Agency research shows the technology could prevent up to 56 percent of rollover crashes each year—the deadliest among all crash types—and another 14 percent of loss-of-control crashes.

“The Department and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have long recognized the potential impact of stability control technology in reducing deaths and serious injuries that result from rollover crashes,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “Today’s proposal is a major step forward to improving the safety of large commercial trucks, motorcoaches, and other large buses.”

An extensive NHTSA research program to determine how available stability control technologies affect crashes involving commercial vehicles found ESC systems to be the most effective tool for reducing the propensity for heavy vehicles to rollover or lose control.

With sensors that monitor vehicle movement and steering, ESC can help mitigate rollover incidents by using automatic computer-controlled braking, and also aid the driver in addressing severe understeer or oversteer conditions that can lead to loss of control. NHTSA estimates that a standard requiring ESC on the nation’s large trucks and large buses would prevent up to 2,329 crashes, eliminate an estimated 649 to 858 injuries and prevent between 49 and 60 fatalities a year.

While many truck-tractors and large buses can currently be ordered with this technology, the proposed standard would require ESC systems as standard equipment on these types of vehicles. As proposed, the rule would take effect between two and four years after the standard is finalized, depending on the type of vehicle.

The agency’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is being published in the Federal Register and members of the public will have the opportunity to comment on the proposal for 90 days. NHTSA will also hold a public hearing on the proposed safety standard to solicit further public comment—the date and location of that hearing will be published in the coming weeks.

Check out this post, part of the Today Show’s “Bites on Today” food-related newsletter, about artist Brock Davis‘ Banana Peel Trucker Hat — as well apparent from the photo, a ball cap perhaps more appropriate for mouse than human and utilizing for its construction the bottom portion of any garden variety banana peel. (Davis originally intended it to amuse his kids — then pictures of it went viral.)

Click through the image to find helpful pointers from Davis on crafting one of these yourself, should you need them.

Bonus: In a manner perhaps similar to the chameleon paint work on the front fenders of owner-operator Ronnie King’s 1990s Peterbilt 379 “Ripe and Ready” (pictured below, itself named after a banana peel — after he had the yellow paint laid on the body and his wife told him, “It looks like a banana that’s ready to eat”), it’ll be sure to change colors, given time and plenty of sunlight, eh?

Find a couple more pics from our shoot with King’s Pete — and more — in my post to the Overdrive Extra blog yesterday.

Shell Rotella's 2010 SuperRigs' Best in Show -- Jerry Heiderscheit's 2003 Peterbilt 379

The 30th annual Shell Rotella SuperRigs competition will be held May 17-19 on the grounds adjacent to the Joplin, Mo., Speedco, located just off Route I-44 at Exit 11. The truck contest will be the signature event for All Roads Lead to Joplin, a group developed to help raise funds to benefit the YMCA of Joplin’s community disaster recovery efforts following a devastating tornado in May 2011.

Owner-operators from across the United States and Canada will compete for cash and prizes valued at approximately $25,000. Additionally, 12 drivers will be selected to have their truck featured in the 2013 SuperRigs calendar.

Visit Rotella.com for more information about the competition.

The annual recognition of the most transparent and trustworthy public businesses is made based on proprietary quantitative and qualitative analysis developed by GMI, an independent international financial analytics firm. More than 8,000 companies are observed and examined for the compilation of the list.

To view the full list, visit Forbes, and for more information on the carrier, visit Old Dominion.

Clark, who retired as a four-star general, began his career as a West Point graduate and junior officer in a combat command in Vietnam and rose through the ranks, eventually becoming commander of NATO forces in Europe. In 2008, Clark ran for U.S. president on the Democratic ticket, and today he is a businessman heavily invested in alternative energy markets, including shale, natural gas, wind, tidal and biofuels.

As keynote speaker at the opening session of the Alternative Clean Transportation Exposition in Long Beach, Calif., Clark said the knowledge-based economic boom of the 1990s seemed to be the fitting conclusion to the “American Century,” as the Internet and the rise of personal computers fed an ever-growing economy that was the envy of the world. But as American wealth grew, the country as a whole invested in real estate instead of manufacturing, research and development.

At the same time, Americans discovered to their dismay that a knowledge-based economy was difficult to contain within national borders. “As it turns out, knowledge moves very quickly overseas,” Clark said. “We discovered that people in Eastern Europe and Asia can write programming code and create software just as good as anyone in America can.”

Today, with the American economy flat and slowly regathering momentum, Clark said that while the United States has no real superpower rivals at the moment, the Chinese are gaining steam and telling the world that America was the economy of the last century – while the future belongs to Beijing.

To counter this, Clark said the United States needs a growth policy – an idea that seems alien to many Americans. “We’ve always grown naturally,” he said. “But for most countries around the world, an economic growth plan is absolutely vital to create and sustain prosperity.”

Brazil is an example of this, he said. The Brazilian government realized that as long as the country was sending billions of dollars overseas to purchase oil, it never would be able to invest adequately to grow its own economy and spur growth. So Brazil decided to shift energy production within its own borders with an aggressive ethanol fuel program. “It worked,” Clark said. “Not overnight. But today, Brazil is one of the premier up-and-coming economies in the world.”

The United States today is in a similar position, Clark said. “We send over $300 billion overseas to purchase oil every year,” he said. “That’s about $1,000 for every man, woman and child in this country. That’s money that we can keep at home to create up to 8.5 million jobs – and taxes to cut our deficit and invest in sustained economic growth.”

Currently, Clark said, that $300 billion a year gets the United States about 9.5 million barrels of oil a day, and he thinks Americans need to pull together across the board – “Everything from ‘Drill, baby, drill!’ to improved fuel economy standards, to wind, solar and tidal power” to steadily chip away at those 9.5 million barrels of oil.

