Trucking news and briefs for Wednesday, July 22, 2020:
Loadsmart, Blue Yonder partner to offer instantly bookable truckload rates
Digital freight brokerage Loadsmart has partnered with Blue Yonder to provide shared customers with access to Loadsmart’s instantly bookable truckload rates and guaranteed capacity through Blue Yonder’s Luminate dynamic pricing system.
With the partnership, when a primary carrier declines a shipment and the load hits the routing guide, a real-time rate from Loadsmart will be dynamically inserted in advance of the next best option. Once the next lowest rate is uploaded from Loadsmart, the load can be automatically tendered with 100% acceptance.
“Transportation is becoming increasingly digitized and shippers have realized there is an opportunity to improve operational efficiencies by better integrating systems and processes with their 3PL and carrier counterparts,” said Hunter Yaw, VP of product management at Loadsmart. “With the Blue Yonder-Loadsmart integration, shared customers will be able to retrieve timely, competitive truckload rates for every shipment in seconds. Shippers can then tender the load automatically using Blue Yonder’s solution.”
Ryder’s brokerage arm offering ‘Book-It-Now’ feature for carriers
Ryder recently started using the Trucker Tools predictive freight matching and shipment tracking platform, which gives carriers the ability to instantly book freight using the Book-It-Now feature in the app.
The Book-It-Now feature shows owner-operators and carriers real-time available loads with pricing and enables them to accept and confirm in one click. Ryder is making the feature available to carriers that it has a strong relationship with.
Autocar adding safety features to ACX severe-duty cabovers
Autocar announced Tuesday it is adding six new advanced safety features to its Autocar ACX severe-duty cabover vehicles.
The new features include:
- Electronic Stability Control that intervenes when the truck is understeering or oversteering to maintain stability.
- Rollover Stability Control that intervenes when the vehicle is at risk of a driver-induced rollover event.
- Advanced Emergency Braking System that detects impending collisions and actively engages emergency brakes.
- Forward Collision Warning that visibly and audibly warns drivers of impending collisions.
- Stationary Lane Departure Warning that illuminates a steady light on the A-pillar with an audible warning.
- Blind Spot Detection with a flashing light on the A-pillar to warn the driver of a vehicle in his or her blind spot.
The new features are being put into production immediately.
Pipeline contractors petition FMCSA for HOS waiver
The Pipe Line Contractors Association (PLCA) is petitioning the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for a waiver from three hours of service provisions for drivers of various commercial vehicles employed by the group’s member contractors.
The group asks that its members be exempt from the requirement of the short-haul exemption that drivers return to the work reporting location from which they started the day; the requirement that drivers use electronic logs if they must complete a record of duty status on more than eight days in any 30-day period; and the prohibition on driving after having been on duty for 70 hours in eight consecutive days.
PLCA also requested that drivers of trucks used exclusively in the construction and servicing of pipelines be allowed the same hours waivers currently available to oilfield operations.
The group says it is requesting the waivers because pipeline construction companies typically hire workers on a project-by-project basis, and that these workers are skilled tradesmen with driving being ancillary to their primary roles as construction workers. PLCA says the drivers rarely, if ever, utilize their full 11 hours of available daily driving time, and usually only drive on public roads at the start and end of each work day.
FMCSA is requesting public comment on PLCA’s request, which can be made here through Aug. 21.
