Bulk Freight News & Industry Updates - Stay Ahead in Trucking

This is how you drive 810,000 miles across 45 states and one Canadian province without ever getting in an accident. Read these pro tips from seasoned trucker. Originally published at Road & Track. In eight years as a truck driver, Alan Wrobel has driven 810,000 miles (accident-free) in 45 states and Ontario. He now covers Ohio, Michigan, Ontario, and Wisconsin for a beverage distributor. Here's his advice on how to handle yourself when the snow starts falling: When you face a nasty win

By Kevin Jones http://www.ccjdigital.com/ Does the trucking industry make the business harder, or more dangerous, than it needs to be? That’s the way many seem to like it. I consider the possibility because of a fish tale that has captured the imaginations of landlubbers as it spreads around the Internet. “A Speck in the Sea,” by Paul Tough, ran in The New York Times Sunday Magazine this week. It’s the compelling, amazing-but-true story of John Aldridge, a professional fisherman out o

Continental introduces new tire products Overdrive Staff Continental introduced new tire products in December, including the HTL1 wide single truck tire as a ContiTread retread. In 400 millimeter tread width, the HTL1 can be retreaded for fleets who operate wide single drive or trailer tires in sizes 445/50R22.5 and 455/55R22.5. Wide single truck tires like the Continental HTL1 (Heavy Trailer Long Haul) are often used in liquid and dry bulk hauling applications where weight is a concern

KANSAS CITY — Bitter cold across much of the country east of the Rocky Mountains, along with ice or heavy snow in some areas was severely restricting grain and byproduct logistics and in some cases forced flour mills to temporarily halt operations. While the lowest temperatures were in the Upper Midwest, with most of Minnesota not expecting highs above 10 degrees below zero on Jan. 6, the bitter cold was affecting transportation, livestock operations and grain and oilseed processing plants ac

James Jaillet http://www.overdriveonline.com/ An Auburn, Wash.-based fleet has been ordered by the Labor Department to pay one of its former truck drivers back wages and to stop an attendance policy that the department says retaliates against drivers who refuse to drive due to safety reasons. The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration after an investigation into Oak Harbor Freight Lines ordered the fleet to pay an unnamed driver lost wages after the driver fil

http://www.truckinginfo.com/ Extraordinarily cold weather in parts of the U.S. has resulted in more states issuing emergency declarations, waiving mainly hours of service rules, when it comes to delivering various fuels. In Arkansas, Gov. Mike Bebe has issued an order waiving hours of service rules for propane. It is in effect until Jan. 17 or until emergency conditions no long exist, whichever is sooner. In Maine, Gov. Paul LePage has issued similar orders when it comes to deliveries

by James Jaillet http://www.overdriveonline.com/ As Overdrive reported in December 2012, despite state initiatives in Washington and Colorado to legalize selling, buying, owning and using of marijuana for recreational use, the Department of Transportation still prohibits the use of marijuana by truck drivers. More than 60 percent of Overdrive readers favored some form of marijuana-use legalization or decriminalization, with a majority reflecting three current state ballot initiatives b

By?Jim Moore of the Daily Courier MERLIN -- Litter can be dangerous. Just ask Jim Giguere. Giguere, a truck driver from Wheaton, Calif., pulled his tractor-trailer to the side of Interstate 5 Friday morning to inspect for potential problems after running over some debris on the freeway. He soon found himself watching his rig roll down an embankment and smacking into a power line. At the scene, Giguere said after stopping he had put the truck in neutral and stepped out onto the cab’s st

http://www.truckinginfo.com/ Transport Capital Partners’ fourth-quarter industry survey sees more carriers getting adequate rates of return, but tight credit and static accessorials as continuing issues of concern. With a continued lack of rate increases in the trucking industry, some carriers may have hoped to raise income through renegotiating accessorials. Unfortunately, 42% of carriers surveyed this quarter indicated they do not expect to be able to renegotiate. This is down slightly f

