Professional driver William Velasquez has 9-year-old twins that he likes to take to the park, but before he began his journey to better health he didn’t have the energy to play with them. When he was home from his time on the road, he was tired and only wanted to sit around. “That was one of the big game changers for me is when I realized I’m losing their childhood sitting here doing nothing,” he said. “That's probably the main reason I want to be healthy and well. When they grow up, I want to be there. I don't want them to push me around in a wheelchair or carry one of those oxygen tanks around.” Velasquez joined the Rolling Strong wellness program and lost 60 pounds. The program, designed to treat health issues specific for the trucking and transportation industry, guides him in what to eat and how to exercise, among other things. Because of the lack of healthy food options at truckstops, Velasquez said he now purchases groceries and cooks in his truck, and he has dumbbells and a trampoline in his truck to exercise with. “We have a lack of healthy foods, a lack of sleep, places to do exercises,” he said. “We’re sitting most of the time; we spend 10 to 11 hours a day behind the wheel. That puts a strain on the body. My biggest challenge is inactivity.” It’s no secret that truck driving is one of the unhealthiest jobs in the world – both physically and mentally. Rolling Strong President Steve Kane said during a panel on how driver health is affecting bottom lines at the American Trucking Associations Management Conference & Exhibition in San Diego this week that his goal is to take what is now recognized as the unhealthiest working population in America and turn it into the healthiest. Kane, who boxed in college before becoming a driver and gaining weight and high blood pressure, said most companies have a wellness program, but one looks different for truck drivers than the average working population because it’s geared toward a group of remote workers with larger outcomes like accidents and death. “Most people that are in the office, if they fall down and get hurt or something happens, that's horrible, but when a truck driver has a heart attack behind the wheel, that’s an 80,000-pound rig going down the road,” Kane said. “Do any of us in this room think that a tired, lethargic, overweight driver that gets behind the seat of the truck after eating biscuits and gravy and drinking a Big Gulp, pulling 80,000 pounds over an 11-hour period is a safe thing.” It’s a safety issue, he said. It’s also a money issue and a retention issue. The average age of a truck driver in the U.S. is 48, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and their life expectancy is 61, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With the average cost to onboard a driver at $5,000 to $10,000, the average cost of worker’s compensation per employee at S4,560 to $8,550 and the average cost per accident at $382,000 to $4.3 million, an unhealthy driver can take a toll on a company’s bottom line. Kane said Rolling Stone can help company’s improve worker’s compensation claims and improve retention by showing drivers the company cares about their health. But he said it’s important for leadership – and all other employees – to also get involved. With thousands of fitness apps available on the market, implementation isn’t enough; engagement is key, he said. Make it fun for drivers, said Jackie Jones, chief marketing officer at Mesilla Valley Transportation. Her company creates competitions among drivers based on logged hours of sleep, activity levels, what they’re eating and more, and drivers win rewards like gift cards based on the points they accumulate each month. She provided other tips like offering healthy food options at terminals in vending machines or restaurants as well as grab-and-go meals. “You have to show that you care even if it’s through small acts,” she said. “Whatever you do, make sure it’s optional. It will turn people off if they’re being forced. Make it easy; make it friendly; make it fun.” https://ift.tt/4tseMEr
0 Comments
Trucking news and briefs for Friday, Oct. 28, 2022: ATA elects Ruan president, CEO as new chairmanThe American Trucking Associations’ Board of Directors has elected Dan Van Alstine, president and COO of Des Moines, Iowa-based Ruan Transportation Management Systems (CCJ Top 250, No. 32), as its 78th chairman. “I am humbled and truly honored to be here and to serve as your chairman of this great organization,” Van Alstine said. “It is an absolute privilege to represent the millions of Americans who move our country as part of the transportation and logistics industry.” Van Alstine succeeds Harold Sumerford Jr., CEO of J&M Tank Lines out of Birmingham, Alabama, as ATA chairman. “Dan is perfectly suited to be ATA’s next chairman. He listens, asks questions and then takes action – that’s leadership,” said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear. “His ability to get the best out of people by challenging and inspiring them is why he makes a difference, and we are fortunate to have him as our chairman.” The Board also elected Andrew Boyle, co-president of Boyle Transportation as ATA first vice chairman and, Darren Hawkins, CEO of Yellow Corp. (No. 6) as ATA second vice chairman. In addition, the Board named Dennis Dellinger, president and CEO of Cargo Transporters (No. 170) and Wes Davis, CFO of Big M Transportation as ATA vice chairmen. Finally, the Board re-elected John M. Smith, chairman of CRST International Holdings (No. 22) as secretary and John A. Smith, president and CEO of FedEx Ground (No. 1), as treasurer. FMCSA modifies, extends Hurricane Ian-related HOS waiverThe Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has modified and extended the hours-of-service waiver intended to help recovery efforts in Florida and South Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. On Sept. 28, due to heavy rain, high winds, flooding, and storm surge resulting from Hurricane Ian, FMCSA issued a Regional Declaration of Emergency for eight affected states, which expires on Oct. 28. FMCSA said that because emergency conditions are still ongoing in Florida and South Carolina, the agency is extending the emergency declaration through Nov. 28, or until the end of the emergency, whichever is sooner. Under the waiver, drivers providing direct assistance supporting emergency relief efforts related to Hurricane Ian are exempt from Part 395.3 -- maximum driving time -- in the hours-of-service regulations. FMCSA clarified that “direct assistance does not include transportation related to long-term rehabilitation of damaged physical infrastructure or routine commercial deliveries, including mixed loads with a nominal quantity of qualifying emergency relief added to obtain the benefits of this emergency declaration, after the initial threat to life and property has passed.” Expedite All load board launches reefer networkExpedite van load board Expedite All has announced the launch of its Reefer Van Network, a nationwide transportation network that gives shippers on demand access to refrigerated small vehicles. Reefer Van Network gives more visibility to small-vehicle expediters with refrigerated sprinter vans, box trucks and straight trucks in the U.S., all through a single online platform. Reefer Van Network will operate as a division of Expedite All. "We created Expedite