L.A. sets up 'bandit tow truck' hotline | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times
July 29, 2010 |
As part of a crackdown on so-called bandit tow operators, the Los Angeles Police Commission has set up a towing company complaint hotline.
Anyone victimized by tow companies that demonstrate unethical and illegal business practices may call the number at any time, officials say.
Investigators from the commission's division that regulates permits throughout Los Angeles will be assigned to look into the complaints.
Commission officials say bandit tow operators monitor police and fire department radio frequencies and unlawfully respond to the scene of traffic collisions. They often work in tandem with unscrupulous repair shops, attorneys and medical practitioners or stake out private parking lots to tow away vehicles whose owners are not patrons of the businesses associated with those lots.
The hotline number is (323) 680-4-TOW (4869).
Anyone victimized by tow companies that demonstrate unethical and illegal business practices may call the number at any time, officials say.
Investigators from the commission's division that regulates permits throughout Los Angeles will be assigned to look into the complaints.
Commission officials say bandit tow operators monitor police and fire department radio frequencies and unlawfully respond to the scene of traffic collisions. They often work in tandem with unscrupulous repair shops, attorneys and medical practitioners or stake out private parking lots to tow away vehicles whose owners are not patrons of the businesses associated with those lots.
The hotline number is (323) 680-4-TOW (4869).
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Bill sets cross-border trucking deadline - eTrucker
Trucking Headlines | ||
Bill sets cross-border trucking deadline By Jill Dunn Next fiscal year’s federal transportation bill directs the U.S. Department of Transportation establish and report on a cross-border trucking program with Mexico by October. Sen. Patty Murray inserted the requirement in the Fiscal Year 2011 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill July 26. The Washington state Democrat added the language to S. 3644 to end retaliatory tariffs Mexico instituted last year following Congress’ vote to discontinue the pilot project program, which allowed a limited number of carriers from both nations to deliver beyond the commercial border zone. The amendment requires the program maintain road safety, enhance efficient movement of commerce and eliminate retaliatory tariffs on agricultural products. The bill passed the Senate subcommittee, which Murray chairs, and the Appropriations committee, and will go to the full Senate for consideration. President Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderón discussed cross-border trucking May 19, but the issue was not resolved, according to a congressional report released last month. “The cost to federal taxpayers of ensuring Mexican truck safety, estimated by the U.S. DOT to be over $500 million as of March 2008, appears to be disproportionate to the amount of dollars saved thus far by U.S. importers or exporters that have been able to utilize long-haul trucking authority,” the researcher reported. If Mexican carriers receive long-haul authority, the short-term impact in the U.S. is expected to be gradual. These carriers face a lack of prearranged back hauls, higher insurance and capital costs, as well as customs processing delays. In the long term, use of drayage companies will probably decrease as they lose market share to Mexican long-haul carriers. U.S. companies leasing Mexican trucks and drivers may become a major implementation issue. North American Free Trade Agreement implementation ends the prohibition on leasing to allow Mexican trucks and drivers to operate beyond the border zone. If a U.S. firm also arranges for work visas for leased Mexican drivers, it could make them available for more cabotage loads. This could have Mexican drivers competing more often against American drivers in the United States. If this is the case, the researcher suggested Congress may want to revisit the issue. | ||
msaks@ectts.com - specialized hauling
- msaks@ectts.com
Bill sets cross-border trucking deadline - eTrucker
Survey Points to Strong Trailer Orders This Year - Truckinginfo.com
7/29/2010 Survey Points to Strong Trailer Orders This Year
Half of fleets surveyed plan to place orders for trailers before the end of this year, according to a recent survey conducted by CK Commercial Vehicle Research.
Respondents to the survey questionnaire represented small, medium and large for-hire, private and government fleets operating more than 155,000 trailers. For-hire fleets comprised 68 percent of the survey participants expecting to place orders for new trailers in the next six months.
CK Commercial Vehicle Research's 2010 Trailer Study includes charts, analysis and quotes from participants covering the changing dynamics of overall trailer demand, buying and specifying trailers, plans for adding new technology and how those decisions are made as well as fleet executives' view on current deficiencies in trailer design.
- msaks@ectts.com
msaks@ectts.com - specialized hauling
Survey Points to Strong Trailer Orders This Year - Truckinginfo.com
Transportation Department Announces Federal Program Encouraging Female Truckers
Federal gas tax dollars fund programs to encourage young girls to work in trucking, railroad and other transportation fields.
