Newsflash---The Great 28 Rolls Out New Campaign

Agile and Quick-Like a Mountain Lion

As you can see, Bodie is catching Rodney doing it right.  That is the 3 points of contact method of entering and exiting the cab.  This saves many an injury to our Professional Drivers.  Rodney actually has 4 points of contact in this picture. 

Two Men In A Truck

To promote shared space and equal terms, Bodie and Rodney agreed to use a motel when it made sense.  This seems like a logical arrangement.  Parking a truck in a motel is never easy.  It is one of the logistical problems with the ride-along process that takes more than one day.  Great to see these two guys got a good nights sleep and made a smart decision by using a Fairfield Inn, a practical room for the night that saved J.B. Hunt some folding money.   

Keeping the Cab Clean Rule #1

Rodney introduced Bodie to the wonders of Lysol.  This is his secret to keeping a fresh cab.  Since he considers his International Prostar his home, it was the first of many lessons that Rodney will be sharing as they share the highway together. 

Rodney and Bodie Go A-Riding!

The art of the ride-along is not dead in Truckload.  Yesterday our Southwest Maintenance Director, Bodie Travis, hitched a ride with Rodney Collins.  Rodney drives for our Southeast Georgia Pacific fleet and is aiming to show Bodie the rules of the road.  During the pre-trip Rodney made sure Bodie understood iphone security.  We seem to have lost an iphone on a similar drive somewhere on I-20 or I-10?

Driver Tip of The Week #2

With temperatures rising daily it is time we talk about our idle shutdown system on our trucks.

Do you understand how the idle shutdown works? 

What does this mean for you? 

Our drivers safety is important to us, we as an enterprise take pride in the high safety standard we have established and continue to maintain.

 With a safety culture of this calibar we also understand you have to get the 10 hour break you need but it also needs to be good rest. If you are going to operate and driver at your very best, we have to provide you the comforts you need to be rested. 

The truck will idle for you, we do not want you to be uncomfortable when you are on your down time. We do however want you to understand the truck is designed to shut down after a period of time to allow the engine to rest. It can be turned back on if the cab fails to maintain a comfortable temperature. 

Keys to Remember: 

1. Sleeper: After 10 minutes of idle when outside temperatures are between 32-35 degrees the engine will shut down. 
2. Your trucks inverter has been programmed to power a heat generating device for a minimum of 10 minutes after idle shutdown. 
3. The dash inverter has LED light indicators for you to know what phase your truck is in. 
4. Green LED on: Power switch is in the ON position and the inverter can be used.
5. Red LED on: Power switch is in the ON position and the inverter is OFF due to the 10 minute timer. The inverter can be reset by using the ON/OFF switch. 
6. Red LED flashing quickly: Power switch is in the ON position but the inverter is locked out and can not be used for 10 minutes due to low voltage. 

Trucking Alliance Supports ELD's

The Trucking Alliance for Driver Safety and Security (Trucking Alliance) and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (Advocates) have filed a joint amicus brief in the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, in support of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s effort to fend off a legal challenge by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Assn. to stop the agency’s electronic logging device rule for truck drivers.

The federal rule requires ELDs in most commercial trucks by December 2017. FMCSA issued the rule on Dec. 16, 2015, and implements Congress’s 2012 mandate to require ELDs for interstate commercial trucks. OOIDA, which filed suit the following day, maintains that ELDs are no better than handwritten paper logs when it comes to hours of service compliance or highway safety.
“Operating a large commercial truck is not an entitlement, but a privilege, and we have a  moral responsibility to make sure our truck drivers are properly trained, drug and alcohol  free and properly rested,” said Steve Williams, president of the Trucking Alliance and  chairman and CEO of Maverick USA. “When ELDs are installed in every commercial truck late next year, they can be the technological platform upon which our industry can build a safe and efficient supply chain for the future.”

Advocates, in a statement, noted that paper log books are frequently referred to as “comic books” throughout the industry, because of the ease in falsifying actual driving and work time in violation of the federal requirements. The group also characterized OOIDA’s challenge as “frivolous,” and said that, among other “scurrilous claims,” opponents of ELDs assert that the devices will not improve HOS compliance.

“Advocates has fought for decades to have ELDs installed on large trucks,” said Jackie Gillan, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.  “These devices will finally bring trucking and enforcement of commonsense rules into the 21st Century.  It is time to rid the industry of the outdated and unreliable use of phony comic books that allow truck drivers to flout HOS limits and jeopardize safety for everyone.  Driving too many hours is a recognized safety problem in the trucking industry and ELDs are a proven safety solution.”

Both safety groups and segments of the trucking industry have long fought for the implementation of the technology.

“The Trucking Alliance and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety represent a broad, united spectrum of highway users and transportation companies that know these ELDs can make the highways safer for truck drivers and motorists alike,” said Lane Kidd, managing director of the Trucking Alliance. “We’re committed to making sure this congressional mandate becomes a reality.”