Missouri-based Bunge North America Inc. has sold its stake in a Mississippi ethanol plant. Bunge North America is a division of New York-based food processing corporation Bunge Ltd., Reuters said in a report. St. Louis Business Journal in a separate report said privately-held petroleum refiner Ergon Inc. has purchased Bunge North America's remaining interest in Ergon BioFuels LLC. Ergon BioFuels is said to have began as a joint venture between Ergon and Bunge North America in 2007.

http://www.truckinginfo.com/ The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration ordered Oak Harbor Freight Lines Inc. to compensate a worker who refused to drive in violation of safety regulations. OSHA has also ordered the trucking company, based in Auburn, Wash., to stop retaliating against workers who refuse to drive trucks while too ill or fatigued to safely operate vehicles at its facilities. A commercial truck driver working for the company in Portland was s

"It's hard work, but it's extremely worthwhile." A state prison, a local community corrections association and a large, family-owned metal-hauling business are putting former prisoners on the road to financially rewarding truck-driving careers. Participants in this pilot program begin their training and obtain their commercial driver's licenses while they're still incarcerated at the Richland Correctional Institution in Mansfield, which has two trucks based at the prison. After they're re

Avery Vise | Fleet Owner Saying they represented imminent hazards to public safety, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has ordered two affiliated Waterboro, S.C.-based trucking operations and the owner-driver of one of the companies to stop operating in interstate commerce. The agency served CER Trucking (USDOT No. 196777) a federal shutdown order Dec. 17 and Edward Risher Trucking (USDOT No. 685781) a federal shutdown order Dec. 20. These followed an FMCSA order on Dec. 10

Fleet Owner With the northeast expected to receive up to a foot of snow today and tomorrow, the state of Connecticut has a new law on its books of which truckers must be aware. Connecticut’s law went into effect on Jan. 1, so today’s storm will be the first time police will be allowed to ticket motorists. Like other states, Connecticut is now requiring motorists to clear snow and ice from their vehicles before hitting the roads. The law includes tractor-trailers. The penalty is a $75 fine,

by Jim Park http://www.truckinginfo.com/ Following Editor Deb Lockridge's lead, here's a good trucking story. I have had the privilege of being the emcee at one of the World's Largest Truck Convoy for Special Olympics events for the past nine years. Over that time that one event, among dozens of others held each September, has raised more than half a million dollars for these very special athletes. Photo by Jim Park Photo by Jim Park The Special Olympics Convoy is probably the signature

by Jessica Fairley TIFTON, GA -- Tifton police are investigating after a woman is robbed on New Year’s Eve. Sgt. Dorminey McCrae says around 4:30 Tuesday afternoon a couple approached a woman at a business located at 306 E. 5th Street in Tifton. The guy stated that he was a trucker and the woman with him was pregnant. When the driver made it to the truck stop with the couple, the male suspect grabbed her by the hair and took her money. The couple then took off. Just moments late

BulkLoadsNow.com BulkLoadsNow.com, a load board specifically for the dry and liquid bulk industry, recently released a web-based dispatch program, Load Organizer. Shippers and brokers use Load Organizer to manage freight in one, centralized program and share data with co-workers across all office locations to match and manage truck freight more efficiently. Load Organizer is also integrated directly with BulkLoadsNow.com, allowing shippers to automatically post loads online for carriers to b

Dec 31 (Reuters) - Prices for dried distillers' grains (DDGs), a byproduct of corn-based ethanol that is used as animal feed, fell $30 per ton at U.S. export markets after top buyer China rejected two shipments last week because of the presence of an unapproved strain of genetically modified grain, traders said on Tuesday. Bids for shipments during the first three months of 2014 fell to $190 per ton in the Mississippi River market that flows to export terminals along the U.S. Gulf Coast, trad

http://www.truckinginfo.com/ A frustrating part of being a bulk commodities driver is having a jam occur somewhere in the trailer during offloading, interrupting the material flow and setting him to work trying to break it free. That usually means hammering on a trailer’s side walls, but a Midwestern carrier has found a new product that’s effective, portable, lightweight and easy to use. Vibrator weighs under 10 pounds and is easy to move around. It runs off air from a tractor’s compressor

