Brokers | Internet Truckstop News

February 4, 2013 by admin

More on the Ebb and Flow of Truck Drivers

Last week, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported (.pdf) that firms added 157,000 employees to their payrolls during January. As in December, the Construction and Manufacturing sectors continued to expand. But, for-hire trucking employment also grew, increasing by 5000 employees since December.

In another article, I examined transitions from and to for-hire employment in trucking. If manufacturing and construction are close substitutes for trucking, should all three of these occupations be swelling their payrolls simultaneously – especially when the overall unemployment rate remains at 7.9 percent?

Below, I update my previous analysis to incorporate time, showing the extent of employment transitions to and from trucking during each year over the last decade. Specifically, I use the previously discussed CPS-MORG employment transitions to show the ratio of new truckers to former truckers by year, rather than combined into a single measure for each sector. I present this ratio for three of trucking’s most related sectors: construction, trade (wholesale or retail), and manufacturing.

In the figure, a value of zero for a sector indicates that there is an equal flow of workers moving from that sector to employment in trucking as there is exiting for-hire trucking to that sector. A value of 0.5 indicates that there are three new truckers coming from that sector for every two former truckers departing for that sector.

Construction activity sharply declined during the recession, so it is not surprising to see an influx of construction workers into trucking towards the end of the decade. However, now that the construction sector is rapidly expanding again (.pdf), this trend could easily reverse.

The relative shift of truckers to manufacturing during recent years is also concerning, and as manufacturing activity continues to improve, this pattern is likely to continue.

Retail and wholesale trade appear to be the most balanced of the sectors, in terms of transitions to and from trucking. At this time, there is little reason to anticipate this pattern changing substantially.

About the author

Jeremy West is the Internet Truckstop research economist for the weekly Trans4Cast. Jeremy examines the broader economic picture and reports how the current economic headlines relate to the trucking industry. He holds a bachelor of science in Economics, with minor degrees in Business and Creative Studies, from Texas A&M University, where he is currently completing a doctorate in Economics. His research focuses on empirical analysis of topics in industrial organization, particularly those affecting the transportation sector. In addition to his academic training, Jeremy held several previous positions in corporate financial planning and economic forecasting. Jeremy enjoys the opportunity to offer highlights and analysis of the trucking industry.

January 9, 2013 by admin

Internet Truckstop is First Load Board to Help Members Navigate New CARB Regulation

For Immediate Release

New Plymouth, Idaho

January 7, 2013

Internet Truckstop is First Load Board to Help Members Navigate New CARB Regulation

Internet Truckstop has rolled out a new decision support tool and a free webinar series to help Truckstop.com members’ transition into new regulations, now in effect, from the California Air Resources Board (CARB).

The new CARB regulation just went into effect, on January 1st, and requires every carrier driving on California roads to comply with the rules, or face hefty fines. While the weight of the regulations primarily fall on carriers, brokers and shippers will face penalties if they fail to ensure they are contracting with compliant carriers.

Internet Truckstop is the only load board that offers companies looking for trucks a quick sort function to find compliant carriers, saving time when searching for trucks to move freight on California roads.

Internet Truckstop’s four-week CARB webinar series begins on January 9th, with a different hour-long webinar being offered each Wednesday starting at 12:30 p.m. MST. Each meeting will feature a visit from a member of CARB, with topics to be covered including: vehicle inspections, diesel particulate filters (DPFs), TRUCRS Reporting System, Truck and Bus Regulations, the Transport Refrigeration Units (TRUs) regulation, drayage truck regulation, public fleets, public transit agency, solid waste collection vehicle regulation, tractor-trailer greenhouse gas emission reduction regulation and enforcement of regulations.

“It can be overwhelming to those in the industry to stay on top of the stream of new regulations. Internet Truckstop continues to offer information-driven solutions to our Truckstop.com members.” Pat Dickard, Internet Truckstop Corporate Trainer

For more information on Internet Truckstop’s free CARB webinars, contact Pat Dickard at 800-203-2540 x 6181 or visit the ITS Business Development Webinar Series page.

About Internet Truckstop

Founded in 1995, Internet Truckstop was the first online freight matching service. Listening to the transportation industry is the driving force behind all of the innovative business tools that they develop. These easy-to-use tools, the largest freight database and a commitment to their customers makes Internet Truckstop the leader in Internet freight matching.

Source:

Justin Morken

800-203-2540 ext. 6283

justintm@truckstop.com

www.truckstop.com

Internet Truckstop

Po Box 99, New Plymouth, ID 83655

www.truckstop.com

January 9, 2013 by admin

CARB Webinars receive an overwhelming response

Today marked the first day for ITS and CARB’s month long webinar series, “Will You be Able to Drive in California?”

