Support Our Truckers

Posted this with the permission of the Author - Frederick (SilverSurfer) Schaffner

All of us sit in our homes every day asking ourselves why. Many of us come onto forums, such as this, and express our opinions and how much we're pissed off with our government. I also know I'm not the only one talking to my TV (politicians BS) in disgust at how our government is not acting in the best interest of American citizens...destroying our Constitutional freedoms.

Truckers tried to fight the ignorant fools on the hill and get them to act according to the will of the American people...as well as redress of issues within the trucking industry. Time and again truckers attempted to get something done, but to no avail. There just wasn't enough of us to get this ignorant government of ours to act.

Matt (UnitedCDL) and myself (TheAmericanDriver) have committed to the pursuit of true unity. We have been evaluating and discussing a direction to succeed at achieving this goal. The 111th Congress will be convening this week and they will be continuing their detrimental actions effecting our country, and each of us. We must prepare ourselves for whatever may come this year. And for us to achieve any type of success will require the support of American citizens. The time has come for each and every one of us to commit our full support for our last line of peaceful defense...our truckers.

Countless Americans have been calling for the truckers to do something...bring this ignorant government of ours to their knees. We have tried. And we have seen the support from the citizens. But it's time to stop standing on the sidelines waving your fist in the air...it's time to make it known. It's time to show just how committed you are in supporting our efforts. Our founding fathers defeated the Crown against insurmountable odds because of the support from the citizens. Citizens committed to helping in any way they could in the battle for their freedom. This must occur now for us to ever truly succeed at taking our country back.

Follow this link and make the decision you've had enough of the oppressive nature of our government. Commit your support and make it known.

Support Our Truckers

This will be the topic on our next United Groups Conference Call this Sunday evening. Please join us.

Listen or join the chat: TalkShoe Community Call
Phone in:
(Phone#) 724-444-7444
(Call ID) 30513

Safe Trails and God Bless,
Frederick (SilverSurfer) Schaffner

Posted this from The Truckers Forum

Is your job secure in the trucking industry...or in any industry in America

Is your job secure in the trucking industry today? I have been reading a lot here lately (it must be slow if I am taking time to read) about company's closing their doors, or putting a freeze on hiring drivers, and or just laying drivers off.

I just read this Schneider National not hiring inexperienced drivers this is big news. They are pretty big in the industry, I wonder how long before the other big boys start this if they have not already.

I am sort of glad in a way to see this come though, as freight is short as it always is this time of year. Just seems this year is worse, than previous years I don't know why unless it is because of the way the economy is. I am just feeling it worse I guess as is everybody.

I am hoping, along with a lot of other truck drivers that this is not another ploy to get Mexican drivers in! Is Schneider in cahoots with the government? The US Government seems to want to give our jobs away to the immigrants. I kinda hated to show that link, but peoples eyes need to be opened to junk like this!

Now, I for one am not racist at all. BUT, I feel if you are going to want to move to the USA then at least do it legally. Pay your taxes, and learn the language!

You, know a few years ago I applied for a state job here in Kentucky working for the road department. I know I am lazy, so I figured that was a great way to have to not work really hard and have good benefits. I was denied any job. But go down the road during the summer and look and see who is wearing the hard hats now! I felt really offended by this! I have 14+ years working as a Truck Driver and also a heavy equipment operator. But they hire a immigrant just because they have too!

A year ago I drove for a small dump truck company out of Tiffin, OH. We were laying some black top for Shelly Materials Inc up in Toledo, OH and they made us leave the job because we did not have any immigrants working for us. They brought in another company to finish the job! We were not allowed to dump our loads as we were turned around and told to take it back to the plant and dump it on the ground! The state of Ohio wasted so much money on this it's no wonder they had to put a freeze on all the construction last year!

I now work for a fairly large bulk tanker company we have around 600 trucks. The work is pretty much seasonal, so I know this is why we are so slow. My shop/terminal in Kentucky has nothing to do, so we go to Michigan and work every week now.

Anyway, I hope all had a great Christmas, and I can only hope for a Better New Years!

Keep the shiny side up, and Truckim safe!

CAT Scale to buy Interstate Scales

CAT Scale has agreed to buy Interstate Scales from its owner, Hargett Enterprises. For the time being, CAT Scale will operate all 143 Interstate Scales locations while sites are evaluated. “We are excited about this," said Delia Moon Meier, senior vice president of CAT Scale, based in Walcott, Iowa. "Interstate has a fully equipped and fully staffed office, technical center and warehouse in Evansville, Ind. With both offices, we are now only a one-day drive to 70 percent of our scales."

The world's largest truck-scale network, CAT Scale has more than 1,000 locations in North America. It was founded in 1977 by the late Bill Moon, also the visionary behind the Iowa 80 truck stop and its annual Walcott Truckers Jamboree.

