Loadsmart SmartWay Transport Partnership

January 15, 2016 loadsmartLeave a comment

January 15, 2015

LOADSMART JOINS U.S. EPA SMARTWAY TRANSPORT PARTNERSHIP

New York, New York — Loadsmart today announced that it joined SmartWay Transport Partnership, an innovative collaboration between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an industry that provides a framework to assess the environmental and agency efficiency of goods movement supply chains.

Loadsmart will contribute to the Partnership’s savings of 144.3 million barrels of oil, $20.6 billion in fuel costs, 61.7 MMT of carbon dioxide (CO2 ), 1,070,000 tons of nitrogen oxides, and 43,000 tons of particulate matter, the equivalent of taking 13 million cars off of roads.

Developed jointly in early 2003 by the EPA and Charter Partners represented by industry stakeholders, environmental groups, American Trucking Associations, and Business for Social Responsibility, this innovation program was launched in 2004. Partners rely upon SmartWay tools and approaches to track and reduce emissions and fuel use from goods movement. The Partnership currently has over 3,000 Partners including Shipper, logistics companies, truck, rail, barge and multimodal carriers.

Loadsmart is a proud advocate for a cleaner environment. Our goal is to reduce the total number of deadhead miles travelled annually until they are eliminated completely.

For more information on Loadsmart visit www.loadsmart.com or call 1-646-88-SMART.
For information about the SmartWay Transport Partnership visit www.epa.gov/smartway

Is Paying Truckers by the Mile Contributing to the Driver Shortage?

June 17, 2015 loadsmartLeave a comment

Although the drivers shortage is currently estimated at around 35,000-40,000, it is predicted to reach 240,000 drivers by 2022. Although there are several factors that contribute to the shortage, an interesting one might be how truckers are paid. Not necessarily how much, but how.

According to Larry Kahaner from the LA Times being paid by the mile and not by the hour results in drivers making no money when sitting in traffic or waiting at warehouses, it also promotes speeding in order to make money. A driver stated “Because payment is by the mile, warehousers and others don’t respect drivers’ time. Any inefficiency in their operation — and even from my own carrier — is soaked up by the driver at no cost to anyone else.”

A drivers opinion on how their carrier values them definitely impacts their performance levels and the turnover rate. Dupre logistics who started paying their drivers by the hour for safety reasons stated“The company realized that even though it was following the rules governing how many hours a trucker could be on the road, its drivers were fatigued, and therefore accident prone.”

This resulted in the company crash rate plummeting, they attract experienced and reliable drivers and their turnover rate is 17% in an industry where the rate is normally around 90%. Thoughts?

For more information go to LA Times>>

For more on us go to LoadSmart.com>>

What to Expect in the Trucking Industry For 2015

December 15, 2014 loadsmartLeave a comment

1. Worsening Driver Shortage. (lower driver standards, carrier mergers, driver pay increase and incentives.)

2. Tightening Capacity and Increase Use of Private Fleets.

3. Improving Productivity with Trucking Technology.

4, Debating Autonomous Trucks.

5. Surge in Truck Orders Will Change Wait Times.

6. Global Economic Crisis Could Effect the U.S.

7. Congress Must Find Answers to Fund Infrastructure by May.

8. More Scrutiny of Driver Screening.

9. Increase use of Telematics Devices.

10. Downsizing to Medium Duty Fleets.

11. Fuel Economy Technology.

12. Constant Changes in Manufacturing and Supply Chain.

13. E-logging and HOS mandates.

14. CSA Changes.

15. More FMCSA regulations.

For Specifics go to Trucking Info>>
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Investors Looking for the Next Big Start Up Logistic Company

October 15, 2014 loadsmartLeave a comment

The trucking industry in the US brings in over $600 Billion in gross freight revenue and employes 6.8 million people. With the technological advances that are occurring exponentially the consumers are demanding their e-commerce goods to arrive faster from shippers. With the rise in demand of e-commerce goods, shippers are looking for more efficient ways of send their loads. With this being common knowledge, start up logistic companies have been popping up and although investors have been investing, they seem to believe the next big logistics start up company hasn’t arrived yet, with their investments being a bit reserved. There are some companies with backers that are popping up with potential like Shippo, Cargomatic, Traansmission, OneMorePallet, ShipHawk, and Peloton. For more info on these companies go to Tech Crunch>>

