Trucking news and briefs for Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022: Texas-based carrier shut down for numerous safety violationsHouston, Texas-based Adversity Transport, Inc., has been effectively shut down by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration after violating a standing out-of-service order issued for failing to allow an investigation into its safety fitness. According to FMCSA, a subsequent review of the one-truck operation’s roadside safety performance record found Adversity Transport to be “egregiously noncompliant with multiple federal safety regulations.” These included Driving of CMVs (49 CFR Part 392), Parts and Accessories Necessary for Safe Operation (49 CFR Part 393), drivers’ Hours of Service (49 CFR Part 395), and Vehicle Maintenance and Inspection (49 CFR Part 396). Additionally, FMCSA said two of the carrier’s drivers were found to be driving while prohibited or suspended. Attempts to contact Adversity Transport went unanswered Monday morning. Adversity Transport’s vehicle out-of-service rate is 89%, compared to a national average of 21%, and its driver out-of-service rate is 50%, compared to a national average of 6%. “Adversity Transport fails to ensure its drivers drive safely and its drivers have received numerous citations for violations such as speeding, texting while driving and being in possession of a controlled substance while driving,” FMCSA said. “Adversity Transport also fails to ensure its vehicles are safe. Roadside inspections revealed pervasive vehicle maintenance problems including unsafe tires, unsafe brakes and cracked frames. Adversity Transport also fails to ensure its drivers comply with the requirements to track their hours of service, designed to prevent fatigued drivers from continuing to drive.” Failing to comply with the provisions of the federal imminent hazard order could result in civil penalties of up to $28,142 for each violation. Adversity Transport may also be assessed civil penalties of not less than $11,256 for providing transportation in interstate commerce without operating authority registration, and up to $15,876 for operating a CMV in interstate commerce without USDOT Number registration. 3,500 Peterbilt tractors recalled for potential issue with side stepPaccar is recalling approximately 3,511 model year 2022 Peterbilt 579 tractors equipped with chassis fairings. According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration documents, the bolts that hold the chassis fairing step assembly in the closed position may loosen and fracture the latch attachment, causing the fairing assembly to flex. A partially unsecured cab step can unexpectedly move while entering or exiting the cab, increasing the risk for injury, the recall states. Dealers will add new fasteners and a bracket, for free, to fix the issue. Owners can contact Peterbilt customer service at 1-940-591-4220 with recall number 22PBA. NHTSA’s recall number is 22V-016. https://ift.tt/UwntB5qsC
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Before electrification, fleets seeking to reduce their carbon footprint turned to natural gas. While sales of natural gas trucks have never made up a significant portion of the overall Class 8 order book, it does continue to grow. For the first 11 months of 2021, according to data released by ACT Research, U.S. and Canadian Class 8 natural gas truck retail sales rose 3% year-to-date against 2020. Total U.S. Class 8 sales were up 16% for the same period. North America's six major truck OEMs – International, Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, Volvo and Mack – account for approximately 60% of the heavy-duty natural gas market. Sales of compressed and liquified natural gas trucks produced mixed results late in 2021 with September enjoying a small year-over-year gain and October and November each losing ground, according to Steve Tam, ACT Research vice president. "In the near term, September saw a middling sequential gain, while October sank before sales jumped month-over-month in November," he said. "Combined, sales in the three-month period diluted year-to-date gains meaningfully, a pattern that started in July.” Tam noted that competition in the green energy space is fierce, and zero emission is putting pressure on sales of near-zero emission units and development of the natural gas infrastructure. "We're also seeing an overall increase in electric charging stations, both existing and planned, but a continuing decline of total natural gas stations, particularly those planned for the future," he said. "That said, we still see articles about natural gas use in transportation, as well as discussions about hydrogen fuel cells and investments, but the overwhelming amount of trade-industry headlines this quarter seemed to focus on electric commercial vehicle development.” For 2020, Tam said sales of natural gas trucks comprised 2.6% of the North American Class 8 market and he estimated for 2021 penetration would hit 2.5%, "so a small decline," he said, "the result of the diesel market growing faster than the NG market." https://ift.tt/UwntB5qsC Daimler Truck North