Category: Trucking News

Commentary: Driver Training Shouldn’t End

Rolf Lockwood

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Driver training is a subject dear to my editorial heart, but I fear we don't do it well enough. For one thing, the focus of training is almost always on making sure truck pilots don't “go agricultural” too often, or infinitely worse, whack the aged librarian's Toyota.

Safety is obviously paramount, but there's more to it.

Think fuel economy.

The PIT Group in Quebec, Canada, recently released a driver-training effectiveness study exploring the true value of driver monitoring and coaching to address bad habits and reinforce efficient techniques. PIT is a research and engineering outfit focused on improving truck spec'ing, maintenance, and operations practices. It has both supplier and fleet members, many of them in the U.S., and it often works with NACFE, the North American Council for Freight Efficiency. It operates a full-bore test track north of Montreal.

PIT's study suggests that training to promote driver fuel efficiency and safety is only effective if it includes refresher courses to reinforce good practices and address weaknesses.

“While vehicle technology designed to improve fuel economy continues to advance, driver training is the element that has the largest impact on fuel consumption,” says Yves Provencher, director, market and business development, at PIT Group. “Our studies show that various ways to train drivers, including classroom, in-cab, and simulator training, all have their advantages.

“However, the lessons and techniques they teach don't last without monitoring behaviors,” he continued. “Providing refresher training and in-vehicle coaching technologies that address bad habits and reinforce effective skills is what's needed to maintain and improve fuel-efficient and safe performance.”

In one study of long-haul operations, PIT compared 47 control and 38 test drivers before and after simulator training that focused on things such as road and engine speed, acceleration, and more. Baselines were established over two months before the 38 test drivers were ...Read the rest of this story

Digging Into Fleet Data Unlocks Greater Efficiency and Profitability

Once you've mastered the basics of analyzing data, go beyond canned reports to unlock the doors to greater efficiency and profitability.

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P&S Transportation has always been data-driven, but the tools available today make it much easier for people throughout the organization to gain valuable insights from data without being IT experts, says Mauricio Paredes, vice president of business technology for the Birmingham, Alabama-based 1,300-truck flatbed carrier.

Generating reports from data can help provide business-critical information to fleets of all types and sizes, but such reports can be frustrating to compile and tedious to set up. Creating layouts with trends and graphical information can also be time-consuming. And static reports only give one dimension of data.

Peredes says the canned reports offered by most transportation management software only go so far. That's why it's important to move beyond traditional data analysis into what's called business intelligence, or BI.

“If you want to see a particular number by a different dimension, a different qualifier, BI tools allow you take a number and slice it by other dimensions,” Paredes says. “So we were able to take tractor revenue number and slice it by dispatcher, for example, so it made it much easier to follow people's hunches about why a number was the way it was.”

P&S uses McLeod Software's products, including McLeod IQ, which gives customers the ability to access and analyze data from its LoadMaster, PowerBroker and other software using Microsoft Excel or other popular reporting tools.

“Canned reports, they give you a snapshot in time of what's happening,” says Jonathan May, director of business intelligence at McLeod Software. “But we wanted to be able to provide trends, do analysis; you can make forecasts looking at previous historical trends. Those kind of things.”

As the company describes it, McLeod IQ “uses the Microsoft Business Intelligence stack to create a ...Read the rest of this story

Meet the 20-year-old Florida man who announced he won the $450 million Mega Millions lottery on Facebook and credits 'a positive mindset'

The Mega Millions lottery reached its fourth-largest jackpot in history last week at $450 million. The sole winner is 20-year-old Shane Missler, who announced his win on Facebook with three words: "Oh. Missler is a Florida resident and is taking the lump sum of nearly $282 million.


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Tag, Lonestar Merge for Large Freightliner, Western Star Truck Dealership

TNTX will represent over $700 million in annual sales and employees around 1,000 employees in 23 locations. Image via Daimler

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Tag Truck Centers and the Lonestar Truck Group have merged into a new company called TNTX, creating one of the largest Freightliner and Western Star dealers in the country, according to Daimler Trucks North America.

The companies will continue to operate separately in the interim, but when the merger is complete, TNTX will represent over $700 million in annual sales and employ around 1,000 employees in 23 locations.

“This merger is unique in that there is no change in reporting responsibilities,” said Gary Dodson, CEO of TNTX. “This will make the transition angst-free for employees and customers. Customers will see no difference in operating philosophies or policies, as our ownership group was closely aligned and worked together for many years prior to this merger.”

Tag recently opened a new 190,000-square-foot Freightliner dealership in Memphis, Tennessee. The expansion moves all of Tag's Memphis operaitons to one location that was designed and built with a focus on customer experience and operational efficiency.

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Tag's new 190,000-square-foot Freightliner dealership in Memphis, Tennesee, features a new and used truck sales center, a parts and service center, a parts distribution center, a full body shop, and the Tag Technical Institute. Photo: Daimler

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Included on the 40-acre site is a dedicated technician training facility. There are 175 full-time employees working at the new site.

“Investing in a facility designed around uptime proves that we are committed to keeping our customers' trucks on the road,” said Tommy Earl, president of Tag Truck Center.

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ELD Mandate Pushes Fleets to Order Record Number of Trailers

Tightening capacity, partially attributed to effects from the ELD Mandate, December 2017 was the best month for trailer orders ever, according to FTR. Photo: Stoughton 

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Trailer orders in the U.S. hit are expected to hit an all-time high of 47,000 units to end the year, the highest total yet recorded by the analysts at FTR, who recently released the preliminary numbers for December.

When December's order numbers are finalized, the total is expected to exceed the previous high of 45,800 reached in October 2014. At 47,000 units, trailer orders are up 10% over November's numbers and up 38% in year-over-year comparisons.

Fleets are ordering thousands of dry van trailers to deal with tightening trucking capacity that FTR attributes to the ELD mandate that went into effect last month. Freight has continued to grow without enough equipment to haul it, and carriers are resorting to more drop-and-hook to compensate for the lack of drivers, according to FTR. The extra trailers are needed to manage the increasing demand.

Economic growth has also kept trailer demand strong in other segments. Refrigerated freight has remained robust, while the flatbed market surged due to construction and manufacturing growth. Trank trailer demand has also increased with higher crude oil prices.

“December was just an awesome month for trailer orders,” said Don Ake, FTR vice president of commercial vehicles. “We have seen pressure build on equipment markets for several months, and this shows Q1 is going to be hectic as fleets scramble to keep up with freight demand.”

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