Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Historic Month Will Be Remembered for Deep Freeze

 

Now that the January 2014 deep freeze is abating, it's time to take stock of its place in history.

The core of the cold came Monday, Jan. 6, and Tuesday, Jan. 7. Subzero temperatures affected a large swath from Montana to New York and as far south as northern Oklahoma and northern Alabama.

Persistent winds pushed wind chills into life-threatening territory, reaching 40 below to 60 below zero across a large swath of the Midwest. The National Weather Service in Wilmington, Ohio, said the wind chills were the coldest observed in central and southwest Ohio since 1994.

Records Broken... and Not Broken


On Tuesday, more than 50 primary weather observation sites (mostly in major cities) recorded record lows for the date.

A few major cities, including Atlanta and Indianapolis, recorded their lowest temperatures since the mid-1990s. A few more cities, including Toledo, Ohio (1 degree Tuesday) and Madison, Wis. (9 degrees below zero Monday) recorded their lowest daytime highs since the 1990s. The slideshow above features a selection of cities that recorded low-temperature benchmarks not seen so far in the 21st century.

Contrast this with December 2013, when dozens of all-time December record highs and record-warm daily lows were tied or broken, especially ahead of Winter Storm Gemini Dec. 21-23.

Greg Carbin of the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center told The Weather Channel that according to reanalysis data, Monday, Jan. 6 ranked as the 40th-coldest day on record since 1900 for the continental U.S., with an average temperature of 17.9 degrees for the Lower 48.

According to this data set, Monday was the coldest day of the 21st century thus far nationally, and the coldest since Jan. 12-13, 1997, but pales in comparison to the arctic outbreaks of December 1983 and December 1989, which together take the top four slots on the list.

One reason the January 2014 deep freeze was unable to break many long-term records is its short life span. The coldest air moved into and out of most locations within a 36-hour span, often not lasting enough to keep temperatures anywhere near historic lows for a full 24-hour calendar day.

In addition, the perfect recipe for extremely cold temperatures is a deep snowpack and calm winds. While the gusty winds throughout this cold snap made wind chills very dangerous, they also prevented actual air temperatures from plummeting to their lowest potential. Furthermore, a number of locations from Ohio to the Mid-Atlantic and Deep South had little or no snow cover, either due to lack of snowfall or the sudden warmup and rain that preceded this bout of frigid air in the East
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Pillars Award Winner - Joi Brown


 
Joi is a true team player.  She often goes out of her way to help teammates without being asked.  Joi comes to work early, works hard and runs a tight ship.

Congratulations Joi!
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Competitor Release - USA Truck



Truckload carrier USA Truck Inc. said it lost more money in the fourth quarter than the same period last year, but its earnings improved on a full-year basis.

USA Truck’s loss grew to $4.6 million, or 45 cents a share, from $3.2 million, or 31 cents, in the same period the previous year, the company said. Feb. 11. Revenue grew to $141.4 million from $134.8 million.

For the full year ended Dec. 31, USA Truck narrowed its loss to $9.1 million from $17.7 million in 2012. Revenue improved as well, growing to $555 million from $512.4 million.

USA Truck said its operating income, after adjusting for a charge related to its long-term claims liability reserve, was $1.3 million in the fourth quarter, the first time it has been positive since 2011.

“Our strengthening operating results represent another solid step towards returning to profitability and further enhancing shareholder value. We are especially encouraged by our sustained sequential quarterly improvements throughout 2013, which ran counter to the historical seasonal patterns in our business,” CEO John Simone said in a statement.

USA Truck is ranked No. 52 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of for-hire carriers in the United States and Canada.
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Monday, February 10, 2014

HOS and the effect on EFFICIENCY

When the new HOS rules went into effect in July this was one of the suggestions by an industry expert:

Discuss Efficiency: The new rules have the potential to negatively impact the efficiency or productivity of your drivers. Drivers need to understand the importance of planning their week to the extent possible. Drivers who regularly utilize the current 34-hour restart may experience significant losses in productivity depending on what time of day they begin the new restart period.

Additionally efficiency losses may be experienced as a result of the rest break provision or additional company procedures added to ensure compliance. In most cases, your drivers will desire efficiency and productivity as much as your company. Educating them on the benefits of planning will undoubtedly pay significant dividends.

Key is for fleets to educate their entire organization and their customers: It is important that all parts of your organization are fully aware of the potential changes and their consequences.
This is especially the case if your drivers use the current 34-hour restart, ATA says. Driver managers will need to alter their procedures and the sales staff will need to work hard to adjust shipper and broker expectations. Flexibility will need to be built into business relationships to ensure continued efficiency and productivity.


 
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Pillars Award Winner - Alan Boyd


In his first 3 months as the Area Service Manager for the PNW and Upper California, Alan has become a leader in his group.  He has moved out of the comfort zone of the ASM ranks and has embraced the 2 hour planning horizon.  This change has enabled him to become a leader in almost every category on our ASM Scorecard.  He is a leader in empty miles and is beating his goal by almost 10%.  He is #1 in service delivering over 96% OTS.   Alan has less rework than his peers establishing a 22% mark.  Finally, he is utilizing our optimization tool at almost 60% of recommended plans.

Great job Alan!


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Pillars Award Winner - Rudy Bunt



Rudy has done a great job coordinating our repositioning revenue for Target in the 3rd and 4th quarter, successfully servicing over $142,000 in incremental revenue.  Rudy accomplished this goal while still maintaining service for our network customers.  His service efforts were acknowledged by Nestle Waters and our marketing team for successfully saving a multi-stop delivery to Costco by coordinating a deep evening switch.

Congrats and great job Rudy!


 
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