Clark challenged fleet managers attending the conference to ask themselves what they could do to help their country and grow the economy by looking into and investing in alternative fuel technologies where possible. “We all have to work together on this,” he stressed. “The beauty of this is we can develop these alternative fuel technologies without government programs.”

Clark said Wall Street is sitting on $2 billion that could be invested in such technologies. “Overseas investors would love to invest in the United States – because in spite of all our current problems, we still have the strongest and safest economy in the world,” he said. “We just have to step up and give them a vision and goals they can feel confident putting their money in.”

To see the network of trucks using Shorepower, visit the website.

“We’re very excited to add Rachel to our team,” said James Vogel, General Manager of RigDig. “RigDig is dedicated to using cutting-edge technology and data to help members of the trucking industry make more money, and Rachel is another example of that technology.”

“Rachel is designed to give a personalized presentation to anyone visiting the RigDig website,” Vogel continued. “By asking a series of targeted questions, we can then tailor a presentation for the viewer, offering specific pieces of information, descriptions, and even discounts. Rachel does an excellent job explaining how RigDig Reports work and how industry leaders can integrate them into their processes today.”

Rachel Darville is a virtual presenter developed by software company Real Time Content. Its virtual presenter experience captures the full potential of online video by transforming standard video content into an interactive personalized medium.

Powered by the most comprehensive, trusted information sources available, RigDig Truck History Reports help fleet managers, dealers, contractors and owner-operators make more informed used truck purchasing decisions.

As the first vehicle background check designed specifically for the commercial truck market, RigDig combines a variety of data sources that track junk and salvage vehicles, total loss insurance claims, title and odometer brands, accidents, inspections, ownership and cargo hauled records and CSA scores. By logging onto RigDig.com and typing in a truck’s vehicle identification number (VIN), truck buyers and sellers can get vital intelligence in an easy-to-use report.

To see Rachel, visit rigdig.com.

The Gulfport center is located at Exit 31 off Interstate 10, and the Sulpur Springs center is located at Exit 122 off Interstate 30.

For more information, visit Wingfoot’s website.

I bet you I-40 regulars know Uncle Pete’s — formerly Tennessee 40 — at 1210 Sparta Pike in Lebanon, Tenn., at I-40. It might well give any stop east of the Mississippi a run for the money for the “most distinctive” honor. Adorning its walls is a collection of more than “4,875 coffee cups,” says Uncle Pete Norman himself, owner. “Never bought one, but I’ve drank out of every one.”

Pete’s special proprietary bean blend ground fresh on-site, too, is renowned as the best coffee on the interstate by many. Norman opened the stop in 1991 after serving in Vietnam, operating a photo studio north of Nashville and going on to make a living afterward at various pursuits, including buying and re-animating dying businesses in the area. The truck stop was his last such purchase. “I just liked the work so much,” he says. “No day is the same.” He decided to stick with it.

The coffee cup collection, as with so many good things, started out with a joke. When Norman took over the business, “we had about six coffee cups” that weren’t broken, he says, so an employee offered up a large number she’d been planning to get rid of at a yard sale. When finally they got in their first order of standard mugs, Norman adds, they took those old cups and “set them in the window ledges.”

Soon enough, drivers started asking about them. “Are you collecting coffee cups?”

“We’re going after the Guinness World Record,” Norman would tell them. Soon enough again, people started taking that seriously and bringing cups to add to the collection. It grew over the 21 years the stop’s been in business to what it is today, with cups of all shapes and sizes lining the upper parts of nearly every wall in the restaurant and C-store, too. “We have cups from 44 countries, every state and all U.S. islands and territories,” says Norman.

They’ve got a cup for the original Cracker Barrel location (brought in by a former dishwasher there who routinely took broken mugs home with him), a collection of 44 mugs a woman who spent every July 4 holiday at Pete’s left in her will for the stop.

Stop at Pete’s sometime and ask him to tell you the story of the cup (here pictured, at the corner) made special for the stop after a grandmother, mother, and daughter broke down in a brand-new U-haul there. You won’t regret it.

In any case, Norman’s pretty close with trucking country singer-songwriter Aaron Tippin, who lives nearby. Tippin used the location as a meeting point for his touring crew for many years, fueling the bus there as often as was possible. And Norman and Tippin also share an interest in aviation. Tippin, well-known as a pilot, made it a point during our time there to ask Norman about his progress on the 1967 Hughes TH55 military training helicopter he’s been in the process of restoring. It’s one he actually flew himself back when he was in the military at Fort Campbell, Ky.

When Tippin suggested myself and Carolyn Magner meet him there for filming of a video installment in Truckers News’ Celebrity Series, we didn’t exactly realize the treasure the stop itself was.

A big thanks here to Pete for all the hospitality today. Find a few pics from the filming below, and stay tuned to Truckers News for the final cut!

The index currently stands at -5.3, representing a moderately unfavorable condition that is expected to persist until the onset of the busy fall shipping season. At that point, capacity will begin to tighten, further resulting in deterioration in the shipping environment.

FTR says that By the end of the year and into 2013, shippers can expect further falloff in their position with carriers as their options become more limited and costs increase due to new hours-of-service regulation implementation and the accompanying reduction in available capacity.

“After a steep drop in February, the SCI stabilized in March as conditions in the trucking industry steadied,” says Larry Gross, FTR senior consultant. “February demand was unusually strong, but it appears that some of that volume was simply freight moving earlier this year due to the mild winter weather. The seasonal jump from February to March was not as strong as usual this year.”