Trailers: Red-headed step-children no more?

So I got to listen to a wide-ranging and fascinating discourse on the state of the U.S.

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Truckload Linehaul, Intermodal Rates Continue Tumbling

Measures of both truckload and intermodal rates posted another rounds of declines, according to new figures released by freight payment processor Cass Information Systems.

The Cass Truckload Linehaul Index fell another 2.8% year-over-year in August following decreases of 1.8% and 1.6% in June and July, respectively. This represents six consecutive months of year-over year-declines in truckload linehaul costs.

The reading of 121.5 is also down 0.9% in August from July but is up slightly from June, when it hit a reading of 121.2, it lowest level so far in 2016.

Analysts at the investment firm Avondale Partners have adjusted their pricing forecasts further downward to a range between -3% and 1% over the next four quarters, saying that demand continues to soften while truckload capacity has become more available. “While we have been predicting negative pricing, even we were surprised at how weak the August data point was.”

The index is an indicator of market fluctuations in per-mile truckload pricing, isolating the linehaul component of full truckload costs from other components, such as fuel and accessorials, providing a reflection of trends in baseline truckload prices.

Meantime, the Cass Intermodal Index continued its downward slide, falling another 2% year-over-year in August after declines of 1.5% and 2.4% in June and July, respectively.

Despite the drop, the reading of 125.5 in August is up 1.6% from July's level and marks the second straight month-over-month improvement.

Even with this, Avondale Partners still expects intermodal rates to continue their decline through the remainder of 2016 as the dramatic drop in oil prices continues to negatively impact U.S. domestic demand.

"The greater than 30 cents a mile decline in fuel surcharges collected by truckers in the last two years has to challenge demand and pricing power for domestic intermodal, especially in shorter lengths of haul,” said Avondale. “However, the current year-over-year decline in ...Read the rest of this story

Grote introduces Electrical Connections and Accessories Catalog

Grote's Global Electrical Connections and Accessories Division introduced its new Electrical Connections and Accessories Supplemental Catalog, which includes more than 90 SKU's representing electrical connection and accessory products.

It includes:

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Craig Fiander to lead FourKites’ global partnerships

FourKites announced that Craig Fiander has joined the company as senior vice president of business development.

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We’ve been at this a long time

Mike Weaver, a member of the Facebook Group 9+ MPG Club, had an interesting post the other day. It was a picture of a truck from 1986 called The Phantom, an aerodynamic concept vehicle.

Seeing the photo got me to wondering how long the trucking industry has been working on improving the aerodynamics of over-the-road trucks. Mike pointed me to some background information that I found interesting.

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California’s Zero Emissions Vehicle Dreams

California's Air Resources Board says zero-emissions technology is already available for delivery vehicles such as package vans and medium-duty trucks. Photo: First Priority GreenFleet/EVI

With the 2010 Environmental Protection Agency emissions regulations behind, and the trucking industry currently gearing up to integrate the first phase of new greenhouse gas emissions regulations going into effect in January, fleet managers may have thought they'd heard the last from the California Air Resources Board for a while.

But CARB is back with a new slate of initiatives designed to explore zero-emission vehicle technology. At the moment, these proposals are focused on evaluating the current state of ZEV technology, exploring the potential for increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of these technologies in the future, as well as looking at other, non-vehicle means of further improving air quality in California. While there are currently no laws or regulations associated with this new CARB effort, industry experts fear that they may soon lead to all-new environmental mandates that specifically target diesel-powered trucks and will make it much more difficult — and expensive — to move freight in the Golden State.

Many fleets find virtually any proposal emanating from CARB difficult to swallow.

The agency itself enjoys a special status among the state's agencies, according to Mike Tunnell, director, energy and environmental affairs for the American Trucking Associations, who notes that the agency is made up of political appointees who take their marching orders directly from the governor's office.

“California is a lot different than most parts of the country,” Tunnell explains. “For starters, Gov. Jerry Brown is determined to reduce petroleum use in the state. And every state-wide office in California is held by a Democrat. So the agency definitely gets a serious push to regulate vehicle emissions from the executive office right on down the line to the legislature to ...Read the rest of this story

Climbing the Data Mountain

Rolf Lockwood

Managing data is utterly essential to the successful maintenance of a truck fleet in 2016. That's a given. But knowing it is one thing – doing it is quite another.

That was the issue tackled by a panel discussion I put together and moderated at the inaugural Canadian Fleet Maintenance Summit in Toronto recently. In a session entitled “The Electronics Revolution and Trucking of the Future,” panelists spoke of ways that data can help address challenges. And the benefits of all that retrievable information aren't limited to big outfits.

“Small fleets can behave as big ones if they embrace the tools that the dealers and the OEM have today,” said Skip Yeakel, principal engineer and government/industry/academia link at Volvo Trucks. He referred to his company's Uptime Center and the way it diagnoses issues remotely as an example. It's there for everyone.

Even though larger fleets have more resources to explore raw data, smaller operations can still look at single reports or receive alerts, added Larry Jordan, vice president of product management at Zonar Systems in California. These are the details that can help avoid breakdowns and delays.

“In a perfect world, I'd like to see a truck tell me what's wrong with it,” said Kirk Altrichter, vice president fleet services for Ohio's Kenan Advantage Group and former chairman of the American Trucking Associations' Technology & Maintenance Council.

The biggest challenge is sifting through the reams of available data to find hidden info nuggets, he said. Gathering the data can be a problem, and there can certainly be too much of a good thing. Altrichter learned that the hard way after once asking to be alerted about any monitored fault codes.

“We ended up turning it off quite quickly,” he said. The goal instead is distinguishing between the codes that require immediate ...Read the rest of this story