Posts Tagged ‘flatbed trucking’

2 Million Safe Shipping Container Miles

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

Two More truck shipping professionals were recently celebrated and congratulated for a long career of safe driving on the transport roads and highways of the United States of America in the century of the environment. The two most recent truckers honored for years of safe cargo transport on the roads of America are Virgin Shell of Columbia, S.C., and Dennis Howard of Goodwater, Ala. These two professionals were honored during a luncheon and presented with cash and gifts during the National Truck Drivers Appreciation Week, for over 2 million safe transport miles during their careers. This is a great accomplishment for any trucker and one that will certainly make these two truckers proud to say they’re in the trucking business, and the professionals that work with them proud to say they know these two truckers.

Virgil Shell and Dennis Howard are flatbed trucking professionals that think about transport safety first, according to these truckers, and they use daily alerts and reminders to always keep their minds on safety first, while out on the roads of America. The professionals that work with these two truckers indicate they’re normal hard working American truckers that exhibit discipline and patience on the job. These two truckers are definitely an example of how the transportation services industry in the United States thinks safety first, while still delivering the goods on time and budget. Just two American truckers with experience and skills they can pass onto younger truckers traveling down the roads of the United States of America.

Trucking Service Firm Recruiting Immigrant Drivers

Friday, June 11th, 2010

Canadian freight carriers thinking about recruiting drivers from outside Canada in order to supplement their driver pool might want to take a look at the problems this has created for one Canadian freight carrier in Cornwall, Prince Edward Island. Reports from media sources indicate that the operations manager of the freight carrier in question recently pleaded guilty in provincial court to charges under the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. According to reports the manager in question had originally signed contracts with immigrant drivers promising to cover their flights to and from Canada, but decided to not follow through when he thought the drivers weren’t going to leave before their contracts were over.

According to sources around the freight trucking industry the Canadian Border Services Agency began investing the freight carrier in question back in March 2008 after discovering that the firm had failed to follow through with its agreements with several immigrant drivers. The charges weren’t laid against the individuals involved in this case until September 2009, according to sources.

You can bet this story has certainly made the bosses at freight carriers around North America stand up and take notice and it certainly has apparently changed the fortunes of the firm in question according to the latest reports from the company. The company was apparently in court the other day complaining that the bad press over this affair was costing the company money and they asked for an absolute discharge in order for the firms reputation to be cleared of any black marks.

The judge in this case has apparently decided to reserve her decision on the company’s request for an absolute discharge, but suggested the company might make a donation that benefits the public. That the company in question going out of business would not serve the interests of any involved in this case, but there has to be some consequences for the company in this affair.

Ship Freight on America’s Inland Waterways?

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Trailer trucking professionals who have been reading any of the blogs that have been written by United States Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood have apparently been paying attention as more recent blog posts by the Secretary of Transportation have been a little more politically correct according to many watchers. The controversy of the his older blog posts surrounds his announcement that bicyclists should probably have a voice in the planning of America’s transport system and the thoughts of America’s trucking services industry about this announcement. Mr. LaHood’s more recent blog posts appear to be a little more guarded and add a few nice comments about America’s trucking transport industry and the possible need to think about making more room for walkers and bicyclists using the transport systems of America. Mr. LaHood seems to have embraced blogging as away to meet the common people who are concerned about the significant problems in America’s transport systems and this is probably an excellent idea.

The Secretary of Transport has apparently been increasing his blogging efforts lately and according to the latest reports has been blogging about his desire to get large transport trucks off of the roads of America in an effort to reduce the carbon wheel-print of America’s trucking industry. He would like to see America start using more inland waterways to transport freight to destinations in America, in preference to using heavy duty trucks, according to some sources. This is certainly a feasible idea that could help bypass congested roads around busy American ports in some cases and even reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but we obviously need to be very careful when trying to move more freight using the inland waterways of America. The environmental cost to American could in the end be greater depending on each particular waterway and we need to tread very carefully in this desire.

