Sources for truck and trailer sales are plentiful, but an accurate accounting of utilization by fleet size and location, by gross vehicle weight class, by age and by brand had never existed, until a just-released report erased this information gap.
read more
...Read the rest of this story
Yokohama Tire Corporation (YTC) has promoted Andrew Briggs to the newly created position of vice president of marketing & product management.
Briggs, who will report to Jeff Barna, YTC's COO, replaces Fred Koplin, senior director of marketing and motorsports, who retired.
read more
...Read the rest of this storyFord Motor Co. issued a safety recall for certain 2015-17 F-150 and 2017 Ford Super Duty vehicles sold in North America, and some 1.3 million of the trucks are affected. The problem is that a frozen door latch or a "bent or kinked" actuation cable could result in a door that won't open or close.
read more
...Read the rest of this storyread more
...Read the rest of this storyCreative Commons
">Creative Commons
">In a recent survey of the transportation industry by Teletrac Navman, 39% of fleets named reducing costs as a top business goal in 2017.
The survey, which examined best practices, trends, and current issues influencing transportation operations in the U.S., found that reducing costs, increasing fleet size, incorporating telematics solutions, and hiring and retraining new drivers were the top business priorities across the industry.
With margins thin across the industry, more organizations are looking to technology and outsourcing drivers and equipment to improve productivity, streamline operations and reduce waste, according to Teletrac Navman.
"Facing fluctuating fuel costs, a driver shortage and new regulatory challenges, it's not surprising that executives in transportation are doing everything they can to control costs and boost revenue," said Sid Nair, senior director of transport and compliance, Teletrac Navman. "Companies are investing in technologies from telematics to data management tools to help streamline their workflow and connect drivers to the back office. This is only the beginning of a paradigm shift centered around technology adoption and use."
More than three-quarters of the surveyed companies were confident in their ability to be ready for the electronic logging device mandate that takes effect on Dec. 18, with large fleets of 100 or more vehicles reporting the highest confidence. While ELDs are still a major concern for fleets, 28% of the companies reported taking no steps to address the concerns.
Fleets are also looking to modernize to reduce maintenance costs over time. Also, 61% are planning to increase the size of their fleets. Thirty percent of fleets reported outsourcing drivers and trucks in order to meet increasing freight demand.
With the ongoing driver shortage in trucking, 58% of the surveyed fleets reported rewarding drivers for good performance as a tool for retention, and 20% said they would hire more drivers in the next ...Read the rest of this story
QuikQ has secured merchant agreements for its Fuel Card platform with Love's Travel Stops, TravelCenters of America, and Pilot Flying J. The merchant agreements combined with independent truckstop agreements give QuikQ a nationwide footprint for the fuel card platform.
The platform includes the SmartQ payment fuel card, a radio frequency identification-based, a card-free system called Start, a card-free payment solution that processes transactions initiated with unique identifier codes, and a mobile app. QuikQ also offers Q-Checks, cash advances, payroll cards and other options.
“QuikQ products fundamentally improve fuel transaction processing through innovative technology that increases transparency and reduces cost,” said Dean Troester, QuikQ CEO. “We now have a portfolio of solutions that we believe is a more affordable and convenient approach to payment transactions than is available today, so much so that we expect to be the low-cost provider to merchants and fleets.”
QuikQ has supported Love's private label payment platform– Love's Express – for more than five years. Love's Express will provide a foundation for QuikQ to build its momentum in the trucking industry with a streamlined approach to reducing fees and creating a more direct, transparent relationship between merchants, carriers, and payment solutions providers, according to the company.
For more information, click here.
Related: Saving Fuel by the Dollar and by the Minute
Follow @HDTrucking on Twitter
...Read the rest of this storyWhen you switch to new oils and don't drain enough out of your bulk tank first, you may lose benefits such as longer oil drains. Photo: Shell
">When you switch to new oils and don't drain enough out of your bulk tank first, you may lose benefits such as longer oil drains. Photo: Shell
">Choosing the best oil for your operation is only part of the equation when it comes to making sure you've got the right oil in your trucks. There are a lot of things that can happen between the order and the fill, including the distributor delivering the wrong oil or oil that's accidentally mixed with other oil; having a bulk oil tank with a mishmash of oils that keeps you from getting the performance you need and expect; and contaminants getting into the oil before or during the fill.
First of all, when you're choosing an oil and an oil supplier, the American Petroleum Institute (API) always cautions that “meets” is not the same as “licensed.”
“An oil marketer could say it ‘meets the standard,' but the only way to verify it's licensed is to check with API or look at our online directory to make sure it's really licensed,” says Kevin Ferrick, who manages the API's licensing program. “If it's licensed, the maker is warrantying it meets the API standard. If it's not, it doesn't have that added assurance. So there's a difference.”
Even if you choose the right licensed oil, that's no guarantee that it's the oil actually going into your truck engines.
Bruce Stockton, who's now a fleet consultant under the company name Stockton Solutions, has worked for some of the country's largest fleets. When he arrived to head up the maintenance department at one major carrier, he discovered that the brand of oil being spec'ed was not what was actually in the fleet facility's bulk tanks.
“When we tested the bulk oil, which some people don't think about testing — they assume if that's what ...Read the rest of this story
