Maverick USA Acquires Michigan-Based Marine Transport

Photo via Marine Transport

Maverick USA has announced the acquisition of the Au Gres, Mich.-based Marine Transport, expanding the company's dedicated service offerings and service footprint in the boat and marine business.

Marine Transport was founded in 1983 and is a dedicated boat hauling company. It is known for servicing a large manufacturer of luxury pontoon boats and runabouts, according to Maverick.

Wayne Bigelow, the founder and owner, will be retiring but his son Bryan will join Maverick and continue to work out of the office located in Au Gres.

Maverick is acquiring all of Marine Transport's assets, including around 25 tractors and 80 trailers.

“As the trucking industry continues to focus on safety and improvements, increasing regulations continue to be introduced," said Bigelow. “With these changes and along with my desire to retire, our family has decided that our employees will be better served in a larger organization that can support the regulatory changes and continue to grow the business.”

Maverick USA is the parent company of Maverick Transportation, based in Little Rock Ark. Maverick operates more than 1,600 units providing over-the-road and dedicated services to the flatbed, glass, and temperature controlled transportation markets in North America.

Related: Maverick Acquires Flanary and Sons Trucking

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Moving Violations Top List of Citations in Safe Driver Week

Source: CVSA

State and local moving violations were the most common citations given to commercial vehicle drivers during the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance's Operation Safe Driver Week.

The recently released results from the week-long enforcement event, which took place from Oct. 16-22, show that more than half of all the citations and warnings given were moving violations. Speeding was the top violation handed out to passenger vehicle drivers.

Safety enforcement officials issued warnings and citations to 20,648 commercial vehicle and passenger vehicle drivers during Operation Safe Driver Week. Unsafe driving behaviors including speeding, failure to use a seatbelt, and distracted driving instances were also among the top results collected by more than 3,000 law enforcement officials.

“This year, the Operation Safe Driver Week campaign specifically targeted the unsafe driving behaviors that are more often the cause of crashes,” said Julius Debuschewitz of Yukon Highways and Public Works and CVSA President.

Of the total number of violations, 11,182 were issued to commercial vehicle drivers, who often differed in the types of violations cited compared to those driving passenger vehicles.

When broken down as a percentage of the total number of violations, the top-five warnings and citations issued to commercial drivers were:

CVSA holds this annual week-long campaign because unsafe driving behavior is at the root of most roadway crashes. Driver behavior was found to be the leading cause of large truck crashes, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Large Truck Crash Causation Study.

In more specific instances, commercial drivers tended to be cited less often for speeding and inattentive driving. Eight citations were related to a commercial vehicle driver's failure to stop at a railroad crossing and 7 drivers ...Read the rest of this story

Dry Van Surge Powers Trailer Orders Past Expectations

Photo: Tom Berg

Trailer orders in November beat expectations by a wide margin due in part to large orders placed by large fleets, according to the latest trailer numbers from analysts at FTR and ACT Research.

FTR counted net November trailer orders at 35,800 units for the month – more than a 78% increase over the month before it. However, trailer orders are still down 8% compared to last November.

“This was an unexpected jump in trailer orders,” said Don Ake, FTR vice president of commercial vehicles. “Fleets took more time than usual to determine their 2017 requirements, but the large fleets then placed some impressive orders.”

Dry van trailer orders showed the most significant gains in the month, practically doubling October's number and nearly matching November 2015 levels, according to ACT Research. Also contributing to the good month were lower cancellations and improved energy prices which have improved liquid and bulk tank order volumes.

Orders for much of 2016 have fallen below last year's levels and year to date, trailer orders volumes are down more than 30%. Still, November saw backlogs increase by 15%, marking the first rise since December 2015.

“The trailer market segments continue to be highly fragmented. Dry and refrigerated vans, which are closely tied to the consumer sectors of the economy, are maintaining much of their strength,” said Ake. “Flatbeds and other trailers connected to the industrial side of the economy, have fallen off significantly the second half of 2016.”

Related: Is There a 'Great Future' in Plastic Trailers?

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Sell the ‘Trump bump’ in these truck stocks now, analyst says

DisC—Disconnected Cycles

Over my 3-4 decades of working in transportation and industrial applications, there was always a lament over how fast new things get done in the consumer electronics world. In 3 weeks, CES will be going on in Las Vegas with everyone demonstrating new ideas and products, many of which will not have existed at this time last year. Each year, car companies have increased their participation.

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Bendix Wingman Advanced Available to Order on Kenworth T270, T370

The Bendix Wingman Advanced system is now available for order as an option for the Kenworth T370 medium duty truck in certain vocational applications such as aggregate hauling. Photo: Kenworth

The Bendix Wingman Advanced system is now available for order as an option on the Kenworth T270 and T370 medium-duty trucks.

The radar-based collision mitigation system delivers adaptive cruise control with braking, along with autonomous emergency braking technology to help drivers avoid rear-end collisions.

Using a radar sensor mounted to the front of a vehicle, Bendix Wingman Advanced warns drivers with alerts and with active interventions. The system provides following distance, impact and stationary object alerts that are on whether or not cruise control is active. When cruise control is engaged, the system will actively intervene to help maintain a safe following distance by reducing throttle, engaging the engine retarder, or, if necessary, applying the foundation brakes.

Bendix Wingman Advanced builds upon the full-stability technology of Bendix ESP (Electronic Stability Program) to provide fleets and truck operators with a system that can help drivers avoid potential collisions, rollovers, and loss-of-control situations.

Related: Bendix Highlights Newest Advanced Safety System

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Report: Overall Freight Shipping Levels, Rates Better than They First Look

Graphic: Cass Information Systems

While a measure of total U.S. freight shipments in October broke a string of being in negative territory for 20 months, November fell back while separate reports for the month show an improvement in intermodal rates for the second consecutive month while truckload linehaul rates turned lower.

The Cass Freight Index, which measures the volume of shipments and expenditures for freight shipments across all transportation modes, showed in November that shipments declined 0.5% from November 2015 and posted a wider 3% drop from October.

Also, the index's measure of freight expenditures fell a larger 4.5% in November from a year ago and is down 1.8% last month from October.

Despite these downturns, there is some good news, according to the report's author, Donald Broughton, who is also managing director, chief market strategist and senior transportation analyst at investment firm Avondale Partners.

“We have seen a wide range of results in the different modes, from continued volume growth in parcel and airfreight driven by e-commerce, to a sequential improvement in truck tonnage, to less bad rail and barge volume overall,” he wrote.

“Although it is far too early to make a ‘change in trend' call," he continued, "data is beginning to suggest that the consumer is finally starting to spend a little, and that with the recent surge in the price of crude the industrial economy's rate of deceleration has eased. If the winter of the current year-and-a-half freight recession in the U.S. is not over, it is certainly showing increasing signs of thawing.”

He said when it comes to shipments, the month-over-month pattern looked a bit more ominous, but doesn't give him great cause for concern.

“There is some degree of normal seasonality at work, and we are currently getting daily reports of stronger shipment volume in almost all modes from both hard ...Read the rest of this story