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Archives for April 2019

National Work Zone Awareness Week – 7 Trucking Safety Tips

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National Work Zone Awareness Week is taking place in Washington D.C. from 8-12 April. This year’s kick-off event is hosted by the District Department of Transportation on April 9, at the Frederick Memorial Douglass Bridge.

Prior to this year’s NWZAW, the Federal Highway Administration reports that about every three days there is a fatal work zone crash involving a large truck in the U.S. Adding to that, the roadside is considered to be one of the most dangerous places to work by the law enforcement.

Road closed sign and car in distance

7 tips to trucking safely through road construction

Last November, PrePass shared some tips on work zones in which they highlighted 7 tips that will lead to a safer drive through road construction:

  • Be patient;
  • Keep your distance;
  • Read the signs;
  • Watch out for workers;
  • Merge safely and early;
  • Obey the reduced speed limit sign;
  • Signal others what’s ahead.

Aside from that, roadside activity, such as law enforcement assisting motorists, parents accompanying children on a roadside potty break or drivers swapping seats demands awareness as well. When there is a road activity, you should check if your left-hand lane is open, signal your intentions, and move over to give others the space they need to be safe.

Highway safety demands increased awareness when work zones and roadside activity unexpectedly bring people and machinery into harm’s way. Therefore, the National Work Zone Awareness Week is a reminder to highway travelers and work zones workers that safety demand enhanced vigilance as people and machinery engage in work immediately adjacent to busy roads.

Smaller Wallets – Better Performance

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Trucker wallets originally emerged out of necessity since the credit cards were first created around the ’50s. And the trucker’s wallet has since become an iconic item in this industry. Back then, gas stations had offered an incentive to anyone who paid in cash. So, being offered with a discount, drivers around the country carried a huge amount of cash.

The trucker’s wallet is the size of a small briefcase and attached to the paints with a chain. This design – a wallet chain – allows for the wallet not to fall out while being on the road. However, it is always practical to want to economize on the space even if you have lots to carry.

Many different wallets.

Small wallet with plenty of space

The small wallet provides the drivers with plenty of space for all the cards they need to carry during the ride as well as a place for their cash. In addition to that, it also protects drivers from anyone who is trying to steal the information stored in chips on credit cards and, in many cases, from the driver’s ID.The small wallet can block devices that can read radio frequency identification (RFID) chips on a driver’s truck stop loyalty cards, fuel cards, and credit or debit cards. The design of small wallet usually offers more than a few slots for driver’s cards and a special place to stash the cash.

LTL Certification Program Filling the Knowledge Gap

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The knowledge-transfer gap in the LTL (less-than-truckload) field is widening as we speak. Professionals are continuously moving into new supply chain position by taking advantage of the strong job market.

When you add the influx of recently graduated college students and the retirement of the trusted logistics leaders into this job shuffling, it becomes clear that the issue of the knowledge gap is getting bigger.

Light bulb and the chalk board.

Less-than-truckload transport issues

When upwardly mobile logistics leaders change jobs, a hole in the collective knowledge of their organizations opens up. The same case occurs when longtime employees with decades of experience in the industry leave. That makes less-than-truckload transport issues appear in a complex mode of transportation and clearly states the fact that experience in the field is not easily gained.

That is why the first LTL certification program in the industry is being developed by the transportation industry’s leading authority for LTL data, technology, and supply chain education – SMC³.

What will the certification courses provide?

A flexible learning experience in an alternative and engaging environment will be provided by the certification courses. Students that wish to learn at their own pace is allowed to do that with a convenient option brought by SMC3s on-demand online learning platform. Intensive, classroom-style lectures are available for experienced logistics players who need to improve in some of the key components of LTL.

Areas that SMC3 course will cover

The company transfers deep knowledge of all aspects of the supply chain through logistics conferences twice a year – at Jump Start and Connections conferences. This shared knowledge creates a strong and unified supply chain, with more than 82 years of company’s supporting the complex space of LTL transportation.