America (DTNA) on Monday said it will partner with NextEra Energy Resources and BlackRock Renewable Power, each having signed on to a joint venture to design, develop, install and operate a nationwide, high-performance charging network for medium- and heavy-duty battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Lack of a publicly available, nationwide electric charging infrastructure for commercial trucks – especially those used for long-haul freight – is one of the tallest barriers for widespread deployment of electric trucks. The three companies plan to tackle that with approximately $650 million divided equally, and pooling resources to build a network of charging sites on critical freight routes along the east and west coasts and in Texas by 2026. The sites will leverage existing infrastructure and amenities while adding complementary greenfield sites to fulfill anticipated customer demand. The first phase is set to begin construction in 2023. "This planned joint venture, and our collaboration with BlackRock and NextEra Energy Resources, will address the urgent need for a nationwide battery electric and hydrogen fuel charging infrastructure for commercial vehicles to reach shared climate goals," said John O'Leary, DTNA president and CEO. "Our joint investment will act as a catalyst to make a carbon-neutral trucking industry a reality. This project is a critical step toward developing a sustainable ZEV ecosystem across North America, and we look forward to including additional partners as it progresses. We are committed to providing access to this network not only for the DTNA vehicle brands, but also for any manufacturers using predominant industry charging standards and communication protocols." Battery electric medium- and heavy-duty vehicles will be the initial focus of the partnership, followed by hydrogen fueling stations for fuel cell trucks. The sites will also be available for light-duty vehicles. NextEra Energy Resources is world's largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun and a significant investor in electric and charging infrastructure. BlackRock's Renewable Power group is one of the largest renewable power equity investment platforms in the world, with over $9.5 billion in total commitments and investments in over 350 wind and solar projects, in addition to electric vehicle charging infrastructure and battery energy storage systems, across 15 countries and 5 continents. "The commercial transportation sector is a significant contributor to carbon emissions and we firmly believe that decarbonization of transportation will be a critical societal focus for the next decade," said David Giordano, global head of BlackRock's Renewable Power Group. "Having already made several investments in the EV charging infrastructure space around the globe, we also believe that investments in the sector are highly complementary to our renewable power generation investment strategy." DTNA, in cooperation with the local utility company Portland General Electric (PGE), opened the first-of-its-kind public charging site for commercial vehicles in the U.S., and expects to start production of its battery electric Freightliner eCascadia and eM2 later this year. https://ift.tt/UwntB5qsC J.B. Hunt Transport Services (CCJ Top 250, No. 3) is acquiring Conover, North Carolina-based Zenith Freight Lines, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of furniture manufacturer Bassett, for roughly $87 million, the companies announced Monday. Post-closing next month, J.B. Hunt will provide transport services for Bassett, and President and CEO John Roberts noted his company's investment in Zenith "enhances J.B. Hunt’s furniture delivery capabilities by expanding our nationwide, end-to-end supply chain solution for our customers, and we look forward to establishing a long-term connection with Bassett, a manufacturer and retailer of high-quality home furnishings and a leader in the industry." It also expands J.B. Hunt’s Final Mile Services segment, which operates one of the largest nationwide, commingled cross-dock operations, with 116 locations and more than 3.5 million square feet of warehouse and facilities space. Robert H. Spilman, Jr., Bassett’s CEO and Chairman of the Board, noted that aside from disruption caused by the pandemic, he believes that the consolidation of traditional specialized furniture transportation is inevitable. Indeed, J.B. Hunt's move on Zenith is the second such acquisition in the furniture space in the past month, with Ashley Furniture having acquired the western division assets of Springfield, Missouri-based Wilson Logistics (CCJ Top 250, No. 100). Zenith provides specialized LTL transportation services for furniture manufacturers and retailers in the continental U.S., moving products from manufacturing points or import locations via employee drivers, late-model equipment, and approximately one-million square feet of warehouse space to facilitate more than one-quarter of a million moves annually. Following the acquisition, Zenith founders Jack and Debbie Hawn will transition to roles with J.B. Hunt. Zenith posted revenue of $87 million