remains cloudy at best due to a variety of factors – meaning that freight carriers will need to stay on their toes as the New Year approaches.

“There is a great deal of uncertainty right now,” noted Matthew Sottong, surveys director for BNA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bloomberg L.P.

“Poor economic performance, not only in the U.S but also abroad, gridlock on Capitol Hill and the run-up to a Presidential election where the outcome is very much in doubt … all of those factors lead to timidity on the part of business to expand and hire new people,” he explained. “Until some of those factors are resolved, we are very likely to continue to see flat or slowing job growth in all business sectors.”

Sottong derived this rather gloomy forecast from BNA’s latest quarterly employment survey of 384 companies, which discerned that after an initial pickup in hiring projections from the fourth quarter of 2010 to the first quarter of 2011, employer hiring plans remained largely flat for the bulk of 2011 and are showing some indications of slowing in the first quarter of 2012. more

“It’s a positive sign for the travel industry that so many Americans are planning to travel this holiday season, collectively contributing to the second-highest year-end holiday travel volume in the past ten years.” –Bill Sutherland, vice president, AAA Travel Services, referring to the organization’s prediction that 91.9 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home during the 2011-2012 holiday season

There are of course two ways to view AAA’s travel forecast for the 2011-2012 holiday season – which the group says runs from Friday, December 23, 2011, to Monday, January 2, 2012.

One is reflected in Bill Sutherland’s quote above; the other can be gauged from the collective groan truckers from coast to coast will emit upon hearing that 91.9 million Americans are predicted to travel 50 miles or more from home during the year-end holiday season – a 1.4% increase over the 90.7 million people who traveled during this time period one year ago.

AAA noted, by the way, that this year’s predicted holiday travel volume is the second highest in the past decade and represents 30% of the total U.S. population. And if those statistics don’t make truck drivers cringe, I don’t know what will, for as we all know a lot of freight still needs to be moved during the holidays and so truckers will need to wade through all that holiday time travel to deliver it. more

“These guys make us who we are.” –W.M. “Rusty” Rush, president and CEO, Rush Enterprises

I first met Michael Willoughby (seen at right in the red shirt next to W.M. “Rusty” Rush, president and CEO of Rush Enterprises), a well-seasoned Rush Truck Centers (RTC) technician back in 2007, which was the first time I ever attended RTC’s Technician Skills Rodeo – an annual competition that just notched its sixth year.

Willoughby (often called “Wills” by his friends) won a slot at each of RTC’s rodeos, but had only finished “in the money” (so to speak) just once.

To be honest, I’ve pulled for Willoughby to win the whole smash in the medium-duty division where he competes every year because, frankly, he just seems to epitomize the modern-day truck technician; someone who’ll balance out any gaps in his knowledge concerning the ever-more complicated world of truck technology with humor, patience, and a work ethic second to none.

Thus it came as a pleasant surprise to see him win “the whole smash,” as I call it, this year — taking home the grand champion cup in the medium-duty division, along with $7,500 in cash, $4,500 worth of prizes, a $1 per hour boost in pay, and a vacation package for him and his second wife, whom he married after his first wife died several years ago after a long battle against cancer. more