Letters to the Editor: Packaging, N.J. Turnpike, Relief Disaster, Seat-Belt Cameras, Trucking’s Cost
These Letters to the Editor appear in the Sept. 29 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
Packaging
In this country and this economy, I, too, believe there’s a lot of unused space moving up and down our highways, creating inefficiencies (8-25, p. 1; click here for previous Premium Content story).
One additional inefficiency, I believe, is the standard 40-inch- by-48-inch pallet. This has been the pallet standard for more than 30 years, but trailers are 6 inches wider now. When the pallets are turned with the 48-inch side facing the rear of the trailer, the full floor space of the trailer is used. But when the 40-inch side is facing the rear, there’s a 16% loss of cube.
I know in the less-than-truckload arena the 40-inch side is facing the rear most of the time because:
• It’s easier to handle that way.
• Loading on load bars requires the pallet to go in this way.
• If there is any overhang on the 48-inch side when the pallets are put side-by-side, either the pallets won’t fit side-by-side or the freight will be damaged.
I know that changing a long-established standard such as the 40-inch-by-48-inch pallet probably will never happen, but I do believe it costs this country a lot of extra transportation dollars.
Rob Estes
President
Estes Express Lines
Richmond, Va.
N.J. Turnpike
Here goes the trucking industry again, supporting the rail industry by paying taxes (tolls) for the authority to tunnel under the Hudson River. An amount of $1.25 billion can do a lot of road work.
Toll money is paid on the highway and should be used to repair and expand the highway.
Jim Harris
Chief Executive Officer
Harris Trucking Co.
Madison Heights, Va.
Relief Disaster?
I am part of the industry that Houston Mayor Bill White has been disparaging from two directions.
The first was on Monday, Sept. 15, when Mayor White was complaining about the lack of relief to his area. I read this bit of news while partway through my second day of loading trucks with ice for disaster relief to the Houston area.
I had been notified at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday that the effort had begun and that we were activated. It takes two days for a truck to reach Houston from the mid-Atlantic states, which is where my loads of ice were originating. Yes, we were moving ice and other relief supplies from this region to the Houston area because, once the extent of the devastation was known, it was the only way to ensure that enough emergency supplies would reach that area.
The second came yesterday afternoon. As the last of almost 600,000 pounds of ice I had personally overseen arrived in the Houston area, I was informed that Mayor White was now complaining that there were too many trucks in Houston and efforts had to be made to expedite their departure.
What does the mayor want? Does he want help and supplies or does he want the nasty trucks to leave? He should make up his mind and stop posing for the media.
George Imperatore
Operations Manager
Old River Services
River Vale, N.J.
Seat-Belt Cameras
It seems to me that, unless in Oregon they intend to aim these cameras at every vehicle on the road, they are guilty of profiling, and as such, these tickets could probably be defended easily (9-22, p. 49; click here for previous story).
As a driver, I always wear my seat belt, and I encourage others to do the same. But I don’t believe they should target a single class of drivers for this treatment. What about the parents who drive around with their children who are not buckled in or younger children who are not in child safety seats?
Scott Williams
Driver
Upstaging Inc.
Phoenix
Trucking’s Costs
Has false panic set in over the cost of diesel? The current loss of revenue most truckers point to is more the result of deadhead miles than rising fuel costs.
A tremendous imbalance of loads in many areas causes truckers to wait several hours (if not days) for a load and cuts into their weekly revenue.
An increase in the time required to load and unload a truck at many stops — and the advantage some shippers are taking of carriers as they wait 45 to 60 days to pay for the loads — are all contributing factors to the rising costs of running a trucking company.
Yes, fuel prices are an ongoing disaster and have to be fixed, but that does not mean the industry should lower itself to the black market tactics and speculation that fueled the Great Depression.
However, the United States does need to implement policy solutions that will allow our nation to use our own resources and start to use the fuel that already exists within our own borders through off-shore drilling.
If other countries are allowed to use their natural resources, shouldn’t the United States do the same? Is it possible that we are going too far, too fast with our “go green” efforts? Today’s methods of drilling are clean and even green.
Instead of constantly whining about the rising cost of diesel (which, by the way, just makes it go up more, creating a false sense of demand), we as truckers should be pushing for different solutions.
If the government can consider building the North American Free Trade Agreement superhighway to serve Mexico and Canada — running right through our heartland — the very least they can do is to allow American truckers to pull 48-foot doubles coast-to-coast and north-to-south.
By implementing a limited speed limit for doubles and creating a second test for truckers to be authorized to pull doubles, the government could ensure that the necessary safety factors are met. If a driver can prove he or she already is pulling 48-foot doubles, they can be grand-fathered into the license restriction. The industry itself can take care of getting tractors with the pulling power to do this job, as many states already have this allowance on limited highways.
Hauling freight with 48-foot doubles is just one out of many potential policy solutions. Let’s stop whining about fuel costs as a temporary fix to what will be a permanent problem, and instead, change antiquated policies that will allow us to decrease operating costs.
Les Rosen
Owner
Freight for Les
New York
Trucks in Flames
This letter is a response to the Sept. 18 editorial titled “Reducing Highway Fatalities,” which made note of the fact that fatalities overall are down — but deaths of truck occupants are up. (Click here for editorial.)
One comment in this editorial caught my eye: “This is not the first year that truck occupants have not fared as well as motorists overall, and it raises questions about why truck-design improvements aren’t reducing truck occupant deaths.”
I believe the unspoken element here is fire.
Earlier this week, within a hundred miles of my location, two truck wrecks took the lives of three truck drivers. In both cases, fire immediately broke out and consumed the involved tractors. So, not only is the increased use of plastics as cab components not protecting drivers, we now get fire. I’m sure statistics are available somewhere on this.
As a long-experienced over-the-road trucker, I have observed, as have so many other drivers, that fire is a new element in the crash aftermath and limits the survivability in many of these wrecks.
A disabled or trapped driver likely will die from the almost in-evitable fire, if not the accident itself.
Before 2000 or so, a truck wreck — even a very bad one — didn’t involve the rig immediately catching fire. Diesel in its natural state isn’t that volatile.
However, with the advent of engine electronics, fire has become much more prevalent in big-rig crashes, and we aren’t just talking about a few flickering flames — we’re talking immediate, full-blown, explosive conflagrations with 50-foot towers of flames. No driver can survive a fire that large.
Reducing the weight of the fleet tractor through the use of flammable plastics and improving fuel efficiency via computerized fuel delivery obviously play a major role in these fires.
True, fuel economy has made huge gains in the past decade, but I believe drivers are paying with their lives for those gains. Only a collective effort by the carriers that make large purchases can demand design changes that actually protect drivers in a crash.
I cannot believe that we cannot improve both weight issues and fuel-efficiency issues without sacrificing the lives of drivers. All that is required is the corporate will to do so.
Linda Sunkle-Pierucki
18-Year Veteran Driver
Norvell, Mich.
