2/3/2012  What trucking can learn from the airlines
On the Road Blog by Jim Park, Equipment Editor

For-hire trucking could learn a few things from the airlines, because they have finally figured out how to make money in a deregulated environment.

Before I get into this installment, let me say that the promised piece on the "Culture of Culpability" is coming next week. A promise is a promise, but after 14 hours at the mercy of U.S.Air on a round trip to Las Vegas last week, I got thinking about how those folks have turned their financial houses around at the expense of the passengers. It made me wonder how trucking might do the same.

Love 'em or hate 'em, commercial airlines are the most time- and cost-effective way -- even comfortable if you compare an Airbus A320 to a cattle truck -- of moving our butts back and forth across the country. While passengers may be unhappy with being nickeled-and-dimed to death, they are paying the endless list of fees and surcharges, and the airlines are racking up record revenue increases.

The Associated Press reports that U.S.-based airlines hauled in $3.4 billion in baggage fees in 2010, a 24% increase over 2009. By the end of the third quarter 2011, 17 major U.S. airlines had collected $2.6 billion for checking luggage. Not bad for something that used to be free.....

1/20/2012  The driver shortage is a myth
On the Road Blog by Jim Park, Equipment Editor

There are thousands of men and women out there today with a CDL in their pocket no longer working as truck drivers. Why is the industry moaning about a shortage of drivers?

Like any perceived shortage, the tightness in the current labor market exists only in the minds of those unwilling to pay the price of resolving it. In our case, jobs are going begging because the cost of filling the empty seats seems too high. Or, looking at it from the opposite perspective, those the industry would hope to attract are unwilling to work -- again -- for companies that used and abused and took advantage of them for years.

If a fleet can't fill its empty seats, it's because the fleet has more trucks than it needs, or drivers simply do not want to work for that company.....

1/10/2012  Trucking down the glass highway
On the Road Blog by Jim Park, Equipment Editor

Glass highway? Does that have something to do with electronic dashboards, as in the Glass Cockpit concept in modern aircraft? Nope, we're talking about roadways made of glass. But you're not far off on the electronic angle.

Paved road surfaces have been around for thousands of years, but the basic construction technique and the materials used haven't changed much in the last 100 years.

The ancient Romans are credited with building the first paved roads using tightly fitted blocks of stone. Some of those roads, the Appian Way in Rome for example, have survived more than 2,000 years. Roman city streets, with their curbstones and elevated sidewalks, became the basis for today's street designs.

According to www.curbstone.com, The first recorded "paved" road in America dates back to 1625, and is said to be in Permaquid, Maine. It is now called Colonial Pemaquid Drive. In 1795, the Philadelphia to Lancaster turnpike became the first "engineered" road in America -- and it was a toll road.....

1/4/2012  Underinflated tires don't work very well
On the Road blog by Jim Park, Equipment Editor

Regular readers of Heavy Duty Trucking may know me as The Tire Guy. I've written the magazine's tire feature every month for the past four years or so. I got a dose of my own medicine on Christmas Day, trying to take my motorcycle out for a rare winter spin.

I live near Buffalo, N.Y., not the kind of place you'd expect to do any two-wheeling around Christmastime. But we're having an odd winter this year. Temperatures have been hovering well above freezing since November. The mercury has dipped below freezing only a couple of times so far this season, so, on a rainy Christmas day with temperatures in the mid-40s, your scribe decided it would be a great day to get the bike out.

I mean, how often do we northerners get to ride on Christmas day?

Because of the wet roads, I decided to switch out my rear tire -- which was due for a change in the spring -- for a tire with more tread on it. I have a few parts bikes in the garage because parts for my 28-year-old Virago are getting hard to find. One of the tires is nearly new with lots of tread for slippery wet roads, and it's still on a wheel, so the change would be simple.

That tire had not been ridden in a couple of years, so I fully expected it to be a little soft. There's a 7-11 up the road from my house with a coin-operated tire pump, so I figured I'd ride up there and fill the tire before I tore off into the wilderness. It's a tubeless tire, and it was firm and still tight on the rim, so I figured it would get me the mile or so up to the corner store.

The bike barely rolled down my driveway. It labored in first gear, and nearly stopped when I shifted into second. Had I tightened the wheel too much? Were the bearings under too much load? Was the brake dragging? No, I had hand-spun the wheel before taking it off the stand. So what was dragging?

I nursed the bike up to the store, fished four quarters out of my pocket for the tire pump, and set to inflating the tire. The manual recommends 28 psi inflation pressure, but I had less than 10 psi in the tire -- about one-third the suggested pressure.

Topped up and saddled up, I wheeled out of the 7-11 parking lot like the wind. The drag was gone and the bike rolled along as smoothly as ever. Could a soft tire have made that much difference?

The sidewalls on a motorcycle tire are fairly stiff, and the tire didn't look visibly mishapened while I sat on the bike, but there was certainly something in that tire that didn't like running soft.

