Custom truck accessories manufacturer Iowa Customs announced Friday the launch of a comprehensive lineup of Peterbilt 589 products and accessories, marking a significant expansion of its offerings. The new products are designed and manufactured by Iowa Customs to enhance the aesthetic and functionality of Peterbilt’s successor to the iconic 389 model. The new lineup of Peterbilt 589 products includes, but is not limited to:
Owners seeking to personalize their rigs with high-quality, durable accessories can now purchase these latest offerings from Iowa Customs through their local dealer. "We're always looking to develop custom products for the latest semi-truck models," said Terry Wurzer, Founder and Vice President of Iowa Customs. "We are one of the first manufacturers to introduce a line of Peterbilt 589 products and the response from truck drivers and our dealer network has been incredible." [Related: Peterbilt's new Model 589/389 'genuine accessories' packages, in pictures] https://ift.tt/0YgDbyk
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Trucking news and briefs for Friday, April 26, 2024: FMCSA shuts down driver after crash, multiple DUI arrestsA New Jersey-licensed truck driver has been effectively shut down by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration after an accident in which he rear-ended a passenger vehicle and left the scene of the accident. According to FMCSA’s Imminent Hazard Order, Gurpreet Singh rear-ended the vehicle on Highway 10 in Hillsboro, Oregon, on March 28. After being located after leaving the scene, an inspection of his truck revealed a bottle marked “vodka” inside the cab. Singh was placed out-of-service and directed not to operate. Singh proceeded to disregard his out-of-service order and operated his truck later that same day in Clackamas County, Oregon. After attempting to evade a sheriff’s deputy, Singh was apprehended and found to be visibly impaired. Singh was arrested and testing showed he had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.07, well over the .04 threshold for a commercial driver. Prior to the March 28, 2024, incidents in Oregon, on Aug. 31, 2023, Singh was operating his truck in an erratic fashion in Pinal, Arizona, when he was apprehended. A Preliminary Breath Test (PBT) revealed a quick capture of .111 and Singh was arrested. Based on these incidents, FMCSA said, Singh will be listed as prohibited in FMCSA’s Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse, and FMCSA is working with the state of New Jersey to disqualify his CDL. He is charged in Arizona with one count of driving under the influence of alcohol and one count of operating a CMV while under the influence of alcohol. Singh is also charged in Oregon with one count of driving under the influence of alcohol. FMCSA’s Imminent Hazard Out-of-Service Order states that Singh’s “blatant disregard for the safety of the motoring public demonstrated by these actions substantially increases the likelihood of serious injury or death to you and the motoring public if not discontinued immediately.” Failing to comply with the provisions of the Federal Imminent Hazard Order may result in civil penalties of up to $2,304. Knowing and/or willful violations may result in criminal penalties. [Related: CBD horror story: The indignity of 'Return to Duty' and SAP programs] Allison transmissions now available in certain International trucksNavistar is now offering Allison fully automatic transmissions in International trucks equipped with International’s S13 engine. Through the partnership between Allison Transmission and International, the Allison 3414 Regional Haul Series (RHS) is now available to order in International RH trucks equipped with the S13 engine. Additionally, the Allison 4000 Series is also available to order with S13-equipped International HX trucks. As part of the S13 engine launch plan, Navistar recognized the need for additional powertrain options. With the combination of Allison fully automatic transmissions, International's RH and HX platforms, and the Navistar S13 engine, customers are presented with two high-performance solutions with superior acceleration and optimized efficiency, Allison said. "We are proud to collaborate with International Truck to pair both the 3414 RHS and 4000 Series fully automatic transmissions with the Navistar S13 engine," said Rohan Barua, Vice President, North America Sales, Global Channel and Aftermarket at Allison Transmission. "The 3414 RHS fully automatic transmission offers increased horsepower and a lighter weight, translating into more deliveries, more loads and more productivity." Since launching with the Navistar A26 engine in 2020, 3414 RHS-equipped International RH trucks have been selected by some of the largest fleets in North America including leading wholesale food distributors. The transmission has also gained traction with regional food and beverage distribution fleets. The 3414 RHS is designed to enhance vehicle handling and maneuverability in urban duty cycles. It provides superior performance and efficiency while improving fuel economy by up to 8% compared to the Allison 3000 Highway Series transmission. Additionally, it eliminates downtime associated with automated manual transmissions (AMTs) by avoiding the need for clutch replacements. [Related: Cummins readies new diesel engine for 2027] Digital payments now possible at Cat ScalesRelay Payments launched an integration this week enabling carriers and truck operators to seamlessly pay with Relay's digital-payments service within the Weigh My Truck app from Cat Scale. “We’re committed to being a fully digital, end-to-end payments provider for trucking,” said Emily Neuman, Relay’s EVP of operations. “Integrating with some of the most popular options to pay for scales allows drivers to use Relay to pay for all over-the-road expenses, while easily monitoring their cash flow." Relay customers use the service to pay for a variety of expenses, including fuel and lumper fees. This new integration makes it possible to link any operator's Relay account within Weigh My Truck to pay for scales at more than 2,200 Cat Scale locations, providing nationwide coverage, the company said. Carriers benefit by being able to leverage existing Relay accounts to consolidate fuel, lumper, scales, cash, and other over-the-road transactions, unify reporting and simplify back-office management. [Related: Fuel-payments providers boost theft protection amid explosion in card skimming] https://ift.tt/0YgDbyk As carriers feel the impact of the weak freight market, the possibility of bankruptcy threatens the stability of companies large and small. In recent years, a combination of factors, exacerbated by events such as the global pandemic and shifts in insurance dynamics, has impacted the