Ray LaHood, May 2010US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wants to put more women behind the wheels of big-rigs. On Monday, the federal highway chief announced the expansion of an internship program designed to goad young girls into transportation careers that include truck driving, road construction crews, subway or rail work and related jobs.
"Women are an essential part of today's labor force, yet women are underrepresented in the transportation industry," LaHood said in a statement. "We're saying to all the college women out there -- no matter where you're enrolled, there's a Department of Transportation Small Business Transportation Resource Center close by to help you plug into your dream job, whether it's an airport, an engineering or aerospace firm, a railroad, a transit agency or perhaps one of our DOT offices."
In May, LaHood signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Women's Transportation Seminar International in an effort to appeal to girls aged 13 to 18 and "transform transportation through the advancement of women." The move is also part of a broader goal of using federal transportation funding, which comes primarily from the federal excise tax on fuel, for use on high-value projects unrelated to building and maintaining roads. A total of $510,000 in grants are currently being offered to non-profits willing to conduct outreach at the department's resource centers. Another $383,000 in grants closed in June. In 2008, $2.3 million in grants were set aside for schools with "internships that offer students experience in the transportation field," particularly for women and minorities.
The new internship program will be coordinated through the Transportation Department's eleven regional Small Business Transportation Resource Centers. Staff at the centers will arrange transportation-related placement within the appropriate region.
"We are excited about expanding a great program that will introduce young women to transportation careers nationwide," Office of Small and Disadvantage Business Utilization Director Brandon Neal said in a statement.
Female involvement in the industry has been growing. The Women in Trucking Association boasts 1500 members, including corporate sponsors like Walmart and Frito-Lay. The group last year celebrated the confirmation of Anne Ferro as the first female administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the trucking industry's top regulator.
"I am pleased to join Women In Trucking to celebrate the outstanding accomplishments of professional female truck drivers," Ferro said in a December statement. "As more women pursue careers behind the wheel, they continue to break barriers and reinforce the fundamental standards of motor carrier safety -- professionalism, safe driving skills and work-life balance."
msaks@ectts.com - specialized hauling
- msaks@ectts.com
Transportation Department Announces Federal Program Encouraging Female Truckers
Ray LaHood, May 2010US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wants to put more women behind the wheels of big-rigs. On Monday, the federal highway chief announced the expansion of an internship program designed to goad young girls into transportation careers that include truck driving, road construction crews, subway or rail work and related jobs.
"Women are an essential part of today's labor force, yet women are underrepresented in the transportation industry," LaHood said in a statement. "We're saying to all the college women out there -- no matter where you're enrolled, there's a Department of Transportation Small Business Transportation Resource Center close by to help you plug into your dream job, whether it's an airport, an engineering or aerospace firm, a railroad, a transit agency or perhaps one of our DOT offices."
In May, LaHood signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Women's Transportation Seminar International in an effort to appeal to girls aged 13 to 18 and "transform transportation through the advancement of women." The move is also part of a broader goal of using federal transportation funding, which comes primarily from the federal excise tax on fuel, for use on high-value projects unrelated to building and maintaining roads. A total of $510,000 in grants are currently being offered to non-profits willing to conduct outreach at the department's resource centers. Another $383,000 in grants closed in June. In 2008, $2.3 million in grants were set aside for schools with "internships that offer students experience in the transportation field," particularly for women and minorities.
The new internship program will be coordinated through the Transportation Department's eleven regional Small Business Transportation Resource Centers. Staff at the centers will arrange transportation-related placement within the appropriate region.
"We are excited about expanding a great program that will introduce young women to transportation careers nationwide," Office of Small and Disadvantage Business Utilization Director Brandon Neal said in a statement.
Female involvement in the industry has been growing. The Women in Trucking Association boasts 1500 members, including corporate sponsors like Walmart and Frito-Lay. The group last year celebrated the confirmation of Anne Ferro as the first female administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the trucking industry's top regulator.
"I am pleased to join Women In Trucking to celebrate the outstanding accomplishments of professional female truck drivers," Ferro said in a December statement. "As more women pursue careers behind the wheel, they continue to break barriers and reinforce the fundamental standards of motor carrier safety -- professionalism, safe driving skills and work-life balance."
msaks@ectts.com - specialized hauling
- msaks@ectts.com
Transportation Department Announces Federal Program Encouraging Female Truckers
Good Career Choice!
A woman with drive - from typewriters to trucking
NEENA BHANDARI
Sidney Morning Herald
July 27, 2010When Heather Jones decided to launch a solely female owned and operated multi-truck company in the resource-rich rugged landscape of Western Australia, few thought she would survive in what is predominantly a male business.
