Trucking Industry Transports Wreaths Across America

Photo via Wreaths Across America

Several companies, associations, and fleets in the trucking industry are once again participating in the Wreaths Across America cause, honoring veterans who have died by placing a wreath on their graves.

Every year, Wreaths Across America coordinates wreath-laying ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery and at more than 1,100 other locations in all 50 U.S. states, at sea, and abroad. This year, the wreath laying ceremony will take place on Dec. 17 and, as in past years, the trucking industry has pledged its support to the holiday cause.

Efforts like the Truckload Carriers Association's Truckload of Respect, which organizes carriers to deliver wreaths to veteran's cemeteries nationwide, are pivotal to the cause of honoring the sacrifices of veterans everywhere during the holiday season.

The American Trucking Associations participated in the wreath laying activities, helping to deliver the wreaths to Arlington National Cemetery. ATA's Share the Road Highway Safety Program joined a convoy of trucks to deliver the wreaths from Maine to Arlington, Va.

Driving the program's Mack Pinnacle, truck drivers Ralph Garcia and Nate McCarty also participated in engaging education sessions for students and communities to learn about the trucking industry's importance and the need to honor the nation's military veterans.

“As a veteran and as a truck driver, I feel tremendous pride knowing that the load I'm carrying will be used to honor and show gratitude to such a deserving group of Americans” said McCarty, a driver for ABF Freight. “In my past experiences as part of this convoy, I've met Gold Star Mothers and heard moving stories of heroism, and I look forward to sharing this journey with my friends in the trucking community.”

A. Duie Pyle is participating this year by transporting wreaths to the cemetery in Oxford, Penn. Three of Pyle's drivers volunteered to participate in the ...Read the rest of this story

Ontario tow operators prepare for CVOR system

Commentary: What Does a Trump Win Say About Us?

Deborah Lockridge

The election of Donald Trump as president of the United States came as a surprise to many. In the December issue of the magazine, we try to bring you insight into what the Trump administration may mean for trucking and for the economy. But in this column, I want to talk about a couple of things that became evident surrounding the campaign that concern me. And I believe they should concern you, too.

The first is that many people apparently voted based on false, misleading, or biased information. Websites on both the left and the right of the political spectrum presented information that was biased, taken out of context, or outright fake. Fake news abounded, especially on Facebook.

As a journalist, and as a citizen, this scares me, as do Donald Trump's attacks on newspapers and other outlets trying to report fairly and honestly. Democracy depends on an informed electorate.

At HDT, we try to bring you information and insight that will help you run your business more successfully. We don't rely on a single source to do that, and neither should you. We talk to suppliers. We talk to associations. We talk to fleets. We talk to consultants. We talk to researchers. We read other publications, both inside and out of trucking. We report first-person observations. All in an effort to help you be informed and make better decisions.

I encourage you, whether you're making decisions about your business or presidents or anything else in your life, to do the same. To do your own research. To rely on more than what pops up in your Facebook feed or on Twitter or your favorite TV or radio news/talk channel. To be skeptical and be your own fact-checker. To listen to the opinions of people whose viewpoints differ from your own.

Which ...Read the rest of this story

Ice Road Trucker hero

Volvo cuts 500 jobs at U.S. plant

The Next Generation: HDT’s Emerging Leaders

My father was a trucker, my grandfather was a trucker,” says Leigh Ann Frederick, who bought Michigan-based Northfield Trucking from her father. “That was the tradition. But it's not that way anymore.”

Although many of HDT's inaugural Emerging Leaders do indeed have family in the business, they say following one's parents' footsteps into the trucking business is not as common as it once was.

“I think it'll take creative minds and new innovations to get through the changes coming up,” Frederick says.

When you go to trucking industry gatherings, “you see this kind of 15-year gap,” says Dustin Koehl – “the people with the gray hair and the people with the long hair.” Vice president of sales and marketing for Total Transportation of Mississippi, Koehl revitalized a management trainee program a few years ago. He visits classes at the University of Tennessee and other southern schools.

“We tell our story,” he explains. “Trucking's got an image issue, especially to these supply chain students who think of Coke,

Clorox, Amazon and Unilever [for careers]. We tell them you can work for a trucking company and work with all those companies.”

Echoing a common stereotype aimed at much of his generation, Justin Griffith, operations manager for Tennessee-based

Conard Transportation, says, “I think a lot of today's society wants instant gratification and instant money; you have to start at the bottom and work your way up. And I think that scares a lot of people off.”

Even though Michael Polachek with Dutch Maid Logistics grew up around trucking, if you had asked him 20 years ago, “I wouldn't have told you I'd be working for a trucking company. It's tough to attract younger people.”

Yet that mix of old and young can deliver great benefit to a company, says Anthony “Tony” Thompson, maintenance and repair manager for Illinois-based Hub Group Trucking. “Just ...Read the rest of this story

FMCSA Again Delays Rollout of Online DOT Registration System

Image: U.S. Department of Transportation

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has again delayed implementation of the final stage of its Unified Registration System for new motor carriers.

Completion of the URS rollout had last been scheduled for January 14, 2017, a date announced back in July. Prior to that, the implementation date had been set for Sept. 30, 2016.

Now, the agency has instead announced it will publish a notice in the Federal Register early next month that will state the newly revised URS compliance date.

By way of explanation, FMCSA said it recently completed a “complex migration” of its IT systems to a cloud environment. “This mitigation effort was a necessary step in order to provide a foundation to successfully implement URS.”

However, the agency said the new implementation delay is necessary “because additional time is needed to securely migrate data from multiple legacy platforms into a new central database” and to conduct further compatibility testing with its state-agency partners.

“By moving the implementation date, FMCSA is providing its State partners more time to develop, update, and verify data connectivity and system reliability,” the agency said. “The additional time will also enable the Agency to conduct more thorough training and to implement broader outreach and education activities that will provide for a seamless transition.”

URS is a simplified online registration process. It combines multiple legacy reporting forms into a single, online “smart form” that is designed to streamline the registration and renewal process.

When fully implemented, URS will allow FMCSA to identify unfit carriers and detect unsafe truck and bus companies that are trying to evade enforcement actions. Offending companies often attempt to regain U.S. DOT registration by registering as a different or unrelated business entity.

Since the December 2015 launch of the initial phase of URS, FMCSA estimates ...Read the rest of this story