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UPS executive challenges fleets to ‘define excellence’
ATLANTA, Ga. -- Carlton Rose, president, global fleet maintenance and engineering at UPS, is challenging the trucking industry to define the excellence needed to realize cleaner cities, safer vehicles, and underlying technical knowledge. “If you’re the one who defines excellence, then you’re the one who shapes expertise to achieve it,” Rose said.
Expect more Run on Less from NACFE
The North American Council for Freight Efficiency has unveiled a new look and redesigned website (www.nacfe.org) as it widens its focus beyond the fuel-saving equipment and components on the road today. The organization’s original goal was to promote the doubling of freight-moving efficiency. And the recent Run on Less event proved that target is “pretty practical”, said executive director Mike Roeth, during a briefing at the Technology and Maintenance Council’s annual meeting. Seven trucks participating in Run on Less proved an average of 10.1 mpg (23.3 L/100 km) is possible with existing technologies, and under real-world operating conditions. This compares to a national average of 6.4 mpg (36.75 L/100 km), and U.S. Department of Energy super trucks achieving 11-13 mpg (21.38-18.09 L/100km).
Border can represent a technical divide
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Marc Greco, manager of corporate solutions with Challenger Motor Freight, was direct when he summed up a comparison of Canadian and U.S. trucking operations. “We do things slightly differently,” he told a crowd at Omnitracs’ Outlook user conference in Nashville, Tenn.
Cyberattacks are a real threat to trucking: panel
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – It can begin with someone surfing porn on a fleet tablet, clicking on the link in an email from someone who appears to be a trusted customer, or even using a poorly designed ELD. But no matter how a breach in fleet systems is created, the cybersecurity threats in trucking are all too real.
Small business ELD exemption ‘not likely’, analysts say
BLOOMINGTON, IN – The rollout of mandated Electronic Logging Devices (ELD) continues in the U.S. And while some trucking operations have secured temporary waivers, analysts at FTR Intel believe a bid to exempt small carriers outright is unlikely to succeed. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) has asked regulators to exempt small businesses making less than US $27.5 million in revenue, that don’t have an unsatisfactory safety rating, and have a safe record with no attributable at-fault crashes. It would last five years. An exemption like that – already rejected during the regulatory review process – would essentially gut the mandate for ELDs, and has been opposed by the American Trucking Associations and safety advocacy groups. Eighty-one percent of over-the-road trucking companies, and 93% of one-truck operators among them, have had no DOT-recordable crashes in the past two years, FTR notes.