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Trucking firm growing, creating jobs at Springfield site |  | 
A trucking firm with a growing presence in Springfield is planning to add close to 70 new jobs after securing a contract with GM as the sole firm to haul new medium-duty trucks being produced at Navistar’s Springfield facility. Wheeler Trucking, based in Flushing, Mich., opened a new location in Springfield last year after securing a deal with GM, which manufactures a cutaway van as part of a joint agreement with Navistar. Wheeler Trucking loads and ships the vans to customers across the U.S. and Canada. GM’s decision to award the new contract to the firm means Wheeler is the sole hauler for both GM vehicles produced in Springfield, said Rex Wheeler, the company’s owner. The company started with 18 employees, but said last year it planned to employ more than 100 workers in Springfield. The new contract will allow the company to hire about 56 drivers, as well as two mechanics and eight additional employees, Wheeler said. He said the firm will work with the Chamber of Greater Springfield and Ohio Means Jobs Clark County to recruit new employees. Wheeler also said he previously purchased the former Shoemaker Ford site in Springfield in 2016 and has plans to invest as much as $6 million in the property as his business grows. Wheeler Trucking is also building a new maintenance shop on the property, he said. The former Springfield Ford dealership was at 5600 Urbana Road and closed in December 2008 at the beginning of an economic recession and at a time when the auto industry was in trouble. The former dealership owner sold the rights back to Ford in May 2008 and ultimately closed when leaders at the company said it wanted to have a smaller dealership presence. Information from the Clark County Auditor’s Office shows the company has also purchased property at 5532 Urbana Road, 5522 Urbana Road and 5520 Urbana Road. The expansion will allow Wheeler not only to haul trucks being built at Navistar, but also to store vehicles on the property. The News-Sun has previously reported the new Class 4, 5 and 6 chassis cab trucks will be aimed at fleet and commercial customers. Workers in Springfield have long been preparing for the joint venture with GM to build the trucks. Wheeler said his company will begin shipping the new product to customers across the U.S. and Canada as early as December. Those trucks will be available in both the International and GM brands, and will be produced with engineering input from both manufacturers. Another report from this news organization states near-record demand for heavy trucks is boosting revenue for manufacturers like Navistar and benefiting suppliers and others tied to the industry. Demand from trucking companies for new vehicles led Navistar to a solid third quarter and company officials said earlier this month they expect strong financial results to continue into next year. Navistar reported net income of $170 million for the third quarter this year, compared to $37 million during the same period in 2017. U.S. 95 at I-15 in Las Vegas set for overnight closures this week | |
Truck drivers planning to go through the Las Vegas area overnight this week should plan for detours as the north and southbound lanes of U.S. Highway 95 at I-15 in downtown Vegas will be closed for construction. The overnight closures are set for Sept. 18-20 and Sept. 24 and 26 from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. I-15 and the “Spaghetti Bowl” interchange ramps will remain open during the closures. However, the I-15 north and southbound ramps to Martin Luther King Boulevard and the U.S. 95 northbound ramp to MLK Boulevard will be closed during those nights from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. The Nevada Department of Transportation says the closures are needed for construction of a new I-15 northbound bridge over U.S. 95. The recommended U.S. 95 northbound detour is Las Vegas Boulevard to Bonanza Road to MLK Boulevard to re-enter the freeway. Southbound traffic is advised to take MLK to Bonneville Avenue to Grand Central Parkway Source of article click here : Overdrive
New Boss Shop opens off I-380 in Iowa | |
Bosselman Boss Truck Shops, Inc. recently opened a new location in Elk Run Heights, Iowa, at Interstate 380, Exit 68. It’s located next to a Road Ranger Pilot. The Grand Island, Nebraska-based company now has 45 Boss Shops in 22 states. “Boss Shops is truly pleased with the addition of the Elk Run Heights location to our network of shops,” said Charlie Bosselman, president of the Bosselman Companies and Boss Truck Shops, Inc. “Boss Shops promise to offer the same hometown service experience in a location convenient for over the road truckers.” The shop offers three service bays with a dedicated lube bay, full mechanical services, JPro Engine Diagnostics, Bridgestone, Firestone, Michelin, BF Goodrich, Goodyear, Kelly, Yokohama, and Ironman tires, as well as Bandag, Michelin and Goodyear retreads. The Shop is open 8 am to 5 pm, offering mechanical services, and 24-hour roadside service is available. Box truck rolls over in Enfield | |
