Like the illusion of Wall Street, with its vast and powerful investment banks, now shuttered, China too is an illusion perpetuated by the Globalists that gave us the 15,000 mile Caesar salad, poisoned cat food and lead based paint on babies' pacifiers. Like the illusion that money would come from thin air to always push housing prices higher, China has spent a generation pursuing its illusion. Pursuing an unattainable dream to be like the West, while 6000 years of its carefully shepherded top soil blows into the sea.
Joined: Mar 28, 2005 Posts: 399 Location: Northern California, USA
Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 8:56 pm Post subject: Re: Truck/Big Rig Transportation Thread
Drifter wrote:
Since this is such an important topic, I thought it might be a good idea to start a truck/big rig transportation thread so we can consolidate all these topics into one convenient thread.
I'd like to point out that Trucking is something that is vitally important but has no good solution for powering it besides oil. Batteries don't have the energy density. Hydraulic hybrids are a step in the right direction. I think the impact of Peak Oil will be less severe in areas that have good access to water and rail transport.
Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 9:38 pm Post subject: Re: Truck/Big Rig Transportation Thread
We'd lean on the rail system much more if it weren't drowning under the massive strain of moving megatons of coal around every day for electricity. Bloody Three Mile Island idjits.
Of course, that doesn't excuse the fact that we've torn up the rails that don't serve power plants. About a century ago, there was rail within 12 miles of every point in my home state (Kansas). Amazing when you consider that was less than fifty years after statehood and the first track being laid. This is, sadly, no longer true. _________________ At 1% annual growth, human bodies will incorporate every gram in the observable universe in approximately 10,170 years.
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 6:54 am Post subject: Re: Truck/Big Rig Transportation Thread
Here in the Chicago area, I talked with a friend of mine who works on trucks (tires and brakes, mostly), and he said they slowed nearly 50%. When I asked why, he said "easy - over 1/2 the small guys have parked their trucks and are looking for other jobs".
To me, that's a huge statement. Consolidation, sure it will happen, but over 1/2 his clients? There's some ripple-down effects for you.
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 7:39 am Post subject: Re: Truck/Big Rig Transportation Thread
I was sitting on a plane to Melbourne a couple of weeks ago and found myself sitting next to a sales manager from Mercedes Truck division. He said that yes many smaller operators are being forced to the wall here in Australia, but that the overall demand for new large trucking rigs over the next 10 years is going to be enormous. He said this was mostly due to the sharp increase in expected shipping volumes. Most of these rigs would be purchased by a small number of very large customers, e.g. Linfox etc. Under a business as usual scenario simply projecting growth over the last 20 years. He agreed that there was no good reason to assume business as usual, in light of depletion, but said that was the best model they had. I then asked him about alternative fuels for large interstate trucks, especially given the energy density of diesel. He said that duel fuel rigs using compressed or liquid natural gas are already being sold and used routinely here in Australia. It didn't sound like a mainstream option, but definitely off-the-shelf. It added extra weight to the rig due to the twin-hull pressurised gas tanks, and was expensive to instal. However apparently with the current price of LNG relative to diesel, savings were achievable.
He also said that any diesel engine, properly tuned, will actually last longer when running gas, than when running diesel oil. This surprised me but he was adamant. Burning LPG produces fewer soot and other solid combustion particles. These particles more than any other thing, are responsible for degrading the engine lubricant over time, leading to wear.
So gas for heavy trucks, especially in Australia, appears to make sense.
Joined: May 30, 2008 Posts: 297 Location: On the highway, or the water somewhere!
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 7:39 pm Post subject: Re: Truck/Big Rig Transportation Thread
The military ordered hybrid trucks several years ago, and in the last 2 weeks I have seen two different manufacturers of "class 8" trucks demo hybrids. I think they will work locally but I remain skeptical of their ability to replace diesels for OTR as they are designed now. I remain skeptical of hybrid cars... let's see the batter life cycle through a few times before we sing their praises.
The amount of energy needed to replace those batteries and costs associated with that as compared to a car that gets 50 mpg on diesel remains to be seen.
