Tag: business: Page 5

Business

Second week going: Van volumes rise, but spot rates slide; weather disruption something of a norm

The strongest improvements for van markets were out West last week. Los Angeles volumes increased 8% and the average outbound rate gained 2 cents to $2.18 per mile. L.A. load-to-truck touched 5.2 last Friday. Wildfires, flooding, tornadoes and more continue to disrupt regional patterns.

October 30, 2019

Overdrive Extra

The underappreciated asset of off-duty hours

Gary Buchs on strategies toward effective task/goal definition and prioritization to be wise when it comes to hours: “For too many years, we’ve viewed time off as a liability. … No matter how a person calculates their hours of service, logically there is no way to drive or work more hours than the time off-duty we need to recover to care for ourselves.”

October 22, 2019

Business

Truckload spot market volume rebounded in the last week

Wish we could say the same for truckload spot rates: While demand for vans returned to normal in Houston and other markets affected by recent flooding, rates did not respond immediately as averages through Sept. 29 show only slight improvement over August.

October 2, 2019

Custom Rigs

Glen Rice’s 2007 big-bunk W900 and savings from next-gen oil bypass, fuel treatment

Rice has benefited the last couple of years from a bypass-oil-filtration and fuel-additive system he purchased from the Clean Air Fleet company. The oil filter medium in the system filters out particles down to 1 micron. With it on-board, Rice has extended his typical oil-change interval to 40,000 miles or more.

October 1, 2019

Business

Up-and-down demand volatility continues on spot market with weather hampering activity

Spot truckload freight activity slowed last week as Tropical Storm Imelda brought severe rain and flooding to Houston and other nearby areas, disrupting supply chains across the South and Midwest. And: How’s $2.85 average rate for a reefer out of Denver sound? ….

September 26, 2019

Electronic Logging Devices

Goodbye, AOBRD: ELDs’ final shift

90 days out from the ELD mandate’s final Dec. 17 deadline, many fleets and one-truck owner-operators with authority are delaying the transition from AOBRD-spec technology. ELD providers are hopeful for new customers among the small percentages of truckers switching providers during the transition.

September 17, 2019

Channel 19

Do we need a rulemaking on crash ‘preventability’ as a standard for removal from carrier scores?

Yes, according to the Motor Carrier Regulatory Reform coalition. Too many around the industry conflate “preventability” with fault, creating blowback potential particularly for truckers with accidents on their record for which they have no legal liability yet that get deemed “preventable” and labeled as such.

September 5, 2019

Partners in Business

Panel talks controlling costs and other best practices for owner-operators

This GATS session of Overdrive’s Partners in Business addressed the broad topic of best practices for owner-operators. Controlling costs is perhaps the most effective strategy for success in trucking, panelists noted — not only does every saved dollar go directly to the bottom line, but many costs fall in areas owner-ops have the most control over.

September 2, 2019

Channel 19

Cash flow, freight strategies: Report from the GATS panel of independents, small fleets

PIB small fleet panel at GATS: Substantial profit can be hard-won in the trucking business, though with diligence around business analysis and cash flow, cost control, freight market wisdom and customer relationships, an independent owner-operator or small fleet owner can set themselves up for long-term success.

August 27, 2019

Overdrive Extra

Learning to shift up in a driving career

There’s no one level of professional driving that’s necessarily right for everyone. That was one takeaway from the “Shift Into Success” class held Thursday at the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas.

August 23, 2019

Business

New carrier admin portal from Uber Freight

Uber Freight debuted a new web-booking portal designed to help dispatchers simplify workflow, and a new app interface built to provide a more intuitive experience for carriers and drivers.

August 20, 2019

Channel 19

Revisiting the soft-market banana peel — freight relationships paying off for some

Randy Carlson “will have had my operating authority for 25 years” come next May. Right now, “trucking is the best it’s been in that entire 25 years” in general terms, he says, despite the slowdown for so many in the spot market, illustrating the value of steady freight partners.

July 25, 2019