A box truck rolled over in Enfield on Tuesday morning. Officials said a car swerved to avoid the truck and hit a pole on Elm Street. Both drivers were said to be ok. It happened around 4 a.m. The box truck ended up on its side at Elm Street's intersection with Palomba Drive. The truck driver told Channel 3 that he was heading to Massachusetts from New York. He was hauling bread, bagels, buns, cakes and cupcakes. He said he swerved as well. Police said the other car was coming down the road and it appeared that the car driver tried to get out of the way. The car driver hit the pole and the vehicle needed to be towed from the scene. Elm Street from Freshwater Boulevard to Spring Garden Road was blocked off. The area has since reopened. Trucking company in Port Allen hit by bizarre burglary | |
PORT ALLEN - Surveillance footage captured a bizarre burglary on camera, and a trucking company is now warning others to be aware of the long-hauler heists. 81-year old Clayton Clark is the owner and operator of C and M Freight Line in Port Allen. He says his company was ripped off by some professional thieves last week. Two thieves took off with computer systems from five of his ten 18-wheelers. "It hurt me, it hurt me real bad," Clark told News 2. "Three-thousand dollars for each one. That's fifteen-thousand dollars it has cost me for foolishness." The burglars were caught on the company's video security system. "They knew exactly what they were doing," Clark said. "They had a little canvas tool bag. They had the special tools that they need. They were professional at what they doing." And Clark's trucking yard may not have been the only victims of these big rig burglaries. The night before the C and M Freight Line was hit by thieves, several computers were stolen out of 18-wheelers at Diesel Driving Academy on Airline Highway in Baton Rouge. Police say they are investigating thefts of vehicle parts at the driving school, as well as a trucking yard in Scott, Louisiana, which was also hit by the big rig computer thieves. "These are criminals, they know exactly where the are doing." Amid trucking shortage, Walmart doubles spending on drivers | |
Dive Brief:
Dive Insight:Transportation is an issue in the grocery industry. With wage hikes, rising diesel-fuel prices and higher freight demand, June saw the biggest monthly uptick in long-distance trucking costs in nearly a decade. On top of the rising costs, driver vacancies reached a record 296,311 in the second quarter, according to researcher FTR Transportation Intelligence. Just one truck was available for every 12 loads needing to be shipped at the start of 2018, which is the lowest ratio since 2005, according to an industry analysis by DAT Solutions. The average age of a Walmart driver is 55, so the company is losing many to retirement, and the industry turnover rate hovers around 90 percent for long-haul truckers, according to the American Trucking Associations. In an effort to fill the gaps left by truckers rotating and retiring, Walmart is vigorously increasing incentives. New hires earn about $86,000 a year and get up to three weeks vacation, and now Walmart is working to reduce the onboarding process from 70 to 30 days and offering referral bonuses to new drivers. Walmart’s profit margins have taken a hit for three straight quarters due to the trucker shortage. But the company is not alone. Bloomberg reports that cutthroat competition has caused some other carriers to raise wages as many as three times over the past year and dish out signing bonuses of as much as $10,000. Everyone is feeling the strain. With shipping costs rising and freight volumes outpacing the supply of available trucks, food distributors are scrambling to find a solution to slow the financial burden on their overall earnings. Many manufacturers — including Dean Foods, Tyson, Del Monte, Kellogg and US Foods — said higher transportation and logistics costs weighed on earnings in the most recent quarter. Trucks are vital to the retail supply chain. They carry more than 70% of the goods consumed in this country, according to the American Trucking Association, and under normal circumstances, grocers lose $75 billion a year in sales — 10% of the industry total — due to out-of-stocks and unsalable goods, often the result of late deliveries, according to the Food Marketing Institute. With the industry anticipating a need for 898,000 new drivers or an average of nearly 90,000 per year for the next decade, if fleets can’t find new drivers, grocers could expect losses to increase. As it stands, it wouldn’t be surprising