TRP Expands Air Spring Offering for Vocational Market

TRP Parts has released two new air spring designs to expand its offering in the off-road, vocational market.

The AS70306P and AS9780S are air springs are designed for longer lifespan and lighter weight in vocational applications.

The air springs are manufactured with a proprietary rubber compound and reinforcing material that extends component lifespan by limiting heat-buildup while also reducing weight. TRP's springs undergo testing and quality control to ensure that the parts are leak-proof.

The AS70360P is a cab suspension spring designed with a proprietary composite base to reduce weight without compromising performance or lifespan.

The AS9780S features a powder-coated steel base that resists corrosion for improved durability and is made to fit the industry's most popular applications, according to TRP.

TRP has also announced an enhanced warranty on its complete line of all-makes air springs. TRP's Air Spring Performance Guarantee is a promise to buy back any TRP air springs that do not satisfy customer expectations for up to two years after purchase, through any TRP retail location in North America and Latin America.

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ATRI Offers Strategies to Fight Congestion

Photo: U.S. DOT

Trucking industry research organization ATRI recently led the development of two primers for the U.S. Department of Transportation's Integrated Corridor Management program, offering strategies for fighting congestion.

Earlier this year, ATRI's research placed the cost of congestion to the trucking industry at $49.6 billion in 2014. One of the ways to reduce congestion is more effective and efficient movement of people and goods through major urban areas, according to ATRI.

The two ICM primers are designed to help transportation networks realize improvements in urban congestion through integrated, proactive management of existing infrastructure along major corridors.

Most ICM strategies to date have focused on the passenger car aspect of reducing congestion. But ATRI's primers focus on freight's role in congestion as well as the role that law enforcement, fire and rescue and other traffic incident management services can play.

ATRI's first primer examines how freight can be incorporated into an ICM approach as well as the benefits of ICM in addressing many of the challenges in moving freight through congested areas. It explores opportunities to integrate freight considerations into corridor management institutionally, operationally and technically. These include leveraging existing platforms and considering new options for coordination between traditional ICM and freight stakeholders.

The other primer focuses on traffic management and describes how traffic incident management can be incorporated into TCM. It also details how ICM can benefit a traffic incident management program.

Both primers are available on ATRI's website in PDF format.

Related: America's Highways Turn 60, Need Major Facelift

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What pressures might social activism put on trucking?

A lot of folks might think that the trucking industry flies under the radar when it comes to the vagaries of “social activism,” which is a term encompassing a broad swath of issues from environmentalism to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) rights.

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Trucking Pushes For-Hire Shipments Higher for Third Straight Month

Freight Transportation Services Index, June 2011 - June 2016. Graphic: U.S. DOT

A new U.S. Transportation Department report shows the amount of freight carried by the nation's for-hire transportation industry rose 0.6% in June from the month before, due in part to increased trucking shipments, and is up 0.4% from the same time in 2016.

The increases put the Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) at a reading of 122.3, its third straight monthly gain, while the May reading was revised down slightly to 121.6 from 121.8.

The June recent figure is just 1.1% below the all-time record high level of 123.7 hit in December 2014 and is 29.1% above the April 2009 low during the most recent recession

The Freight TSI measures the month-to-month changes in freight shipments by mode of transportation in tons and ton-miles, which are combined into one index. The index measures the output of the for-hire freight transportation industry and consists of data from for-hire trucking, rail, inland waterways, pipelines and air freight.

The June Freight TSI increase from May was broad in terms of mode but with drops for water and rail intermodal, which declined after significant rises in May. The June gain was driven by growth in the mining, including oil and gas well drilling and servicing, utility and manufacturing sectors of the economy, according to the report.

The second quarter TSI increase of 2.2% from the first quarter is the first time the TSI rose three months in succession since December 2014. The three months of successive increases followed two months of successive declines, leaving the June level 0.2% below the level of January 2016.

The second quarter increase is also the largest quarterly rise since the first quarter of 2013. It followed two quarters of drops and declines in four of the previous five quarters.

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Spot Truckload Rates Generally Stable Over Past Week

The number of available loads on the spot truckload market fell 3.9% for the week ending August 6 compared to the week before while rates held steady despite a reduction in the average fuel surcharge, according to DAT Solutions and its network of load boards.

The national average spot reefer rate remained at $1.93 per mile as the number of reefer load posts increased 4% while truck posts were unchanged. All reported rates include fuel surcharges. That resulted in a 4% increase in the load-to-truck ratio to 5.3 loads per truck.

Northern reefer-freight markets are showing strength as rates jumped 14 cents to $1.80 per mile out of Elizabeth, New Jersey last week as fruit and vegetable harvests in rural parts of the state as well as Pennsylvania contributed to an increase in demand.

Elsewhere, regional markets with highest average reefer rates held steady compared to the previous week:

• Southeast: Atlanta, $2.29per mile, up 3 cents
• West: Los Angeles, $2.48 per mile, up 2 cents
• Midwest: Green Bay, $2.47 per mile, up 2 cents
• South Central: McAllen, Texas, $1.74 per mile, down 3 cents
• Northeast: Philadelphia, $2.29 per mile, up 2 cents

Meantime, van-load posts decreased 2% last week, while truck posts held steady. That caused the load-to-truck ratio to dip 2% to 2.7 loads per truck.

At $1.64, the national average spot van rate was unchanged compared to the previous week, but is down 2 cents from three weeks ago. Van rates recovered 5 cents out of Chicago last week to $1.92 per mile, and Columbus, Ohio, rates gained 2 cents to $1.81 per mile. Memphis added 3 cents to $1.87 per mile, a positive sign for haulers of retail freight, according to DAT.

The number of flatbed load posts declined 10% last week while truck posts increased 1%. That caused the load-to-truck ratio to fall 11% to 12.8 loads per truck. The national average flatbed rate increased 1 cent to $1.93 per mile despite a 1 cent decline in the average fuel surcharge. Compared to three week earlier, the average rate has increased 4 cents.

All this activity happened against a backdrop in which the national average diesel price dipped another 3 cents to $2.32 per gallon compared to the previous week, leading to a 1-cent fuel surcharge loss.

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Motorcar Parts acquires turbocharger company

Motorcar Parts of America announced the expansion of its product line with the introduction of in-house developed brake power boosters and turbochargers through an acquisition of ZOR Industries.

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Love’s Travel Stops opens two locations

Drivers in the Sunshine State and the Natural State have new options for dining and parking when they're on the road. Love's Travel Stops opened for business recently in Hawthorne, FL, along U.S. Highway 301 and State Road 20, and in Blytheville, AR, along Interstate 55 and U.S Highway 61.

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