A.M. Executive Briefing - May 1
This Morning's Headlines:
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Trucking Company Prefers Women Drivers
A recruiter at Salt Lake City-based Pride Transport, which employs 20 women among its 200 company drivers, says truck driving is appealing to more female drivers because they can make as much money as the men do.Recruiter Cricket Campbell, who has spent three decades as a trucker, opines that women are superior truck drivers because they get fewer speeding citations and are involved in fewer crashes than men.
Transportation Department Study Could Scrap New Rules for Trucks
Although Arizona's governor has signed legislation imposing a 65 mph speed limit on trucks over 26,000 pounds, the state Department of Transportation can overrule the new speed limit if it determines that it is more dangerous to have trucks going slower than cars.The speed limit for cars on the rural interstates where the law would take effect is 75 mph, and many truckers believe accidents will increase if the speed limits are divided. On divided highways, trucks would have to stay in the right lane under the new law; when the highway has at least three lanes on one side of the road, trucks could use the right two lanes.
The ADOT is studying whether the split speeds will be more or less safe and will also decide whether trucks should be allowed out of the right lanes when passing slower vehicles. The study should be completed prior to July 18, when the new law is to go into effect. Arizona Republic (04/29/00) P. B6; Petrie, Bob
Grant Is a Step Toward Transportation Center
The building of the planned Delta Transportation Technology Center in West Memphis, Ark., could be more likely now that Gov. Mike Huckabee has provided the city with a $500,000 grant. The governor said Friday that the federal government might move beyond "feel-good speeches" and become serious about funding now that the Economic Development, Workforce Education, and Higher Education departments have contributed the money.Officials for the planned transportation school said the plans were being delayed as trucking companies and the state waited for the federal Department of Transportation to begin funding the center. The state grant will pay for experts who will help the school obtain more funding and may also fund curriculum development. Dallas Morning News (04/29/00) P. 40A; Parker, Suzi
Truck Full of Computers Hijacked in Orinda
Two Office Depot deliverymen say they were forced by a trio of armed suspects to drive a company truck containing expensive computer equipment from Orinda, Calif., to a different town and unload their cargo into a rented truck.One of the Office Depot employees was forced at gunpoint to get in the back of the company truck; afterward, one of the suspects got into the passenger seat and told the other deliveryman to drive to Pittsburg, Calif., as the other suspects drove behind them in the rental vehicle.
The two deliverymen were found later bound and gagged, while the rental truck was uncovered nearby, with much of the computer equipment still in both the rental truck and the Office Depot truck. San Francisco Chronicle (04/29/00) P. A19
G.O.D. is Good (Technology-Wise, That Is)
New Jersey overnight carrier G.O.D., which for several years had been a user of Descartes Systems' dispatching software, began using the company's wireless routing system DeliveryNet.LOG last year and began the hunt for hand-held tools for drivers to use to relay information to dispatchers without using telephones.After first using hand-held data collection terminals, G.O.D. switched to pagers, using a Descartes-created system influenced by Research In Motion's RIM Inter@ctive Pager. Drivers receive information on hauls through the pager and can usually input their information in five to 10 seconds thanks to preprogrammed messages, which the drivers select using the dial on the pager.
elivery time, the name of the person who signed for the load, and other information are sent into the carrier's back-end systems through the BellSouth Wireless Data network; the information is then available to G.O.D. customer-service staff, who can use it to update customers on shipment status.
G.O.D. director of technology Heath Snow says the company has eliminated the need for drivers to call on a cell phone and wait to talk to a dispatcher, and switching from the hand-held terminals to the pager system has cut the company's unit cost from close to $3,000 to about $250. In addition, each dispatcher can now handle twice as many drivers as before. Frontline Solutions (04/00) Vol. 1, No. 4; P. 40; Albright, Brian
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