All because we recognized that shippers had a need for dedicated and expedite small vehicle transportation that was not being met in the fragmented expedite marketplace," said Alex Winston, president of Expedite All. "With Reefer Van Network, our goal is to bring the same spirit of innovation and convenience to the refrigerated space.” Reefer Van Network specializes in refrigerated transportation and works exclusively with refrigerated vehicles. All vehicles must be less than 10 years old and meet stringent temperature control and monitoring requirements to be on the platorm. Every vehicle available on Reefer Van Network undergoes periodic temperature control experiments to ensure that refrigeration capabilities are never in doubt. Additionally, each vehicle in the network is required to install a temperature data logger provided by Reefer Van Network to ensure the reefer unit keeps loads at the appropriate temperature. Reefer Van Network vehicles are most commonly used to transport pharmaceutical products, non-hazmat chemicals and adhesives, ingredients and perishables including flowers and foods including meat, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, and juices. https://ift.tt/4tseMEr More than 98% of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulates have been taken out of emissions since 1988, said Bill Sullivan, executive vice president for advocacy at American Trucking Associations (ATA). But despite dramatic advances like that, the freight industry can’t keep pace with the policy and public discussion that continuously hurtles a growing list of acronyms from ESG (environmental, social and governance), NZEV (net zero emission vehicles) and BEV (battery electric vehicles) to ACF (advocacy coalition framework) and EJ (environmental justice) to name a few. Sullivan sat down with a panel of experts at the ATA Management Conference & Exhibition this week to discuss the direction the industry, the country and the world are headed on such quickly and consistently evolving topics and what they’ve learned and the challenges they’ve faced in confronting state and federal regulators and lawmakers, as well as media and the public discussion, that distorts the industry’s options in picking winning and losing technologies before they're proven. Srikanth Padmanabhan, president of the engine business at Cummins Inc., said the industry is headed for Destination Zero – Cummins’ terminology for its mission in meeting the world’s sustainability challenges. “Net zero for me is something we have to do just for the fact that my grandkids should not ask me, ‘What were you doing in 2020 and 2030 that you could have left a better place for me,’” Padmanabhan said. “How do we get there? I think it is not a light switch event. It is going to take time. I also think it is going to happen in multiple ways. It’s not going to be one solution.” Those solutions involve renewable diesel and renewable natural gas, hydrogen and battery electric, he said. UPS (CCJ Top 250, No. 2) has been working toward a better future for decades, making investments in innovation, not driven by the government alone, driving efficiencies through route planning and more recently partnering with Cummins to roll out a significant natural gas fleet and taking that to the next level by using renewable natural gas. UPS President of U.S. Government Affairs Michael Kiely said everyone talks about CO2, but methane is 80 times more toxic for the environment. He said many are focused on electric, but it’s important not to overlook current solutions like renewable natural gas that can have a major impact right now. But regulations can hold companies back, Sullivan said. “It's incredibly frustrating to me to have this discussion about either or: either we're all zero emission or it's drill baby drill,” he said. “It's getting harder to keep track of all the environmental regulations.” Dave Williams, senior vice president of equipment and government relations at Knight-Swift Transportation (No. 5), said he thinks it’s always a mistake for the government to pick the winner. That’s what California has done with its zero-emission truck mandate, and Williams said other states will follow that lead. “I think it's very important to open up the conversation again and start to look at all the possibilities. In other words, don't tell us how to get there. Tell us what your goal is and let us innovate,” he said. Kiely said it has to be an all-of-the-above approach because every company runs different types of routes, hauls different types of freight and travels different types of roads, so they need different types of vehicles and specs for each one. And Paul Enos, President and CEO of the Nevada Trucking Association, said electric isn’t the answer. He said it presents hours of service issues and a myriad of other problems that make the supply chain less resilient. “The supply chain challenges that we are having today are just an appetizer of what is to come if we move to battery electric vehicles,” Enos said. “I’m not saying there isn't an application for battery electric or hydrogen or renewable natural gas, renewable diesel; there absolutely is, but we should be talking about what is the best for the supply chain, what is the best for the economy and ultimately what's best for the environment because where they are trying to take us today has tremendously more difficult environmental impacts and environmental challenges than carbon output.” He said even if we can move to all electric, he isn’t sure we should because the environmental challenges and negative impacts on the water supply, land scarring and mineral scarcity is tremendously more complex and worse for the planet than burning diesel. He said politicians, regulators and the media are taking an absolutist approach that “we’re going to die if we burn more carbon.” Net Zero only exists in a very myopic look at tailpipe emissions, Enos said. The lifecycle emissions on a battery electric truck are 30% less than the internal combustion engine; it has significantly less energy density; it requires a tremendous amount of mining and natural resources; and those are natural resources that are difficult to get, he said. ““The laws of physics cannot be trumped by platitudes. They cannot be trumped by the laws of man … We need to get away from this catastrophizing and really take a more real-world (approach),” he said. “We are an industry that deals in the real world. We understand physics. We understand what it takes to get freight from point A to point B. Unfortunately, a lot of our politicians, a lot of our academics and a lot of people in the media don't have that connection that we do. We are, as an industry, in a phenomenal position to be able to push back and talk about those operational challenges to talk about what is going to happen to the grid if everybody goes electric.” Kiely said Cummins engineered a natural gas engine with a diesel igniter that gave 20% more fuel efficiency. He said that engine “makes the most sense,” but regulations got in the way and made it too expensive to continue production. Padmanabhan said he envisions a hybrid option in which you use electric when coming into a city center, for noise purposes or other reasons, and use an internal combustion engine otherwise. He also mentioned an internal combustion engine that runs on hydrogen. He said regulations should