Kiribati Bulk Trucking Guide

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

Bulk trucking in Kiribati might be difficult, since transport and communication in the country is relatively poor. Out of its 670 kilometers of highways, from a 1996 estimate, none were paved. Though, reportedly about 27 km were paved as of 2001, and might have doubled since that time onward.

With only a few paved roads, bulk trucking goods, especially of the fragile or the liquid sort, might entail a higher rate of damage. One of the major roads in Kiribati is the Nippon Causeway, which was completed in 1987 with the help of the Japanese government. This has since replaced ferrying from Betio and Bariki.

Apparently there are only few trucks on the road, with a majority of the 2000 registered vehicles being motorcycles. Motorcycles consist of three quarts of the total land transportation in Kiribati. Most of the containers here are shipped by sea, and there exists no rail, lake or even river transport. Some ports, like on the Betio islet, very close to Tarawa, have equipment that can handle containers. Other ports have vehicles that cater to phosphate loading.

In the rural areas, the lifestyle tends to lean more on traditional practices. The rural areas comprise the thirty-two outer islands, these being separate from Tarawa of distances between 30 km up to 3000 km of water. These islands, however, comprise 97.8 of the total land mass in the country, containing 56 percent of the population. Trucks in these areas, if any at all, might be less than a handful, and are slightly larger than pickup trucks carrying less than the average number of bulk agricultural products or water in containers.

Dr. B’s Truck Glossary-Flatbed, I Like Big Loads

Monday, November 30th, 2009

One of the terms that I see discussed in the trucking literature is flatbed shipping. That’s when you have a simple trailer without any sides or top, just a … flat … bed. That’s used for any number of things that either don’t fit into a standard trailer or don’t need to fit into a standard trailer.

Small construction vehicles like bulldozers or back-hoes might be shipped via flat bed. You could put them inside a covered vehicle transport, but such rough-and-ready items don’t need dainty treatment, and it will be cheaper to use a flatbed, since they are less expensive to buy, maintain, and pull; remember that those sides have weight to them and will require extra gas to pull around.

Bulky items like concrete pipes or girders will fit into the flat bed category. They’ll often be bigger in one or more dimensions than your standard trailer and thus need a flat-bed ride and generally don’t mind being out in the elements for the duration of the trip.

If the cargo goes above certain dimensions, they will fit into the oversized or wide-load category and require extra handling and usually a wide-load labeled pick up riding behind the trailer; one of my MBA students from my teaching days worked driving one of those wide-load escort trucks and occasionally had to miss a class if a trip got him away from town on a class night.

Flatbeds are part of Momentum’s stock in trade as a freight company; they can handle just about anything you can think of moving.

Trucking a la Flatbed

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

You are the proprietor of a freshly crafted small-scale iron replica of the Statue of Liberty, handcrafted by the finest of artists that New York has to offer. It’s sturdy, it’s beautiful, but more importantly, it’s heavy and awkward, not to mention in New York, while you’re in California. You need it here, and you need it fast.

Transporting a large and lumbersome load and be tedious and cumbersome, and the options for transporting such an abnormally shaped piece of art are on the limited side. It’s not often that you’ll find an enclosed carrier that can safely hold such a miniature monument, and the time it takes to plan a safe way to fit all that in there will surely cost you both your time and your money. Rather than stuff your treasure into an enclosure, why not try a flatbed truck to quickly alleviate your stresses?

Flatbed trucks are, well, simply put, trucks with big flat beds. It’s a simple solution to the transport of an awkward load such as the iron giant you’re trying to ship. Think of a flatbed truck much like strapping a mattress to the back of your friend’s dad’s pickup to haul to your first apartment, but on a much more grandiose scale. Just like then, you deal with the same issues; is it capable of being strapped down securely? If it rains, is your delivery going to be damaged? Is too much sun exposure an issue? If these problems aren’t apparent, then you also get to reap the benefits of a flatbed solution, such as quick and easy loading / unloading, as well as a much cheaper and cost-efficient method of haul.

The next time you’ve got an out-of-the-ordinary package to ship, weigh your options, and you might just take a load off of your watch and your wallet.