to see retailers and manufacturers pass the cost of those losses on to consumers. But to contrast that, diesel prices are expected to drop after reaching a three-year high. Although lower gas prices alone won’t be enough to overcome the worker shortage, it could help financially. The demands of the job are steep, even with recent regulations limiting time on the road, and keep many otherwise qualified drivers from applying. The hours are long and don’t allow for much of a home life. In addition, it’s a largely male field, with only 6% women in its workforce. Still, Walmart hopes that by doubling its recruiting spend for non-traditional truckers that it can operate its private fleet of 6,500 trucks at full capacity and keep fulfilling orders. However, the pressures associated with freight show no signs of letting up, and as the perfect storm of higher consumer demand and lower trucking supply continues to rage, it will keep having a significant impact on profit margins for retailers and suppliers. |
Diabetic truckers with proper treatment no longer need FMCSA waiver to operate | |
FMCSA is removing the requirement for drivers with insulin-treated diabetes to obtain a waiver to drive interstate. Medical examiners will now be able to grant these drivers a one-year medical certification. Truck drivers with stable insulin regimens and properly controlled insulin-treated diabetes mellitus (ITDM) will no longer have to seek an exemption from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to drive interstate. A Final Rule to be published Wednesday in the Federal Register allows certified medical examiners to grant truckers with insulin-treated diabetes a Medical Examiner’s Certificate that’s good for one year. The rule will take effect Nov. 19. Since 2003, drivers with insulin-treated diabetes have had to apply for an exemption through FMCSA to be allowed to drive interstate. In order to grant the med cert, examiners must receive an ITDM Assessment Form from the driver’s treating clinician – the healthcare professional who manages and prescribes insulin to the driver – stating the driver maintains a stable insulin regimen and proper control of his or her diabetes. The CME then decides if the driver meets FMCSA’s physical qualification standards to operate commercial vehicles in interstate commerce. Drivers with ITDM will be required to provide their treating clinician with at least three months of blood glucose self-monitoring records to be able to receive the one-year med cert. If three months are not available, the driver can receive up to a three-month certificate until the driver has three months of records. If a diabetic trucker has a severe hypoglycemic episode, he or she is not allowed to drive a truck and must report the episode and be evaluated by their treating clinician as soon as possible. The driving prohibition lasts until the clinician determines that the episode has been addressed and the driver again has a stable insulin regimen and properly controlled ITDM. The Final Rule defines a “severe hypoglycemic episode” as one requiring the assistance of others or resulting in loss of consciousness, seizure or coma. Drivers diagnosed with severe non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy or proliferative diabetic retinopathy — both conditions when diabeties affects eyesight — are permanently disqualified from driving a commercial vehicle. FMCSA has been working on this rule since a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was published in May 2015. Following the NPRM, the agency’s Medical Review Board issued recommendations on how the agency should proceed with a rule that were published in September 2016. Then, in July 2017, FMCSA opened another comment period about changes to the original NPRM. Hours of service comment period extended to Oct. 10 | |
Truckers wanting to weigh in on potential hours of service changes will have an extra two weeks to submit comments on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s request for feedback. The agency announced Wednesday it is extending the comment deadline from Monday, Sept. 24, to Wednesday, Oct. 10. Comments can be made here. The Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published in August doesn’t propose any changes to current hours of service regulations but lists questions to gather input from drivers, owner-operators, carriers and other industry stakeholders. Specifically, FMCSA is seeking feedback on ways to overhaul hours regs in four key areas:
FMCSA says it received requests to extend the comment period from several industry organizations, including the American Trucking Associations, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the National Pork Producers Council and the National Tank Truck Carriers. More than 2,000 comments have been submitted as of Sept. 19. In addition to the comment period, FMCSA is also holding listening sessions to receive feedback from the public. The next session will be held this Saturday, Sept. 22, in Reno, Nevada. Carriers increase pay for drivers | |