Congressmen tell FMCSA errors in sleep apnea testing

October 14, 2014 loadsmartLeave a comment

Congressmen are concerned about FMCSA’s recommended training organizations who are incorrectly teaching medical examiners how to test sleep apnea on truckers. How to handle sleeping disorders are being argued by many. Although it was first recommended to strengthen it’s guidance by medical examiners, the trucking industry was concerned because that decision did not clearly state what the responsibilities of motor carriers and other employers would be. The new recommendation is to write a new rule that not only covers the new developments on sleep disorders but an understanding on the impact of such a rule, including its cost and benefits which is estimated at $1 billion a year by the American Trucking Association. Trucking Info>>

Shippers using the spot market poorly

October 13, 2014 loadsmartLeave a comment

Attention Shippers, the price of transportation is going up for multiple reasons but if you could do something to lower those prices wouldn’t you? Shippers are impairing themselves in the spot freight market. Most shippers release their list of loads to all of the brokers they know looking for the best options. What shippers are actually doing is creating more options for drivers that are not actually there.This creates a hyped up demand for trucks and drivers that are not actually there. (Now we all know there is a huge demand for drivers as a whole, I am addressing the spot market specifically). As this “demand” increases truckers expect higher prices. As the trucking industry evolves the hassle of trying to find trucks for your loads will become easier but for now trying to stop going to multiple brokers, know where the smartest and quickest way to gain access to truckers at low prices are and stop creating false demand that raise prices. Shippers and truckers for more info go to Inbound Logistics>>

ATA conference: The technology of today

October 13, 2014 loadsmartLeave a comment

The American Trucking Association Conference that took place in San Diego from Oct. 4-7 had a lot of technological solutions to the problems in the trucking industry. Fleets and suppliers were particularly targeting the driver’s experience. Video based driver risk management was the most popular technology discussed at ATA. Although Video based driver risk management tool and other technological advancments are very useful, there is also the question of privacy.

In a world where people like Edward Snowden are telling you to get rid of Dropbox and avoid Google and Amazon if you value your privacy, should we accept the reality of the world we live in which has little privacy or stay traditional with no technological advancements? Would you actually stop using Google and Amazon? LoadSmart would love to know how the trucking industry feels about adding cameras and GPS in trucks, along with other technological tools.

Technology at ATA

Here is a quick list of the most talked about technology at the American Trucking Association Conference. For more info on all of this go to CCJ Digital>>

1. DriveCam for Lytx lists top drivers in need of interventions

2. SmartDrive 360 viewing

3. Zonar with GreenRoad for real time driver feedback

4. PeopleNet in-cab scanning capabilities for documents

5. Omnitracs in scanning application on mobile

6. TND 760 weigh station bypass

The Cost of Traffic Congestion in the Trucking Industry

October 8, 2014 loadsmartLeave a comment

The American Transportation Research Institution finally released all of it data, which showed how traffic congestion affects the trucking industry. Trucking companies lost 141 million hours on interstate systems alone. That amounts to 51,000 truck drivers being idle for an entire year. Other data collected by ATRI also helps solve the traffic congestion issue affecting the trucking industry. Some of that data included locating where the traffic is by location and time and how to avoid it. At the ATA panel suggestions on how to solve the cost of traffic congestion in the trucking industry were given for those suggestions go to CCJDigital>>

Poll Found Public Opinion on Trucking Industry Positive

October 7, 2014 loadsmartLeave a comment

Only 9% of those polled had negative opinions on the trucking industry. 80% believe that truck drivers are safer than passenger vehicle drivers, 90% believed that passenger vehicle drivers are more likely to speed versus a truck driver, and 74% believed that when a passenger vehicle and a truck get into a collision it was most likely the passenger vehicle’s fault.

They were also asked about the highway infrastructure and most Americans believe that the highway infrastructure needs improvement however they do not want to taxes to pay for it.

TruckingInfo>>

Top 10 trucking industry concerns of 2014 by annual survery