in the fiscal year ending November 2021, with Bassett representing one-third of its business. The transaction will be funded using J.B. Hunt’s existing cash balance and is expected to close by February 28, 2022, subject to customary closing conditions. https://ift.tt/UwntB5qsC Trucking news and briefs for Monday, Jan. 31, 2022: Legal challenging 2020 HOS changes resumesA legal challenge to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s 2020 hours of service changes was reignited recently, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia began accepting petitions more than a year after the lawsuit was initially filed. The case was placed in abeyance in early 2021 to allow the new administration to become familiar with the updated regulations, and it was resumed in October. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways and Parents Against Tired Truckers sued FMCSA over the changes to the regulations, claiming the updates HOS rules are not as safe as the rules before the changes took effect. Specifically, the groups say that, in changing the 30-minute break rules to where the break can be taken on-duty rather than requiring it to be taken off-duty, FMCSA did “not account for fatigue from non-driving work or consider the effect of the changes to the 30-minute break requirement on the benefits that FMCSA attributed to that requirement when it adopted the requirement in 2011.” The petition also calls changes to the short-haul exemption into question. The revised HOS regulations extended the allowable operating radius and daily on-duty hours for drivers to be able to operate under a waiver in which they aren’t required to keep logs. The old rules exempted drivers operating within a 100 air-mile radius of their base and gave them a 12-hour on-duty limit. The HOS changes extended the radius to 150 air miles and allowed drivers to work 14 hours a day to still receive the exemption. “The final rule does not contain a rational explanation why increasing the number of drivers who are exempt from documenting their driving hours – and providing those drivers with a longer workday and larger driving radius – will not affect compliance with hours-of-service rules,” the groups said. FMCSA responded to the groups’ concerns, saying they “failed to provide the court with sufficient evidence” to support their claims. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, filing comments on FMCSA’s behalf, said the changes to the 30-minute break and short-haul exemption rules “represent common sense updates to the hours-of-service rules that significantly increase flexibility for commercial truck drivers while maintaining safety at least equivalent to previous versions of these rules. In adopting the final rule, the agency relied on ample evidence from the administrative record demonstrating that more hours-of-service flexibility means more efficient trips and less stress for drivers, improving safety on the road.” The next step in the rule is for the Teamsters and safety groups to file a response to FMCSA and OOIDA. Final briefs for the case are due March 8. Werner to test Cummins nat-gas, hydrogen enginesWerner Enterprises (CCJ Top 250, No. 13) will begin validation and integration of Cummins’ recently announced 15-liter natural gas and 15-liter hydrogen internal combustion engines in its vehicles. Cummins will begin integrating these new powertrains in Werner trucks in the second half of this year, starting with the 15-liter natural gas product. The collaboration between Werner and Cummins is expected to provide Cummins with operational and performance data to empower the company to optimize its product offerings, said Amy Boerger, vice president and general manager, North America at Cummins. "These collaborations allow us to refine and optimize our technologies to make the shift to zero-emissions commercial transportation solutions across diverse markets much more quickly." The 15-liter natural gas engine announced in October can be paired with a Cummins Eaton Automated Transmission Technologies Endurant HD Transmission and Cummins Fuel Delivery System. Other transmission pairings will be available at launch for specialized applications. The 15-liter engine will offer ratings up to 500 horsepower and 1,850 ft-lbs of torque, while not requiring selective catalytic reduction (SCR) to meet 2024 California or Environmental Protection Agency emission standards, providing a potentially carbon-negative solution when powered with renewable natural gas (RNG). https://ift.tt/UwntB5qsC Navigating the oceans of imperfect information is called “business.” The freight industry lives with many unknowns every day. Residual value is usually one of those unknowns. Put simplistically, residual value is what you get for your truck when you turn it over to a new owner or scrap it. When you buy a truck, you have some projection of how long you will own it, some historical data on how similar trucks have depreciated over time, and a hope that the marketplace doesn’t change unpredictably between today and that future time — but you know it will. Used trucks exist in that space controlled by