Chinese trucking execs visit Con-way trucking terminal on fact-finding mission

Delegates from the China Road Transportation Association were excited by the number of trucks they saw on Interstate 81 during their visit to the Con-way trucking company in Greencastle last week. The six delegates were on a fact-finding mission. They were from different Chinese provinces and wanted to get ideas for ways to improve the Chinese trucking industry.

“The Chinese trucking industry is still in its infancy,” said Warren Hoemann, senior vice president of the American Trucking Association. “Their trucking industry is moving very fast, though.”

The delegates were taking a two-week journey across the United States to find out how America’s trucking industry works. They visited San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York to view various trucking operations.

“First we have to learn from the outside world,” said Mi Wenju, the deputy manager of Beijing Xianglong Assets Management Co. Ltd. “We see what works in those areas, then take those ideas back to China and see what works best for us.” Along the way, they noticed the thousands of miles of roads the United States has.

“The Chinese are working on their road systems so they can support the tractor trailers,” said Con-Way Chief Operating Officer Dave Miller. “In the past five to six years they have built the amount of roadways that have taken us 60 years. We can’t even patch our own roadways in five years.”

The reason for the massive building of roadways is Chinese reliance on intermodal transportation. China, which owns the largest shipping ports in the world, can use intermodal systems to move much of their production inland to the more rural provinces by using boats, trains and trucks.

“We are spending over $100 billion on transportation infrastructure,” said Mingde Yao, chairman of the China Road Transport Association.

This will allow China to become one of the leaders in the shipping industry in the next few years. But the intermodal system cannot grow without miles and miles of roads and the trucks to travel on them, which was a major reason why the delegates came to Con-way.

“They use farm trucks, old Soviet-built trucks and box trucks,” Hoemann said. “They don’t have double trailers either.”

At the sight of the double trailers, the Chinese delegates were very excited, taking pictures and walking around a truck like it was an alien spaceship. Mi Wenju and a few of the other delegates took a ride in the truck.

“The reason they don’t have these double trailers is because all of their roads aren’t yet up to standards,” Miller said. “But the roads they are building are being built with international standards in mind.”

In addition, each trailer in China is “married” to the tractor, so trailers are not interchangeable. This is because of the way the vehicles are registered with the Chinese provincial governments, Miller explained.Source

Engine emission labels required after Feb. 14 in California

Beginning on Feb. 15, California will require every truck traveling in the state to have “Engine Emission Certification” labels as part of the Golden State’s roadside inspection program. Drivers whose trucks don’t have the labels will risk facing fines up to $300 immediately and $500 if “proof of repair” isn’t provided within 45 days. The labels are created by the engine manufacturers only. Kenworth trucks with Cummins engines have had the labels affixed for years, Jeff Sass, a spokesman for Kenworth, told Land Line on Thursday, Jan. 10.

Roger Gault, technical director with the OEM-backed Engine Manufacturers Association, said OEMs are waiting to see how many service calls California’s new rule generates at truck dealerships.

Most engine labels are probably still on truck engines, Gault said, although older trucks, especially with rebuilt engines, may have problems.

“When you start thinking about a product that’s 20 years old, a 1988, it may or may not still have its emission control label for a variety of reasons,” Gault said. “The labels are ‘permanent,’ but over the course of time,’ it may not have an engine label at all.”

If too many drivers are cited, OEMs and their association will hear about it, Gault said.

“When somebody shows up at one of our dealerships with a pink slip in hand saying, ‘hey, I need this emission control label in hand or I can’t go anywhere,’ dealers need to be able to get that information,” Gault said.

The Engine Manufacturers Association works often with CARB on truck issues. The manufacturers’ group has heard from many independent service companies and mechanics concerned that they won’t be able to legally rebuild engines for trucks entering California, because they don’t have an emission label recognized by CARB.

“That’s creating a stir in the rebuild business,” Gault said. “We’re trying to work through all of these issues with ARB as the enforcement of this rule begins.”

Gault said that barring a rebuild, most truckers won’t have a problem keeping the labels on.

Most OEMs began affixing the engine labels during the 1970s, Gault said, and many labels are metal plated, and are glued or riveted to the engine.

“They’re pretty robust,” Gault said. “Engine manufacturers historically have realized that it’s very important – not just for emissions compliance – but really for the serviceability of the product.”

It’s possible that CARB’s label requirement may not help the environment. Several older engines may well have the label in place, Gault said, although they’re old enough and include enough replaced parts that they’re emitting high levels of greenhouse gases.

“There’s a lot of pretty old engines that are still running around,” he said, “whether they are in California or anywhere else.”

