P.M. Executive Briefing - June 9
This Afternoon's Headlines:
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California Trucking Association Pushes For Tougher Drug-Use Law
A fatal accident on Memorial Day involving a trucker allegedly driving under the influence of drugs has fueled lobbying efforts by the California Trucking Association for new drug-use legislation, the Riverside (Calif.) Press Enterprise reported today.The association wants the state legislature to pass a bill calling for a driver's suspension when failing a drug test, only to be allowed back on the road when cleared by the medical profession. CTA leaders feel loopholes exist in the current state law to where a driver who has tested positive for drug use can stay on the road.
Within the last two weeks of May, the CTA points out, there were two fatal accidents involving trucker drivers suspected of being under the influence. On May 23, two people were killed in Sacramento and on May 29 two sisters, 10 and 13-years old, were killed on Interstate 15 in Norco. Transport Topics staff
Critics Demand Safety Upgrade to Canada's Wreck-Prone Highway 401
Liberal Party provincial legislator Pat Hoy is once again urging safety improvements on the deadly stretch of Highway 401 in Ontario where six people were injured after a truck rear-ended three parked police cars Wednesday.Hoy, who represents the Chatham-Kent-Essex area where the most fatalities have occurred, says the Transportation Ministry took "the cheapest response to Carnage Alley." He says the highway needs photo radar and criticized the provincial government for not widening the road or putting in paved shoulders.
In addition, he says, the safety plans the province developed have largely not been enacted, including increasing Ontario Provincial Police patrols by 22 officers. However, David Turnbull, the transportation minister, says that as of next week 14 of the new officers will be on patrol, and the rest will be there by Sept. 4.
The western portion of the highway has seen 33 deaths in the past 15 months, eight of which occurred in an 80-vehicle accident near Windsor. Ute Lawrence, a survivor of that crash, says the highway also needs less "truck madness," where trucks are used as "moving warehouses," while the Canadian Automobile Association's David Leonhardt says schedule demands keep truckers from reducing their speeds in bad weather as much as motorists do. London (Ontario) Free Press (06/09/00) P. A4; Oberman, Mira
Connecticut Steps Up Truck Enforcement Patrols
As part of its activities for the nationwide Road Check 2000 program, the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles has been posting inspectors along various highways in the area since Tuesday, where increased inspections took place near Greenwich. Inspections moved on to Interstate 95 near New Haven the next day and later took place on I-84 in Union and other areas.In response to four recent truck-related accidents on I-95, the state police are starting up their Rollover Accident Reduction Effort once again. That program puts heavy police patrols along highways from 2 a.m. to 6 p.m., checking on car and truck violations and inspecting logbooks. The early morning hours are chosen since they seem to have the heaviest amount of truck-related accidents. Hartford Courant (06/08/00) P. A3; Reitz, Stephanie; Fox, Tracy Gordon
Hino Motors Cuts Losses, While Nissan Diesel has Mixed Success
Japanese truckmaker Hino Motors' operating loss has been reduced to $258.7 million in the fiscal year through March, from $354 million in the prior year, while its net loss has been reduced from $354.4 million to $205.7 million. Despite a 10.3% drop in unit sales, revenue hit $6.2 billion – a rise of 51.1%. The company attributed the narrower loss to cost cutting, although it also received assistance from major shareholder Toyota.Fellow Japanese truckmaker Nissan Diesel Motor' success in cutting its losses was mixed; operating loss for the parent company was down to $35.5 million from a prior-year figure of $169.3 million, but the net loss grew. The rise in net loss, from $132.1 million to $415.2 million, came in spite of a 6.9% gain in revenue. Automotive News (06/05/00) No. 5878; P. 57; Treece, James B.
Consultant Says Shop Leader Must Build Trust to Have a Team
During his "How to Build a Productive Shop Team" session at the 2000 National Truck Equipment Association convention in St. Louis, Beau Hamilton of Hamilton Consulting advised ways to cultivate a team with where mutual trust and respect is uniformly shared. Employees should also feel that they are involved with the team and that their good work is appreciated.Hamilton went on to say that it is an owner's job to get people to trust each other. Using themes taken from the book "The One-Minute Manager," Hamilton advocated communication and consistency. Leaders should ensure that everyone understands the company's expectations and rules, establish relationships with workers and help them develop, and hold them accountable only to the expectations they were told of upon hiring, according to Hamilton.
Employees should be coached, rather than told specifically "what to do, when to do it, and how to do it," because the latter is undesirable micromanagement, he said. Trailer/Body Builders (05/00) Vol. 41, No. 7; P. 69
Crown Worldwide Relocates to the Web
n order to keep its clients satisfied and well informed, global moving and storage firm Crown Worldwide Moving and Storage has developed a Web site that enables customers to check the status of their orders. "Crown's customers' human resource managers, who are responsible for relocating a department, want a painless way to find out the status of their employees' household goods and how soon they will arrive," said Bruce Baxter, president of Independents, the IT service provider utilized by Crown for IT support.
In May of last year, Crown began developing a Web site providing interactive communication and information, and had the site running by the following August.
Data is entered into the system manually by customer service representatives, as well as automatically by the electronic data interchange system. Crown updates the database three times a day by exchanging EDI transaction with its ground carriers, and the dynamic retrieval system ensures that when an EDI transaction is put in the database, it is immediately available on the Web page for customers to view. Client human resource administrators can access a list of all active orders Crown currently maintains, while a client with a Crown order number can view that specific order.
Crown also introduced an option through which the customer can request a price estimate, and in the future intends to develop and online data warehouse.
The new site has made life easier for Crown's sales representatives, who are more knowledgeable when dealing with customers and who now field fewer calls from clients with questions about their orders. Midrange Systems (05/22/00) Vol. 13, No. 7; P. 36; Dickey, Sam
Researcher Highlights Hazards, Special Needs of Trucks With Off-Center Loads
Tom Gillespie, with the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, addressed the problem of off-center loads in trucks during his engineering session at the 2000 National Truck Equipment Association convention in St. Louis. Symmetry can be affected not only by equipment installed at the factory but also by how customers load the trucks – and just adding a spring to the suspension is not a complete solution.First of all, an imbalanced load should have an offsetting load on the other side if possible, rather than adding a leaf – which can reduce vehicle performance. Tire wear can be kept at a minimum by keeping the tires perpendicular to the road and parallel to one another. Hard braking should be avoided because this action "will cause the truck to steer toward the light side" if it is unevenly loaded, he said.
Lowering the vehicle's center of gravity will cut down on transfer of tire loads when turning. Gillespie advised against using an air-leveling system as well, because the chassis can roll; instead, there should be "some auxiliary roll stiffness – a roll bar or stabilizer bar." Trailer/Body Builders (05/00) Vol. 41, No. 7; P. 64
Compiled by Transport Topics staff and INFORMATION, INC. © 2000