LPG trucks have been on the market here in the USA for years, they are not popular due to fuel distribution lack, but I bet you see them soonest working the ports on the coasts.
Since the 2010 motors have been approved by CARB to even idle because they are so "clean" LOL the pressure to develop alternatives to diesel has diminished.
Although it might be popular in some circles to claim the railroads are not subsidized, they are. The latest meeting in Chicago of the heads of the RR included the predictable demand for billions of dollars of government grants to relay all those tracks they abandoned as non profitable just 20 years ago.. Maybe the public will fall for it? The original rails were laid on a land grab scheme where the government gave the railroads square miles alternating on each side of the roadway to repay them for their investment. Of course when the RR abandoned those lines they did not return any of those thousands or millions of square miles of LAND, nor the profits they realized from the sale of them...LOL
Unless something major is done to spread production of food stuffs, and manufactured goods, we are facing the same problem the soviets faced when their "empire" dissolved.. The scattered manufacturing base that seemed such a good idea when you were worried about bombing campaigns and revolutions built in a need for distribution and transportation.
Fortunately for everyone who intends to try to remain in some advanced sort of civilization, transportation will simply adapt just as it did to the demise of the covered wagon.
Short term adjustments include a near doubling of fuel mileage by truckers who are working hard to remain profitable in this elevated cost period. Long term adjustments may include hybrids or even pure electrics..
The dream that small independents will disappear under the pressure of the mismanaged giants of the industry will if we are lucky never be realized. Companies that cannot control their own functions to the point that they cannot retain employees and suffer almost 200 percent turn over of drivers are the least likely to remain in business when the going gets rough. They will like all empires built on oppression of workers totter for a while, but their fall is as certain as the fall of every other oppressive empire both political and mercantile.
1/2 of all small operators may have disapeared quietly into the night in Aissie land ( I doubt it, none of my Aussie friends who drive have mentioned any such drastic changes) so far here in the USA we have lost about 3 percent of small companies. The prices have not actually gone up much even though the retailers are pretending they have and are raising prices claiming increased transportation costs, LOL.
We have a 10 year cycle in this industry of weeding out those who do not know how to price thier services but rely on "leasing " to a big company and expect that company to protect them from the rising costs the big company uses lease operators to protect themselves from.. ( duh ) We also in the USA have a rather extensive number of "share cropping" systems set up to lure those drivers who wish to pretend to be independent into lease purchasing ( nothing down no credit check guarenteed to fail) that will of course crash and burn when no one can even pretend to see a way to make a living share croppng for them... So sad but then share cropping has a long history of broken dreams and broken men too. Those who do not read and understand history are bound to repeat it.
Just my opinion...typed on my laptop sitting on my steering wheel as I wait to load the fixtures for another NEW store in your local mall.... I will make a profit hauling them, because I do make a profit or I don't load the truck.
Fuel is just another item in your " cost of doing business". There is at this time no sign of a shortage, just a higher price.
Get back to me when there is no deisel to buy.... I'll tell you about teamsters and hames and double traces and even mules... My grandfather explained it all to me and even made sure I knew how to if it was necessary.... _________________ Courtesy and Courage, Sincerity and Self-control, Honor and Loyalty...a Code to Live By!
Where is my wooden pitchfork and torch anyway? I may need them for a visit to the castle soon!
By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: April 27, 2008
Correction Appended
ONCE upon a time, hybrids were going to rule commercial vehicles. In May 2003, when gasoline was $1.50 a gallon, FedEx was predicting that it would have 30,000 hybrids on the road in a few years. But today, all companies together have only about 300.
On paper, commercial vehicles, not private cars, should be the “killer app” for hybrid technology. Delivery trucks operate in stop-and-go traffic, where hybrids excel. Commercial vehicles drive many more hours a day than family cars do, going many more miles in a year and using more fuel for each mile, thus multiplying the opportunities for saving fuel.
And with gasoline at about $3.50 a gallon, and diesel around $4, the shift to hybrids should go faster.