supply and demand. The market is cyclical. In some years there are too many used trucks and in other years there are too few – or the wrong ones. Some years there is a rush to buy new trucks, and from experience that means about five years later there will be an oversupply of used ones. Then there is the economy, which can be a rollercoaster ride all its own. There is the technology side of it as well. Some technologies can get a premium in the used market and others have no value. But all of that is somewhere in the future – a future over which a fleet operator has very little control. Residual value is typically not guaranteed, although there are examples where residual value has been guaranteed when buying a new truck. In those arrangements, the seller is assuming the risk of the market shifting. That business model has a somewhat checkered past. More often, the buyer assumes the risk on where the used vehicle market will price the vehicle in the future. If you think about it, a good Class 8 production year is between 250,000 and 350,000 trucks, meaning there likely are at least that many used trucks coming into the market as well. There is a lot of data on used truck sales over time. And just as with all the decades of detailed data for the stock market, all that used truck data is potentially completely useless in predicting future value. If you want some examples of that, look at 2008 to 2010, or 2020 to 2022. It’s a pretty sure bet that predictions of used truck prices made in 2007 and in 2019 were completely wrong in 2009 and 2021. Modeling pricing with some confidence works great if all the variables behave in some predictable way. The real world keeps reminding us that the future is far from predictable. Some used truck examples to think aboutA diesel truck purchased today for use in California, Oregon or Washington will in five years go into markets that are incentivizing zero-emission trucks. How will those markets price the used diesel trucks? Will those trucks have to be moved to different markets to get the best value? Will those Advanced Clean Truck states reward residual value by guaranteeing some value for scrapping that diesel truck at five years as an incentive to buy a new zero-emission vehicle (ZEV)? Will sufficient and affordable renewable diesel or biodiesel exist to maintain the value of the diesel truck? Will the market for ZEVs be so hot that no one wants a five-year-old diesel? Will there be such a demand for glider kits to remanufacture diesels into zero-emission vehicles that a used diesel truck will be valued at a premium (not for the engine but for the rest of the vehicle)? Will retroactive regulations prevent operating a five-year-old diesel? There are a lot of unknowns there. A battery electric truck purchased today is “new” technology. It likely has incentives or grants helping with the purchase. It may even have needed to sacrifice an old diesel truck to get those incentives. There are effectively no five-year-old used battery electric Class 8 trucks out there in today’s market. Will the technology live up to its reliability targets? Will the high voltage batteries, cables, connectors and digital electronics hold their performance and value? Will the speed of technology improvement be so fast that a five-year-old electric truck is obsolete? Will anyone incentivize purchasing used battery electric trucks? Will a fleet really need to trade the vehicle at five years, or can it keep it longer than it would its diesel? Will that five-year-old battery electric truck be worth more as parts than as a vehicle? Again, a lot of unknowns. There are currently no new production Class 8 fuel cell tractors for sale. When will they really be in production? Production hydrogen fuel cell Class 8 vehicles have similar risks to the battery electric vehicles, but layered on top of those are the unknowns regarding a significant drop in hydrogen fuel pricing. Will there be incentives or offsets to help reduce fuel prices? Autonomous trucks are another example, too. They are not yet available in production, so when will they really be available for purchase? Will anyone want a five-year-old autonomous truck? Is there really a market for five-year-old autonomous vehicles? Are the first owners the only owners? Will the pace of development make older autonomous vehicles less safe than newer ones? How will the market price that risk? Will the autonomous truck need to be stripped down to become a manually driven used one? Fleets are facing an unprecedented level of change as the industry moves into the next decade. The lack of certainty is a huge challenge in making long-term investment plans for capital equipment. The only sure thing is that residual values are no sure thing. Rick Mihelic is NACFE’s Director of Emerging Technologies. He has authored for NACFE four Guidance Reports on electric and alternative fuel medium- and heavy-duty trucks and several Confidence Reports on Determining Efficiency, Tractor and Trailer Aerodynamics, Two Truck Platooning, and authored special studies on Regional Haul, Defining Production and Intentional Pairing of tractor