allow for a variety of solutions like this to make incremental improvements as the industry moves toward electric. Williams said a hydrogen fuel cell is five times the cost of diesel at $10 to $12 per diesel equivalent gallon, but renewable diesel, on the other hand, would drop fuel emissions without having to change infrastructure or trucks. The energy density of renewable diesel is almost on par with regular diesel fuel, Enos said. A gallon of diesel fuel puts 22.39 pounds of CO2 into the air while a gallon of renewable diesel puts out 7.84, but the feedstock for renewable diesel – corn and soy, which are things you could be using for food – are not available at scale, he said. Williams argued that’s where you open all avenues. “My mom always said moderation in all things,” Williams said. “If we did a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a little bit of diesel, a little bit of renewable, a little bit of battery electric, a little bit of hydrogen, I think there's probably an opportunity to make a real dent.” Kiely said it’s essential for companies to purchase different types of trucks in small quantities to test them out and see what works. It is irresponsible, he said, to force companies, especially smaller trucking companies, to buy technology that hasn’t been tested at this point. “I don’t see a smaller trucking company being able to survive some of those mandates,” he said. And Williams said there needs to be national harmonization – one set of rules for all to follow – because different states creating different mandates doesn’t make sense across the board as trucks travel across state lines. He said it comes back to allowing the industry to innovate to a positive result and not to innovate to the technology the government has already chosen. “Historically, when we have a new technology that comes out, we've had time to develop, to work out the nuances, to figure out what works and what doesn't work and to adapt to that. Part of the challenge, I think, as an industry we're facing right now is that the timelines have been pulled up and the technology is not yet ready,” Williams said. “We're jumping from the bottom to the top without learning from the middle. I don't think there's anybody in this room that doesn't want clean air, clean water, a better environment. The question is are we going to get there in the right way? There's a chance here to spend perhaps trillions as an economy and not have a lot to show for it if we don't do it correctly.” https://ift.tt/O2QJVtp Current generation diesel engines have OEM approved oil drain intervals that can reach 100,000 miles under certain conditions. Joining Matt and Jason on this week's 10-44 is Joe Puff, vice president of truck technology and maintenance at NationaLease, who offers recommendations for oil and cabin air filters, and more – all of which extend the lives of of the components to which they're attached. Contents of this video00:00 Importance of high-quality oil filters02:48 Air filtration 03:38 Best time to change fuel filters 05:51 Overlooked filters on trucks 07:38 Air dryer cartridges 09:39 DEF and DPF filters TranscriptJason CannonThis week's 1044 is brought to you by Chevron Delo 600 ADF ultra low ash diesel engine oil. It's time to kick some ash.Fleets keep asking more from their truck fluids, but can the corresponding filters really keep up?-Hey everybody. Welcome back to the 10-44, a weekly webisode from the editors here at CCJ. I'm Jason Cannon and my cohost on the other side is Matt Cole. With current generation diesel engines, depending on the duty cycle, we're seeing OEMs approve engine oil drain intervals that start around 50,000 miles and longer for line haul. But that's if you follow a strict set of approved practices and protocols. In some cases, you can push that up to 75,000 and even 100,000 miles Matt Cole Jason Cannon Joe Puff Matt Cole Joe Puff So I recommend to people to make sure they're using a good quality extended life high brand recognition oil filter. If it's something to do with air filtration, oil filtration, air systems, the air dryer cartridges, that's another thing that people need to be careful of is if they are replacing an air dryer cartridge and they've got a coalescing air dryer cartridge, they need to make sure they're putting another coalescing cartridge on it because you can put just a regular cartridge on that's not oil coalescing and that's problematic. If it comes with a coalescent filter, you should put a replacement coalescing filter on it. Cause you can buy the regular ones for 10 or 15 bucks less. But again, you might save 15 bucks on an air dryer, but if you cost you an automated transmission, you didn't save nothing. Jason Cannon Joe Puff Matt Cole Protecting your diesel engine and its after treatment system has traditionally been a double edged sword. The same engine oil that is so essential to protecting your engine's internal parts is also responsible for 90% of the ash that is clogging up your DPF and upping your fuel and maintenance costs. Outdated industry thinking still sees a trade off between engine and emission system protection, and Chevron was tired of it, so they spent a decade of R and D developing a no compromises formulation. Chevron Lubricants developed a new ultra low ash diesel engine oil that is specifically designed to combat DPF ash clogging. Delo 600 ADF with Omnimax technology cut sulfate ash by whopping 60%, which reduces the rate of DPF clogging and extends DPF service life by two and a half times. And just think what you can do with all the MPGs you're going to add from cutting your number of regions. The Delo 600 ADF isn't just about after treatment. It provides complete protection, extending drain intervals by preventing oil breakdown. Before you had to choose between protecting your engine or your after treatment system, and now you don't. 600 ADF from Delo with omnimax technology, it's time to kick some ash. Joe Puff But generally, for a cabin air filter, I like to change the filter annually or at least annually, again, depending on the application. And I try to do it in late spring, early summer. This way the filter starts out the summer months with a clean, restriction free filter, allowing more air to flow across the AC coils. If you change it in the winter in three, four months, when spring comes around and you've got all the pollen in the air, filter could plug up pretty quick and you don't want that filter to run all year long full of pollen. So I would recommend to fleets if you are on a once a year schedule to try to schedule that in late spring. That seems to work most effective. Jason Cannon Joe Puff And most manufacturers, they all have a scheduled cartridge replacement schedule. But again, based on all these variables, it's hard to just say you can replace that cartridge once every two years or once every three years. But the cartridge also needs to be replaced on a preferred schedule. And at any time that there's some sort of significant amount of water in the air tanks, it's an indication that there's some kind of a system problem, whether it's a cartridge is bad or maybe there's an air leak. There's a lot of things that can lead to water in the air tank, but in a lot of cases, it's just cartridges are extended past their service of a life. Matt Cole Joe Puff Jason Cannon https://ift.tt/O2QJVtp The U.S. has suffered