A few years ago, Tim Miller of Goodyear provided me with a quote about underinflated tires that resonated because I had been there. He said driving on soft tires was like walking barefoot on a beach with deep sand. Pushing the shifting sand aside with your foot requires energy, and that's why your legs get tired walking in deep sand. It takes some effort; like rolling a 400-pound motorcycle with a 200-pound rider on a tire with just one-third of its recommended pressure.

I'll grant you right now, my tire was severely underinflated, but it didn't look or feel underinflated. Much like a truck tire with 50 or 60 psi instead of 100 or so. You can't tell much by thumping a tire, but your engine would sure notice a difference, especially if several tires on the truck were under-inflated.

So, I'll call it a lesson learned -- the hard way as usual. A little more experience I can bring to my monthly tire column. And you, dear reader, can believe me or not. If not, you'll have to learn the lesson the hard way yourself.

If that's how you operate, take Tim Miller's advice and go for a walk on the beach rather than mine, trying to roll soft tires down the road.

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12/21/2011  What's a Good Driver?
On the Road blog by Jim Park, Equipment Editor

Everybody wants good truck drivers these days. Funny thing though, the recruiting ads are usually desperately short on specifics. So what is a good driver? Let's ask a few of the many masters that drivers serve in the course of their duties.

A dispatcher might say that a good driver is one he can depend on to get the freight delivered, no matter what. Dispatchers love drivers like that. Helps them sleep at night. Ask the safety supervisor, and advise him of the dispatcher's response, and he'd likely have a stroke.

"If the driver's willing to do whatever needs to be done to get the freight to the customer on time, no matter what, then maybe the driver isn't taking safety seriously enough," the safety supervisor might say. "Hours of service, bad weather, traffic congestion, all that and more are safety concerns. Maybe I'd better speak to that driver."

Now ask the safety supervisor what she thinks a good driver is, and she might say someone who does whatever needs to be done to get the freight delivered on time, provided it doesn't compromise the safe operation of the vehicle.

"The good driver is mindful of bad weather and other motorists, doesn't drive aggressively, and obeys all the rules of the road," the safety supervisor might say.

Next, let's ask a carrier sales rep what a good driver is, and while you're at it, tell him what the safety supervisor said. When he gets up off the floor, he'd likely rant and rave about all the promises he made to the customer.

"I sold that customer on on-time delivery. What happens if your driver runs out of hours before he gets to the customer? I'm toast!" he might say. "How can we separate ourselves from the competition if we don't go the extra mile? I'm going to have to offer the customer a discount on the next load just to keep the business."

Since we're making the rounds, let's ask a mechanic what makes a good truck driver.

"He's not hard on the equipment, he looks after the truck, and he's not always walking into the shop waving work orders around for silly stuff like radios and air conditioners that don't work, or squeaky doors," the guy with the wrench in his pocket might be inclined to say. "What does he know about trucks anyway? He's not a mechanic."

And just for fun, let's ask a DOT enforcement officer.

"A good driver would always be in compliance. He'd always be polite and helpful while I conduct my Level 1 inspections, and he would never question my judgment. I know the regulations better than any driver does," he might say.

A driver's spouse would probably say a good truck driver is one who always comes home when he says he will and never misses the kid's birthdays. The insurance broker might see a good driver as one who's never had an accident, even though he may have never had to avoid one either.

And any member of the motoring public might tell you that a good truck driver is one who never speeds or tailgates, or better still, stays home and doesn't clog up the busy highways. But that member of the motoring public might well be informing you of his opinion while standing in line at the train station waiting for a loaf of bread or a gallon of gasoline.

As we already know only too well, a truck driver serves many masters, and precious few really understand just what a valuable asset a good truck driver really is. But back to my original question: what is a good truck driver?

I think a good driver is one who is aware of the importance of what he does, and at the same time he understands what an awesome responsibility driving a truck on a clogged highway can be. He knows the value of customer service, but his self-esteem won't allow him to be taken advantage of in the process. He respects authority, but draws the line at bending over backwards for some misguided little Nero with an inflated sense of his own importance.

He knows enough about his truck to know when it needs attention, and he gets it when it's needed. He wouldn't drive anything in less than tip-top mechanical condition. He knows that delivering the load isn't always the most important thing in the world. And he values his family and his personal life enough to say 'no' at times when it may be imprudent to do so.

He knows trucking is a hard row to hoe, but he gives it 100 percent everyday anyway, and he respects his fellow drivers enough to flash the headlights for a passing driver, and he won't leave the landing-gear crank sticking out from beneath the trailer in a dark drop yard.

But mostly he knows that he can't possibly please everyone so he picks his battles and stands his ground in the face of bad direction. He's acutely aware that he'll be left holding the smoking gun when something goes awry.

He knows the value of being a good driver, and will do nothing to jeopardize that standing. Today, a good driver should be worth his or her weight in gold.

Now let's hear from you. How do you define a good truck driver?
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