National Carriers Inc. (NCI) has named Dawn Roberts as driver of the month for August 2017. She drives a company truck on National Carriers Southwest Regional Fleet and lives in Houma, LA. She is now a finalist for NCI's Driver of the Year to be announced in April 2018, the company noted.
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...Read the rest of this storyCategory 5 Hurricane Maria caused catastrophic damage in Puerto Rico, as well as being the tenth-most intense Atlantic hurricane on record. Much of the island's electrical grid was destroyed, leaving many of Puerto Rico's cities and towns without power. But more than 20,000 federal civilian personnel and military service members, including more than 1,700 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) personnel deployed to Puerto Rico to help with storm recovery efforts – and they used a wide variety of trucks to accomplish that mission.
...Read the rest of this storyNATIONAL HARBOR, MD. Being a good company with strong values offering good pay and great benefits is no longer enough to recruit and retain employees, now and in the future, according to a panel discussion of executives here at the 2017 International Foodservice Distributors Association (IFDA) conference at the Gaylord Convention Center.
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...Read the rest of this storyGeotab's electronic logging device (ELD) solution, Geotab Cloud ELD, is now registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the telematics provider announced.
Geotab Cloud ELD is a compliance management platform for monitoring and recording Hours of Service (HOS) for fleets seeking to comply with the ELD mandate that's slated to take effect Dec. 18. The FMCSA maintains a list of ELD providers and their products.
The Geotab Cloud ELD platform connects the Geotab GO telematics device with a mobile device running the Geotab Drive app (available for Android and iOS) through a secured cloud-based server operating the MyGeotab fleet management software.
Unlike hard-wired or Bluetooth-paired solutions that use a time-based approach with periodic status checks, the GO device continuously records and transmits data to the cloud-based program to effectively monitor and record HOS, including Records of Duty Status (RODS) and Driver Vehicle Inspection Reports (DVIRS).
Geotab Cloud ELD, which doesn't require an in-vehicle pairing process, enables vehicle inspection reports, IFTA support, routing, risk management, accident reconstruction, driver safety, and third-party add-in solutions including cameras, temperature sending and tire pressure monitoring.
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...Read the rest of this storyImage: Instructional Technologies
">Image: Instructional Technologies
">Instructional Technologies Inc., providers of training solutions for the transportation industry, has announced an automated web-based learning management system called Sentix designed for scheduling, tracking, verifying, and managing training.
“Automation and integration are the keys to the power of Sentix,” said Aaron Purvis, CTO of ITI. "As a next-generation learning management system, Sentix shoulders much of the repetitive burden of managing training. It can automate assignments for new hires, schedule training before an endorsement expires, or trigger corrective training based on an event or trend.”
Sentix features a customizable web-based portal and dashboard and can integrate with any fleet management system, according to ITI. The platform users APIs to transportation management and other enterprise systems to give safety and training departments the ability to:
Automatically assign training based on criteria such as hire date, training requirements, incidents, policies, and regulationsProactively track the expiration of licenses, medical certificates, and endorsementsShare data between back-office systems to save time and improve accuracyRun reports based on a wide range of parameters on individual drivers and groups such as company divisions“All of this is possible because we built Sentix to integrate with other systems used in the transportation industry Sentix helps fleets reduce liability by more quickly changing dangerous or expensive behavior, more easily meeting safety or compliance requirements, and more securely connecting training to your fleet's other systems,” said Purvis.
Fleets will be able to customize how Sentix automates the training process at their fleet, to tailor it to each fleet's needs. The company says it will also be able to help make changes if it is needed. Fleets can also upload their own content related to training, and ITI will ensure that it is optimized if needed or assist with the process.
Sentix is currently in beta testing and will be available on Nov. 1. ...Read the rest of this story
Photo: David Cullen
">Photo: David Cullen
">Germany's Daimler AG has announced that it is considering a new corporate structure that it expects would make the company more responsive to rapidly changing marketplace developments.
Under the scheme, the existing Mercedes-Benz Cars & Vans and the Daimler Trucks & Buses business units “may be transferred into two legally independent entities,” and thus operate as the already independent Daimler Financial Service division does.
Daimler said the goal of such a restructuring would be to have the car and truck divisions take on “greater entrepreneurial responsibility.” The OEM also stated that it does not plan to divest any of its divisions.
Bodo Uebber, member of the Daimler Board of Management responsible for Finance & Controlling and Daimler Financial Services, said in a statement that the company needs “to be as close as possible to our customers' pulse, but also to be able to react as quickly and flexible as possible to market developments and a fundamentally changing competitive environment."
The restructuring plan is not yet final. It must still be approved by both Daimler's Board of Management and its Supervisory Board. Should the boards decide to implement the new group structure, the changes would also require the approval of shareholders. The company noted that such a motion could be voted on no earlier than at a shareholders' meeting in the year 2019.
"Daimler is today facing an exceptional challenge: On the one hand, we are more successful than ever before; on the other hand, our business is changing like never before," said Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars. "Whoever aims for sustainable competitiveness and profitability must continuously evolve and adapt to rapidly changing surroundings – technologically, culturally and also structurally.
“We are following a straight-forward strategy and have decided to examine a ...Read the rest of this story
Deborah Lockridge
" >Deborah Lockridge
" width="185" height="243">The trucking industry has had nearly two years to prepare for the mandate requiring electronic logging devices to track driver hours, which goes into effect Dec. 18. Yet a surprising number of fleets have not yet adopted them.
Morgan Stanley, which has been conducting quarterly ELD surveys of fleets since May 2015, in August reported that nearly 30% of carriers were not yet in full compliance. And 15% of the carriers surveyed did not expect to be fully compliant when Dec. 18 rolls around.
It's likely some smaller carriers have been waiting in hopes that the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association's quest to derail the mandate (see the latest on page 14) will bear fruit. But not taking action on the electronic logging device mandate because you're hoping for a last-minute reprieve from the government is a bit like refusing to prepare for a hurricane because you're hoping for a last-minute change in the storm track.
In fact, given our recent experience with Hurricane Irma, I'd say your chances are better for missing the hurricane.
After the Supreme Court declined to hear OOIDA's appeal in its case to block ELDs this summer, the association turned to lobbying tactics to try to get Congress to step in. So far, legislation has been proposed but is going nowhere fast.
OOIDA also filed a petition with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration claiming that it wasn't even legal for many states to enforce the mandate because they needed to incorporate it into state law. But it appears that most of those states have in place laws that make adoption of federal rules for interstate haulers automatic.
When I talked to FMCSA's chief enforcement guru last month, Joe DeLorenzo, he emphasized that the government is ready and able to start enforcing the new rule.
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance ...Read the rest of this story