trailers. https://ift.tt/2ytPsnD Trucking news and briefs for Friday, Jan. 28, 2022:Semi among Tesla products in production holding patternTesla's fully electric Class 8 has been delayed three times and is more than two years overdue, but company founder Elon Musk said Wednesday the company still planned to kickstart production on his vaunted Semi next year. Semi was included in a list of Tesla products that are in the company's pipeline, including Cybertruck, Roadster and Optimus, that Musk expects to "do a lot of engineering and tooling and whatnot to create those vehicles," he said, "and be ready to bring those to production hopefully next year." Optimus – a humanoid robot Tesla introduced last August – Musk said would be among the company's priorities this year. "I think, actually, the most important product development we're doing this year is the Optimus humanoid robot. This, I think, has the potential to be more significant than the vehicle business over time." When the sleek zero-emission tractor was unveiled in 2017 in Hawthorne, California – the home Tesla Motors’ design center and company founder Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket factory – production was penciled in for 2019, and orders began to trickle in from the likes of UPS, FedEx, PepsiCo, Anheuser-Busch, J.B. Hunt, Walmart and others. FTR: Shippers Conditions improved in NovemberFTR’s Shippers Conditions Index (SCI) for November improved to a -9.0 reading from October’s -12.4. October’s reading had been the lowest reading since the all-time low was reached in March of 2021. Stable diesel prices in November led to better market conditions for shippers, FTR says, but other factors still made for the toughest conditions since June aside from the October dip. The outlook for the SCI is for mildly negative readings throughout 2022. “Shippers are unlikely to experience a material improvement in their conditions in 2022 as congestion and service issues will remain prevalent for most of the year,” said Todd Tranausky, vice president of rail and intermodal at FTR. “It is likely to be 2023 before shippers experience a material gain in the performance of the supply chain.” Roehl to pay $3.5M in safety incentives this yearRoehl Transport (CCJ Top 250, No. 59) announced it will pay company drivers more than $3.5 million in safety incentives in 2022. That amount is based on how much the company paid drivers in 2021 after a sweeping increase in accident-free pay. “At Roehl, safety is synonymous with professionalism,” said CEO Rick Roehl. “Safety is our cornerstone value, and we reward our driving teammates for their professionalism as they drive.” Roehl drivers earn accident-free pay when they do not have preventable accidents and complete all assigned training. Instead of having to wait to receive a quarterly or other bonus, Roehl drivers earn additional cents per mile for each accident-free mile they drive, as they drive them. In 2021, more than 90% of Roehl drivers who were eligible for accident-free pay earned it, the company said. FleetPride acquires Louisville’s Nationwide Truck ServiceFleetPride announced this week that it has acquired the assets of Nationwide Truck Service of Louisville, Kentucky. Founded in 1989 and owned by Eric Adkins, Nationwide Truck Service offers a wide range of repair services from its 21-bay facility and mobile repair units in addition to 24/7 roadside support. The Service Center at 355 Farmington Ave. will team up with the existing FleetPride parts branch at 4670 Jennings Lane in Louisville, creating a complete value proposition for customers. Adkins and his son Jake will remain involved in the day-to-day operations. “This is an outstanding opportunity for our valued customers and our team,” Adkins said. “Our customers will appreciate the access to a nationwide network of parts and service, and our employees will have the ability to grow and advance in FleetPride’s new service organization.” https://ift.tt/2ytPsnD A powerful snow storm barreling toward the Northeast is expected to dump upwards of 16 inches of snow across much of New England this weekend and bring with it wind gusts up to 60 mph. January is usually the coldest month of the year across the U.S. with average temperatures of just under 35 degrees, but February is not too far behind. Winter can stretch into April in some parts of the country and those extended bitter temperatures (combined with road salts and brines) put stress on everything from a truck and trailer's rubber and metal components, to electrical connections and every fluid on a vehicle for almost half the year. In this week's 10-44, Jason and Matt talk with Shawn Whitacre, senior engineer for Chevon Lubricants, about how fleets can optimize maintenance for cold weather conditions, and how icy conditions should influence select maintenance intervals. CCJ's 10-44 is a weekly video feature covering the latest in trucking news and trends, equipment and technology. Subscribe to our YouTube channel here. https://ift.tt/2ytPsnD Trucking news and briefs for Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022: Trucking volumes dipped while pricing soared