through 12 economic recessions since World War II, and No. 13 is on deck. Tom Joyce, MUFG Securities Americas Managing Director, Global Head of Investment Banking Capital Markets Strategy, speaking at the American Trucking Associations Management Conference and Exhibition in San Diego this week, noted that inflation and labor shortages plaguing the U.S. are global problems, adding that nearly every major global economy is experiencing inflation well above target levels. "After a decade of central banks trying to create inflation, we now have extraordinary global inflation in very major economy in the world," he said. Ninety central banks in the world are raising rates to cool inflation, and "every major economy in the world is slowing at the same time." Joyce cautioned against laying blame at Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It's certainly a factor, he said, but so are the trade wars in 2018 and COVID through 2020 and into 2021. "We still have some difficult months ahead," he said, adding that monetary policy operates with a lag so it will be 6 to 12 months months before we feel the effect of rising interest rates, and that "the low point for U.S. economy is probably 6-9 months out. The consumer can handle high inflation for six (or) nine months, but it's harder to handle for 12 to 18 months and that's sort of exactly where we are." "I do believe the global economy and the U.S. economy are going into recession early next year," Joyce said, adding economic recessions are rare, "they tend to be short," and he expects this one to be "mild." Bob Costello, American Trucking Associations' chief economist and senior vice president, agreed that the U.S. and global economies are likely to slip into recession early next year but expects the effect to be more minimized in the U.S. than globally. "The U.S. is the best house on a really bad block," he said. Consumer spending on goods is falling. It's down almost 1% this year and could fall 1.3% next year, impacting trucking demand. However, Costello said, stepping back and looking at the bigger picture, a down cycle itself isn't always catastrophic. "We're still going to be the second and third highest years ever," he said in terms of consumption. In 2021, carriers told shippers they couldn't haul all the freight, dumping loads into the spot market and spiking volumes more than 100%. Spot load postings this year have fallen 65%, but contract freight is growing: from mid-2021 through 2022, it's up 7.7%. "By no means has the freight market collapsed on us," Costello said. "We're just going back to more normal splits." During good times, the industry generally buys more trucks but this time fleets couldn't get more. Last year was the best year in trucking history, but truck count contracted because fleets couldn't get new trucks and leased on drivers hit the spot market to take advantage of superheated rates. "We didn't add capacity in 2021, and I think that's going to help," Costello said. Softening demand and inability to get new equipment helped shave a few thousand off the industry's truck driver shortage from 2021 to 2022 and is likely to do the same next year. Fuel prices are expected to come down in 2023, but would still likely be the second highest on record. Yet despite all the headwinds, Costello said there will be opportunities next year for smart operators, as fleets that bought expensive used trucks with unsustainable spot rates are likely to fold and further suppress capacity. https://ift.tt/O2QJVtp Trucking news and briefs for Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022: FMCSA renews UPS’ ELD exemptionThe Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has renewed an exemption from certain provisions of the electronic logging device mandate for UPS (CCJ Top 250, No. 2) for another five years through Oct. 21, 2027. FMCSA previously granted the exemption to allow UPS and all motor carriers and drivers using portable ELDs to manually record data that would otherwise be required to be automatically recorded when a driver indicates a change of duty status or logs in or out of an ELD. Under the exemption, those requirements do not apply to a driver using a portable ELD unless the driver is in the truck with the engine powered. The exemption also allows UPS and other motor carriers to configure their ELDs so that a driver can enter yard moves and not require the driver to re-input yard-move status every time the tractor is powered off. In its original request for exemption, UPS said that its drivers are generally hourly drivers and use portable ELDs and perform a significant amount of work outside of the vehicle. The company also noted that drivers generally use the ELD to “punch in” while they are still in the building, and then remain on the clock and logged in after they leave their truck until they return to the dispatch office. Automatic logging of events is not practicable for drivers using portable ELDs, UPS said, because the ELD is not synchronized to the engine’s ECM when the driver is outside the truck. Regarding the yard moves exemption, UPS said complying with the ELD mandate as written would require its feeder drivers to enter manual changes of duty status as many as 20 times in an hour due to the nature of their work. FMCSA noted that allowing multiple power-off cycles for yard moves is consistent with what is currently permitted for the other special driving category -- personal conveyance. In its application for renewal, UPS stated that it has not discovered any safety issues while operating under the exemption and that it will continue to monitor its safety data. First Women of Trucking Advisory Board meeting to be held in NovemberThe Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced that the first Women of Trucking Advisory Board (WOTAB) meeting will be held Nov. 9 from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The meeting will be held virtually for its entirety. Those interested in attending can register in advance here. Items on the agenda include an ethics briefing for WOTAB members; a report by FMCSA’s Office of Research on the results of “Crime Prevention for Truckers,” a study of women and other truck drivers and their safety on the road, followed by a discussion; and other speakers who may share insights into what WOTAB’s establishment means to them. Public comments will be heard during designated comment periods at the discretion of the WOTAB Chair and Designated Federal Officer. Speakers are requested to submit a written copy of their remarks for inclusion in the meeting records and for circulation to WOTAB members. All prepared remarks submitted on time will be accepted and considered as part of the record. Any member of the public may present a written statement to the committee at any time. WOTAB will coordinate with trucking companies, nonprofit organizations and trucking associations to support women in trucking. The board will provide recommendations to the FMCSA administrator and the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to advance efforts to recruit, support and ensure the safety of female commercial motor vehicle drivers and the trucking industry at large. WIT names Influential Women in Trucking finalistsThe Women in Trucking Association (WIT) announced this week the four finalists for its 2022 Influential Woman in Trucking award, sponsored by Daimler Truck North America. This is the 12th year for the award, which was developed in 2010 to recognize female leaders and to attract and advance women in the trucking industry. The award highlights the achievements of female role models and trailblazers in the trucking industry. The four finalists will participate on a panel discussion at the WIT Accelerate! Conference & Expo held in Dallas, Nov. 13-16. The winner will be announced after the panel discussion on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 9:15 a.m. Central. The 2022 Influential Woman in Trucking award finalists are:
