58% of truck drivers are willing to admit to performing unauthorized parking at least three times per week. Minneapolis’ city council has devised a law that will probably make the citizens and tourists of Minneapolis very happy, but will make truck drivers furious.The LawOn Friday, July 23rd, the city council voted 12-1 for a truck […]
About six months ago, we predicted that the Tesla Semi would not hit the market in 2021. Then, they had a battery cell shortage. It looks like our prediction has finally been vindicated, as Tesla Motors announced that the launch date for the Tesla Semi has officially been pushed back to 2022. The Details The […]
Some causes are worth continuously fighting for. On the 22nd of July, Senator Todd Young (R-IN) introduced bill S.2435 co-sponsored by Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) to repeal the Federal Excise Tax (FET) on new heavy-duty truck purchases. This is not the first time that the FET has been under scrutiny, but with senators behind it, […]
It should not be a surprise to anyone that governments tend to be lazy, even with each other. Federal regulations call for states where drivers are convicted to transmit conviction data to the state where the driver is licensed either electronically via Commercial Driver’s License Information System (CDLIS), or by mail, but not both. The […]
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) may have a week of brake inspections coming up, but that was warned of months in advance. On May 26th, the CVSA performed an unannounced day of a blitz of safety inspections. Here is what they found. Brake Inspection Summary The day-long event took place across the three largest […]
Anyone who has been in the trucking industry for longer than a year knows that demand for trucks (new, used, and components) is rapidly outpacing supply, at least for the short term. What better time to leverage your position than when you are needed most? Whether that was their plan or the timing just happened […]
Hyzon Motors joins other trucking technology companies such as Nikola Motor Company, Hyliion, and TuSimple by allowing the common man to buy ownership in the company. Here is a summary of the venture and how it became public.DetailsHyzon (a portmanteau of “hydrogen” and “horizon”) Motors started as a part of Horizon Fuel Cells back in […]
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) always planned for the off-site audits to become the norm. The coronavirus pandemic merely accelerated it. From 2017 to 2020, the number of off-site audits increased fifteenfold, and the number only appears to be increasing for 2021. Currently, these remote audits account for about 46% of all of […]
If you are an owner-operator or a fleet owner, chances are you have two dozen things on your mind at any given time, but to make sure you are in compliance with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration quickly, look up the last two digits of your USDOT number. If the last digit represented the […]
All good things must come to an end. For trailer sales, which wavered at the start of the coronavirus pandemic but came back with a vengeance in June 2020, it appears that the skyrocket has begun to run out of fuel.The NumbersFTR and ACT Research are very close in their estimates this month, at 11,000 […]
Remember last year before the COVID-19 lockdowns hit and there were shortages of hand sanitizer and toilet paper. The trucking industry was there to make deliveries, but now that the hand is on the other foot, toilet paper is not coming to save us. Supply Shortage First it was a new truck shortage. Then there […]
On Thursday July 8th, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, and Deputy Administrator Meera Joshi of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) hosted a roundtable to discuss trucking employment. Trucking Employment: Retention Versus Recruitment The “shortage” (the economic law of supply and demand impacting market rates and therefore carriers paying a premium […]
It should be no surprise to members in the trucking industry that whenever an “event” happens, regulators relieve some pressure to allow drivers to get their job done more quickly. In just the past eighteen months we have had hours-of-service exemptions for: Novel coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) nationwide. Wildfires along the western coast. Cold snap for states […]
Since at least June 2020, each month of truck sales has been higher than the same month the year prior. We are now entering the anniversary of the “skyrocket” phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, where a delay in demand reared its head, so it is hard to say how long the streak will last. For […]
Here we are at the end of another month, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has updated its numbers for the trucking industry yet again. If the preliminary numbers are accurate, then the trucking industry continues to be on a roll.The NumbersThe numbers released in July are:June 2021: 1,486,500 (preliminary).May 2021: 1,480,100 (preliminary, 400 […]
Were you aware that each month, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) publishes data of violations entered into their Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse? With the program in motion for almost a year and a half, here are the most interesting bits of information. Clearinghouse Details To read the reports, including for months prior, go […]