FedEx said in 2003 that it was buying 20 hybrid delivery trucks, but David J. Bronczek, chief executive of the company’s FedEx Express unit, said at the time, “I can’t envision any reason why we wouldn’t roll this out over the whole fleet.” Today, the company has about 100 but says it hopes to have dozens more by the end of the year.
U.P.S., which has been experimenting with alternative-fuel vehicles for decades, is using about 50 gasoline-electric hybrids and has tried two hydraulic hybrids, which store energy in the form of oil in a pressure tank instead of electricity in a battery. It plans to try eight more hydraulic hybrids, but is moving deliberately. “We need to justify them to all our stakeholders, our customers, our investors and our employees,” said Michael R. Hance, vice president for automotive engineering and operations.
Production volumes are small, so there are few economies of scale, the manufacturers and customers say. So the price premium for a hybrid is still very large.
“We need to get production up to several thousand a year to get the nice breaks in price structure,” said Kevin Beaty, manager of hybrid power systems at the Eaton Corporation, a major producer of hybrid delivery trucks and other medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. The company declined to provide production figures.
One result, he said, is that a delivery truck that costs $40,000 as an ordinary diesel will sell for $70,000 as a hybrid. There is progress, though: U.P.S. said its early hybrids cost double what an ordinary vehicle did, but the premium is now just 50 percent.
In contrast, when Toyota introduced the Prius, it began with a production run in the thousands per year and is now in the hundreds of thousands.
But for trucks, “we’re talking about an emerging technology,” said Dimitri Kazarinoff, a manager of new technologies at Eaton.
And there is another reason: consumers may buy a Prius or other hybrid because it is cool to own one, but businesses sharpen their pencils better when it comes to calculating the payback time.
For example, a 10,000-pound walk-in FedEx delivery truck called the W700 carries 6,000 pounds of packages. The company has dozens of these trucks that are hybrids. A consumer shopping for a car might be drawn by “the chicness of the Prius,” said Mitch Jackson, environmental director at the company. But when it comes to chic, “We never looked at the W700 in that light.”
Mr. Jackson said the company planned to replace standard trucks with hybrids if it were economically feasible. But even with $3 gasoline, the payback period is 20 years, he said.
Hybrids may be irresistible in some special cases, experts said. For example, Florida Power and Light is using what it calls a hybrid bucket truck. In a conventional bucket truck, the lineman keeps the truck’s gas or diesel engine running while parked on the job just to power the bucket. In the hybrid version, the power comes from batteries charged while the truck is moving.
And the range of hybrids in commercial use may eventually be much wider than those in light-duty vehicles like cars and S.U.V.’s. Eaton, for example, is working on another innovation, a purely hydraulic hybrid, for use in garbage trucks. These would capture the energy that is ordinarily lost when the truck stops for a curbside pickup, and gives it back through a hydraulic pump in a “launch assist,” to get the truck moving to the next house. It has no batteries and no special electrical system.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 25, 2008
An article on April 27 about commercial applications for hybrid vehicles described a bucket truck used by Florida Power and Light incorrectly. While the truck’s hybrid system can indeed power the bucket, it can also power the drive wheels.
_________________ Courtesy and Courage, Sincerity and Self-control, Honor and Loyalty...a Code to Live By!
Where is my wooden pitchfork and torch anyway? I may need them for a visit to the castle soon!
Joined: Sep 16, 2004 Posts: 4931 Location: Southwest WI
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 8:15 pm Post subject: Re: Truck/Big Rig Transportation Thread
I'll put this in this thread
Quote:
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- FedEx Corp. said Wednesday that it swung to a fourth-fiscal-quarter loss from a year-earlier profit, reflecting a $696 million after-tax asset-impairment charge tied to the acquisition of Kinko's, as well as a surge in fuel prices and a weak U.S. economy.
Employees at both FedEX and UPS are going to be in a shock in the next 5-10 years. If diesel prices continue there climb and economy continues to sink...it won't be good. _________________ Clothing should be optional.
