A question for shippers: Have your carriers asked for rate increases to cover higher fuel costs? If so, how did you react to their request?

In April, President Obama, while discussing his concerns regarding the record high cost of fuel, stated there was no “silver bullet” to bring down the price of gasoline or cure the U.S. addiction to oil.

If trucks had patron saints, step vans would claim Rodney Dangerfield as their own. The late comedian’s trademark quip, “I can’t get no respect,” describes how some in our industry view step vans.

With the trucking industry slowly emerging from hard times at last, it ought to be unalloyed good news that motor carriers are reporting fewer workers’ compensation claims than before. Unfortunately, it is also true that both the average cost per claim and injury rate are higher for trucking than other industries.