With over 150 participants that came to the webinar full of questions regarding the new laws for driving in California. There will be another chance next week for more questions to be answered when another webinar is offered. The topic for January 16th is Diesel Particulate Filters (DPFs), Truck and Bus Regulation, TRUCRS Reporting System. Don’t miss your chance to register! Click here for more information and registration.

December 19, 2012 by admin

Do I Ever Need the Christmas Spirit This Year!

***This post is originally from www.teamrunsmart.com Internet Truckstop is the official load board for Team Run Smart. Check out all their great articles on their website!

Every driver’s day has its ordinary “driving down the road” challenges and having a good attitude can you stay positive and not overreact to difficult situations. The right attitude will make a more professional, safety conscious driver. It can also help you earn more money and get more enjoyment from driving. However, the challenges the industry faces has made a positive attitude difficult to maintain.

Here are a few of the challenges that have brought on some sleepless nights for many owner-operators and company drivers:

The changes in CSA regulations
Hours of service regulations
Clean air regulations
Increased cost of equipment
Increasing diesel fuel prices
Difficulties getting loans for new equipment purchases
Less parking spaces for trucks
Rates not keeping up with costs
Detention pay (the lack of and the need for)

So how do you keep up a positive attitude when you are faced with these challenges? Maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel, knowing carriers have been successful at improving truck efficiency and reducing costs by optimizing fuel, improving truck and trailer aerodynamics, improving power train efficiency, and inventing new tools or ways to get the job done. If carriers can come out ahead, owner-operators and company drivers can too.

Here are ways to overcome some of these challenges and keep up your Christmas cheer:

Creative Brainstorm. Around the holidays, since you might have some additional downtime, start brainstorming and thinking creatively on ways to solve your business challenges. Catch up on the latest Team Run Smart articles to get industry news and business tips, or read posts in the Team Run Smart Forums to see how other drivers are solving their issues. Call some of your friends in the industry who are successful and ask them for advice. A fun idea for the holidays that keeps me in a positive attitude, is to watch my favorite Christmas shows. Seriously, it has helped me to relax and get the creative juices flowing. Start thinking outside the box and find new ways get over those bumps in the road to start fresh for the New Year.
Choose your loads wisely. If the hours of driving each day get reduced, find a way to deliver the product on time. After all, if Santa Clause can make all his delivers to every house on the globe, surely we can find a way to make one delivery on time. The change might be to quit hauling loads for folks that make us sit at a loading dock for an unreasonable amount of time without any detention pay. Of course, this time of year, we can be held up by bad weather and road closers. You may consider a computer program or GPS system that provides weather updates and road conditions. Make sure you get the phone number for road conditions of each state and call ahead to change your route if necessary prior to being detained.
Become a business minded entrepreneur. Changes in CSA will make us all better business minded entrepreneurs. CSA regulations are changing the way owners evaluate and train their drivers. Using electronic logs to ensure drivers comply with hours-of-service laws and using smart phones and iPads to take care of daily paperwork are a just a few of these recent changes.
Remember regulations may save you money in the long run. Regulations like the new CARB Greenhouse Gas Regulation will actually save you money because it forces drivers to take advantage of some of the fuel-efficient technologies available. This is better for you and the environment. (Link to CARB article.)
Consider switching to natural gas from diesel. Even though the cost of purchasing a new truck (which would most likely be necessary) is higher, the payback is fast because natural gas is less expensive than fuel. There also exists the side benefit of burning a cleaner fuel with less bad emissions, making the clean air folks happy. The engine manufactures are already developing the powerhouses for class 8 trucks. Several companies are developing a network of refueling facilities, enabling cross-country trips. (Link to natural gas article.)
Embrace technology. The new technological advances going into the cab of a truck at a record-setting pace should be looked at as assets to enable us to do a better and safer job. This integration of networked electronics with trucks means, in theory, telematics could do everything from automatically slowing a truck down when it approaches a blind curve, to diagnosing vehicle issues remotely for preventative maintenance. With telematics, your truck will have the ability to report your driving style to your boss or insurance company. It’ll keep track of any risky maneuvers you perform and tell the police if it thinks you’re to blame for an accident. If you are a safe driver, you have nothing to worry about and it should help decrease the number of truck accidents on the road, which will help boost the industry image. Telematics will also cut down on highway traffic and decrease the amount of fuel burned by idling vehicles, which will again make the clean air folks happy. Some even envision it will decrease potential litigation costs by keeping having the facts on the truck’s every move.