market. Looking at Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data on revocations from 2000-2024, Avery Vise, vice president of trucking at FTR Transportation Analysis, noted that revocations net of reinstatements peaked in late 2022 and early 2023. Technically, Vise noted, the first quarter of 2023 was the peak at just over 24,000, but it was only barely more than in the fourth quarter of 2022. Since then, revocations have declined mostly steadily, but they are still higher than seen before the pandemic. Compared to pre-pandemic levels, carrier failures are higher than before, said Vise, due to a combination of diesel price volatility and spot rates falling sharply from historic highs in 2021. He explained that although there has been some improvement in the past year, it’s mostly a reflection of spot market conditions that have been relatively stable since late 2022, albeit at a weak level from carriers’ perspectives. “The absolute number of carriers exiting is historically high due to the unprecedented surge in the carrier base, especially in 2021,” said Vise. “Even with the large number of carrier failures, through March, the market still has 94,000 more for-hire carriers than it did immediately before the pandemic.” Unless there are substantial changes in market conditions for small carriers – such as spot rates or diesel prices – the number of carriers leaving the market “likely will continue to ease incrementally but remain elevated” through most of this year, Vise said. “By late this year or early next year, the market should finally have returned to a pattern that is at least close to normal.” The wild cardOne uncertain factor that could impact the rate of carrier failures is insurance. Based on data from federal government, the costs for commercial auto insurance premiums have been rising for about a year. In March, the Producer Price Index for premiums was up about 2% from March of last year – year-over-year gain not seen since the end of 2019. “That year is an important benchmark because escalating insurance costs forced many small carriers out of business,” Vise noted. “To date, we haven’t seen a rapid escalation of premiums like we did in 2019, but continued increases might mean more failures than we would expect focusing simply on rates and fuel costs.” Massive multi-million-dollar verdicts against trucking companies can have significant impact on insurance costs. With insurance one of the main factors affecting a company’s bottom line, Dain Dockter, senior vice president of transportation practice at HUB International, emphasized that there must be a buy-in from the top down that operating a safe fleet is a priority and a responsibility that all staff members share, not just the safety department. Dockter advised hiring the right people, utilizing fleet safety technology, utilizing a driver training portal, and focusing on total cost of risk more so than insurance cost. "To continuously reduce the total cost of risk, a fleet must reduce/prevent accident frequency. There are a lot of different programs that can be used to finance risk, but none of them will yield positive results for an insured if loss frequency and severity is on the rise," he added. "A fleet needs to partner with an insurance broker that has the resources to help a fleet reduce/prevent accidents and can finance their risk in a manner that maximizes their return on their efforts to operate safely.” Dockter noted that there is an overall upward trend on commercial auto liability rates this year, with many of the company’s insurance carrier partners saying that they are looking to increase rates at around 8-12%. However, he pointed out this would not necessarily mean it’s a hard market as they still have plenty of clients getting flat rate renewals, small increases, or even some decreases. In addition, Dockter said they are still seeing a lot of competition on desirable accounts where the expiring pricing is being undercut by a competing market. “The market appears to be a in a state of flux right now,” he said. “There are some signals that the market is hardening – a few insurance carriers exiting the market, underwriters being more disciplined in their review of accounts, some insurance carriers taking 20%-plus rate increases across the board, some insurance carriers reducing the limits they will provide, etc. – but on the flip-side, there have been some new markets bringing capacity to the space, and several of our insurance carrier partners are aggressively trying to add market share.” Will the decrease of capacity strengthen the industry?While bankruptcies are tough for the market and lead to a ceasing of operations and reduction in the number of available trucks and drivers, could the capacity decline strengthen the industry? Vise pointed out that the trucking industry needs capacity to fall further to get back to a “healthy utilization and freight rate environment.” Though FTR expects some recovery in truck freight beginning around the middle of the year, volume alone will not significantly strengthen market conditions without more capacity leaving the market. However, Vise noted that carrier failures – most of which are single-truck operations – are only one piece of the puzzle. Many of the drivers displaced by small carrier failures have taken jobs at larger truckload carriers and have also taken much of the volume that had shifted to the spot market from late 2020 through early 2022. “As of February, payroll employment in general freight truckload is down only about 1.5% from its all-time high,” he said. Another consequence of high carrier failures, he said, is a growing surplus of used trucks that are turned back or repossessed. An abundance of used trucks results in reduced prices, resulting to lowering the barriers for new carriers to enter the market. Surprisingly, the first quarter witnessed an uptick in new entrants, said Vise. However, it seems that spot rates have hit their lowest point and diesel prices have leveled off. This may suggest that more drivers may be assessing the situation and anticipating a potential market upturn, prompting them to enter the industry early. “We won’t see a surge in new entry – if at all – until spot rates begin rising steadily, but we might have at least seen a stabilization following the steady decline in 2022 and 2023.” Strategies for risk mitigationLooking ahead, Vise said a fundamental strategy is doing everything possible to maintain positive cash flow. From minimizing empty and out-of-route miles and maintaining productivity, this could mean taking some loads with less-than desirable rates to cover fixed and variable costs. For carriers experiencing financial distress or on the verge of struggling, Dockter said it’s worth looking into factors on why a fleet is struggling. “A