Drivers for several major carriers are getting paid more these days. Super Service LLC announced recently a performance plus pay program, allowing drivers to earn up to 52 cents per mile. The program allows drivers to earn more based on safety, availability, miles per gallon and service performance. The company also announced a $15,000 sign-on bonus. Big G Express is rolling out a 2 cents per mile increase, as well as switching to a PC*Miler practical miles pay program. The PC*Miler program compensates drivers according to the driving routes and distances they’re most likely to take. The company previously used the PC*Miler short miles program, which pays driver on the shortest route possible. The 2 cents per mile increase brings starting pay to 42cents per mile with top-out pay at 52cents per mile. USA Truck boosted pay for its regional drivers, effective Sept. 9. The raise includes a cents-per-mile base pay increase, based on the driver’s region. Under the new pay structure, drivers can earn up to 52.5 cents per mile. In addition to the base pay increase, USA Truck offers drivers a chance to earn up to 6 additional cents per mile to their weekly pay based on how many miles they run during the week. Semi-truck Drops Load on Highway 231 | |
PANAMA CITY Fla. - On HWY 231, a semi-truck loses its load. The truck was heading northbound around noon on Sep. 11th. 37-year old Derrick Kenon, of Tallahassee, was driving a Shelton Trucking flat bed tractor trailer. He was driving in heavy traffic carrying a load of copper. While breaking the big rig's load shifted on the trailer and fell onto the shoulder of HWY 231. The outside northbound lane was closed while the scene was cleared. Traffic was slow moving on 231 north between Pipeline rd. and HWY 390. There were no injuries. Trucking by the Numbers 2018: The future of freight | |
It's no secret that trucking and transportation are changing—and quickly. While in some ways trucking businesses can be very traditional, relying on "old school" methods and face-to-face relationships, technology is taking hold more than ever and in many facets of the industry. And it's opening the doors for sophisticated fleets to do things they never could before. In fr8star.com and Comdata's 2018 Heavy Haul Freight Carrier Survey, freight carriers identified the top four factors that would make the biggest impact on their business. In this final installment of our Trucking by the Numbers 2018 series we included those factors, and fleet management systems and technology could deliver all four. Those older, traditional business methodologies in trucking apparently could use some updating in some cases. For example, for more than half a century, oversize/overweight loads have been largely booked through traditional brokers by phone, fax, or email. Three out of four carriers in fr8star.com and Comdata's survey said their experience with traditional brokers has been good, but very tellingly, nearly that same amount said if they never had to deal with a traditional broker again, it'd be a good thing. Launch slideshow: The future of freightThey say so due to things like poor communication with brokers, which half of carriers in the survey reported. Even more said they got poor information about a load, and a sizeable chunk—40%—said they got paid late. More carriers and drivers are turning to online freight marketplaces, but many still have not. Take a look at some figures in that regard, including that of those who haven't tried an online freight marketplace, 41% have stayed away because they don't know how such a marketplace works. And meanwhile, among those who have used an online freight marketplace, 61% said they made more money doing so. The need for freight transport is growing, including due to continued increases in e-commerce. The American Trucking Assns. projects that for-hire carrier tonnage in the United States will rise to more than 6.3 billion tons by 2023, with annual growth of 3.3% through that year and then 2.9% growth from 2024-2028. View this slideshow for more info on all these points as well as a look at the size and scale of the U.S. third-party logistics industry (which, incidentally, is 1.5 times as big as the beer industry) and the North American intermodal freight industry, including growth in intermodal by segment. Launch slideshow: The future of freightGo to Trucking by the Numbers 2018: Safety and the roadwaysGo to Trucking by the Numbers 2018: A look at driversGo to Trucking by the Numbers 2018: The equipment fleets useGo to Trucking by the Numbers 2018: Trucking and freight snapshotTruck Makers Move Closer to Commercial Electric Vehicles | |
 DAF CF Electric truck (Paccar Inc.)