“We’re impressed by the high caliber of finalists for this year’s award. All four demonstrate exemplary leadership and are making significant and positive contributions to their networks, workplaces, communities, and the transportation industry as a whole,” said Ellen Voie, WIT president and CEO. “We applaud their passion and commitment to change the landscape in which women serve.” Roadrunner SVP of Sales wins prestigious awardRoadrunner (CCJ Top 250, No. 100) SVP of Sales Lori Blaney has been named the winner of the 2022 Women in Supply Chain Award. The award is sponsored by Supply & Demand Chain Executive, a publication that covers the entire global supply chain. "Lori is a valued and esteemed leader who thrives on developing strategies to increase revenue and profits," said Roadrunner President Frank Hurst. "She motivates, develops and inspires her team members. We are proud that Lori was recognized by Supply & Demand Chain Executive for this well-deserved Women in Supply Chain award." The Women in Supply Chain award honors female supply chain leaders and executives whose accomplishments, mentorship and examples set a foundation for women in all levels of a company's supply chain network. This year's list included individuals who helped supply chain clients and the supply chain community at large prepare to meet a vast array of logistical challenges. "I'm thankful to receive this award that recognizes women's achievements in the supply chain industry," Blaney said. "As women, it's encouraging to see how far we've come, since the industry is much different today than it was 20 years ago, yet there's still more to be done. Roadrunner recognizes the importance of diversity across its business, which benefits and impacts all our team members and customers." https://ift.tt/O2QJVtp While industry experts generally agree on the existence of a troublesome truck driver labor market, there is no consensus on what is causing the problem. Many publications point to an overall truck driver labor shortage. Other experts, including MIT research scientist Dr. David Correll, cite pervasive inefficiencies such as dwell time and detention. While the debate on the existence of a driver shortage is complicated at best, the only way carriers can ensure their trucks will be full is to produce a net positive recruiting and retention program. To accomplish this, it is vital to understand the root desires of truck drivers and the dysfunctions preventing those desires from being met. In a doctoral study conducted at Indiana Wesleyan University, those desires and dysfunctions were closely examined. What is known about what truck drivers want?Prior to conducting additional research, it was essential to lean on existing research to provide a firm knowledge foundation. The main takeaway from the review of previous studies was the existence of three broad domains of driver desire: pay, home time and respect. These domains were consistently represented in a number of industry surveys, including CCJ's What Drivers Want Survey. It may seem elementary to ask, but what causes the desire for more pay? Why do drivers crave more home time? What does respect mean to truck drivers, and why are they demanding more of it? The answers were quite astounding. Novel research and findings: Dysfunctions uncoveredThe research study involved interviewing 12 current and former long-haul truck drivers using an in-depth and semi-structured format with reliance on Socratic questioning. This format encouraged participants to explore the underlying thoughts and meanings of their initial responses and allowed the researcher to conduct more precise questioning. The interviews varied in length from one to almost two hours. Following the completion of all interviews, transcripts and audio recordings were thematically analyzed for common responses and sentiments. Reviewing the analysis of the study through the lenses of the three desire domains of pay, home time and respect revealed some surprising findings. Financial dysfunctionNot a single driver thought they were underpaid for the work they performed. In fact, the only common complaint about pay was in regard to pay not being based on tenure. Additionally, most drivers did not consider pay as a differentiator when deciding what company to drive for as long as the pay was competitive. Although the drivers interviewed described their pay as being fair, they commonly stated their desire for more pay was often a reaction to poor personal financial management. When probed further, many participants credited their poor financial situation to compulsive spending and commonly linked this spending to attempts to obtain social status or recognition from others. According to Hira and Mugenda, compulsive and excessive spending is commonly linked to feelings of low self-worth. Additionally, Harnish et al. identified compulsive spending and depression as common psychiatric comorbidities.Home time dysfunctionThe discussions on home time were, frankly, heartbreaking. Perhaps the most astonishing finding related to home time was how drivers view their time at home versus how they actually utilize it. Nearly every participant declared their home time was valuable because the most important thing to them was to spend time with friends and family. When asked how long drivers would spend at home, a common answer was between three and five days. However, when asked how they spent those three to five days, drivers frequently described needing to spend 24 to 48 hours alone. Drivers choosing to spend a considerable amount of their home time in isolation is perplexing, especially when they unanimously cited that spending time with family and friends is of the highest importance. When asked about this disparity, drivers described the need to recover from the conditions and stress of the job. Many participants further credited this need to recuperate from poor sleeping conditions caused by lackluster mattresses, noisy environments and irregular sleeping hours. In addition to this finding, drivers frequently described the constant tension between earning a living, which requires being out on the road, and going home. They illustrated this tension by describing the unaffordability of home time and the strain relationships are put under by not being physically present at home. Respect dysfunctionThe findings surrounding the desire for respect were also profound. Each driver had differing testimony on how often they encountered disrespect as a truck driver. Some drivers even reported not feeling disrespected at all. Many drivers stated they must respect themselves before being shown respect from others. However, in their own terms, nearly every participant described observing a lack of self-respect or self-esteem in other drivers or within