Plan ahead, keep positive, and make this a holiday season full of love, happiness, and optimism. Let’s put the fun back into trucking for 2013. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

About the Author
Patrick Dickard -With over 25 years of experience in the transportation field, Pat Dickard brings a wealth of knowledge and application to the position of Corporate Trainer for Internet Truckstop. Transportation became a way of life as General Manager for a potato and onion packing and shipping facility in Oregon. He has experience shipping from Mexico to points throughout the US. Later years found Pat in the seat of a big rig traveling the highways of the country. By joining the staff at Internet Truckstop Pat is able to bring his experience as a business manager, business owner, truck driver, broker agent, and a shipper to the forefront to assist other folks in being more successful. Host of the ITS Business Development Webinar Series – Mr. Dickard covers subjects such as How to find new shipper clients, How to sell yourself and conduct a business meeting; Identity theft, theft of loads, fraud in the industry, How to qualify carriers faster with less risk, Insurance issues, tips and tricks of using the load board for best results, and negotiating rates.

December 17, 2012 by admin

Some (Cautiously) Optimistic News for the Economy

Last week, two key economic reports showed an improving environment for trucking. In one, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that total monthly retail sales increased by a seasonally-adjusted 0.3% during November, or 3.7% year over year. In the other, the Federal Reserve documented a full percentile increase in the monthly industrial production index for November, including a 1.1 percentile improvement in the manufacturing component.

Contrasted with the weakness seen in these measures during recent months, the November reports are especially promising for trucking. The improvement in industrial production, for instance, was the largest monthly increase in this index since December 2010. Retail sales, meanwhile, are now up nearly 25% from their recessionary bottom.

The scene is not all rosy, however. As the Fed’s report noted, “The gain in November is estimated to have largely resulted from a recovery in production for industries that had been negatively affected by Hurricane Sandy, which hit the Northeast region in late October.”

Moreover, inventories continue to grow throughout the supply chain. As shown in the figure, the growth rate of inventory accumulation has outpaced that for retail sales and production since late 2010, and the volume of business inventories steadily increases. So long as the supply chain struggles to move existing stock, we will continue to see a disconnect between new production and demand for more trucking.

Whether the November improvements in manufacturing and sales will continue is an open question. Some early answers to this question will be provided this week in the December regional production reports from the Fed Banks in New York, Philadelphia, and Kansas City.

Jeremy West
ITS Economist

December 10, 2012 by admin

NEW EOBR from uDrove!

The U.S. Congress has passed the MAP 21 Transportation bill that requires drivers to track their hours of service using electronic logging devices. All truck drivers in the U.S. and Canada who drive more than 100 air miles from their home base must maintain driver logs. These logs are monitored by federal authorities to ensure that drivers are not exceeding their time on duty or driving hours. An Electronic On Board Recorder (EOBR) fleet solution automates Hours of Service reporting. If you are required to file a record of duty status (RODS), this mandate affects you.

When the FMCSA first made its cost assumptions for requiring the use of EOBR, it used a popular device in the marketplace that a number of large fleets had adopted as a fleet management and electronic logging solution. The price for the hardware of this device was estimated at $1,675, according to the Preliminary Regulatory Impact Analysis. Smaller companies and owner operators that wanted a Fleet Management System to help reduce operating expenses, simplify business management, and improve driver habits could never justify the expense of purchasing the equipment, or committing to a long term contract. uDrove has built a solution for companies that is affordable and easy to use, minus the contracts.

While implementing an EOBR system in your fleet does require an initial investment, the long term benefits outweigh the costs incurred up front. Hours Of Service violations are virtually eliminated and Fuel/Mileage tracking is done electronically, simplifying IFTA reporting and reducing driver error. Not only does uDrove eliminate driver error but we have integrated with PC Miler to give our customers access to real-time date for a single truck, a group of trucks, or an entire fleet’s in-state and interstate mileage, with automated reports for fast and efficient compliance with state and federal tax regulations.

Using smart phone technology, drivers can also maintain their fuel and business expenses electronically. By taking a picture of fuel and expense receipts, anything a driver spends money on can be captured and kept on their web account at uDrove.com.

uDrove provides companies a simple, cost-effective solution that truckers can purchase pre-mandate, and still have it make sense financially. They came into the market well before the MAP 21 Transportation bill was proposed and passed. With the data received from the EOBR and the capabilities of the smart phone, companies realize their R.O.I. (return on investment) almost instantly.

For more information on uDrove’s EOBR please contact 888-983-7683 or visit eobr.udrove.com

December 3, 2012 by admin

Upward 2012 Q3 GDP Revision Reflects Mainly Growth in Inventories

Last Thursday, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a 2.7% annual rate during the third quarter of 2012, which was an upward revision from the preliminarily reported annual growth rate of 2.0%. At a first glance, this appears to be good news, but as economist James Hamilton points out, a more thorough reading of the report shows that the U.S. economy is “growing a slower rate than any of us would like.”

