Business

In the “stick or carrot” discussion of employee motivation and management, electronic logging devices typically are considered as and used as a “stick” against truck drivers.

Of all the reports that cross our desks, few have as much emotional effect as the fatality report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The first edition of Transport Topics carried a date of Sept. 2, 1935, and was a four-page issue. Take a look back at our very first front page as Transport Topics launches a weekly online archive project, building toward our 80-year anniversary.

Highway fatalities from truck-involved crashes on U.S. roads rose by 0.5% in 2013, while injuries declined to 95,000 from 104,000, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported.

The nation’s worst traffic bottleneck is located in Fort Lee, New Jersey, where Interstate 95 and state Road 4 merge just west of Manhattan’s George Washington Bridge, according to a new American Transportation Research Institute survey.

The year ahead promises to be busy, with freight carriers poised for another 12 months of strong demand for shipping capacity and federal regulators continuing to push proposals aimed at making truck transportation safer and more fuel-efficient.

When back-to-back snowstorms dumped nearly 7 feet of snow on the New York State Thruway around Buffalo in November, hundreds of truckers were stranded for days — a situation some studies say cost the U.S. economy more than $1 million an hour.

Commercial tire work is a tough and potentially hazardous job, but the combination of effective training, protective equipment, proper tools and adherence to federal safety regulations, make most — if not all — tire-related injuries preventable, industry executives said.

Truck tonnage climbed to another record in November, creating momentum for continued economic and freight activity growth this year.

An update on hours-of-service safety research will be among the highlights at the Transportation Research Board’s annual conference, scheduled for Jan. 11-15 in Washington.