5 Takeaways from ATA MC&E

The American Trucking Associations' annual Management Conference & Exhibition wrapped up in Las Vegas last week, and I've had a little time to reflect on the many sessions, press conferences and exhibits and pull together my thoughts on some key themes of the convention:

ATA's new president and CEO, Chris Spear, was introduced to attendees with a fiery speech. He lambasted “cubicle-dwelling ideologues” in Washington, D.C., who he said a refusal to compromise get in the way of creating sound public policies, such as funding our nation's infrastructure.

In private conversations I had with some ATA insiders after Spear was named the successor to Bill Graves, it became apparent to me that many ATA members were looking for someone who would push the association into a more aggressive lobbying stance, after previous lobbying efforts to fix flawed hours of service rules were seen as a failure.
Spear definitely delivered that tone in his speech in Las Vegas.

“The state of our industry is strong, but without leadership, unity or an aggressive pursuit of results, our future is uncertain,” he said. Warning trucking's foes not to mess with the industry, he said, “If you want to throw the first proverbial punch, you'd better knock us down because you will feel the one we throw back."

This theme of unity under fire was set up during the introduction to Spear's speech. Former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card emphasized the need to unite, emphasizing the “We the people” of the constitution. And U.S. soldiers spoke of Spear from his time in Iraq, where he was the deputy representative for the Coalition Provisional Authority during the George W. Bush administration.

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Bridgestone Names Commercial Truck and Bus Tire President

Joseph Saoud Photo: Bridgestone Americas

Bridgestone Americas has announced that Joseph Saoud has joined the company as president of the truck and bus radial business at Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations.

In the new role, Saoud will be responsible for leading sales activities for the U.S. and Canadian commercial truck and bus tire business, which includes Bandag retreads. He is tasked with driving the business' long-term growth strategy and ensuring continued value for customers, dealers and fleets.

"Joseph is a strong leader who brings incredible business acumen and global perspective to our team," said Kurt Danielson, president, Bridgestone Commercial Group, U.S. and Canada, BATO. "His insight, collaborative mindset and commitment to innovation will help our team continue to develop products and solutions that maximize uptime, improve efficiency and deliver best-in-class performance for our customers."

Saoud has over 20 years of leadership experience and most recently served as the president of global construction, agriculture and military for Commercial Vehicle Group, a supplier of cab and other vehicle-related products for the global commercial vehicle market.

Prior to his time with CVG, Saoud was president of the filtration business unit at Cummins. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern Mississippi and an MBA from Vanderbilt University.

Related: Bridgestone Americas Names VP of Marketing for Commercial Tire

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VehicleDowntimeView Helps Measure and Manage Downtime

Image via ARI

Fleet services provider ARI has developed a technology called VehicleDowntimeView that measures how long a vehicle is out of service and provides data to manage the reduction of a fleet's total downtime.

ARI VehicleDowntimeView uses GPS monitoring and telematics data to track the moment a vehicle arrives at and departs from a shop. ARI has geo-fenced more than 68,000 shops in the U.S., Canada and U.K. so that a fleet manager is notified when any vehicle with a telematics device crosses a virtual border surrounding the shop property.

“If a vehicle is down for a few hours, that means your employee isn't in the field serving customers or generating revenue for your company,” said Tony Candeloro, vice president, customer information systems and product innovation. “And if a driver requires a rental vehicle for a more complex repair, that expense negatively impacts that fleet's total cost of ownership. ARI VehicleDowntimeView can help fleet managers get vehicles back to work, servicing customers and contributing to the revenue-generating activities they support more quickly.”

Fleet personnel can search for and view the location of vehicles through Bing maps and set parameters to be notified when vehicles are down for maintenance past a certain timeframe. They can also see other important details about the repair being done on the vehicle.

The data collected through ARI VehicleDowntimeView can be used for important business decisions, providing a fleet manager with insights into replacement models, fleet reliability, or the selection of repair shops for future repairs.

ARI VehicleDowntimeView, featuring maintenance downtime tracking, is provided as an ancillary benefit to clients who currently use ARI's maintenance management and telematics programs.

Related: Fleet Technology Expo: ARI to Demonstrate Ways to Improve ROI

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Commentary: Welcome to the New Normal

Daniel Meckstroth, chief economist with the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation, speaking at the FTR
Transportation Conference. Photo: Evan Lockridge

Fleets attending the FTR Transportation Conference in Indianapolis last month wanted to know: When are things are going to get back to normal?

When are truck freight levels, pricing and even the economy going to be at the level we are accustomed to seeing?

The good news is that a recovery for freight and the overall U.S. economy is in the cards for the fourth quarter of the year, Daniel Meckstroth, chief economist with the industry group the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation, told attendees.

The bad news is it's not expected to be a huge boom.

After a long while, July showed “the first indication that the manufacturing inventory-to-sales ratios are falling” after higher levels hurt freight shipments earlier in the year. The July level is also the lowest in about two years. And inventory cycles, such as the high one manufacturing has experienced lately, are usually short. When they are over, you typically see a spike in production, he said.

High inventories have been a drag on economic activity as well as freight movements, but now they are coming into closer balance. This results not only in better sales of manufactured goods but others as well, resulting in an improvement in the general economy.

Helping this along is the ever-resilient U.S. consumer, who accounts for about 70% of all U.S. economic activity. “Consumers are keeping us out of a recession,” Meckstroth said. “We are in a jobs boom, with the percentage of new jobs being adding being much faster than overall economic expansion.

“It's new jobs creating new income…that's what's propelling the U.S. economy right now,” he explained.

However, there are still other problems lingering that will keep both trucking and the economy from seeing ...Read the rest of this story

DOC Miscalculation Raises Tariffs on Truck Tires From China

The U.S. Department of Commerce has admitted to a miscalculation in its preliminary anti-dumping tariff rate for truck and bus tires imported from China.

As a result, the rates of every manufacturer and importer are increasing to 30.36% - nearly 10 points higher than the initial calculation, according to a report in our sister website Modern Tire Dealer.

The change stems from two fine details that were used to establish the rate for Prinx Chengshan (Shandong) Tire Co. Ltd. One is related to using a per-kilogram basis instead of a per-piece basis in the calculation; another refers to not using a weight average when reconstructing control numbers.

The result is what the DOC calls a significant ministerial error, which it defines as a mathematical or clerical error that “would result in a change of at least five absolute percentage points, but not less than 25% of the weighted average dumping margin.”

As it relates to this anti-dumping tariff, the recalculated rate for Prinx Chengshan is 30.36%, up from 20.87%.

In every tariff investigation the DOC selects manufacturers to serve as mandatory respondents. Those companies then provide data and answer questions, and those figures and answers serve as the basis and gauge for the whole industry. Other manufacturers also may volunteer to provide their data throughout the investigation as well. Usually there's at least a slight reward in doing so because companies who don't comply can be subject to the highest tariffs.

That was the case in August when the anti-dumping rates were first announced. The DOC set a rate for Prinx Chengshan, and used that same rate for the “non-selected separate rate respondents.” A slightly higher tariff, of 22.57%, was levied against all other manufacturers in China.

As it turns out, the rate for Prinx Chengshan is now higher than the rate originally imposed on all ...Read the rest of this story