As the “traditional” make-up of the U.S. truck driver population is rapidly aging and heads for retirement new efforts must be made to attract younger and “non-traditional” candidates to the job of piloting commercial vehicles for a living, according to a panel of trucking executives at the McLeod Software 2017 User Conference in Atlanta this week.
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...Read the rest of this storyAmerican Trucking Assns.' advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index increased 7.1% in August, following a 0.5% gain during July. In August, the index equaled 149 (2000=100), up from 139.1 in July.
Compared with August 2016, the SA index increased 8.2%. In July, the index rose 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. Year-to-date, compared with the same eight months in 2016, the index is up 2.1%.
As part of this report, ATA also revised its July increase in the index upward to a 0.5% gain from the previously reported 0.1% increase.
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...Read the rest of this storyBlackBerry and Fleet Complete announced today that they have entered into a reselling partnership that will expand Fleet Complete's current fleet tracking and monitoring solution.
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...Read the rest of this storyFedEx Freight technician Mark McLean said he hopes to one day move into fleet management and share his knowledge and experience with young, up-and-coming technicians.
" >ORLANDO -- FedEx Freight technicians racked up 10 separate station victories at the Technology & Maintenance Council's 2017 SuperTech competition this week, as Mark McLean came away with an unprecedented third SuperTech title in five years.
FedEx Freight technician Mark McLean said he hopes to one day move into fleet management and share his knowledge and experience with young, up-and-coming technicians.
" width="240" height="320">The Montgomery, New York-based technician won the Grand Championship title in 2013 and 2014, then took second place last year after sitting out 2015 due to a rule requiring repeat winners to take a break after back-to-back wins.
More than 1,000 TMC members, SuperTech competitors and their spouses were in attendance at a banquet held at the Marriott World Center Resort in Orlando, Florida, as TMC gave out over $100,000 in cash and prizes to technicians competing from all over the United States. As the evening wore on, the SuperTech Award Ceremony was dominated by numerous category victories by both FedEx Freight and Walmart Transport, with respectable showings also posted by Travel Centers of America and BASE Air Management. But McLean's multiple wins eventually put him solidly in first place.
Doug Nickels, also with FedEx Freight, took second place SuperTech honors, with Joseph Calaway with BASE Air Management taking third place overall. Despite its strong showing by individual technicians, Walmart did not have a Top 10 finalist at the end of the evening, while FedEx Freight technicians took 8 of the Top 10 finalist slots in the overall rankings.
McLean, who said he was first attracted to a career as a diesel technician by working on cars as a young boy, said he hoped his SuperTech wins would help him move into a fleet management role in the future in order to fulfill his dream of mentoring and helping young technicians grow ...Read the rest of this story
Denise Rondini
" >Denise Rondini
" width="185" height="212">The tremendous need in the market for entry-level technicians is the reason Pro-Mech Learning Systems started the TechSpedite program.
The four-week, hands-on class teaches students how to do basic shop tasks such as performing preventive maintenance inspections and diagnosing and repairing common service problems.
“The course is laser-focused on a very specific set of skills,” explained Mike Compisi, vice president of operations at Pro-Mech, which provides advanced diesel technician training and comprehensive shop support services.
Compisi was quick to point out that Pro-Mech “absolutely believes in vo-tech schools. They do a wonderful job of teaching a comprehensive set of skills.” The TechSpedite program is different, however, in that it gives students a limited but practical set of skills that they can use immediately in a shop.
The inaugural session of the class kicked off in May with limited enrollment “because we wanted to make sure we worked out all the kinks,” Compisi explained. The second class graduated in July. All students from the first class have been placed in shops, and at the time I spoke with Compisi, potential employers had just completed interviewing students from the second class. “I have every reason to believe the guys in the current class will also be hired,” he said.
