Showing posts with label truck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label truck. Show all posts

Truckers Can Officially Enjoy Coffee



It seems at times, everything is bad for you and life has turned into one big rulebook. Don’t do this, Don’t eat that, Exercise, Stop for inspection, and so on. Occasionally we cut a break. And that break is…Caffeine.

I am reading in Overdrive Magazine that a study in Australia shows a significant connection between caffeine and alertness. 

I am prepared to accept that. In fact the article uses important sounding words that make it sound so much more scientific than I ever dreamed. The article describes the miracle of caffeine with:

“caffeine is a ‘psycho stimulant’ that suppresses the innate  adenosine mediated drive to sleep.’”

That is a mouthful and maybe a really verbose way of saying coffee keeps you up or like my wife puts it ‘coffee keeps you moving.’ 

But who cares!

We officially can enjoy coffee. It is one of the few guilt free pleasures that is not linked to heart disease, hypertension, infection, psychosis, nightsweats, cotton mouth, allergic reaction,…etc. We now do not have to walk into the truck stop with that uncomfortable sense of knowing that some doctor said that coffee is bad for us. Even better we have official jargon to back up the right to drink coffee on the road. 

In fact it is something healthy. We are not guzzling coffee while hauling cars all night. We are operating our Cottrell’s with a legal ‘psycho stimulant.” (wow that sounds good). We are rolling down the highway with a health beverage that fights our innate nature to go into adenosine cerebral arrest which is a fancy phrase I just made up meaning your tired. I would imagine every trucker or carhauler understands the value of a caffeinated pyscho-stimulant on an extended roadtrip.

On a side note, the article also mentions that there is a condition where you are exhausted all the time. It has a fancy medical term too but I just call it being a parent.

So pull into that truck stop and find that coffee stand…It is now “official”... it might help you stay awake!

 http://www.overdriveonline.com/caffeine-use-reduces-crash-risk-for-truck-drivers-says-study/

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 *please note: this article is not a recommendation to drink coffee or consume caffeinated beverages of any kind or amount. This is a merely a humorous look at how feeling tired can potentially be mitigated by drinking coffee. Please observe the HOS rules and drink lots of water when you consume caffeine. This writer is not a doctor and is in no way giving any medical advice to anyone. In fact, consult with your physician before consuming coffee or caffeine products to make sure that is the proper remedy for any exhaustion or sleep problems involving adenosine or your bodies predisposition to got into a ‘adenosine mediated drive’ to feel tired or sleep. Be safe out there.
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B.C....Before Carhaulers?

carhauler
Carhauler Autohauler Methods of the 70s
There are a lot of things which seemed like a good idea at the time. Even for carhaulers and autohaulers you would think the idea of loading that factory new car onto the large spacious trailer would be the way it has always been done. Not so. Below you see a world without carhaulers and autotransport

I can only imagine how bad this is for the car to be moved like that.





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The Dripping Faucet Of Trucking


I can still remember my Mom reminding me to make sure the dripping faucet in the bathroom is all the way off. That little drip over a month could add into the thousands over time. Without close observation, it is easy to neglect it. 

I mean what is one drop of water? 

Well for some reason I equate this to the trucking and transportation industry. One truck waiting for a delivery may not make a significant impact on wasted fuel and lost time. One additional regulation may not be that significant. One more toll increase might be lost in the sands of time. Multiply that by thousands of trucks over thousands of days and you come to some astounding numbers. Just for lost fuel and time in traffic alone, the public faces additional costs to the tune of:

$27 Billion

This is the number I read in Overdrive magazine that is wasted as we, and our trucks, are waiting in traffic. Shockingly, this number does not even mention the billions in regulatory cost that trucking has been saddled with. On top of that, you couple lost road time, lost fuel, and regulation with a driver shortage, and the $27 Billion number begins to approach triple digits.

Tolls, and inflation are additional costs that send the amount of increased costs into the stratosphere. You combine all these costs and it is a real possibility that road transportation could become prohibitively expensive for a lot of things. 