themselves on a regular basis. The report of a lack of self-respect and self-esteem among truck drivers was triangulated with research found in the Journal of Behavioral Sciences, which describes a reported lack of self-esteem as an important predictor of depression. In addition, two-thirds of participants described their inability to deal with disrespect in a healthy fashion. Dr. Suma Chand describes this as a common issue among those who suffer from anxiety and depression. Many of the dysfunctions resulting in job dissatisfaction discovered during the study were directly linked to the conditions of the job of a long-haul truck driver. Drivers described the negative conditions of the job as having difficult access to quality nutrition, lack of exercise, prolonged isolation and poor sleep. All of these conditions can be linked to causing or worsening depressive symptoms and negatively impacting physical health. The dysfunctions stemming from poor physical and mental health include chronic loneliness, compulsive spending and poor coping skills when faced with disrespect. The stated desires of pay, home time, and respect seem to be a consequence of these dysfunctions. Moreover, the unfulfilled status of these desires results in strained relationships, job dissatisfaction and financial stress, which are the three pillars of chronic stress — a key contributor to poor mental and physical health decline. Below is an illustrative summary of the study. Dr. Ethan Slaughter is the Chief Operating Officer at Christenson Transportation and recently completed an extensive qualitative study on the unfulfilled desires and causal dysfunctions of long-haul truck drivers resulting in poor retention in the trucking industry. In addition to this study, his ongoing research focuses on behavioral and labor economics and virtuous leadership theory. https://ift.tt/zUrI0qS If you were to speak directly to someone who is interested in a career in trucking, what would you say?This is a career with great earning potential and of great importance to the country and to the economy – one that the country increasingly recognizes as absolutely essential and that can be the basis for supporting a family through an entire working career. But also there are some things that make this a challenging career – that make it tough – and we're very working very hard to address those. If you're entering the career at a time like this, you're entering at a time when my department, and a lot of others, are looking at issues – from the availability of parking to the way people get paid and everything in between – in order to make sure that it's a better career than it's ever been. How will the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law address the lack of electric vehicle charging infrastructure?This is one of the reasons why I'm glad that the infrastructure package wasn't one dimensional. You remember all those debates we were having two years ago: Is this infrastructure? Is that infrastructure? And there were some people saying, "Well, if it isn't a road or a bridge, it doesn't count." And we were saying the internet is infrastructure, pipes are infrastructure, and the grid is infrastructure, and they're all connected. So, the fact that we're building out more on the grid side, and obviously that's outside my lane – that's the Department of Energy – but we work very closely with them, of course. We know that you can't have tomorrow's car and truck fleets running on yesterday's grid. That's why we're upgrading the grid. And it's gonna be challenging, there's no question. I sat down with the truckstop owners and they talked about the issues they're going to have with just a different level of load. But, at the end of the day, pound-for-pound, it can also be a lot more efficient than moving liquids all over the country. It's just a transition like we haven't had to make in really in the whole life of the automotive and trucking sectors, which is why this decade is going be very challenging and full of enormous potential, and there's a lot of business opportunity in that too. Are the DOT and FMCSA focusing any attention on hydrogen, natural gas, renewable diesel and other means to decarbonize trucking?The picture for over the road trucking is different than it is for light-duty vehicles and personal cars. What's the same is, obviously, just the imperative in terms of our climate, with not a lot of time and the fact that the choices we make at the policy level can make a difference. So you'll see a lot of our policies are set up in a way that is platform neutral. On cars, we've placed a pretty big bet on electric, right? But a lot of the regulations you'll see around emissions don't tell you how to get to zero emissions. They just say you've got to get there. The clean diesel conversation, like the sustainable aviation fuel conversation, is one about how we can bridge to a cleaner place than we've been. If you look at things like some of the incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act, I think they can really help here. So we get that it's not all the same and there's going to be a lot of particular challenges, but also different opportunities around trucking. Especially because, first of all, unlike a car where your second most expensive possession is one you don't use 96% of the time, trucks are designed to be moving all the time, which means when you have a fuel savings, they pay back a lot more quickly. It's definitely true on the electric side if you look at what's beginning to come onto the market, for the kind of smaller middle markets that these EV semis can operate in. There are also things in terms of the use pattern of how frequently you're going to the same place, or what happens when you're at warehouses, that actually create a lot of opportunity for lower zero emission refueling. We're not naive about the difference between long distance trucking and what's possible even today for privately-owned light-duty passenger vehicles. But, I think the end of the story has to be the same, which is how we had a transformation that created American jobs that got us to a cleaner climate. How can the DOT and industry can work together to build more resilient supply chains?I think right now we're processing these lessons in real time, but some things we know are going to be good moves. One is data sharing; just getting a better sense of the data. I think people would assume that a cargo owner has at least as much information about where their cargo is as you'd have for an airline passenger. And it's not actually true. We can do something about that without going after proprietary data. And that's what we're working on with FLOW (Freight Logistics Optimization Works, launched in March, is a first-of-its-kind effort by the Biden-Harris Administration and supply chain companies to develop a digital tool that gives companies information on the condition of a node or region in the supply chain so that goods can be moved more quickly and cheaply, ultimately bringing down costs for families.) The second thing is looking at inventory and labor models that are so down to the minute; so just in time; so close to the edge, that there's no room for dealing with surprises, especially when you have a welcome surprise of a lot of demand. And I think that has hit every sector in transportation in a somewhat comparable