The course combines classroom instruction and hands-on practice, and class size is limited to 15 to facilitate the hands-on learning. The course first goes over content in an instructional manner; then the students go practice on a piece of equipment. “That way they start to learn muscle memory from doing things in a repetitive manner, so when they get to their places of employment, they will be able to replicate what they learned and continue with best practices and proper safety procedures.”
Students are tested throughout the program in every content area for competency and proficiency. ...Read the rest of this story
Canada's Groupe Robert is using six solar panels and four deep-cycle batteries to keep drivers comfortable and batteries charged. Photo: Groupe Robert
">Canada's Groupe Robert is using six solar panels and four deep-cycle batteries to keep drivers comfortable and batteries charged. Photo: Groupe Robert
">Royal Jones is always trying something new to improve fuel economy. The president and CEO of Mesilla Valley Transportation is known as an early adopter of technologies from 6x2 drivetrains to trailer aerodynamics — even going so far as to make his own prototypes. That's what he tried about five years ago with solar power, installing panels on the truck cab to extend the amount of time electric auxiliary power units could operate. The aerodynamic penalty was too great, so he abandoned that particular effort. However, he discovered that the batteries on those trucks were lasting far longer.
Today, newer, thinner, flexible solar panels have solved the aerodynamic problem, so the Texas-based truckload fleet now has several hundred of its Navistar trucks running with eNow's auxiliary solar system. This has resulted in less idling, longer battery and alternator life, and increased driver satisfaction.
And that's not the only way fleets are using the power of the sun to save money on fuel, improve driver comfort, reduce maintenance costs, and improve uptime.
Driver comfort“The big savings for me is getting more hours on your APU,” Jones says, as the solar panels provide four to six more hours of cooling time. “It's hard to figure the ROI, because it's not an exact science. But if you save two jump-starts a year, that's $600. If your driver comfort is better, how do you put a price on that? And we used to replace all eight batteries every year, but the trucks with the solar panels have had them for four years.”
Another proponent of solar panels for trucks is Montreal-based Groupe Robert, one of Canada's largest trucking companies. Solar panels help it keep drivers comfortable without idling, ...Read the rest of this story
Richard Branson (center) expounds on how trucking's mpg efforts are a "ray of hope" in the global campaign to save fuel and protect the planet from climate change. Looking on (right) is NACFE's Mike Roeth. Photo: David Cullen
">Richard Branson (center) expounds on how trucking's mpg efforts are a "ray of hope" in the global campaign to save fuel and protect the planet from climate change. Looking on (right) is NACFE's Mike Roeth. Photo: David Cullen
">NEW YORK CITY. Speaking here on Sept. 19 at a Run on Less media briefing, billionaire entreprenaur Richard Branson touched on why he is so committed to fighting climate change (and climate change deniers) and why he sees trucking as a leader in the effort to massively reduce carbon output across the globe.
Recounting what he and his staff saw when they emerged briefly from their wine-cellar shelter on his private island in the British Virgin Islands during the eye of Hurricane Irma, Branson said that "outside it looked just like an atomic bomb [had hit]. Everything was just flattened [including] 200-year-old trees; nothing was left standing."
Branson, who co-founded the Carbon War Room global nonprofit in 2009 that's teamed with the North American Council for Fuel Efficiency to put on Run for Less, is calling for a disaster-recovery plan on the scale of the post-WWII Marshall Plan to help restore the various Caribbean islands devastated by Irma.
According to the founder of multinational conglomerate Virgin Group, what the region needs is nothing less than a massive effort that will "aid in recovery, sustainable reconstruction, and long-term revitalization of the local economy."
Having ridden out Irma and witnessed its historic destruction, Branson said he could not have been anywhere else but in New York for this year's Climate Week NYC, a global summit taking place in town from Sept. 18-24 alongside the United Nations General Assembly meeting.
The table-thumper
“Scientists tell us the storms are only going to get stronger and more intense,” said Branson. “That's why I'm here for the climate talks— ...Read the rest of this story