fleet needs to really drill down on where the profitability is within their fleet and where the inefficiencies are occurring,” he said. Dockter pointed out, “Are there certain customers, lanes, tractors, drivers, or commodities being hauled that aren’t profitable? Is there opportunity to increase the fleet’s fuel efficiency by governing the trucks or through driver training or fuel efficiency incentives for the drivers? Will their lender accept interest only payments for a while until the freight market improves? Should driver pay be adjusted due to market conditions? From a risk standpoint, is there an opportunity to finance the risk with a different structure or with a different provider to reduce the total cost of risk? These are just some of the questions that a fleet should be reviewing if they are having financial struggles right now.” https://ift.tt/0YgDbyk Maroon Express Inc., a now-out-of-service carrier authority, which double brokered a load from Uber Freight's network that ended up behind small fleet Blaga Express' tractor, is part of an investigation at both federal and state levels after a clean inspection report on what's shaping up to be a strange 2024 International. After Overdrive reporting surfaced the double brokering scam and the Uber Freight payment fiasco, Matthew Patrick of the Bannon Report, a freight fraud watchdog, said he'd tangled with the same double broker, and found some troubling information. [Related: FMCSA forces broker transparency from Uber Freight after double brokering scam] Patrick maintains a "do not use" list of more than 11,000 carrier authorities he has either caught in double brokering scams, or has significant and credible evidence showing they're not good-faith actors. That list featured Maroon, but after the Uber Freight story, Patrick started connecting some dots. In a LinkedIn post addressed to load board DAT, Patrick's Bannon Report detailed even more bizarre and concerning activity around Maroon. "Five of your active carrier customers had an inspection under VIN#3HAEUMML2RL571393 within 18 days at same York County, South Carolina, inspection station in August of 2023," wrote Bannon Report. "Three of these inspections occurred within four days of each other, by companies headquartered across the country in different states. This same VIN# was the sole inspection for Maroon Express Inc, occurring in July of 2023." That's the same Maroon Express that, in concert with a brokerage entity called Delta Dune (whose authority has also since been revoked), stiffed Blaga on payment for a load in September, but still got paid by Uber Freight. A look at the inspections history associated with the truck's VIN number revealed an astounding 15 inspections between July 10, 2023, and Sept. 18, 2023. In August of 2023 alone, according to this rundown on the BrokerSnapshot.com website, the VIN is associated with 10 inspection reports, nine of them in South Carolina. Furthermore, the VIN is a medium-duty International MV607, certainly not the right sort of power to pull a 53-foot reefer trailer like the one Blaga pulled for that Uber Freight load. In those 15 inspections, the truck showed 14 different DOT numbers. Of those DOT numbers, three of the carriers have since been placed out of service, and four have additional inspections within the last 24 months. Of those 14 carriers, at least one, besides Maroon, has been accused of double brokering. Owner-operator Ulysses Walls, headquartered in Sanford, Florida, and operating as McKinney-Walls LLC, has not one, but two inspections on his company's record in the MV607 in question. When Walls was using it last summer, he'd rented the unit from a South Carolina company to put a driver in. Walls' authority itself has eight inspections on the record in just the last year or so, six of them in South Carolina. Walls has never personally even seen this particular truck. But he said South Carolina state troopers have given him fits of late -- pulling in a truck for as little as having "a little dirt from the back roads" on them, he contended. "It's cost me thousands of thousands of dollars" getting inspected so many times, said Walls. "I wish it was scheduled. As someone driving in a box truck and leaving home for days trying to make $1,500 to spend $600 on fuel and bring home $900, inspections hit me hard. "I’m actually a bit apprehensive -- I won’t say fearful -- about even crossing over into South Carolina anymore." Walls' company accounts for just two of the 15 inspections of the medium-duty International, though. Its wealth of inspections associated with DOT authorities all around the nation raises questions, considering how many owner-operators and other small carriers have struggled to land freight from brokers simply because they've got the opposite problem -- no inspections on their 24-month record at all. Ilya Denisenko, the owner-operator behind the Millennial Trucker account on Twitter, knows just how such a scenario feels for the owner on the short end of the stick. Brokers going all in on inspections, length of authorityIn trying to stamp out freight fraud, which grew more than twofold in 2023 according to Truckstop, many brokers big and small have doubled down on old tactics, placing age-of-authority thresholds on the carriers they'll deal with, and often requiring a carrier to have been inspected by law enforcement. Denisenko has documented the frustrations of a relatively young authority online, and he says it's only getting worse. "I'm trying to network with other companies and brokers, but I'm basically reduced to having to work with TQL and C.H. Robinson," he said. "Even some brokers that people say will work with new authorities, that say on their website they work with 60-90 days of authority, are extending it." According to Denisenko, "Even Amazon is 120 days now. Schneider is 8 months. Pepsi requires a year and an inspection right now." Inspections are a new type of currency as brokers take broad steps to fight the tricky, shape-shifting problem of double brokering. Denisenko was speaking at the conclusion of the Broker-Carrier Summit event in Kansas City on Wednesday, and said brokers take a newly intense interest in inspections. "At the Broker-Carrier Summit, I had brokers tell me even if you don’t pass the inspection, just showing the inspection shows you’re a real person, not a double broker or stealing freight," he said. "Even if you fail, it shows you're an actual carrier." But as Maroon Express's curious inspection report shows, that theory might not hold. Denisenko got lucky with a clean Level 1 inspection just three days into his authority. Even still, when he calls a broker, all they want to hear is his MC number, and when that MC number shows only about 100 days of authority, the conversation often