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The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, as part of its recent Brake Safety Week in late August, pointed out the following facts:
• Results from a number of National Transportation Safety Board investigations into high-profile commercial vehicle crashes have revealed problems associated with brake operation, inspection and/or maintenance.
• Results from the recent Large Truck Crash Causation Study, sponsored by the United States Department of Transportation, indicated that brake problems were present at the time of the crash in 29.4 percent of the cases.
• Brakes comprised the largest percentage, 56.6 percent, of vehicle Out-of-Service Violations cited in roadside inspections conducted during Roadcheck 2007.
• Nearly 9 percent of all brakes equipped with manual slack adjusters and four percent of all brakes equipped with automatic slack adjusters are placed out of service.
Here are basic things you can do to make sure your brakes are working correctly.
Are you an expedited trucking owner-operator leased to a carrier that seems to have fallen on hard times?
Does the company seem to be losing long-standing accounts?
Does owner-operator turnover seem to be increasing?
Are you hearing rumors of corporate financial trouble?
Another way of measuring your carrier is through news stories and, for publicly owned companies, stock reports.
Do the problems you're experiencing include slow payments, broken promises and fewer miles?
Trucking surveys show that a number of owner-operators become dissatisfied, not so much with pay rate but with procedures and policies. High turnover occurs when contractors feel that management is not listening to them.
If you're a conscientious expedited owner-operator who takes good care of his truck, are you being comprehensive in your PM's?
Sure, you keep your oil and filter changes up to date, but how often do you check your coolant's "health"? A checkup on your cooling system is as much a part of PM as any other system on the truck.
The experts tell us that maintaining proper coolant protection is vital to an engine's longevity. Studies show about 40 percent of engine maintenance is related to cooling system failures. Those same experts also say that cooling system failures are almost 100 percent preventable, but coolant must be maintained the way its manufacturers intended.
Sleeper manufacturer takes top honors at Expo
The organizers of the 2007 Expedite Expo, held on July 27-28 in Wilmington, Ohio, have announced the winner of the 2007 Progressive Insurance Expedite Driver's Choice Award. Taking top honors was Bentz Transport Products of Ft. Wayne, IN for its Kenworth W900 tractor equipped with a Bentz 150" sleeper.
Expo General Manager Lawrence McCord remarks, "The Expedite Expo is known as the place where expedited truck dealers and manufacturers measure the public's reactions to their latest trucks, sleepers and improvements."
Did you make it to the 2007 Expedite Expo?
Well, if you did, you can stop reading now. You're already aware of what a great show took place in Wilmington!
For the information of those unable to attend, the Expo was everything General Manager Lawrence McCord and his staff had hoped for and much more.
The attendance figures show 5,415 people passed through the gates and that's around a 20 percent increase from the 2006 show. The Expo had visitors from 36 states and Canada.
The aisles of the Roberts Convention Centre were busy with attendees - single show-goers, groups of expediters and entire families taking in the sights of North America's original expedited trucking show.
Breakdowns.
They can be frustrating, costly and even dangerous.
Breakdowns seem to occur at the worst possible time in the worst possible location, leaving you helpless by the side of the road.
Whether it's a shattered windshield from a rock, a blown steer tire at speed, air pressure and brake loss, or a computer problem that shuts an engine down on a busy interstate, such equipment emergencies will test the nerves of anyone.
Expedite Expo week is here!
The entire convention area of the Roberts Convention Centre in Wilmington, Ohio has been appropriated for the Expo - over 70,000 square feet of display space. There will be entertainment, education, food, attractions and of course, exhibitors. As a matter of fact, there will be over 100 exhibitors displaying anything from CB radio gear to the latest in no-idle technology. And, you might find the occasional expediter truck there as well.
Lawrence McCord is the General Manager of Expediters Online.com, organizers of the Expedite Expo. He states, "When we put on the first Expo in 2001, we never pictured how the event would grow into the world-class show that it has become."
Expedite Expo 2007 will feature the Speedco Supertruck Driveaway Sweepstakes - a world-class promotion that is second to none!
In conjunction with Speedco Quick Lube and Tire Service Centers, Indiana Truck Sales, Bolt Express, Alumi-Bunk Corporation and ExpeditersOnline.com, the Expedite Expo in Wilmington, Ohio will hold the drawing for the Speedco Supertruck on Saturday, July 28.
In addition to the Grand Prize of the Supertruck, first, second and third place winners will be drawn for prizes that includes
The Bolt Express dispatcher is preparing to run a marathon to help a two-year old girl. A two-year old girl with Leukemia.
Nataleigh Hartman was diagnosed with Leukemia in October 2006. She's been undergoing treatment and appears to be improving.
Dave says, "Hearing her dad talk about the ordeal and the treatments Nataleigh has had to go through was enough to break any father's heart."
Both Dave and Nataleigh's family are involved in The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's "Team In Training"- an endurance sports training program. The program provides training to run or walk marathons and half marathons or participate in triathlons and century (100-mile) bike rides
I started in the transportation industry in 1995 when I worked for a company called TST Expedited in Windsor, Ont.," says Stu
Sutton, now president of GPSNet Technologies. "It was at that point that we saw that various carriers were faxing in where their trucks were available in the morning. As loads came in, if we could cover it, we'd start rifling through the faxes and try to find a carrier that had a truck near the pickup."
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