Four People Die on U.S-Mexico Bridge Wreck

According to police, four people were killed in a fiery wreck which occurred Thursday night on a bridge that extends the U.S Mexico border. The accident on the 3.2-mile Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge in South Texas affected two tractor trailers and three other cars, according to the sayings of police Lt. Lupe Salinas.

He said that the accident occurred just after 7 p.m. and that the tractor trailers were coming from different directions, the Associated Press reports.

According to Salinas, three people lost their lives after their vehicle has fallen from the bridge and dropped on the other road.

Due to the collision with a tractor trailer another person has died.

Rescuers were searching for other possible victims. Salinas said that the cause of the accident was still being investigated.

The fire was put out, according to Pharr Emergency Management Coordinator Elsa Sanchez, Houston Chronicle informs.

She said that personnel from the cities nearby responded to the call.

It seemed like there were other injuries too, but none of it was life-threatening.

The victims were yet not identified by the police. There was no information regarding their genders, ages or nationalities.

The vehicle that plunged from the bridge was a pickup truck bearing a Texas license plate.

Salinas said that the tractor trailers and the other vehicle, a minivan, had Mexican license plates.

He said: "Right now we're trying to clean up the debris that we have on the bridge, investigate the accident, reconstruct the accident and recover the bodies."

According to spokesman Felix Garza for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the bridge was closed in both ways. Also crossers were being diverted.

Normally the bridge is closed between midnight and 6 a.m. The bridge will be reopened on Friday at 6 a.m.

The structure of the bridge didn’t suffer any damage from the accident, according to the sayings of assistant bridge director, Fred Brouwen.

This bridge is the fourth-largest commercial vehicle in Texas. Every day about 1,700 trucks and 7,000 cars cross it from Mexico to Texas, according to Brouwen.

He said: "This is basically the second accident in the 15 years we've had the bridge."

The bridge has one southbound lane and three northbound lanes.Source

FedEx settles racial discrimination suit

FedEx has agreed to pay more than $53 million to settle a class-action racial discrimination lawsuit against its FedEx Express division.

According to Reuters, the suit was filed on behalf of about 20,000 black and Hispanic workers in the western part of the country who claimed they were unfairly evaluated, passed over for promotions and paid less than white employees.

Despite agreeing to make the big settlement payment, a company spokeswoman told Reuters, “There has been no finding of wrongdoing on the part of FedEx.”

That spokeswoman, Sandra Munoz, was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying that the settlement would be covered by insurance and that FedEx voluntarily agreed to the settlement to avoid a lengthy and costly lawsuit and appeals. She also said that FedEx would improve its human resources operations.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California will have to sign off on the settlement before it is final. If the court approves the deal, details will be sent to about 20,000 employees included in the class action, with the process being completely finished by as early as August.

Source

Colorado chain-up bill passes House

A Colorado bill increasing the fine for chain law violations, supported by the state trucking association but opposed by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, overwhelming passed the House and now has been sent to a Senate transportation committee.

The bill was born out of frustration with lanes blocked by truck accidents caused by not using chains, especially on Interstate 70. House members passed the bill 56-9 on April 2.

The Colorado Motor Carriers Association plans to testify in favor of HB 1229, now that its concerns have been satisfied, said association spokesman Greg Fulton. The association also will push for more enforcement of chain laws on I-70.

The bill increases fines for truckers not using chains when chain laws are in effect from $116 to $500. It also increases the penalty for blocking a lane because of an accident caused by not using required chains from $500 to $1,000.

“It’s a good compromise,” Fulton said. “It addresses the safety and welfare issues. We’ve set the table for compliance.”

The Colorado Department of Transportation will commit $2.5 million to improving spaces to chain up trucks to make them more like a work zone. They will be lighted and more spacious, with signs alerting drivers they are entering a chain-up area and to slow down. Courtesy patrols will be increased to help with chaining problems, such as losing traction.

The state patrol has agreed to require trucks entering Colorado’s mountains to bring chains with them, and the state DOT has agreed to improve its decision-making process for declaring chaining laws in effect.

OOIDA’s website called the bill a “revenue-generating legislation” with fines that are too heavy. Colorado roads are not wide enough to provide safe chain-up areas, and the state DOT has provided no schedule of when improvements of chain-up areas even will begin, OOIDA said.

Language deleted from the bill would have subtracted four points from Colorado CDL holders for chain violations.

Source

Dallas intermodal hub to open Friday

What’s being billed as the largest intermodal transportation hub under development in North America will have its grand opening in a Dallas suburb this Friday, April 13.

The hub is located along Interstate 35 in Lancaster, which is in a suburban area just south of Dallas.

According to a press release from the developers, The Allen Group, the master plan calls for building out the facility to 6,000 acres of distribution, manufacturing, office and retail use. The developers said the facility will eventually create more than 60,000 jobs, both directly and indirectly.

Source