ends there. "As soon as I posted about getting inspected on day three, countless drivers messaged me saying they've had their authority for ten years and never got an inspection," he said. Not only does such a policy hurt legitimate new authorities, he said, it creates a perverse incentive for a secondary market for used, well-worn MC numbers. "There are ways you can purchase an LLC with an authority, or just start an authority and let it sit, that don’t really add any legitimacy" to a trucking operation, he said. "These ways are cheaper and quicker and easier than actually driving a truck and hauling." [Related: How owner-ops can avoid, or ace, inspections during Roadcheck] Patrick concurred. In his research for the Bannon Report, he said he's come across online markets with MC numbers for sale. "We had found an advertisement on Reddit and Facebook saying 'we pay cash for MC numbers, minimum two years authority and in good standing with Amazon, Uber and CH Robinson,'" he said. "That just screams fraud." Denisenko feels penalized for running a legit operation. "It's almost like it would be easier if I was fraudulent. There's plenty of cheap, easy routes" to pick up an older MC number, he said. Meanwhile, double broker networks strewn across the world are "having a blast" with dozens of MC numbers. According to Patrick, one runs eight offices, has twenty employees, and clears $180,000 a month. "That's a lot of money for some young guy in Romania," he said. Dale Prax, another freight fraud vigilante, says he's seen similar MC number mills double brokering out of Uzbekistan with similar impunity. Somehow, legitimate, hardworking trucking operations can't get inspected, but Maroon Express, among others, seems to have cracked the code. "If [double brokers] have figured out how to get inspections, that's frightening," said Walls. [Related: The double-brokering slow burn: How it happens, and how to fight back against it] Have the scammers figured out how to get inspections?Patrick admittedly put on his "tinfoil hat" for this one, but could some inspector in South Carolina be in on the scam? Overdrive flagged the inspections anomaly to FMCSA and South Carolina authorities, who said they would investigate the situation and report back later. FMCSA spokesperson Cicely Waters said the regulator's legal team was "actively investigating the identified cases, which will help them further assess the overall challenge." A South Carolina Department of Public Safety spokesperson said the agency was "aware of what’s going on and investigating it," but that they had nothing to release publicly and no timeline for such a release. For a gut check, Overdrive contacted Jeremy Disbrow, Roadside Inspection Specialist at the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance. Disbrow has 25 years of experience in law enforcement, much of that doing roadside inspections. Disbrow wouldn't comment on the double brokering from the Maroon Express carrier authority, given that's far outside CVSA's mission, but otherwise he gave good reasons for Overdrive to put down the tinfoil hat. "All of those inspections are from different inspectors, and there's also a massive amount of DOT number fraud, for lack of a better word, that all industry members have observed," said Disbrow. Here's what he means by that: "People are basically running under the radar and don’t have their own DOT number and then writing them down at a truck stop" and hastily applying a paper number to the side of the truck, he said. Walls, whose company racked up two inspections in the truck, said the driver had indeed applied a paper temporary DOT number to the rental. With 15 apparent inspections associated with the truck's VIN over just a few months, Disbrow said the volume "certainly does look suspicious," but a paper DOT number will "get you some attention," and your plates run by CMV enforcement. (Need an inspection? Maybe hauling with paper numbers in South Carolina will get you there.) [Related: Way to avoid trouble at the scale house, with Roadcheck on the horizon] But rather than a single inspector pulling the same truck over and over, Disbrow attributed the volume of inspections to CMV enforcement being fragmented and limited in scope. "Unfortunately for a roadside inspector, there's not a whole lot they can do other than turn that over to FMCSA to prompt an investigation," he said, when seeing strange inspections anomalies like these. Disbrow acknowledged that it's tough on carriers who want or need inspections to get business with brokers, but that it's important truck inspectors target likely bad actors and don't spend their time credentialing operators who are doing everything right. "If you have police officers doing truck enforcement," he said, "you want them to use the common sense. There's a limited number of officers out there, and their job is to get the unsafe motor carriers off the road. Their job is not to build someone's safety rating. I worked in a large metro area and there were maybe six of us" doing CMV enforcement there in any form. Disbrow said DOT number fraud is frequent in human trafficking cases, too, which officers are trained to detect. Perhaps that's what's keeping this truck at the scales. Perhaps the truck displayed Maroon Express's DOT number randomly. Whatever the case, the inspection associated with the authority certainly bolstered the credentials of the carrier/double broker. Time will tell if investigations yield further information. [Related: Roadcheck-ready resources: 'Ask Me Anything'-style live rap with Jeremy Disbrow coming May 1] https://ift.tt/0YgDbyk Trucking news and briefs for Thursday, April 25, 2024: Georgia man pleads guilty to CARES Act fraud, falsifying FMCSA recordsRoderick Billingslea, a Georgia-based former fleet owner, pleaded guilty on April 11 to one count of wire fraud and one count of falsification of records in a federal investigation. A Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General (OIG) and Small Business Administration OIG investigation revealed that Billingslea devised a scheme to defraud SBA by using false statements and fraudulent pretenses related to a loan/grant request for CARES Act funds. As a result, Billingslea wrongfully received $564,363. Additionally, Billingslea knowingly made false statements to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Form MCSA-1, which is required to operate as a motor carrier. After FMCSA ordered Billingslea to cease operation for willful violations, he reincarnated numerous motor carriers, including E-Cargo, Hidden Valley Transportation, US Transport, Midwest Express, and Dispatch USA, to bypass federal regulations and laws. Broker trade association updates framework for combating fraudThe Transportation Intermediaries Association, which represents