Joined: May 30, 2008 Posts: 297 Location: On the highway, or the water somewhere!
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 8:26 pm Post subject: Re: Truck/Big Rig Transportation Thread
Smith brings "world's largest all-electric truck" to the US
by Donald Melanson
Quote:
This one's been spreading its all-electric charm around Europe for a little while already, but it looks like Smith Electric Vehicles' Smith Newton truck is now finally making its way to the US market. According to the company, with a gross vehicle weight of over 24,000lbs, the vehicle is the "world's largest all-electric truck," with a rack of "suitcase-sized" 278 volt batteries and a 120 kilowatt motor required to push it along at speeds up to 50 mph. That combo also gives the vehicle a range of some 150 miles, and an acceleration from 0-30mph that the company says is faster than the equivalent diesel-powered truck. No word on what it'll set you back, but Smith is set to open a factory in Fresno sometime next year to accommodate its new US presence, with a larger factory capable of turning out 10,000 vehicles a year to follow in 2010.
Smith Electric Vehicles has unveiled a 12,000kg (25,000lb) electric truck for the US market.
THE world’s leading manufacturer of commercial electric vehicles is launching its unique zero emission truck in the North American market.
The robust Smith Newton is the world's largest high performance electric truck, weighing in with a Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) of over 24,000lbs. A rack of suitcase-sized, 278 volt batteries and a 120 kilowatt motor quickly propel the vehicle up to its top speed of 50mph. In fact, Newton can accelerate from 0-30mph faster than the equivalent diesel-powered truck.
Fully charged, the vehicle has a range of up to 150 miles, while the regenerative braking system returns power to the batteries every time the vehicle slows or stops.
Kevin Harkin, Sales Director for Smith Electric Vehicles, said: “Automotive manufacturers are telling us that the technology for mass-produced electric cars is some years away.
“But the larger sized commercial vehicle – and the truck in particular – is perfectly suited to electric technology that is available today.
“There are millions of commercial vehicles in North America that work in urban areas, within defined low mileage zones or routes. All of these machines, from light postal vehicles to heavier duty distribution trucks, can be replaced with our new technology electric vehicles.
“And these congested, densely populated urban areas are exactly where vehicles with zero tailpipe emissions can make the biggest improvement to air quality.”
Newton is the first vehicle in its class that can compete with the diesel equivalent – but without the polluting effects of tailpipe emissions such as nitrogen oxide; particulate matter and CO2. The vehicle has a payload capacity of up to 15,800lbs and is available in US truck Classes 5 through 7.
Launched in early 2007 in Europe, the Smith Newton is already in fleets for household names such as Starbucks, DHL and TK Maxx, along with British institutions like the Royal Mail and retailer Marks & Spencer.
It is designed for urban, intra-city operations, including home shopping delivery; 3PL logistics; post and parcel distribution; and municipal duties.
“An added benefit for fleet operators is that drivers love this vehicle,” said Kevin Harkin. “We take all the stress out of city truck driving – no gear changes, no noise, no cab rattle and no diesel smell.”
Along with addressing the problem of vehicle emissions in cities, the Newton also proves highly cost effective when it comes to maintenance.
“Newton’s electric motor has just four moving parts, compared to over one thousand in a modern diesel driveline,” said Kevin Harkin. “The major components are solid state and will still be in operation years after the rest of the vehicle has outlived its usefulness.”
Smith Electric Vehicles has a facility in Fresno, CA which will open next year to manufacture US-specific vehicles for North America. This will be followed by a larger factory capable of 10,000 vehicles a year, expected to open in 2010.
ENDS
earth toys link _________________ Courtesy and Courage, Sincerity and Self-control, Honor and Loyalty...a Code to Live By!
Where is my wooden pitchfork and torch anyway? I may need them for a visit to the castle soon!
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 8:35 pm Post subject: Re: Truck/Big Rig Transportation Thread
frankthetank wrote:
Employees at both FedEX and UPS are going to be in a shock in the next 5-10 years. If diesel prices continue there climb and economy continues to sink...it won't be good.