But six years on, her aptly named Success Transport company has become a profitable enterprise.
Jones was working as a secretary for a mining company, when a call went out for Haulpak drivers. Having grown around motorbikes and cars, she promptly exchanged her typewriter with a seat behind the wheel and progressed to driving long-haul trucks.
msaks@ectts.com -
msaks@ectts.com - specialized hauling
Trucking Revival Picks Up Speed - WSJ.com
Image via WikipediaWall Street Journal
BY JOHN SHIPMAN AND PAUL VIGNA
Similar to airline and railroad companies, trucking firms are churning out improved earnings on the back of large cuts in capacity, an uptick in demand and better pricing.J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. said second-quarter demand had "increased fairly dramatically," and called evidence of the industry's tighter capacity "quite pronounced." Second-quarter revenue increased 22% from a year earlier, while operating income rose 34%, excluding an asset write-down last year. Average pricing, while still below year-ago levels, was up 2% from the first quarter, the company said.
Bob Costello, chief economist at the American Trucking Association said truckloads fell 24% from a peak in March 2008 to an April 2009 trough, while the number of trucks on the road fell 14%. Since then, loads have rebounded about 9%, he said, eliminating a good chunk of overhanging capacity.
Even as demand perks up, some truckers don't seem to be in any hurry to add capacity, particularly as pricing, while improved, still wallows at low levels.
Covenant Transportation Group Inc. finance chief Richard Cribbs said during a conference call that "thousands upon thousands of trucks have left the marketplace. And there's nobody that's going out here and buying a bunch of trucks to get in this business."
Covenant's second-quarter freight revenue, excluding fuel surcharges, was up 9.4% from a year ago. Profit was $2.9 million compared with a $3.1 million loss last year. Chief Operating Officer Joey Hogan said freight volume improved enough during the quarter to implement some spot and contractual price increases.
Knight Transportation Inc. reported net income climbed 26% from a year earlier on a 7.6% gain in revenue before fuel surcharges. CEO Kevin Knight said the company is "making progress" on improving contract pricing, and if contract rates and operating ratio continue to rise, it will add between 100 and 150 vehicles to the road in the second half. Knight nearly doubled its second-quarter capital expenditures, to $32.1 million.
USA Truck Inc., of Van Buren, Ark., is spending to save. It plans to put about 285 new tractors into service between now and October in a move to lower maintenance costs. The company bought the rigs earlier this year, and said it also plans to buy another 300 to 500 tractors to put into service between November and May 2011. Each new tractor will be offset by selling an existing one.
Not every trucking company is as willing to spend. Arkansas Best Corp. Chief Executive Judy McReynolds said last week that the company would spend more "as we [gain] some more certainty" surrounding improvements in the economy. She noted that "we can use rented equipment and other means" to handle more business short term, "and try to assess whether that's going to be permanent or not before we actually bring back more fixed cost."
The economy's recent weakening could complicate the picture. "We are decelerating to a period of hopefully sustainable but slower growth," the ATA's Mr. Costello said. A slowdown in traffic is already evident among railroads: Weekly carloadings are down more than 5% from a recent peak in late April.
"There are still improvements, definite improvements that need to occur in the economy, in the retail sector, in the housing market," Ms. McReynolds said. "I hope that where we are is that those things will go north rather than south. But we just don't know."
The Upshot comments on corporate earnings trends.
Write to Paul Vigna at paul.vigna@dowjones.com and John Shipman at john.shipman@dowjones.com
Trucking Revival Picks Up Speed - WSJ.com
2004 PETERBILT 379 Conventional Truck w/ Sleeper For Sale At TruckPaper.com
Image via Wikipedia
2004 PETERBILT 379 Conventional Truck w/ Sleeper For Sale At TruckPaper.comQuantity 1
Stock Number 6301
Year 2004
Manufacturer PETERBILT
Model 379
Price Call
Location Portsmouth, Virginia
Condition Used
Sleeper Size 63"
Engine Specs Caterpillar
Engine Type C-15
Horsepower 475
Transmission 13 Spd
Ratio 3.55
Tires 24.5
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email msaks@ectts.com for more information
Distracted Driving at a whole new level
pulled from Toronto Sun
July 21,2010
A Kitchener truck driver is facing a careless driving charge but on the bright side, his tooth doesn’t hurt anymore.
Lambton County OPP say they stopped a big rig driver doing some driving dentistry along Hwy. 402 on Wednesday.
Const. John Reurink told the Sun Saturday it’s the first time he’s ever heard of a driver being pulled over performing dental surgery.