in Q4Tight capacity and early holiday shipments let to a 5.1% slowdown in freight volume in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to a new report from U.S. Bank. The U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index released Wednesday revealed that the cost to ship goods via truck continued to grow strongly in the fourth quarter of 2021, jumping 20.2% compared to the last three months of 2020. Meanwhile, a lack of available trucks and drivers, as well as a decision by many retailers to acquire more holiday inventory earlier than usual, led to a 5.1% contraction in the number of shipments in the fourth quarter compared to the same quarter of 2020. “The freight trucking industry faced familiar challenges as we closed out 2021: a lack of available drivers, trucks and trailers. This is increasing costs for shippers and making it more difficult for carriers to haul more freight,” said Bobby Holland, U.S. Bank vice president and director of Freight Data Solutions. “The rising cost of diesel fuel in the fourth quarter – up nearly 10% compared to the previous quarter – also drove up costs for those shipping goods by truck.” For full year 2021, shipments were down 0.5% compared to all of 2020 and 4.5% compared to all of 2019, U.S. Bank added. American Trucking Associations Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Bob Costello said that the lower shipment volume in the fourth quarter was partly due to anxious retailers acquiring more of their holiday products in the third quarter. The larger issue, though, is capacity. Costello noted that ATA data shows that carriers who primarily haul contract freight operated roughly 5% fewer trucks in 2021 compared with 2020. “In 2021, we moved about the same amount of goods via truck freight in the U.S. as we did in 2020, but it cost more than 25% more to do so,” said Costello. “The demand for trucking services continues to be high, but until driver shortages, as well as various supply chain challenges – such as those that are causing new truck and equipment shortages – are improved, capacity will be constrained.” Barr-Nunn increases driver payBarr-Nunn Transportation, a subsidiary of Knight-Swift Transportation (CCJ Top 250, No. 4) is committing to providing its company drivers a pay increase through 2022 due to ongoing supply chain issues and the impact of COVID-19. The added compensation, which the company calls Supply Chain Disruption Compensation, will be 6 cents per mile for all drivers on mileage pay, and $10 per shift for all shift and shift load pay drivers. The added pay is in addition to all other compensation Barr-Nunn offers. Barr-Nunn has been a Certified Top Pay Carrier for 17 consecutive years. "As news outlets continue to report a supply chain crisis, and the impact of COVID-19 continues to impact our country and our drivers, there has never been a more important time to provide additional support to our drivers," said Jeff Blank, director of recruiting for Barr-Nunn Transportation. "This substantial added compensation, is intended to not only provide further support to our drivers, but to our customers as well, as we work together to keep so many needed and important goods moving effectively and efficiently." https://ift.tt/2ytPsnD Charlotte-based third-party logistics brokerage HTL Freight has acquired Wilmington-based 3PL Matchmaker Logistics. The acquisition gives HTL Freight – historically an open deck focused brokerage – expertise and access to dry van and drayage solutions across North America and Canada. Partner carriers will similarly have access to a strong base of customers that ship a wide variety of essential goods that are core to numerous industries and infrastructure sectors. “We are bigger but most importantly better for our customers, given the combined capabilities of the two companies," said HTL Freight CEO Onu Okebie. "Our customers ship across various modes and equipment types, and this acquisition positions us to be truly a one-stop shop for them." Founded in 1981, Matchmaker Logistics serves a client base in a variety of industries including chemicals and specialty materials. HTL Freight, formerly known as Heritage Trucking, has been a North American flatbed freight specialist for more than four decades. “Having run my family’s business for over 30 years, it was important to me to safeguard our shippers, carriers, employees, company culture and values for the future,” said Bob Skane, President of Matchmaker Logistics. “HTL’s vision aligns with how I see Matchmaker growing to serve our loyal customers and dedicated employees, and I know we have found a perfect match.” The acquisition will increase HTL Freight’s footprint nationwide, allowing the company to offer additional freight solutions to all supply chain partners while positioning HTL as a major player in the 3PL arena. HTL’s shippers will now have direct access to dry van solutions across the United States and Canada while the carrier base will benefit from increased asset utilization with more connecting lane and equipment type options. https://ift.tt/2ytPsnD |
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