Keeping with the sorta-off-subject here. I'll be curious what happens with FedEx and UPS. Out here in rural America, they've been a major leveling influence. 15 years ago, we were very much behind the times in 'stuff' (say, computers, but also sporting goods, art supplies, you name it). That which the little ma-and-pa stores had was way overpriced. But, the cost of shipping was painfully high. The internet and cheap shipping boom changed all that. People in dense urban areas buy from NewEgg, and so do the ruralists. Basically no inconvenience.
One model that may return is the "catalog agency". Pre-internet, my family would occasionally order things from the JCPenny or Sears catalogs. They'd be delivered at no extra charge to the (quite small) store in town, with minimal excess packaging, and we'd pick them up there (by walking, as often as not). If you knew the history of the town, you'd also notice that both the Penny's and Sears were on an abandoned railroad alignment, and had their semi-weekly delivery by boxcar up through WWII. Seems like it might be a viable business model, over all this cruising around town delivering little boxes. _________________ At 1% annual growth, human bodies will incorporate every gram in the observable universe in approximately 10,170 years.
Joined: May 30, 2008 Posts: 297 Location: On the highway, or the water somewhere!
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 8:51 pm Post subject: Re: Truck/Big Rig Transportation Thread
Quote:
Hybrid Semi Truck technology rolled into town a short time ago, led by a collaboration between Peterbilt and Eaton. Already having achieved success in partnering to develop hybrid electric Class 6-7 vehicle platforms and Class 8 hybrid vehicles, the two companies are now planning to begin offering heavy-duty hybrid semis by 2009. Concept and final design refinements of the hybrid tractor trailers is being supported by Walmart, which operates the second largest private trucking fleet in the United States.
Over the next few years, Wal-Mart plans to use hybrid big rigs to increase the efficiency of their fleet by 25%. Based on independent testing, the fuel savings with hybrid semi trucks would be around $10,000 per year, when compared to similar, non-hybrid models. Those statistics don't even begin to measure the positive impact semi truck hybrids would have on the environment due to reduced emissions. Multiply this by the current semi population.
Not to be outdone, Kenworth introduced a medium-duty hybrid truck at the 2007 Mid-America Trucking Show. A Class 6 hybrid - electric semi truck, the T270 will see limited availability this year, with full scale production expected in 2008. Industry experts agree that a hybrid tractor trailer could achieve a fuel savings of 5-10% during long hauls. In regional delivery operations, where increased braking and reduced speeds would be the norm, efficiencies would be far greater. Hybrid Semi Trucks are here, more are coming, and someday we'll look back and remember when far less efficient semis roamed the earth. Only the company that will own this market remains to be seen.
hybrid truck web site _________________ Courtesy and Courage, Sincerity and Self-control, Honor and Loyalty...a Code to Live By!
Where is my wooden pitchfork and torch anyway? I may need them for a visit to the castle soon!
Joined: May 30, 2008 Posts: 297 Location: On the highway, or the water somewhere!
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 9:00 pm Post subject: Re: Truck/Big Rig Transportation Thread
International Harvester has a section on their web site about the new hybrid they offer, and Volvo has at least 2 test bed hybrids in operation I have seen... hybrid trucks will not solve the P O problem, but do represent one effort being made.
In the end, it comes down to either hunker down in your bunker and believe the sky is falling, or work to solve the crisis and develop new ways of doing things... both groups seem well represented here on this forum.
I prefer to remember the Wright Brothers not those who kept telling them that man was no meant to fly because we were not given wings by God. _________________ Courtesy and Courage, Sincerity and Self-control, Honor and Loyalty...a Code to Live By!
Where is my wooden pitchfork and torch anyway? I may need them for a visit to the castle soon!
Lawmakers express support at truckers’ rally in New York capital Truckers in New York – fed up with high fuel prices, increasing toll costs and other taxes – proved on Thursday, June 19, that grassroots actions to wake up lawmakers and the media can work.
