Workhorse’s W-15 electric pickup offers power, targets fleet efficiency

read more

Airplane Hits Trailer in ‘Amazing’ Encounter

The airplane left part of its landing gear, including a wheel and tire, near the left-front corner of the 53-foot van. Photo: Sandusky Register

It's not every day that an airplane hits a truck, which is why the mishap on Wednesday made news, at least locally. It happened about 4 p.m. along Route 53 in northwest Ohio, and the Sandusky Register covered it right away.

It seems Russ Street, a driver for Sandusky-based South Shore Transportation, was northbound on the highway, minding his own business, when the eastbound plane, a twin-engine Piper, was on its final approach to Fremont Airport.

The plane came in too low and its landing gear clipped the top of the South Shore van, tearing off and embedding itself in the roof and side panels. The plane continued on and its pilot made a safe belly landing. Neither the 71-year-old pilot nor the truck driver was hurt.

“I was just driving down Ohio 53, and I heard a boom,” Street told the newspaper. “It rocked the trailer. I thought the semi was going over… I thought I had blown a couple tires.”

“It's frickin' amazing,” laughed Kevin Tomlinson, maintenance director for South Shore Transportation, the truck's owner, in a call with me. “It's not just what's on the road any more, it's what's up above.”

The van is a 53-foot Stoughton that had carried a load into Indiana, he said, and Street was returning it empty to Gypsum, Ohio, near South Shore's home base, for another load. Tomlinson was at a conference in Arizona when he learned of the incident in a call from a manager.

Thursday morning he hadn't yet seen the trailer so didn't know the extent of the damage or how much it would cost to fix it. Tomlinson had been at the first Heavy Duty Trucking ...Read the rest of this story

Trump: I was going to fire that ‘showboat’ no matter what

Contradicting previous White House explanations, President Donald Trump declared Thursday he had planned to fire FBI Director James Comey all along, regardless of whether top Justice Department officials ...

NASA has been quietly working on a Mars rover concept that looks like a Batmobile

For months, NASA's Kennedy Space Center has worked with a concept car company and a TV network to...

Volkswagen Buybacks for 3-Liter Diesel Cars OK'd by Judge

A federal judge approved a settlement that calls for Volkswagen to pay as much as $4 billion to repair or buy back about 80,000 diesel vehicles.

Motor Trucks in the Wild West

Mack Trucks in action during the U.S. Army's 1919 cross-country motor convoy experiment. Photo: U.S. Army Signal Corps

After graduating from West Point in 1916, “Ike” requested an overseas assignment during the First World War, but was posted instead to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and missed out on the chance for a career-enhancing combat command. But he was a capable, organized officer. And World War I was the first conflict to see the use of motorized transport, which played a decisive role in staving off a German victory at various points during the fighting.

After the Armistice, the War Department decided to study how trucks could be used to move a convoy of troops and equipment across the continental United States in the event of an invasion of the West Coast. Command of the convoy of trucks fell to young Major Eisenhower, with orders to set out from Washington, D.C. and proceed in as expeditiously a manner as possible to Oakland, California.

The convoy was impressive for the time. According to the Wikipedia entry on the event, it consisted of 81 total vehicles and trailers, including 34 heavy cargo trucks, four light delivery trucks, two mobile machine shops, a mobile blacksmith shop, one wrecker, and an "Artillery Wheeled Tractor" capable of towing nine trucks at once.

There were also two spare parts wagons, two water tanks, one gasoline tank, one searchlight with electrical power plant truck, four kitchen trailers, eight touring cars, a reconnaissance car, two staff observation cars, ...Read the rest of this story

Spot Freight Rates Higher Than Expected as Truckload Volume Dips

A gauge of the spot truckload freight market fell slightly last month but remained above levels from the same time the previous two years.

The DAT North American Freight Index fell 2.5% in April from the month before as volume remained above seasonal norms, signaling a solid start to the second quarter of 2017, according to DAT Solutions and its network of load boards.

Freight volumeincreased 60% in April compared to the same time a year ago as average spot truckload rates rose for vans, refrigerated, and flatbed freight, on both a month-over-month and year-over-year basis.

"It's not unusual for truckload freight activity to give ground in April, but national average load-to-truck ratios and rates last month were higher than expected," said Mark Montague, DAT industry pricing analyst.

While van demand declined 4.5% compared to March, the national average load-to-truck ratio was up 8% and rose 127% year-over-year.

The load-to-truck ratio measures the number of available loads for each truck posted on the DAT Network of load boards, and is an indicator of the balance between capacity and demand for freight services, according to the company.

That balance favored carriers in April, as indicated by an increase in the national average spot rate of $1.67 per mile for vans, up 4 cents compared to March and 17 cents higher when compared to April 2016, including fuel surcharges, but not accessorials or other fees.

The spot reefer freight market experienced a similar trend. Reefer demand declined 5.4% compared to March, but was 87% higher than compared to a year earlier. The load-to-truck ratio rose for reefers, and so did truckload rates. At $1.94 per mile, the average spot reefer rate was 7 cents higher compared to March and 14 cents better year-over-year.

In the flatbed segment, the national average rate increased 4 cents to $2.07 per mile compared to ...Read the rest of this story