brokers and third-party logistics providers, has released an updated version of its Framework to Combat Fraud: Preventing & Responding to Fraud and Theft. The 40-page document examines the latest trends in fraud in the supply chain and assists TIA members in developing and implementing their own policies and procedures to reduce potential fraud and theft of cargo. “Every day we expose ourselves to many risks in our businesses,” said Chairman of the TIA Fraud Taskforce Dan O’Sullivan. “We are trusting people that, in most cases, we have never met to move products around the country that are worth exponentially more than the rates earned for moving those products. How we manage those risks improves our bottom lines and protects our customers.” The five types of fraud that are covered in the framework with detailed case studies include: cargo theft, financial theft, identity theft, internal theft, and data/information theft. “Every day, the criminals that plague our industry with fraudulent activities are constantly adapting their strategies and looking for new segments of the supply chain to take advantage,” said Anne Reinke, president & CEO of TIA. “For industry stakeholders to stay one step ahead, we all need to collaborate and information share ideas and approaches to combat this rampant issue.” [Related: Broker group establishes fraud task force] Forge Truck Centers expands into TexasForge Truck Centers, a dealership that sells used specialty commercial trucks nationwide, has opened a South-Central Regional Sales and Service Center in the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex. Located in a newly-built 20,000 square foot building at 1301 Wintergreen Road in Hutchins, Texas, the regional center features 22 repair bays with top-of-the-line equipment and technology, as well as a comprehensive inventory of parts and components. Forge Truck Centers also provide extensive upfitting services to customize a truck for each customer’s requirements. “Dallas was selected as our first expansion market because the South-Central U.S. region includes a high concentration of companies that require heavy-duty vocational trucks in sectors such as construction, oil and gas, and agriculture,” said Joe Joyaux, vice president, sales, Forge Truck Centers South-Central Region. “We look forward to providing regional customers with even higher levels of service and support, such as vehicle customization, maintenance, and repairs.” The Dallas location of Forge Truck Centers will primarily serve customers in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and parts of Georgia. Forge Truck Centers, formerly IL Truck Group, plans to open several new regional centers annually throughout the U.S. over the next several years, beginning with the Dallas location. The new centers will make it convenient for regional customers to see a truck in-person before buying, take delivery of a vehicle more quickly, and get parts and service. https://ift.tt/0YgDbyk Trucking news and briefs for Wednesday, April 24, 2024: Heavy-duty pickup dealership owner sentenced for ‘deleting’ emissionsThe owner of a New York dealership specializing in diesel pickups was fined $50,000 and sentenced to four years of probation after previously pleading guilty to Clean Air Act violations for “deleting” emissions systems. Matthew R. Talamo, 38, of New Haven, New York, was sentenced this month for actions in his operation of Southern Diesel Truck Co. and Southern Diesel and Off-Road LLC in Oswego, New York. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York, Southern Diesel specializes in buying and reselling diesel vehicles and performing aftermarket modifications to diesel vehicles, particularly pickup trucks. In pleading guilty, Talamo admitted he conspired and agreed with others to violate the Clean Air Act at Southern Diesel by tampering with emission control monitoring devices and methods on diesel pickup trucks, including both software and hardware modifications. The illegal software modifications involved “tuning” or “deleting” the trucks by tampering with the onboard diagnostic systems and disabling emission controls, which allowed the trucks to emit substantially more pollutants into the atmosphere, the attorney’s office said. [Related: Rhode Island fleet owner sentenced for illegal emissions 'tunes'] Talamo and his employees also made hardware modifications to diesel vehicles, including by removing tailpipes, mufflers, and other exhaust components and replacing them with so-called "straight pipes" that lacked diesel particulate filters and other systems designed to reduce harmful emissions. Between January 2018 and November 2022, Southern Diesel tampered with the emission control monitoring devices and systems of approximately 244 diesel vehicles, often charging thousands of dollars per vehicle for the modifications. Chief U.S. District Judge Brenda K. Sannes, who presided over the case, ordered Talamo to complete 150 hours of community service during his term of probation and ordered him to abide by terms of a compliance program agreed to as part of his plea agreement, including that Southern Diesel is subject to inspection at any time for potential Clean Air Act violations. [Related: Final sentences handed down in Michigan emissions 'delete' case] Pilot program for ‘zero-emission’ truck financing poised for launch with lenders, small fleetsThe California Air Resources Board is poised to launch a pilot Zero-Emission Heavy-Duty Vehicle Air Quality Loan Program in conjunction with the California Pollution Control Financing Authority through their California Capital Access Program (CalCAP). The new pilot program will offer financing opportunities for medium- and heavy-duty zero-emission vehicles. As an “independent contributor” to CalCAP, CARB will contribute a percentage of an enrolled loan into a “loan loss reserve” account for each participating financial institution. With these funds available, lenders are better equipped to lend to businesses that need a little extra assistance and typically offer more favorable terms than the business would qualify for otherwise, CARB said. [Related: Known unknown: How the used market will develop for Class 8 and other electric trucks] The pilot program will be offered statewide. Eligible small fleets can apply for a loan through a participating lender, who will then submit an enrollment application directly to CalCAP. The pilot will be open to fleets with 20 or fewer medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. Purchased vehicles must be new or used zero-emission and on-road trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating over 8,500 pounds. CARB said a warranty purchase is eligible when combined with a vehicle purchase. An initial funding allocation of $5 million was