Early in April 2023 the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) held a meeting to update the public on certain topics.  This was the annual Analysis, Research and Technology (ART) Forum.  Here is are a few of the topics that were covered. The ART is still developing the Level 8 electronic inspection.  This will be needed for all fully automated trucks.  These “rolling” inspection will be done electronically while the truck is in motion.  If, data collecte...

  Most drivers tend to prefer the solitude of the open road. Who wouldn’t? You get to take your work with you and make money wherever you go. No one to answer to (other than perhaps dispatch and the Department of Transportation), and you’re touring the countryside while getting paid to do it. What’s not to like about that? However, as gratifying as driving solo can be, it’s often accompanied by the risk of losing out on extra cash by limiting oneself in earning capab...

Busy. As a business owner you can consider yourself quite busy at times. In fact, you might actually be busy, but is busy a good thing for a business owner? Not necessarily. ...

 Even before the driver-dreaded ELD mandate and enforcement of electronic logs, there was already an uneasy period of time in which drivers were either scared to death of what was the unknown world of satellite tracking and monitoring, or just brazenly naïve as to how damaging an unkempt HOS (Hours of Service) logbook could be in terms of determining their next trucking employer. What Once Was It used to be quite common that commercial drivers were once considered the ruler...

Making the decision to lease your truck on with a company that will help provide the freight needed to turn a profit can certainly be quite an undertaking. How do you know you’re making the right choice when deciding who provides you with the best opportunities? Perhaps the most important question you should be asking yourself is, what is best for me and my situation? The following considerations should be made as you begin the process of choosing the right carrier. Know Yo...

Here is to another successful Mid America Tuck Show.  It feels like we walked a million miles each day and our bodies let us know that and we probably did.  We arrived in the Cardinals Stadium free parking for trucks (provided by TA/Petro) on Wednesday around 1130 to meet up with our group.  We were the second of our group to arrive.  Everyone slowly starting to show up we invite the neighbors to the cook out which started at 1700.  After eating it was time to relax and ...

Expedite freight has been classified as time sensitive material, which is certainly true from a purely logistical standpoint. However, to think of it in terms a lifelong long hauler might need to have it explained is a little more complicated than that. The Driver’s Perspective Hurry up and wait. This phrase is perhaps the best way to describe the nature of the load that awaits the driver who’s anxious to keep their wheels turning. The prevailing mentality has always been...

In recent months, federal regulators have been attempting to clarify the differences between brokers, bona fide agents and dispatch services with their new interim guidelines issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Mandated by the infrastructure bill of 2021, these guidelines are aimed at cracking down on companies that engage in truck brokering but without maintaining their proper authority from FMCSA. Which is an issue that many brokers claim wi...

We have gone from Auxiliary Power to New APU Pt. 1 and New Apu Pt. 2, and now we move on to the final blog in the installation series....

In New APU Part 1, there were many things left to cover. So let’s get right into it. I already described the tool box that houses my new GenMax 3500 generator and I showed you the venting I thought would be sufficient to keep everything inside cool....