Trucking News

Independent truck drivers are feeling the rough economy in three serious ways and they are dropping like flies.

In the first three months of the year almost a thousand trucking firms nationwide had to close their doors. As the industry shrinks to match the demand, those still standing will be in a good position to continue their business and do well but many of the smaller independent truckers will be gone by then.

With rising fuel costs eating up to 50 percent of their gross profits and lower demand due to the overall decline in the economy, most independent truckers are having problems just fixing the vehicles that they have to keep them running and paying for the license plates to keep them registered.

In addition, the increase in truckers in the last few years and the extension of the access for truckers from Mexico to cross the borders, makes the competition fierce.

Truckers are getting in on the act when it comes to telling our nations leaders what they think about the economy and the rising fuel costs.

A trucking executive and a truck driver appeared and spoke at a recent press conference hosted by U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Barbara Windsor, president and CEO of Hahn Transportation of New Market, Md. They stated that the government needs to put into place an energy plan that will ensure an affordable supply of oil and limit the effect of rising fuel costs on the U.S. economy.By not doing more to help the truckers survive, the entire economy is being affected.

Our truckers bring us almost everything we need in the United States including groceries, medicine, clothing, appliances and even the fuel that’s pumped at the local gas station.

Truck drivers are doing their part by slowing down, reducing idling and properly maintaining equipment to reduce fuel costs but these small things that they can do can’t even come close to the rising costs they are enduring.

State troopers, medics and firefighters were called in full force because of a horrific accident this past Saturday morning. The accident occurred around 12:20 AM and involved a commercial crane truck which caused both north bound lanes of I-25 to be shut down for nearly two hours. According to state Trooper Dave Conway, the driver didn’t have a CDL and should have never been driving the vehicle. Despite how bad things looked, the driver only received minor cuts and bruises along with a ticket for driving without the appropriate license.

It’s reported that the driver in Saturday’s wreck is a Denver resident who was on the way to drop the truck off in Pueblo before crashing. State Troopers believe a tire blow-out is what most likely led the man to lose control of the vehicle. They say both the blow-out and accident could have been avoided if the driver would have conducted a walk-around inspection, another common requirement for truckers.

Federal law requires that drivers of commercial vehicles such as tractor-trailers be equipped with a valid CDL. Regardless of severe penalties and consequences, this is a risk that one too many drivers are willing to take.

For one truck driver, a routine day became anything but normal when he drove into a train. He had loaded his truck with a container and railroad ties and was headed out, driving along a small road on his way to State Highway 1 in Shreveport, Louisiana. As he approached the tracks, moving under five miles per hour because there are no signals or gates at the crossing, he looked to south and saw some railcars on a siding. No movement. Then he looked north and proceeded to try to cross the tracks.

The train engineer blew his horn but the driver had the windows rolled up and failed to hear the noise as the train went by, traveling at approximately 50 miles per hour. The front of the truck hit the train just underneath the engineer’s window.

The driver was lucky. If he would have been moving faster he might have been crossing the tracks right in front of the train, and everyone knows they can’t stop on a dime. His truck would have been hit by the locomotive and could have been pushed down the tracks or crushed. Because he was moving so slowly a much more potentially-deadly accident was avoided and there were no serious injuries.

If you like mashed potatoes, Iowa would have been the place for you. At least, if you like unorthodox ways of creating your mashed potatoes. Truckers haul all kinds of produce and other items all over the country at all hours of the day and night, and usually they arrive without any serious incident. They offload and they head out to do it all over again. No worries. But that’s not always the way it works, and sometimes accidents happen.

A trucker headed eastbound down Interstate 80 had to swerve to miss another vehicle that had apparently gotten too close or wasn’t paying attention, and when he did he lost control, hitting a bridge support and guardrail.

Unfortunately, it didn’t stop there. His truck, still traveling too fast to simply come to rest, then proceeded to tip over. When it did, it disgorged about 44,000 pounds of spuds. All over the place. They covered part of the interstate, another nearby road, and a ditch. The potatoes had left Idaho – where almost all potatoes seem to originate – and were on their way to Michigan.

The whole load was believed ruined, but the truck driver wasn’t injured. The spuds can be replaced and the truck repaired. No word on what happened to the car the truck driver swerved to avoid or the wayward potatoes.