way. Third is figuring out what kind of flexibilities are appropriate. I think we're pretty committed to partnering with industry on waivers and things that could create a little bit of breathing room, but we need to step back and say, "Okay. Is there a more systematic way to think about how we would do that if we were faced with these circumstances again?" There's definitely a lot of lessons to be learned. I think we're still in the middle of learning. What is the DOT doing about double brokering where duly authorized and insured/bonded carriers and brokers are involved?The environment that we're in, especially what it did to spot rates, creates all kinds of opportunities for abuse and I think we've seen that in every sector that touches shipping; that it just becomes that much anytime you have a shortage of availability and anytime you have stupendous profitability on certain routes or certain situations, you see some unsavory actors start to look at how they can take advantage of that. FMCSA Administrator Robin Hutcheson Does the administration have any plans for reducing detention time at shipper facilities?I'm pretty fired up about this because here you have a situation where we don't have as many driver hours available as we need in the economy, and simultaneously we're wasting drivers' time. The first thing that we're doing that I think can help us get after this is the compensation study. Because, of course, part of this is just a consequence of the compensation model that exists (in trucking), which is when you're paid by the load or you're paid by the mile and you're not paid by the hour, nobody is responsible. Nobody is financially responsible for wasting a drivers' time other than the driver. Now, obviously, you have some highroad employers who absorb some of that, but that's not a good answer economically either in terms of the system as a whole. There should be enough economic incentive for detention not to happen in the first place, which brings me the second piece: working with the ports and engaging them. We have a more energetic FMC (Federal Maritime Commission) and a more empowered FMC, thanks to the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, than we've had, I think, in a long time, and I'm looking to them to help here too. Going beyond just the kind of hard enforcement side; wanting to engage with the port. Not all ports are alike and not all warehouse operations alike. Some are doing better than others. Figuring out the best practices and what we can do to help spread them with carrots and sticks, I think, is gonna be important. But the bottom line is we can't go on like this where we don't have enough capacity on the trucking side, and simultaneously some of that precious capacity is sitting there waiting for a load, waiting for a ticket (or) waiting for a chance to turn around and do their job. https://ift.tt/zUrI0qS A tractor-trailer versus a Prius and then a cyclist would have been absolute carnage if not for ZF’s latest OnGuardMAX Autonomous Emergency Braking System. CCJ Senior Editor Tom Quimby recently rode along with ZF field service team leader Chuck Brodie at the Transportation Research Center in East Liberty, Ohio to see how ZF’s third-gen OnGuardMAX would enable an International LT to stop just short of striking the mock Prius and next a crash dummy atop a bicycle. [Related: Autonomous 'Big Foot' spotted in the wild] As Brodie explains in the video above, ZF’s newest OnGuardMAX can now apply truck brakes up to 50mph to avoid collisions with other vehicles versus the prior version, OnGuardACTIVE, which kicks in at 20mph and below. OnGuardMAX can also automatically stop a truck in busy urban traffic where vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists pose a risk. “The previous system wouldn’t have responded to that at all,” Brodie explained. ZF expects to roll out OnGuardMAX during the third quarter of 2023. Video transcriptI'm Chuck Brodie, field service team Leader for ZF. We are in an International LT and we're going to do a demonstration of the OnGuardMAX product. We're going to do two runs. First one will be with a stationary car, and for that run we're going to approach at approximately 50 miles per hour and you'll see how the system reacts and stops the vehicle before contact with that stationary object. And then for the second run, we're going to show what we call a vulnerable road user. And vulnerable road user is a term used to describe a pedestrian on a bicycle or pedestrian walking in the path of the truck. For that run, we'll be going a little bit slower because that relies on the camera alone to make that determination and we're going to approach that object at approximately 20 miles per hour. So the haptic warning is actually a lighter brake application. Well, it's going to happen as we come around the corner and line up with the stationary car. The radar is going to see... It's going to essentially see that car because of the radar reflectivity of it, and the camera will also see it. Both of those systems will agree that it's something they need to react to. And once that occurs, the system calculates how long until we're going to be in a potential collision with that object. And using all of that information, it's going to decide when to provide an audible alert to me. So the first thing I'll see is a audible and visual alert. So the screen will show a red warning to tell me there's a collision threat ahead and you'll hear beeping. Shortly after that, we'll get into what we would call the haptic event, which is going to be a lighter brake application. And the system is going to be continuously calculating our deceleration rate versus how far away that object is, and it will decide that it needs more braking to prevent an impact with that vehicle. So you'll feel the braking actually increase. And if you're looking at the video, you'll see us kind of moving further forward in the seats as that breaking steps up to the higher level. At that point, we're going to be experiencing a little bit more than half a G. For the technical people out there, it's going to be a six meter per second square deceleration. There's been a lot of changes over the years. This is kind of our third generation hardware. We've had... In our second generation hardware. We've had several different versions of software, updates and improvements. Big improvements are exactly what we're going to show you here. With the prior systems, this maneuver, we would be doing it at approximately 20 miles per hour and you'll see that we're going to do this run at 50. The prior one that was on this truck, OnGuardACTIVE, we would've had done this run at approximately 20. So you'll see a major improvement there. And then when we do the approach on the vulnerable road user or that bicycle, the previous system wouldn't have responded to that at all. So we're at 50 miles per hour right now. I have to make a little turn here to get lined up with the approach. So that was 100% system reaction. I have still not touched the brake pedal. I actually feel the truck kind of rolling backwards a little bit because we're on a very slight incline. So again, that was the camera and the radar. Both saw that object. They both decided to react to it with enough confidence to come in with that high level of deceleration. So for the next run, we're going to approach the vulnerable road