provided in the CARB Fiscal Year 2022-'23 Funding Plan to create the pilot ZE Heavy-Duty Vehicle Air Quality Loan Program. The pilot will help program staff learn about what small business fleets need to transition to zero-emission vehicles by analyzing project data and evaluating deployment success. Staff will also monitor pilot participation in disadvantaged and low-income communities and solicit input from lenders and borrowers to understand how the program has influenced purchasing behaviors. [Related: Electric-truck purchase incentives present big challenges for small fleets, owner-operators] Mack, Volvo using renewable diesel to move new trucks off assembly linesMack Trucks and Volvo Trucks on Wednesday announced that the companies are using hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), or renewable diesel, in newly assembled trucks moving off the assembly line. Mack said HVO is being used to move completed Class 8 trucks off its production line at Lehigh Valley Operations (LVO), in Macungie, Pennsylvania. “The utilization of HVO will help Mack in its journey to promote the decarbonization of the transportation industry,” said Jonathan Randall, president of Mack Trucks North America. “Whether it’s through the use of HVO, or through the development of Mack battery-electric vehicles, such as the Mack LR Electric refuse and Mack MD Electric models, Mack is committed to reducing its carbon footprint and achieving our sustainability goals.” Mack estimated that by utilizing HVO, LVO was able to reduce carbon emission by about 18%. Volvo is using HVO at its New River Valley (NRV) plant in Dublin, Virginia. “Today and for the foreseeable future, there will not be a one-size-fits-all approach to decarbonizing transportation,” said Peter Voorhoeve, president, Volvo Trucks North America. “That is why, at Volvo Trucks, we are focused on the three-pillar strategy with battery electric, hydrogen fuel cell and renewable fuels in the internal combustion engine. With the all-new Volvo VNL and by utilizing HVO, we can make the most substantial and immediate impact today. There is a future for the [Internal Combustion Engine] and we’re happy to be doing all factory fills with renewable fuel, an important step towards walking the talk in our sustainability journey.” Volvo is fueling new trucks leaving the NRV plant with 20 to 25 gallons of HVO per tank, with full tanks provided for trucks destined directly for customers. This initiative is expected to replace 1,125,000 gallons of fossil-based diesel annually, achieving an estimated 75% to 85% reduction in CO2 emissions for Volvo Trucks' operations in North America. HVO can be used interchangeably with petroleum diesel. Renewable diesel at any blend up to a maximum of 100% (RD100) that conforms to ASTM D975 or EN15940 will not adversely affect engine or aftertreatment performance or durability. [Related: 'Massive' rate increase needed to finance $1 trillion electric trucking conversion] https://ift.tt/CkKWsFJ The Biden administration on Wednesday announced more than $1 billion in funding and incentives it hopes will spur the transition to zero-emission heavy-duty trucks. The White House in March laid out its plan to establish a charging and refueling infrastructure network for zero-emission commercial trucks, an initiative that seeks to maximize the impact of charging infrastructure investment by guiding development toward high-volume-priority corridors and existing freight hubs. The plans made public Wednesday support the corridors' development and President Biden’s goals for a carbon pollution-free energy sector by 2035, and for achieving net-zero emissions from the transportation sector by 2050. Drew Kodjak, who serves as senior director of transportation emissions in the White House Climate Policy Office, noted Wednesday that the corridor strategy was not started from scratch and "not only did we have a strategy, a lot of the work that is being done to make investments in infrastructure are aligning beautifully with that strategy. It's not really surprising, frankly, because most of the strategy is built around where most of the freight is; where the big opportunities are." Kodjak noted than 170 zero-emission corridor projects have been collected for consideration "over the course of the last several weeks," including 5,000 EV ports for heavy-duty freight charging, more than 50 hydrogen dispensers, "and daily services for 12,000 zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty zero-emission vehicles." The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Wednesday it is making available $1 billion in funding for cities and states through the Inflation Reduction Act to replace fossil fuel-fired Class 6 and Class 7 vehicles, including school buses, refuse trucks and delivery trucks, with zero-emissions vehicles. The funding will support infrastructure to charge, fuel and maintain heavy-duty zero-emission vehicles, along with workforce development and training to get this work done. At least $400 million of the program’s funding will serve communities dealing with significant air pollution. The Department of Transportation (DOT) announced the first tranche of its $400 million Reduction of Truck Emissions at Port Facilities Grant Program to improve air quality and reduce pollution for truck drivers, port workers and families that live in communities surrounding ports. The Department of Energy (DOE) is also announcing a $72 million investment to establish a “SuperTruck: Charged” program that will demonstrate how vehicle-grid integration enables depots and truck stops to provide affordable, reliable charging while increasing grid resiliency. The National Zero-Emission Freight Corridor Strategy, developed by the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation and the DOE, in collaboration with the DOT and EPA, is based on a focused buildout around freight and trucking return-to-base depot infrastructure, regional hub-to-hub corridors and national network nodes. It was drafted to meet growing market demands by targeting public investment to amplify private sector momentum, focus utility and regulatory energy planning, align industry activity and improve air quality in local communities heavily impacted by diesel emissions. Trucking groups, in a report compiled by third-party Roland Berger, contended that such a rollout would cost upwards of $1 trillion and likely drive numerous trucking companies out of business and consumer prices soaring. The Biden administration on Wednesday invited several stakeholders from commercial truck fleets, ports, vehicle manufacturers, state and local governments, utilities, infrastructure providers, and climate and environmental justice organizations to the White House for a roundtable-like discussion focused on supercharging