New Highway Bill Passed – 2012

New Highway Bill is in Play

On March 14th, 2012, the Senate’s highway bill was passed on a bipartisan 74-22 vote. The bill will be a 2 yr. plan costing $109 Billion. No report yet on where that money is coming from…

The bill will make several changes to the transportation industry including key changes to the national freight program and additional mandates for EOBR’s for trucker’s safety. The bill will now have to go through the house of representatives by March 31st.

The ATA seemed pleased that the newly passed highway bill will provide $2 billion dollars a year towards fright-related highway projects specifically. This is a long-awaited need the ATA has lobbied for a number of years.

The EOBR battle is making headway with this new bill passing as well. The bill will allow drug and alcohol test results to be made more available to employers. No word yet on how this protects the drivers privacy and personal rights.

More Transportation Bill Information to Come

Though the house still has to pass on this bill, there does seem to be a decent amount of acceptance across the board for this bill. We will keep you posted on the following news related to this highway transportation bill.

Retail Sales Hit 5 Month High

Retail Sales Increase 2012

In a recent article by Shobhana Chandra by Bloomberg news, retail sales have risen in february by the most in five months. This is a strong indicator for economic growth and rebound. the increase was attributed to 11 out of the 13 retail categories including auto dealers and clothing store chains.

Stores like Target, Gap and other well known retailers have seen an increasing in spending and a likely opportunity for additional growth in the months to come. Consumer spending is on the rise across the board in the first quarter, which is a welcome treat to anyone in the semi trailer rentals industry, as 1st quarter is typically filled with more trailers come back off rent from Christmas than trailers going back out.

Semi Trailer Rentals Less Effected

In recent years, semi trailers have become less used with retail stores as most chains have found containers to be more space efficient and cost effective. Though a decent number of large retailers will always depend on trailers to solve their logistic needs regardless of costs and space.

Are We Any Safer? – Safety in Transportation Industry

Transportation Safety

It seems that every day a new regulation is coming out about safety in the transportation industry and rightfully so. Transportation is dangerous and it’s important to handle the risk as best as possible. However, a recent study came out by the DOT that shows a 9% increase in trucking related fatalities in 2010. This was the first increase since 2004 and was up from 2009 which was a record low for the industry since it was first tracked in 1975.

Though difficult to pinpoint, it is certainly a upsetting figure to see. With advancements in safety technology, better awareness than we’ve ever had, and other positive factors, the rate increases. One argument to the cause of the increase is simply due to more people being on the road than ever before. The DOT recorded a decrease in 2010 in number of overall miles travelled. This seems to discount the fact that more people are on the road.

So what other reasons could be to blame for this increase? Some believe that the increase in mobile technology is related to the incidents. Though a recent bill was passed to ban mobile phones for truck drivers and other CMV drivers, the general public still has not passed legislation that is nationwide. This could certainly be one of the factors that has been responsible for the extra 295 fatalities in 2010.

Awareness is The Key

Regardless of the increase in regulations and increases in accidents, we have to focus on what matters the most, awareness. Awareness is really just a fancy word for telling your friends that this stuff matters. Accidents kill thousands each year and change peoples lives forever. It matters. Simply using our channels, networks, and voices can help make a profound difference on the impact and change surround transportation safety.

Help us spread the word by sharing this post with others, or writing a post yourself. If you’re aware, it’s time to help others become more.

Conway Chooses Maptuit

Transportation Technology

Transportation giant, Con-way truckload, has chosen its navigation system software for all of it’s trucks both for hired employees and owner-operators.

Their decision is to go with Maptuit NaviGo technology. Navigo provides a hybrid technology that allows both onboard and dynamic data to be loaded through the application. This allows for drivers to see the necessary real-time data but doesn’t sacrifice speed and use due to constantantly streaming information. The application keeps the information that is necessary and keeps it as part of its static data. This is a great design and will prove useful in all applications.

The integration for the the systems will take place in Con-way’s headquarters in Joplin, MO according to Transport Topics and will take about 6 to 8 months to properly test and install the systems on their fleets trucks.

Technology Matters

Technology like this is popping up everywhere and making fleets more productive and competitive. It’s all part of that wave we call the future and it’s important to get on board. Prime Trailer Leasing is working to provide similar forms of efficiencies with their rental services. Check us out and call us today to find out more about how we can better increase your companies bottom line.

New Tire Technology Saves Costs

New Tire Technology

As we all learned in our high school economics classes, the law of supply and demand is what regulates prices on goods. With the shortage in rubber last year, tires prices went up and supply went down. This is no surprise to fleet managers who understand the correlation between tire management and fleet profitability. As Colorado’s largest rental fleet, Prime Trailer Leasing is always looking for new ways to manage tires on rental trailers. A new technology may soon be available to assists fleet managers in keeping up with tire maintenance, tire replacement, and matching tires to the appropriate equipment which can result in a better method of controlling costs and increasing the bottom line for fleets.

ContiTrack 2

Continental Tire the Americas LLC, in Fort Mill, S.C began introducing its tire management program called ContiTrack 2. The system uses Bluetooth-linked technology and software integration to measure and record data such as wear and tear characteristics, tire pressure, and tread depth and record it in the system database. The company can then use this data to better assist its customers in projecting performance highlights like projected mileage and associated costs, the dollar value of a fleets tires based on tread depth, and even loss projections based on air pressure and inappropriate tire and equipment matching. Once the company has all its sales team trained and using the equipment they will begin to offer the tool to customers.

More Tire Techonology

Another potential technology that would be helpful for rental trailer fleets is the use of radio-frequency-id tags in tires which could store and transfer information into a reader. The tags would be linked to a specific unit and store information to tell technicians when they inspect the fleet’s tires making things more convenient to find information such as size, age, make, proper level of inflation, etc. These kinds of technologies are just the beginning when it comes to managing such an important part of business for the transportation industry.

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