Drop coming out of a faucet coated with calciu...
It adds up really fast (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This statement probably seems ridiculous but costs of doing business in transportation keep piling up on truckers and fleet managers and the public is feeling these costs at the store since it ultimately impacts them. Pretty soon those drops of wasted water begin to overflow the sink.

A penny more here, a few cents more there do not seem that big a deal but it is being absorbed by the public on everything from fuel, to food and even to non essentials. The faucet is dripping over and over and no one is looking at how to shut it off. In the case of the public, I have a strong suspicion they do not even realize the connection between runaway trucking costs and their finances. So in turn it is not just road delays we have to worry about, but a system that is being pushed far beyond what it can bear financially.

Eventually, that faucet will have totaled enough to fleece the public out of HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS in added costs of what they use in daily life.

A possible solution?

I have no fast solutions but I do have some ideas.

As an industry we need to direct a portion of our outreach and education to the general public and consumer groups focusing on

  •   The costs we are paying in terms of regulation, inflation, fuel,  tolls, congestion..etc
  •   How those costs are draining their pockets at the store

We need to encourage the public to contact their Congressman about slowing the pace of regulation, tolls, and fuel increases. Connecting fuel increase reduction with the unopened Keystone Pipeline might not be a bad issue to push as well.

Another direction would be to see how we can reduce road congestion by the smart management of traffic. With all the technology can’t we get more people off the roads by giving businesses incentives to start telecommuting programs? This may seem silly but it is clear that those cars on the road add up.

Why not offer incentives to come to work at different times of the day to reduce bottlenecks that occur when people come at one set time.

It will take a lot more than just a few ideas, but this is a start. I would love to hear your ideas…

-Michael Saks
  Editor of Haulin
  msaks@ectts.com


Overdrive article link
http://www.overdriveonline.com/traffic-costs-trucking-industry-27-billion-a-year-says-study/

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A Possible Bumpy Ride On The Marijuana Super ‘HIGH”-way?



I have ignored this subject for weeks. After the election I did not really know what to say about
English: Leaf of Cannabis עברית: עלה של קנביס
Did not see this one comingס(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

legalized marijuana and its effect on transportation

To be honest I still did not want to touch it. So when I saw Overdrive magazine broach the issue I figured it was time I joined the dialogue. For months I have lived behind some simple reassurances that have shielded me from giving the issue deep thought. I am sure you have heard them as well. Here we go:

  1. Legalized or not, drivers cannot be under the influence of alcohol or drugs...period.
  2. The DOT monitoring systems are the most meticulous and efficient they have ever been in inspecting and tracking violators.
  3. The roads are safer than they have ever been.
  4. The quality of drivers has improved.

So why even give it a second thought? Well a few questions come to mind.

One Possible Scenario

What do you do if a driver leaves Colorado and goes to work for a company where marijuana is not legal. The driver has never driven while under the influence but has used marijuana recreationally. He takes the drug test for employment and has traces of marijuana in his system.

He passes right? The traces are from a marijuana legal state. Clean driving record. All is well.

What happens when a another employee at the same company with a clean driving record (who is registered to be living in a non marijuana legal) state has trace elements of marijuana in their system.

Does he get suspended? What if he does but finds out a driver from a marijuana legal state did not get suspended and he takes the case to court for a long drawn out court battle.

Remember ANY court battle win or lose will mean:

  • energy
  • time
  • resources
  • questionable or even bad publicity


Another Possible Scenario

A driver living in a non legal marijuana state has a clean driving record. He tests positive for marijuana but claims he was living with someone else in a marijuana legal state. So what do you do?

In this case do you risk a court battle by suspending the driver.  Now can all the drivers claim this excuse?

What if the insurance companies see that a large number of drivers have used marijuana and their statistics show them that drivers who have used marijuana have a higher incidence of accidents than those who do not..so your rates go up.

I could go on and on. I am just making a point that this issue is not that simple and it is going to make some waves.

I would love to hear your thoughts

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To read the Overdrive article I mention in the article click HERE

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