the buildout of the infrastructure necessary to make a zero-emissions freight ecosystem a reality in the U.S. It is the first of a series of engagements aimed at tackling emissions from the movement of goods across the nation and recognizes the great progress made already by leaders in freight decarbonization. https://ift.tt/CkKWsFJ I was talking to a fed-up driver. His company left him sitting all day waiting on a load, then finally dispatched him 670 miles with a delivery time the next morning. To make matters worse, he would have to deal with Atlanta rush hour because he was dispatched so late. He was mad because he would not be paid for waiting, even though he was available for dispatch. He was fed up because his miles were consistently under 3,000 miles a week. He was fed up because the company treated him like a machine, a truck that could just be turned on and used whenever they were ready, left sitting idle when they did not need him. We talked about other companies -- he was mad enough to seriously consider quitting. We’re not in the good/bad old days, he intimated. Drivers aren’t going to just pop a pill, break out a new logbook, and make a run look right. And it’s not just the waiting that’s at issue. His company sends him to cities without a pre-plan assist. With no option to sit at a receiver after unload and wait hours for the next load, all too frequently he must drive 20-50 miles to find parking. Empty miles, wasted time he’s likewise all too often not compensated for. I could almost see him shaking his head while we talked. He sounded exhausted, physically and mentally. He ran through numbers. His company has 260 drivers, give or take, each operator averaging three to four loads a week. 260 drivers moving 20 miles three times a week for parking: 15,600 miles a week, 62,400 miles a month. At 6 mpg, that’s 10,400 gallons burned. At $3.70 per gallon, he wagered, lack of pre-planning could easily cost the company more than $38K monthly. Because he is a rookie driver, I noted that many companies have faced the same situations since the electronic logging device mandate’s implementation in late 2017. Add slow freight/excess capacity tamping down rates to so many fleets’ attitude toward drivers' value: changing companies might make little difference, I suggested, with a high likelihood of more of the same elsewhere. [Related: The not-so-long haul: Operational challenges to owner-ops after the ELD mandate] Again, I could almost see him shaking his head as we spoke. It made sense to start exploring alternatives, he said, because the money he was taking home just did not justify being gone from that home as much as he was. I guess I couldn’t disagree with him, and it got me thinking about value. If a carrier doesn’t value its own bottom line, how can we expect it to value the driver and their time? There are varying dictionary definitions of value, but generally they share the common bond of worth -- the quality of something that is important, useful, fetching a high price, essential or beneficial, commanding praise. Parsing value definitions, it dawned on me how much value is a reflection of our attitudes toward the thing valued. So many of drivers’ conflicts with carriers boil down to the company’s attitude -- toward them. Carriers that churn and burn through truckers, with high turnover rates? They betray a dime-a-dozen-type attitude to drivers. Without a wholesale company-culture shift, they’ll never value drivers as they should. Clearly they need an attitude adjustment, which might be the bottom line for retaining the best out there. It costs a boatload to bring in and train new CDL-equipped employees and/or independent contractor owner-operators leasing on. It costs the operator, too, of course. The “Choosing a Carrier” Chapter 13 in Overdrive’s Partners in Business handbook notes for leased owners that “the cost involved in making that switch often is overlooked,” particularly once we start considering all the downtime involved in searching for the new fleet, going through orientation and other interruptions to your routine. It can “be thousands of dollars” in the end. For the carriers I’ve spoken to, I can ballpark an average of about $3,500 in hard costs to bring an experienced CDL driver aboard. Let’s say a fleet’s dime-a-dozen attitude toward driver value accounts for even just 40% of its 100% annual turnover problem (not far from truckload averages through history). A company the size of our rookie driver’s might thus spend $364,000 a year onboarding new CDL holders for that attitude. You can go ahead and add the annual $460K in wasted fuel we charted above. Together, that’s approaching a million dollars a year wasted on the basis of a dime-a-dozen attitude toward the driver and his time. Yet the marketing rhetoric you hear from trucking companies is often enough just the opposite. Carriers advertise family atmospheres where drivers are not just a number. (I'm the black sheep, of sorts, and where I come from, family does not treat family in a positive way by default -- I’m naturally skeptical when I hear that.) Carriers boast about terminal amenities, their ability to get drivers home on the weekends, open-door policies, etc., etc. Granted, many have invested a great deal of money to offer drivers a comfortable place to wait when stuck away from home at the terminal and not getting paid. You can have every little amenity in the world, yet I have never met a driver who’d rather stay at the terminal than home. Home every weekend: Too commonly, it means the driver runs himself into the ground to get the miles they need for an adequate check and still get home, or they settle for a smaller paycheck to be home and rested enough to enjoy it. Other carriers will claim they have no problem getting drivers home every other week (something divorced fathers need), then hee-haw around when the time comes. Part of the fix for these issues is that attitude adjustment I mentioned earlier, not just carriers’ attitude toward driver value, but also drivers’ attitude toward the value of their own time. Again, using the example of our rookie’s carrier above, if the carrier saved the money wasted on inefficiency and turnover and divided it between the drivers, each operator would bank a raise north of $3K annually. Anyone can appreciate that sort of value. Finally, the word value can of course refer to individual principles or standards. Let’s make it a principle among carriers that drivers are truly valued, and a standard that our own time is worth something. Wake up, drivers, and take a stand. The ball is not just in your hands. The ball is in your court. You own the court, fundamentally: trucking companies cannot exist without you. [Related: Demanding detention improvement -- high time for action from all quarters of trucking] https://ift.tt/CkKWsFJ Trucking news and briefs for Tuesday, April 23, 2024: New state law establishes heavy-duty towing guardrails, bans boots and other devicesMississippi Gov. Tate Reeves on April 19 signed a bill into law that aims to cut down on predatory towing practices targeting commercial vehicles in the state. With the new law, Mississippi joins Maryland, Florida, and other states that have recently made similar efforts to rein in egregious rates and other predatory practices. The new law establishes a Commercial Vehicle Towing Advisory Committee within the state’s Department of Public Safety’s Public Commercial Transportation Enforcement Division. That committee is charged with:
