Capacity Expansions Among In-House Fleets to Be a Key Topic at NPTC Annual Meeting

The president of the National Private Truck Council said the 2012 Education Management Conference & Exhibition will include a focus on corporations expanding the capacity and capabilities of their in-house fleets.

Gary Petty said the event, scheduled for April 28 to May 1 in Cincinnati, will include dozens of first-time exhibitors, as well as the largest-ever class of certified transportation professional graduates.

Topics of workshops scheduled during the conference include technology, equipment maintenance, safety, supply-chain management and natural gas.

This is “a reflection of extensive changes taking place in the way fleets manage equipment and drivers,” Petty said.

After visiting fleet managers at more than 90 companies in the past year, Petty said, he found “a significant surge” in the use of technology to improve the efficiency of freight-hauling operations.

“It is striking,” Petty said. “We see it in little ways. We see it in incremental ways. We see it in strategic ways. It is across the board. Companies are raising the bar.”

Corporate-owned truck fleets haul about half of all freight tonnage and accounted for about $280 billion in domestic transportation revenue in 2010, according to estimates by American Trucking Associations.

Petty said he sees an increase in the use of programs to help companies fill empty miles and extend the use of private fleets to handle inbound as well as outbound freight.

“Overall companies are growing capacity,” Petty said. “They are putting their fleet in a position to do more.”

At the NPTC conference, several educational sessions also are planned on the federal government’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program.

Although FMCSA officials have drawn criticism recently from American Trucking Associations and others for, among other things, not yet changing the way drivers are rated to consider whether they are at fault in crashes, NPTC officials said most private carriers are satisfied with the program.

“[Private carriers] are so far beneath the threshold [for intervention] — fleet managers are not complaining,” said Tom Moore, vice president of education for NPTC.

Petty said the failure to advance a proposal to permit heavier trucks in Congress this past year was a disappointment to NPTC and corporate fleet owners, such as Kraft Foods and International Paper Co. They argued that boosting the maximum weight of tractor-trailer rigs to 97,000 pounds from 80,000 pounds would ease congestion and save fuel by reducing the number of trucks on the road.

“What can you do?” Petty said. “The issue was demonized.”