For more than six months now, truckers in New York have been in constant communication with state lawmakers about the dire situation many are facing as they teeter on the brink of losing their livelihoods because of record-high fuel prices, high taxes and rocky economic conditions.
On Thursday, more than 150 truckers converged on Albany, NY, where they rallied in front of the statehouse. Many New York lawmakers, including New York Gov. David Paterson, addressed the protestors. Paterson recently announced a plan – widely unpopular among truckers – to keep heavy trucks off certain roads in upstate New York.
On the topic of fuel costs, Paterson said he would support a summer fuel tax holiday only if fuel companies promise to pass the savings on to consumers, according to The Associated Press. But he said more needs to be done as well.
“What we wanna do is reduce this country’s dependence on foreign oil and the unstable governments in the Middle East that we continue to do business with while they jack up the prices and make Americans suffer more and more and more,” Paterson told truckers at the rally.
For Bill Sutton, a flatbedder from Batavia, NY, said the convoy and rally in Albany was an “experience of a lifetime.”
“It was a very, very good day for truckers,” he said. “Everybody was positive. It was moving to see how many people showed up and showed their support for what we are trying to do here in New York.”
Sutton said he happened to be in the right place at the right time after the rally. New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, who spoke at the rally, talked to truckers afterward about some of the issues that led them to convoy to Albany.
“He said if someone would hand him the keys he would show us how to drive a truck,” Sutton said. “So I whipped the keys out of my pocket, offered them to Mr. Bruno and said, ‘Mr. Bruno, if you would like to drive my truck, I would be more than glad to have you operate my truck.’ He drove it just like a professional.”
And he should know. Sutton, who has been trucking for 22 years, has a bright purple 2005 Western Star LowMax, which cost him around $130,000.
Sutton said Bruno is no stranger to the trucking world. Bruno told him his first job was delivering ice in a straight truck.
“I was impressed with Mr. Bruno,” Sutton said. “He said he’s going to do all that’s within his power to help us resolve some of our issues.”
A big point of contention is the fact Democrats in the New York Assembly are refusing to put a bill on the floor, which the Republican-dominated Senate already approved, that would eliminate a tax on fuel until at least Labor Day.
“That will take 32 cents a gallon off of fuel immediately,” he told truckers at the rally.
New York Assemblyman George Amedore, R-Rotterdam, also addressed protestors at the rally. He has attended at least three meetings in recent months with truckers in the state.
While at the rally, Amedore met up with OOIDA member Lou Esposito of Duanesburg, NY. Esposito said he was impressed with Amedore’s “energy and willingness to help truckers.” He said Amedore expressed interest in riding along with Esposito to New Jersey to “get a better understanding of what truckers face.”
“The event was peaceful; everybody was positive,” Esposito told Land Line on June 19. “The governor and several lawmakers came out and supported the truckers, which was nice to see.”
Prior to the rally, Amedore issued a written statement in support of the truckers rallying at the statehouse in Albany.
“I am proud to join truckers from not only my district but from across the state on this historic day in Albany,” Amedore wrote. “Whether you are an independent trucker, motorist or consumer, we all bear the burden of rising fuel costs and high taxes. Today’s protest represents the frustration and anger of working-class families across the state.”
Joined: May 30, 2008 Posts: 297 Location: On the highway, or the water somewhere!
Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 9:28 pm Post subject: Re: Truck/Big Rig Transportation Thread
If you intend this to be a doom and gloom strike calling thread there won't be much American content..
The differences socially and philosophically between American independent drivers and organized drivers in most other countries is striking. ( no pun intended).
While it is chic right now to wave massive numbers around in undocumented statements 1/2 of all independents for instance, The truth is much easier to locate than that.
Freight volume figures exist, they show by the ton the freight is off less than 1 percent so far this year. ( sorry doom and gloomers).
While many companies are now realizing that they must downsize ( 1 percent is a great number of idle trucks) some people are not seeing any lack of work so far.
While some truckers are fighting cost cutting competition, they have been doing so for years , the high fuel costs are just making it more obvious.