In particular, 0.8 percentage points of the growth in GDP translated into increased inventory accumulation, and 0.7 came from higher levels of defense spending. Excluding these factors, Q3 GDP grew at a measly 1.2% annual rate. Hamilton reasonably anticipates that GDP will continue to grow at below-average rates during 2012Q4 and in the near future.

For the trucking industry, I find the increased accumulation of inventories to be the most concerning aspect of this report. As shown in the below figure, U.S. total trade inventories increased by $135b, or 9.1%, from March 2011 through September 2012 (the most recent month currently reported by the Census Bureau). Over the same time period, total retail sales actually declined by $17b, or 1.4%. Basically, retail sales have been largely flat for nearly two years, while inventories have steadily accumulated.

I have discussed the problems of increased inventory accumulation previously on this blog, and it remains troubling for trucking to have increasing production volumes be simply stashed in warehouses.

New orders for durable goods (products with a useable life of at least three years) remained flat during October (.pdf), as did new home sales (.pdf). Moreover, consumer confidence improved by only 0.6% during November.

Recently, the American Trucking Association reported that truck tonnage declined by 3.8% in October, the first year-over-year drop since November 2009. Clearly, the trucking sector is in need of a positive shock to demand. A possible source for such a shock is much less clear.

Jeremy West
Internet Truckstop Economist

November 14, 2012 by admin

Are Hurricanes Good for Trucking?

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy—as is often the case following a major natural disaster—economic pundits perform an intellectual dance, arguing whether or not a hurricane is ultimately good for the economy, especially during a recession. I want to take a narrower perspective, asking whether trucking volumes improve following a major hurricane.

The theory goes as follows. A hurricane such as Sandy destroys a large amount of physical property (e.g. houses, office buildings, shops, and infrastructure). Following the storm, the area slowly rebuilds, often renovating older and deteriorated construction along the way. This (re)construction activity requires a large volume of building materials, which—you guessed it—need to be trucked.

Although the story seems plausible, it’s ultimately an empirical question whether a hurricane leads to a significant uptick in trucking activity. To investigate this, I’ve plotted the timing of several major U.S. hurricanes along with the Transportation Services Index for Freight,reported monthly by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics since 1990. This index measures national freight activity and is seasonally-adjusted, which is key in this case because the “hurricane season” largely overlaps the annual peak trucking season. Thus, the test is to see whether hurricanes generate spikes in transportation volumes.

Eleven of the thirty most costly U.S. mainland tropical cyclones from 1900-2010 have occurred since 1990, per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, .pdf report, Table 3a. on p. 9). To these, I’ve added Hurricane Irene (August 2011)for the figure below.

You can of course pass your own judgment on the results, but I think the data speak for themselves. To the extent that hurricanes boost trucking activity, the increase looks pretty small.

This is not to say that trucking is unaffected. In particular, some types of trailers (especially flatbeds) should realize bigger gains in volumes than others. But, I wouldn’t count on Sandy to revitalize the trucking industry.

Jeremy West
Internet Truckstop Economist

November 8, 2012 by admin

Press Release – Internet Truckstop Launches a Platform to Analyze, Organize, Create and Execute the RFP Process

New Plymouth, Idaho–Internet Truckstop, the largest web-based freight matching service in the transportation industry, has launched a new request for proposal suite of services that was previously not available to brokers or third party logistic companies.

Internet Truckstop’s new Request for Proposal (RFP) Suite, is an advanced, cloud based system which requires no software installation and allows users to create, distribute and compete in the RFP Process.

“Our goal in developing the RFP suite was to provide our customers with a ground breaking RFP solution that would reduce the amount of time spent compiling data while also providing additional carrier capacity if needed when bidding on a RFP’s,” says Leigh Foxall, Director, Freight Matching. “Users can invite their pre-qualified core carrier group to participate in an RFP session as well as reach out to new potential carriers that are members of the Internet Truckstop community. Our service allows for customization to meet a user specific needs with user preferences being customized all the way down to lane choices. Users can quickly respond to RFP’s with a detailed understanding of their own available margins per lane as truck and rate history is uploaded directly into the platform.”

Internet Truckstop says their new RFP suite will help users manage their businesses and provide a single on-demand system to easily consolidate, organize, schedule, host, and award or accept lanes to selected transportation partners.

For more information visit www.truckstop.com or call 1-800-203-2540 x 6185
About Internet Truckstop
Founded in 1995, Internet Truckstop is the first and largest freight matching service on the web. Internet Truckstop offers more tools than any other freight matching service available. These easy-to-use tools, the largest freight database, and a commitment to the transportation industry make Internet Truckstop the leader in Internet freight matching.