A coal truck crashed in Tennessee last October going down a mountainous road; a U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration report found that the truck was both overloaded and had its engine brake disabled; the trucker was going too fast, but the lack of engine brakes didn’t help matters. Engine brakes are noisy, so many towns ban their use, but they help slow a truck down in a pinch. However, the lack of a “Jake brake” (the Jacobs Company is the leading maker) may have been the difference between keeping the truck upright and having it overturn.

Both the mining company and the trucking company were fined for safety violations; one of the reasons why the DOT is so hawkish on weight issues is that trucking loads are harder to handle when they are overloaded. Having spent some time near the coal-mining areas of Kentucky, I experienced some of those winding roads and would not want to be driving an overloaded truck on those roads.

The effort to achieve cheap freight costs has its side effects, and in this case, the loss of life is one of those side effects.

Sources:http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/feb/04/t…y-brake-switch/
http://www.essortment.com/all/jakebraketruck_raio.htm

The new 747-8 is a bit larger than the current 747s, is more fuel efficient and produces fewer emissions. However, green freight haulers won’t sell unless there is freight to haul, and the upturn in the air cargo market has made such planes feasible. Airbus has a bigger cargo plane on the drawing board, a version of their A380 passenger jet, but they have yet to get a sale for one; the 747-8 has the advantage of fitting into existing 747 slots in airports, while the largest-in-the-world A380 doesn’t fit existing slots as well.

Trucking loads should be increasing as well in this environment, as it generally takes a truck to ship freight to and from the airport; ship-to-plane or rail-to-plane transfers aren’t as common. Air freight is generally more time sensitive than other freight, so trucking logistics firms should benefit from taking care of the transport needs of customers on both ends of the 747-8 flights in a timely manner.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9769862

Virginia has made some pro-trucker moves this month, as they moved to reopen rest areas earlier this month, giving trucks a well needed place to park. Since Virginia sees quite a bit of traffic on its Interstates, including the main east coast run of I-95 and I-81, it is a key part of the interstate transport mix. I-85 gets eastern traffic to Atlanta and the I-20 corridor, and I-81 hooks up with the major I-40 corridor.

Slower speeds are more fuel-efficient, but higher speeds are more profitable for truckers, as they can spend less time on the road. If a truck is spending two hours going through Virginia, the increase speed gives them ten miles of extra range in a day, twenty if they are doing a round trip. That can save trucking service firms twenty minutes of wages an might make the difference between reaching a customer in one day and needed the truck driver to spend the night on the road before finishing the delivery.

Since a lot of truck drivers will ignore speed limits and go 70 anyways, this might increase safety rather than reduce it, as differences in speed between vehicles is often more of a problem than speed itself.

Source:http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Dai…0/012510-01.htm

Bose, the high-end acoustics maker, is getting into the trucking business with a vibration-absorbing chair, which takes some of the technology that goes into speakers and cancels out the vibrations from the road, keeping the head and torso level as the truck goes down the road. Since Bose’s day job is to make speakers vibrate just right, it isn’t a big jump to getting things not to vibrate.

Spending $2000 or more on a chair seems obsessive, but if it a chair to keep the trucker from vibrating like he’s on an old quarter-fed hotel bed, it can be money well spent in keeping a trucker from getting fatigue and back issues courtesy of a bumpy ride. If a $3000 investment saves $10,000 in medical and worker’s-comp claims over the life of the chair, it would be money well spent. You’d also likely get added alertness from drivers, which would be a benefit to freight carriers as well, albeit one that would be hard to quantify in the short term.

The exact price point that the Bose chair comes in at may dictate the amount of market share it gets. A pricier chair might be seen as a “reasonable accommodation” under the ADA for a driver with a bad back, but might not be made standard in trucks, while a price closer to the $2000 for air-ride chairs might put Bose in as a serious player in the market.

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/01/28/bos…-at-auto-seats/

I’m surprised that truckers even try to use trucks to ship freight of that nature; just one open weight station and a drug-sniffing dog or sharp-eyed DOT guy will be the end of the trip, and that large of a load of pot is hard to hide. It would me much safer to put it in the back of a pickup truck or van that would not be subject to weigh stations and the scrutiny that comes with them.