user, or if I can throw out the acronym, VRU. I think we've introduced that. So we'll approach that. Again, this is going to be at a slower speed because we can't really rely on the radar to track this object and it's going to be the camera that's making the decisions for that. So we'll do this approach at 20 miles per hour. So that's the vulnerable road user. And you noticed that was a little bit lower level of deceleration or a little less of a brake application. But this portion of the system is designed for urban environments where you're driving through city and there's pedestrian traffic around. Maybe the driver's distracted trying to figure out where he is going. And the system can respond to these other objects that typically the older systems would not respond to. This tractor has the Wabco Maxxus 2.0 disc brake on it, and the trailer has drum breaks on it. Testing is very specific, right? The test guys don't just come out and do these runs over and over. What happens is, for each version of software that comes out, there's a list of tests that need to be done and they run those tests, they find something that isn't quite as it should be, then we get another version of software. So it's a test developed, test developed kind of process. There are a number of other maneuvers that need to be done too, such as moving vehicles. So there's tests that done with moving vehicles, which is part of the system that we were demonstrating years ago, back in 2013. So we're showing kind of the exciting new features here where we have this higher de-cell and the vulnerable road user and the stationary car with the high de-cell. But there's a whole list of specific tests that need to be done before they can release the product. There's also application tests to make sure the product's working correctly on the truck. So that said, there are days when there's a lot of runs done and some of those tests are done bobtail, lightly loaded, and fully loaded. So 80,000 pounds doing these exact same maneuvers. Can certainly provide a little bit of wear on the truck, but we maintain the trucks and do what needs to be done. I'm working with the test guys myself and we ran 80,000 pounds and the system still from these exact same speeds did stop. It stopped with a very similar distance on the vulnerable road user and it might've been slightly closer on the stationary car, but it's still a very similar distance. It was actually, if anything, it was a little smoother with the heavier load on it. https://ift.tt/zUrI0qS Trucking news and briefs for Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022: Saia LTL Freight opens new Indiana terminalSaia (CCJ Top 250, No. 21) has opened of its new Saia LTL Freight terminal in Lafayette, Indiana – the fifth location for the carrier in the state, and the first terminal Saia has opened in Indiana since 2019 when it built one of its flagship facilities in Indianapolis. “As we commence operations in Lafayette, Saia remains focused on providing great service. We continue to be excited about our expansion plans and offering existing customers direct service in new markets as well introducing our industry leading service to new customers,” said Saia President and CEO Fritz Holzgrefe. Situated between Indianapolis and Chicago, Lafayette is not only another important gateway to the Midwest, it is central to Saia’s ongoing plans to expand its market opportunity and provide enhanced service to existing customers. Lafayette is a center of regional commerce with a diverse customer base in addition to having Purdue University nearby. In 2022 alone, Saia has opened 11 new terminals across the country as it continues to invest in its operations with the purpose of offering shippers enhanced transit times and service. J.B. Hunt driver hits 5 million safe milesBroussard, who started with the company in 1987, surpassed the career-defining milestone Oct. 21. As he pulled into the field office in Haslet to end the day, he was greeted with cheers from J.B. Hunt employees, company leadership and several family members, followed by a special ceremony highlighting his accomplishment. He was part of the inaugural class of drivers in 1996 recognized for reaching one million-plus safe miles driven and participated in the company’s first Million Mile Celebration in 2001. Tony will receive a $50,000 bonus for his achievement, bringing his career total in Million Mile safe driving bonuses to $125,000. ATA honors Pennsylvania’s Oyler with TAEC President’s Leadership AwardRebecca Oyler, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association, has been awarded ATA's Trucking Association Executives Council (TAEC) President’s Leadership Award. ATA President and CEO Chris Spear noted that when Oyler started at PMTC last year, the state was already moving forward with an initiative to fund the reconstruction of nine major bridges "via an aggressive tolling scheme,” and took a leading role in opposing these tolls, both in the media and in the courts. This past summer a Pennsylvania court sided with the PMTA-led coalition and ruled that PennDOT failed to follow proper procedure in pursuing the bridge tolling initiative effectively killed the proposal. Prior to joining PMTA, Oyler was legislative director for the National Federation of Independent Business, and had worked across a number of policy development, legislative advocacy, and project management roles in state government over roughly two decades. TAEC is comprised of staff executives of state trucking associations and conferences affiliated with ATA. TAEC serves to promote the trucking industry; contribute to the improvement of the associations and organizations established to serve the industry; and advance the professional stature and capabilities of the managers and executives of such associations and conferences. The President's TAEC Leadership Award was created in 2002 by ATA to honor a state trucking association leader and to create an enduring legacy for that leader and for the industry. The award comes with a $10,000 grant for trucking education or research cause chosen by Oyler. In addition to Oyler, ATA honored a pair of state executives for their continued service to the industry: Rick Clasby, executive director of the Utah Trucking Association, for 10 years of service and Traci Nelson, president of the West Virginia Trucking Association, for five years of service. Mike Card honored with Cathy Evans Highway to Victory AwardPast ATA Chairman Mike Card, president of Combined Transport Inc., of Central Point, Oregon, was awarded the federation’s Cathy Evans Highway to Victory Award for his advocacy work on behalf of the trucking industry. While serving as ATA Chairman from 2012-2013, Card was a driving force behind the creation of LEAD ATA, the Federation’s leadership training program. He is currently chairman of the ATA Litigation Center and has also been a member of the American Transportation Research Institute’s board of directors, chairman of the Oregon Trucking Association, a longtime and active support of TruckPAC.Named for longtime ATA lobbyist Cathy Evans, the Highway to Victory Award is presented annually to an ATA member who has made significant contributions to the Federation’s advocacy efforts at the state and federal level. https://ift.tt/zUrI0qS |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
April 2023
Categories |