“I’ve never heard of this sort of thing occurring before,” Reurink said, adding he has stopped drivers doing their make-up, reading a map or talking on a cellphone. “Somebody doing an amateur tooth pulling? That’s a first.”
Reurink said it all started June 30 when an officer was on Hwy. 402 in Warwick Township, near Sarnia, and a passing driver pointed him to a tractor trailer being driven “all over the road.”
The officer found the eastbound rig and pulled it over.
Cops determined the 58-year-old driver was driving so poorly because he was trying to pull out a tooth while he was driving.
“The driver was very forthright with the officer,” Reurink said.
The amateur dentist of a driver had rigged a string around his hurting tooth and then tied the other end to the roof of the cab, police said.
“One good bump and the tooth should come out,” police explained.
Turns out the “one good bump” likely did come along at some point.
“The evidence of his efforts were nearby,” Reurink said.
When the driver was stopped the officer found a bloody tooth and a string lying next to him.
Strangely, police say the road down that way isn’t that bumpy and was recently resurfaced.
“He may have been better off on a sideroad,” Reurink said.
Police won’t be releasing the driver’s name because he’s charged under the Highway Traffic Act, not the Criminal Code, and they figure he’d be “continuously bombarded” by media trying to talk to him about his stunt - which would likely be more of a headache than a toothache.
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msaks@ectts.com -
- msaks@ectts.com
July 21,2010
Lambton County OPP say they stopped a big rig driver doing some driving dentistry along Hwy. 402 on Wednesday.
Const. John Reurink told the Sun Saturday it’s the first time he’s ever heard of a driver being pulled over performing dental surgery.
“I’ve never heard of this sort of thing occurring before,” Reurink said, adding he has stopped drivers doing their make-up, reading a map or talking on a cellphone. “Somebody doing an amateur tooth pulling? That’s a first.”
Reurink said it all started June 30 when an officer was on Hwy. 402 in Warwick Township, near Sarnia, and a passing driver pointed him to a tractor trailer being driven “all over the road.”
The officer found the eastbound rig and pulled it over.
Cops determined the 58-year-old driver was driving so poorly because he was trying to pull out a tooth while he was driving.
“The driver was very forthright with the officer,” Reurink said.
The amateur dentist of a driver had rigged a string around his hurting tooth and then tied the other end to the roof of the cab, police said.
“One good bump and the tooth should come out,” police explained.
Turns out the “one good bump” likely did come along at some point.
“The evidence of his efforts were nearby,” Reurink said.
When the driver was stopped the officer found a bloody tooth and a string lying next to him.
Strangely, police say the road down that way isn’t that bumpy and was recently resurfaced.
“He may have been better off on a sideroad,” Reurink said.
Police won’t be releasing the driver’s name because he’s charged under the Highway Traffic Act, not the Criminal Code, and they figure he’d be “continuously bombarded” by media trying to talk to him about his stunt - which would likely be more of a headache than a toothache.
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msaks@ectts.com -
- msaks@ectts.com
Transport Topics Online | Trucking, Freight Transportation and Logistics News EPA Increases Biodiesel Production Target
Despite some industry projections that production has lagged since the expiration of a federal tax credit, EPA said in a July 12 renewable fuel standard proposal that the Energy Information Administration predicts average monthly biodiesel production rates in 2010 will exceed 2009 rates.
The agency is calling for producers to blend 13.95 billion gallons of biofuels into the U.S. fuel supply. That amounts to 7.95% of all fuel consumed by U.S. vehicles and trucks and an increase of 1 billion gallons from the 12.95 billion gallon target in 2010.
Of that total, 800 million gallons of biodiesel must be blended into the U.S. supply of diesel.
Biofuel producers have said the projected biodiesel production levels may not be achieved if Congress does not retroactively extend a $1 per gallon biodiesel tax credit that expired at the end of last year. Biodiesel is more expensive to produce than regular diesel, so the tax credit helps lower biodiesel pump prices.
Transport Topics Online | Trucking, Freight Transportation and Logistics News EPA Increases Biodiesel Production Target
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- msaks@ectts.com
New Jobless Claims Fall 21,000 for Week | Transport Topics Online | Trucking, Freight Transportation and Logistics News
Initial jobless claims fell by 21,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday.
The decline to 454,000 claims for the week ended Saturday was below economists’ forecasts of 460,000 new claims, Bloomberg reported.
The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, declined to 466,000, from 467,250 the previous week.
Continuing claims for the previous week ended June 26 fell by 224,000 to 4.413 million, the lowest level since November 2008.
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