However, times are tough for owner-operators. Since Mr. Allen was from LA, it may have been especially tough, given that OOs have been frozen out of the port of LA and seen tighter regulations go up at the port of Long Beach. That would make the remaining market for OOs in the LA area much tougher. He might have been tempted to supplement his income with some unorthodox interstate transport or been pressured into doing so by one of the Mexican cartels, who have been known to give truckers a bribe-or-bullet option.

We may find out the motivation when the case goes to court; if he was pressured into taking on the load, it may come out at trial.

Source:http://www.louisvillemojo.com/blogs/Louisv…ana_Trafficking

That presence on the shipping lanes means that Chinese ships are now in the sights of Somali pirates along with the rest of the world’s fleet. In the past, the Chinese navy has been used to protect individual Chinese vessels, but China has now offered to become part of the Shared Awareness and Deconfliction group that has sent ships to the area to combat the pirates..

Geopolitical experts in the west have been nervous about China’s development of a “blue water” naval fleet that gives the Chinese navy the capability of going beyond its territorial waters; the fear was that China might use that against some of its neighbors like Japan and the Philippines down the line. This case shows that, as a maritime nation active in the world economy, China has a benign use for its blue-water fleet, protecting its merchant fleet as they ship freight around the world.

Given that 47 ships were hijacked in the waters off Somali last year, China is now becoming part of the mercantile nations of the world. A half-century after Mao would rail against capitalist running-dogs, China has joined the pack in protecting their blossoming merchant fleet; you could solve China’s energy problem by putting a transformer at Mao’s grave; the founder of the People’s Revolutionary Army is doing 10,000 revolutions per minute.

http://www.handyshippingguide.com/shipping…r-shipping_1223

Some cargo is simply too large to ship via the roadway. There are often legal limits to the height and width of a load that can travel by road. These laws protect bridges from damage and prevent accidents. Special permits and procedures are also needed for over-sized loads.

Rail cars are much more flexible when it comes to large loads. They can be configured to ship freight of various types. Flat cars can run from 40′ to 89′ long, making them more suitable to exceptionally large loads. If you put 50 flat cars together, each having a capacity of 60 tons, you could carry 3,000 tons, much more than is possibly by truck.

Rail does not make sense to ship freight that is fragile. Ceramic tile is much too fragile to be shipped by train. In addition, some metals cannot be secured properly on a train because they are too heavy. Such items must be shipped by truck.

Trucking makes more sense when time is tight because rail freight often takes longer. Schedules are not ideally consistent and regular, so there are delays getting freight to its destination.

Security is also an issue when you ship freight. Trucks are generally more secure, being manned by a driver who has sight of the load for most of the trip. On long trains, it is easier for cargo to be stolen. It is harder to police a line of 50 cars than it is to check just one truckload.

In the Gulf, the sectors to suffer the most were real estate and construction. Trading activity has remained healthy, although trading at a lower volume. Because of several industrial projects underway, the area will see a growth in export volume, especially in petrochemicals and aluminum.

The area has already seen a recovery, with export volumes increasing over the last part of 2009, beating volumes seen late in 2008. This suggests that 2010 will start off as a good year compared with 2009

Ship freight rates have stabilized and are beginning to rebound because some shipping lines have laid up their vessels to defray costs. The balance of supply and demand is more even. As demand grows, some of these ships may be put back into service.

Market intelligence suggests that the fourth quarter should see a turnaround for shipping in the Gulf. Middle East niche markets are expected to perform better, increasing the need for ship freight. Another reason the Gulf should do well is because many shipments pass through here on their way to China and India, both emerging economies that are expected to grow. In fact, consumer confidence in China is already showing positive signs.

Because the shipping industry as a whole depends on a global recovery to spur shipment of goods, the future remains uncertain. But shipping companies in the Gulf face better odds, being located along major shipping routes. Still, the increased volume is coming at a reduced rate. Margins are thin and ship freight companies will have to remain vigilant if they are to hold on until the economy recovers fully.