There is no freight sitting begging for transport. Rail container volumes are up almost to the ton the same amount truck volume is down ( hmmm interesting that).
The added cost of fuel is being slowly but surely passed on to the shippers by those business men who intend to survive the present fuel price squeeze. Those who are because of market pressure unable to do this will fail until enough of them go away to remove the market pressures, this has been a fact of life in American trucking for decades.
The massive pre buy of trucks to avoid the EPA mandated new motors for 2007 has come home to roost for both the truck manufacturers and the big fleets just as was predicted when the pre buy started to set record truck sales, A similar pre buy overage of power condition existed for the exact same reasons in 2000/2001.
As a small fleet owner ( 2 trucks 2 drivers) I am not seeing any more available parking at night than usual, .
You can of course see a decline in fuel purchases according to NATSO ( truck stop owners assoc) by volume ( gallons) while you cannot see a decline in dollar sales (LOL).
You can see a decline in retail sales by article number while you cannot see a decline in dollar value ( try walmart same store year to year if you think I am wrong).
Smart business men who are TRUCKERS will continue to make a profit while those marginal drivers who thought they were business men will continue to go out of business at about the same rate as historically ( 30 percent a year).
The failure rate for owner drivers has always been horrendously high especially in the third year when they run out of depreciation LOL.
As an editor on both the trucking and the truckers pages at TOPICS.NET I see the stories on the news wire every day. I could post them here, but they are mostly irrelevant to American trucking as we are not as Europeans operating on government regulated pricing.
The Asians are striking asking for higher rates because their government regulates the rates, (ours does not). The Europeans the same. American truckers compete with each other, some using price some using skill and service. Guess which are going broke.
The delivery truck I posted the article on is being manufactured and is running in California NOW, it is due for mass production on a larger scale next year.. The hybrid trucks are as plentiful as the hybrid cars were 4 years ago... If my attitudes do not match what you want, that is because I choose to work toward a solution and look for answers ...
I drive a 1996 truck... it has over a million miles on it. It has a newer body now a 2000 not aerodynamic model... Yet with some diligence it gets 8 MPG using this low calorie ultra low sulfur diesel that it was never designed to operate on. I have friends with 2000 year models getting 9 and 10 miles to a gallon. Compare that to the average new truck that has to have an automatic transmission and flat ground with a light load to get 6 MPG.. The difference is motivation PROFIT motivation.
You can find a multitude of cry babies sitting around whining for the government to fix their problems, but you cant make them out to be examples of what the entire industry is doing. From companies trying new routing learning new ways to compact shipments to drivers learning to get maximum fuel mileage out of the equipment they own, American drivers and truck owners are working to survive and prosper while searching for answers.
OOIDA has 162,000 members. I am one of those members. They represent drivers and owners of small fleets. The 45,000 truckers who went out of business represent what percentage of small fleets? ( 3 percent).
As always some will fall by the way side, while some will succeed. If indeed the world has reached P O, that does not signal the end of civilization as we know it, it signals the need for adaption and invention. _________________ Courtesy and Courage, Sincerity and Self-control, Honor and Loyalty...a Code to Live By!
Where is my wooden pitchfork and torch anyway? I may need them for a visit to the castle soon!
Thousands of unionized truckers began the walkout on Friday to demand government steps to ease their financial burden arising from soaring fuel prices, severely disrupting operations at major ports and dealing a heavy blow to the country’s export-driven economy.
“The KCWU just reiterated its earlier demands for increased diesel fuel subsidies, a guaranteed minimum wage and recognition of truckers’ full labor rights,” the ministry said in a statement,adding that “The government cannot accept such demands.”
As you can see this strike shows a completely different relationship between truckers and their government than exists here... _________________ Courtesy and Courage, Sincerity and Self-control, Honor and Loyalty...a Code to Live By!
Where is my wooden pitchfork and torch anyway? I may need them for a visit to the castle soon!
News
Discussions
Resources
Members
Forum FAQ
Search
Usergroups
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