U.S. truck makers, new startups and independent engine manufacturer Cummins Inc. have helped generate the early buzz on electrified trucks, cleaner emissions and less reliance on diesel fuel. Now, that buzz is generating buzz. That buzz includes equipment-related specifics, prototype products and initial field tests — often with an eye on how similar technology overseas is developing, experts said. “They want to take it into production but it all depends on how that market votes,” ACT Research Co. Vice President Steve Tam said. The long-term outlook is good. ACT forecasts commercial electric vehicles will make up a “significant share” of the Class 4 through Class 8 market in 2030 to 2035. As it stands, China, Europe and North America are each at different points in adopting electric commercial vehicles, said Rick Mihelic, president of Mihelic Vehicle Consulting. “Each region can learn from the others but the products, markets and design priorities do differ. Some technology may be directly applicable in all three regions, but it’s more likely they will differ,” he said. Those differences are not just in physical specifications such as typical sizes, loads, speeds, duty cycles, whether trailers have two or three axles, or materials, he said. They also will reflect “how [truck makers] view vehicle design life, how they value secondary vehicle markets, how they value drivers. Differences also occur with how the vehicle technologies are incentivized or penalized in each region. All these can affect design priorities and truck maker and fleet investment choices,” Mihelic said. Meanwhile, Bellevue, Wash.-based Paccar Inc. announced its DAF truck subsidiary in Europe will display a battery-electric powered version of its market-leading CF model heavy-duty tractor, which typically runs on diesel, during the IAA Commercial Vehicle Show that will run Sept. 20-27 in Hanover, Germany. The CF Electric has a range of 62 miles (100 kilometers) which is suitable for high volume distribution applications, according to Paccar. Fast charging of the batteries can be performed in 30 minutes, while a full charge can be done in as little as 1.5 hours. The first series of CF Electric trucks will be put into field test operation with customers this year. Paccar is the parent company of the U.S. truck makers Kenworth Truck Co. and Peterbilt Motors Co., both of which also are in the early stages of testing electrified trucks. “I don’t think there’s much more demand. You just have to be prepared as the regulatory environment may dictate some level of zero-emission vehicles,” Paccar CEO Ron Armstrong said during a recent earnings call with financial analysts. “So, we’ve been quite active in developing our capabilities and we’ll continue to do so.” California has set a goal of having 100,000 zero-emissions freight vehicles in operation by 2035. “I think some of the first product [U.S. truck makers] will bring to the U.S. or North American market will be the electric powertrain based on, or a derivation of, what they are doing in Europe especially with Volvo and Freightliner,” he said. Volvo Trucks North America and Mack Trucks are brands of Sweden-based Volvo Group.
Volvo FL Electric truck. (Seth Clevenger/Transport Topics)
Freightliner is a brand of Daimler Trucks North America, a unit of Germany-based Daimler Trucks. International Truck, a unit of Navistar Inc., is collaborating on electrification with Germany-based Traton, formerly known as Volkswagen Truck and Bus. At the same time, don’t count diesel out. In fact, efforts to advance CEVs will spur efforts to make the diesel engine even better, Tam said. “We will see improved efficiency in diesel engines and reduced emissions because that market does feel threatened, and feel the presence [of CEVs], so they are going to do as much as they can to hold on to the share they have got for as long as they can,” he said. Source of article click here : Transport Topics
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