[Related: DOT's Buttigieg, FMCSA call out predatory towing, propose penalties] “Predatory towing is an egregious practice that not only disrupts our state’s supply chain, but also costs Mississippi truck owners thousands of dollars for each unwanted tow,” said Mississippi Trucking Association President Hal Miller. “We are grateful to Mississippi legislators for listening to our concerns about this unfair tactic, and we thank Gov. Reeves for swiftly signing this bill into law.” The law defines “nonconsensual towing” as “the moving, transporting or recovery of a commercial vehicle by a towing and recovery service without the prior consent or authorization of the owner or operator of the motor vehicle from private property and/or by police-initiated towing,” which should cover not only roadside emergency tows but also parking-enforcement tows. The new law prohibits towing and recovery services from using vehicle immobilization devices, such as boots, unless directed to by law enforcement. The law also requires that when a vehicle is nonconsensually towed to a storage facility, the towing service will allow a vehicle owner or designee of the owner to access the vehicle to collect personal property, “regardless of whether any payment has been made for the towing and recovery service charges.” [Related: Trucking's best defense against predatory towing: A step-by-step guide] Towing and recovery services will also be required to document the vehicle’s condition and reason for towing before hooking up to the vehicle for a nonconsensual tow, and to take multiple photographs from different angles, which can be provided to the truck owner by request. The law goes into effect on July 1. [Related: Predatory towing: How common it is, and how truckers can avoid it] Senators urge NHTSA to create automated driving system standardsA group of Senators last week penned a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration urging the agency to be more proactive and aggressive in addressing safety concerns related to automated driving technologies. Sens. Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) authored the April 18 letter, which was cosigned by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Ben Ray Luján (D-New Mexico), and Peter Welch (D-Vermont). The senators noted “several high-profile crashes” in the last few months that “have highlighted the risks that vehicles equipped with partially automated and Automated Driving Systems (ADS) pose for road users.” They added that NHTSA has initiated several investigations but has not taken further proactive steps to make these systems safe enough for U.S. roads. “We cannot allow partially automated driving systems and automated driving systems to accelerate the road safety crisis,” the senators wrote in the letter. “NHTSA must take firm control of the wheel and steer manufacturers towards prioritizing safety.” [Related: FMCSA to study 'human-ADS' teams?] They added that “public roads are not a sandbox for manufacturers or operators to play in, and regulatory agencies like NHTSA should be highly cautious about providing lax pathways onto the road for dangerous vehicles.” Specifically, the letter urges NHTSA to consider several policy actions that would make autonomous vehicles safer, including:
[Related: Will autonomous trucks displace drivers? Congress holds hearing on impacts] Truck tonnage fell in MarchThe amount of freight hauled by trucks in March was down 1% year over year and down 2% from February, according to the American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index. The 2% decline from February follows a 4% increase in February from January. In March, the index equaled 113.4 compared with 115.7 in February. “Tonnage in March suggests that truck freight volumes remain lackluster, and it is clear the truck freight recession continued through the first quarter,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “In the first three months of 2024, ATA’s tonnage index contracted 0.8% from the previous quarter and declined 2.4% from a year earlier, highlighting ongoing challenges the industry is navigating.” Compared with March 2023, the index fell 1%, which was the 13th straight year-over-year decline, but the second smallest over that period. In February, the index was down 1.7% from a year earlier. The not seasonally adjusted index, which represents the change in tonnage actually hauled by the fleets before any seasonal adjustment, equaled 114.4 in March, 4.7% higher than in February. ATA’s For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index is dominated by contract freight as opposed to spot market freight. https://ift.tt/CkKWsFJ David "BudMan" Singh pulls a 53-foot stainless spread-axle reefer with his 2015 Kenworth T660, featuring an 86-inch Studio Sleeper. He's nicknamed the rig "Ghost." It was originally equipped with a Paccar engine, but Singh replaced that with a 12.7-liter Detroit Series 60. The truck boasts a few customizations, including a chrome and wood grain interior, RLK drop visor and window chops, and chrome around the sleeper windows. He also plans to add stacks on the back of the cab. For the trailer, Singh has added quarter fenders, a stainless rear impact guard with a custom light plate, a stainless landing gear cover, tool boxes between the spread axles and light plates in front of both axles. Singh grew up around trucking with his dad, and he and his older brother followed in his footsteps. Singh's brother, Harry Singh Jr., passed away in October 2021, and his father, Harry Sr., passed in November 2023. "I basically have my one truck and trailer, and I’m still trucking in [their] memory and keeping the torch going with the support of my wife and my mother from the home front," David said. [Related: Independent's big-bunk '98 379] Click here to see more photos of reader uploads or to submit your own. For custom-equipment features delivered to your email inbox, subscribe to Overdrive's weekly Custom Rigs newsletter via this link. https://ift.tt/YAIs1MX |
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