Areas that SMC3 course will cover are the Fundamentals of LTL, Operations, Carrier Pricing&Costing, Transportation Law and Regulations, and Business Analytics. And while making courses in all of these areas, shippers, 3PLs, carriers, and technology providers have their eyes on SMC³ in order to benefit from this knowledge-sharing, learning about the latest technological disruptors and how to confront emerging supply chain challenges.

The lifetime of LTL experience, previously limited to its two annual conferences will be extended into the classrooms. The certification class provided by SMC3 is a place where students can achieve a thorough understanding of the industry form the LTL specialists in the company.

SMC3 technology solutions that benefit the entire industry

Thousands of industry trading partners rely on SMC³ technology solutions to make informed business decisions as the company has enabled stakeholders to navigate the LTL industry for decades. With education being one of the foundational tenets for the company, SMC³ also creates rating, transit-time and shipment execution and visibility technology solutions that benefit the entire industry.While preparing a first-of-its-kind LTL certification program, the expectations for the future look of a supply chain figures who are looking to master their LTL knowledge and take their careers to the next level is rising.

Inspection of steering and suspension on June 4-6

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The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s annual International Roadcheck inspection will take place on June 4-6. That leaves more than 8 weeks to prepare for you to make sure your truck’s steering and suspension components are maintained properly and in good working order. Those components will be the main focus of the inspector’s blitz.

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) is highlighting this year’s steering components and suspension system, even though checking vehicle compliance was always part of the North American Standard Inspection Program.

Yellow truck on the parking lot.

What is the North American Standard Level I inspection?

The North American Standard Level I inspection, a 37-step procedure that includes an examination of driver operating requirements and vehicle mechanical fitness will be concluded during International Roadcheck.

The CVSA-certified inspectors may also opt to conduct Level II Walk-Around Driver/Vehicle Inspection, Level III III Driver/Credential/Administrative Inspection or Level V Vehicle-Only Inspection.

A CVSA decal will be applied to the vehicle if no critical vehicle inspection item violations are found during a Level I or Level V inspection. That would indicate the fact that the vehicle successfully passed a decal-eligible inspection conducted by a CVSA-certified inspector.

What does vehicle inspection include?

According to CVSA, on average, about 17 trucks and buses are inspected every minute in Canada, the United States, and Mexico during a 72-hour period. Critical inspection items are being included in the vehicle inspection.

That mainly refers to the brake systems, cargo securement, coupling devices, (lack of) driver’s seat, exhaust systems, driveline or driveshaft, fuel systems, frames, lighting devices (e.g. tail lamps and stop lamps), steering mechanisms, suspension, tires, van and open-top trailer bodies, as well as windshield wipers, wheels, rims and hubs.

The inspection will also include additional items on buses, motorcoaches, passenger vans or other passenger-carrying vehicles, such as emergency exits, electrical cables, and systems in the battery and engine compartments, as well as temporary and aisle seats.

What will drivers need to provide?

Driver’s license including operating credential, Medical Examiner’s Certificate and Skill Performance Evaluation Certificate will be required for drivers to provide. Also, drivers will need to provide a record of their duty status and vehicle inspection reports. The CVSA-certified inspectors are also going to check drivers for seat belt usage, sickness, fatigue, and apparent alcohol and/or drug impairment.

What happens if a violation of the standards occurs?

A vehicle will be rendered out of service if the vehicle inspection identifies critical item violations. In that case, an inspector may render the vehicle out of service since it has not met the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria.

If a violation of the standards occurs, the vehicle cannot be operated until the vehicle violations are corrected. Fatigue or impairment, or any other driver conditions or driver credential-related issues can be used to place drivers out of service.

The top three vehicle out-of-service violations issued during the 2018’s Roadcheck were brakes, tires and wheels, and brake adjustment. On the other hand, hours of service, wrong class license and false logs were the top driver out-of-service violations.

Last year, The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s annual International Roadcheck inspection sidelined nearly 12,000 trucks and buses as well as 2,600 drivers with out-of-service orders.