FMCSA Denies ATA Petition Regarding Truck Tire Inflation Rules

Photo: Michelin

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration denied a petition filed by the American Trucking Associations that would remove a provision of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations regarding tire inflation. However, the agency says it will work with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance to address the group's concerns when it comes to enforcement of the rule.

According to Fleet Maintenance & Technology, the publication of ATA's Technology & Maintenance Council, ATA had filed the petition to remove 49 CFR 393.75(h), "Tire inflation pressure," in January 2014. The move was based on input from TMC, which found determining tire underinflation during a roadside inspection to be a nearly impossible task for law enforcement, because of the complexity of the many issues surrounding inflation, such as tire pressure and vehicle load.

The petition asked to amend the rules so underinflated tires would only be cited for violationg 393.75(a)(3), which would be if they were flat or had an audible leak.

ATA says the regulation as currently written doesn't say what the tire pressure is when a tire is considered flat or underflated -- only that the vehicle should not be operated when the tire pressure is less than that specified for the load being carried. In 2011, CVSA asked TMC to define "underinflation," but the group was unable to reach a consensus.

"I can't determine what the load on the tire is, I don't know how long it has been running, or even how long it might have been sitting still at the scale waiting for an inspection," said Keri Wirachowsky, enforcement officer with Ontario's Ministry of Transportation. She raised the point at TMC 2013 during as S.2 Task Force session exploring alternatives to the current regulation.

FMCSA said it agreed with ATA that proper measurement of tire inflation pressure during a roadside inspection ...Read the rest of this story

Commentary: Can Autonomous Trucks Help You Attract Fresh Talent?

Deborah Lockridge

Those of us in the trucking press tend to shake our heads and roll our eyes at the breathless coverage in the mainstream and tech media about “driverless trucks” and “Uber for trucking.” We know trucking is a lot more complicated than piloting a truck down the road and getting one-off loads.

But there's one good thing about all this coverage: It's helping to make trucking look “cool” to young people who may never have thought about transportation and logistics as a career.

Brett Mowers with River Valley Foods in New York was one of HDT's Emerging Leaders last year — a new award we started to highlight some of trucking's rising stars. He agrees that technology can help make transportation and logistics seem a little more glamorous. “The thought of some driverless trucks are a little scary, but it's also a little exciting to someone like me.”

And we need to capitalize on that, because from the truck cab to the shop to the corner office, our industry is graying. We need to bring in fresh talent and new ideas to ensure the continued success of our companies. But in addition to piquing their interest in our industry, we need programs to enhance their development, their knowledge of trucking and of the company they're working for.

A Gallup poll of 1,700 U.S. workers asked Baby Boomers, Millennials, and Gen Xers to rate which factors were “extremely important” in their jobs. For Millennials, the opportunity to learn and grow was rated highly far more than for Baby Boomers or for their younger GenX counterparts. Another area that scored high for all three groups was the quality of the manager or management above them. (Interestingly, factors such as “fun place to work” and “informal work environment” earned much lower scores from all ...Read the rest of this story

MercuryGate Offers TMS Solution for Freight and Fleets

Screenshot via MercuryGate

Transportation management system provider MercuryGate has launched MercuryFleet, a product designed to combine fleet and freight management for all modes of transportation in a single platform.

The technology helps manage drivers, equipment and operations, allowing for more informed decisions, streamlining processes, and compliance with regulatory requirements.

“The MercuryFleet solution is unique in that it allows customers to not only manage drivers, equipment, and operations using one platform, but to also optimize across all modes of transportation, and to make optimal decisions regarding whether a specific shipment should move via their private fleet or a carrier,” said Todd Bucher, vice president, fleet, MercuryGate International.

The solution uses the algorithms and logic used in the Driver Safety Management System, the system used by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to calculate measures and percentiles for each driver, allowing managers to proactively analyze driver performance and predict CSA scores.

“With ongoing changes and complexity in both driver and equipment regulations and increased demands to improve service while reducing transportation costs, supply chain managers need solutions designed to address all of their needs proactively and quickly,” said Bucher.

For more information, click here.

Related: There's An App for That

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Smart Trucks Have Already Arrived

Trucks and cars alike are being designed with new sensing abilities and greater intelligence.

The trucks going down the road a decade from now will likely not look drastically different than they do today. And, despite all the hype over autonomous trucks, they probably will still have drivers. It's what's going on behind the dashboard and over the air that is truly exciting as we enter a new generation of smart and connected trucks.

Class 8 trucks being introduced today are preloaded with an impressive — and expandable — suite of electronics and wireless communication capabilities. Over the next decade, experts say, those capabilities will exponentially expand the efficiency, safety, productivity, and visibility of commercial trucks hauling freight — in ways that could fundamentally transform trucking and logistics in the 21st century.

The three technologies driving these changes are vehicle connectivity, artificial intelligence, and autonomous operating systems. Many of the systems that will enable these changes are already on trucks today. Over the next five to 10 years, experts say, these systems will become more powerful. They will be able to broadcast and receive data reliably in any location at any time, and they will begin to self-integrate and feed off of each other's capabilities. Trucks will begin the transformation into rolling computers that can monitor the health of their own disparate operating systems, as well as the cargo they're carrying, the personnel operating them, and the world around them.

The result will be a flow of real-time information that goes far beyond telematics capabilities today, spilling over into the entire logistics chain.

For all the changes coming our way, the outward physical appearance of the trucks themselves is not likely to change much. That's because the basic mission of these vehicles, the weight they can legally carry, and the legal dimensions ...Read the rest of this story

Love’s buys Speedco

Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores has hammered out a deal to purchase Speedco, a national network of service locations that provides quick lube and inspection services to truckers, from tire maker Bridgestone Americas – a transaction subject to the usual regulatory approvals and certain other closing conditions, Love's noted.

Financial data regarding the deal wasn't disclosed.

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Trimble acquires 10-4 Systems

Trimble announced it has acquired privately held 10-4 Systems, a provider of multimodal shipment visibility solutions and related technologies for shippers and transportation providers.

The acquisition expands Trimble's portfolio of Transportation Management Systems (TMS) to include an established cloud-based solution for small carriers as well as a shipper RFP platform. Financial terms were not disclosed.

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FleetUp Offers Ruggedized Tablet for Fleets

The FleetUp Orange is a ruggedized tablet designed for fleet drivers required to display records of duty status upon request instead of printing out hard copies.

FleetUp Orange operates on the Android platform and can run compatible HOS compliance apps allowing fleet managers to use existing solutions. The FleetUp HOS Companion app comes pre-loaded on FleetUp Orange, offering a wide array of tools, including: Voice Over HOS, CamVue, Truck Route Navigation, Document Scanner App, Trip History, and App blocker/Android finder.

FleetUp Orange includes a sunlight readable screen, case with a drop-test rating of MIL-STD 810G and dust/waterproof rating of IP67, dashboard or windshield mounting options, a 13-megapixel camera with flash LED, and a 64GB micro-SD memory card for storage.

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