I've talked about how traffic congestion decreases the efficiency of the trucking industry before. But I want to do so again because the American Transportation Research Institute recently came out with the 2017 Update to its Cost of Congestion to the Trucking Industry report.
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...Read the rest of this storyGreat Dane's new Atlanta facility. Photo: Great Dane
">Great Dane's new Atlanta facility. Photo: Great Dane
">Great Dane's Atlanta, Georgia, branch has moved to a new, significantly larger location, with an expanded parts showroom and bigger stock yard.
The new Atlanta facility spans over 25,000 square feet and features a new and pre-owned trailer and truck body display lot, a large retail parts center, and an updated service center that is open seven days a week. It also features a large drop yard. The new facility is a designated Great Dane truck body center and the company's newest flatbed trailer distribution center.
The new Atlanta location is located close to several major highways and is situated near Great Dane's manufacturing plants in Statesboro, Georgia, and Huntsville, Tennessee. The new facility's address is 1637 Forest Parkway.
“Our new facility is designed to help us better serve our customers,” said Al Cox, Great Dane regional sales manager. “In addition to a safer, more convenient location, this facility is much larger so we can stock more trailers, truck bodies and parts to provide our customers with faster service.”
Related: Great Dane Reveals Smart Trailer Concept at TMC Meeting
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...Read the rest of this storyScreen shot of New York Times website
" >Screen shot of New York Times website
" width="350">A few weeks ago, the New York Times ran a piece about the lives of truck drivers that didn't do much to help raise the profile of truck driving as a potential career, but it and a follow-up piece did paint a colorful portrait of the lives of truckers.
In “Alone on the Open Road: Truckers Feel Like ‘Throwaway People,” Times reporters visited a Petro truck stop in Effingham, Illinois, and interviewed truckers they found there.
“At a moment when President Trump has ignited a national discussion of blue-collar labor and even climbed into a truck during a White House event, trucking, which was once among the best-paying such jobs, has become low-wage, grinding, unhealthy work,” wrote reporter Trip Gabriel.
“We're just like cops. Everybody needs us, but nobody wants us,” said Greg Simmons, 54, Hastings, Florida, a driver for 27 years. He was also the source of the “throwaway people” line.
“You forget how to communicate with people,” said Ayisha Gomez, 39, Riverside County, California, a driver for three years. She's only doing this long enough to pay off her daughter's college loans.
“Any one of my grandkids do it, I'll kill 'em,” said Ron Carrabis, 70, Las Vegas, who's been driving 30 years for the same company.
Yet it wasn't all bad.
“Every day, you wake up somewhere different,” said Susan Zimmerman, 48, Danville, Virginia, who's been driving two years. “You have sunrises and sunsets. Yeah, it's the same sun, but it's different everywhere — the colors, the textures.”
Michael Gallant, 22, of Biddeford, Maine, who's been driving for eight months, told the times, “Truck driving is something I've always wanted to do since I was a little kid. I love it. There are some times when it's kind of a crappy job, but other times it's ...Read the rest of this story
Orbcomm has acquired the assets of Salt Lake City-based Inthinc, a fleet management and driver safety solutions provider.
Inthinc has been a long-time customer of Orbcomm's wireless data services and it provides fleet management solutions for more than 100 companies who operate large commercial vehicle fleets. Inthinc also offers solutions for the electronic logging device mandate. Orbcomm is acquiring the company as an entry point into the fleet management market
Most of Inthinc's customers are U.S.-based but it also serves countries in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Columbia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Romania, South Africa, and Tanzania.
Inthinc's telematics solutions are aimed at improving driver safety, operational efficiency, regulatory compliance, and workforce optimization through the two-way integration of vehicle devices, mobile devices, apps, and data management services.
“Inthinc's offering complements and strengthens our existing transportation and heavy equipment product portfolio, allowing our customers to access a broader set of asset monitoring solutions,” said Marc Eisenberg, Orbcomm's chief executive officer. “By adding incremental vertical markets and telematics capabilities, the acquisition of Inthinc further solidifies Orbcomm's position as a leading full-service solution provider in the industrial Internet of Things.”
Related: Decker Uses Two-Way Refrigerated Monitoring from Orbcomm
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...Read the rest of this storyImagine for a moment that you're doodling away with your Apple Pencil on your new iPad Pro...
Security camera footage played Monday at a hearing for Penn State fraternity members shows a pledge in apparent agony in the hours after falling down basement steps — and members of the fraternity he had ...