Written by Agency Reporter CEO Rem-Bam Nigeria Ltd, Mr. Soye Oniagba, spoke with Patricia Adekoya on the many challenges of the haulage sector. Excerpts: How many fleets of trucks do you have in your possession? I can’t sit down here and tell you the number of trucks we have. With the last audit we did, I believe we have more than enough trucks in our possession. Some of them had since been involved in an accident. What are your major challenges in the haulage sector? We have a lot of

Tony Welnicke has never driven a semi truck, but he's helped make a lot of them shine. Say you've just laid out $100,000 for a used Peterbilt 379 with a couple hundred thousand miles on it, a good runner with that classic long hood, and you want to dress it up a bit. You're not going to go wild and spend another $75,000 turning your working machine into a show truck. You just want a few dozen marker lights, maybe amber, maybe red; a pair of 8-inch-wide chrome exhaust stacks; a "Batman" sun

By James Jaillet http://www.ccjdigital.com/ The Association of Independent Property Brokers and Agents appears to be taking a different route in its ongoing battle against the increase in the minimum bond amount freight brokers must carry — It’s filed an application with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration asking it to exempt all brokers from the increase. A notice of an application for exemption was published in the Federal Register Dec. 26, and the agency is accepting public

by Lois Seamon http://www.sunjournal.com/ I have been reading many letters to the editor in response to Rep. Brian Bolduc's email about truckers. I have a comment about some (not all) truckers. My concern is about very large trucks that go through our small towns, making sharp turns that often stop regular traffic. They also pull out in front of cars instead of stopping at stop signs. Who is going to keep the right of way in those circumstances? I am not referring to wood and pulp tru

By MICHELLE KEAHEY, EAST TEXAS BUREAU MARSHALL – A Hopkins County resident has filed a lawsuit claiming a crash with a tractor-trailer wreck caused him to suffer severe and disabling injuries. Jyson Phillips filed suit against International Freight Services Inc., doing business as USA Truck Inc., and Michael Hammond on Dec. 20 in the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division. Technology and Industry According to the lawsuit, on June 28 Phillips was traveling on State Highway 19 when a

GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — A hired hand from Cut Bank is charged with selling $450,000 worth of grain over the past three years despite not owning any cropland. The Great Falls Tribune reports (http://gftrib.com/1hGMolb ) 41-year-old Mark Benjamin pleaded not guilty to four counts of felony theft of property by embezzlement during a Dec. 16 hearing in District Court in Cut Bank. His bail was set at $250,000. The Glacier County sheriff's office said Benjamin's employer reported that he was m

Associated Press CARTERSVILLE, Ga. — A north Georgia trucking company is giving away more than $360,000 in bonuses to its employees this holiday season. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Bartow County-based Kennesaw Transportation Co. began the program 15 years ago to reward employees who had been at the company five years or longer with a $10,000 bonus every five years. Some recipients say they're banking their third bonus. The 2013 bonus will go to 36 employees, the hi

By Jack Roberts http://www.ccjdigital.com/ For Al Koenig, his first look at a Kenworth truck at the age of 8 was love at first sight. “I can remember the first time I saw Kenworth trucks as they passed my parents’ Minnesota farm,” Koenig said. The stories of Koenig and several other Kenworth truck owners who collect and restore vintage Kenworths have one common theme: a strong fondness for trucks, particularly Kenworths. Their passion for restoring them is sparked by an interest in n

by Alyssa Rosenberg WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) -- While many spent Christmas morning unwrapping gifts from Santa, eating delicious meals, and spending quality time with family, one truck driver spent his Christmas morning travelling 6 hours from Pennsylvania to Southport. And he still has more than 700 miles to go before he can spend Christmas with his family. "I've only been out here three years, so it's kind of hard on the kids because they expect you to be home,” Prime Inc. truck driver C

by Robert Arnason http://www.producer.com/ Elevator bids higher in northern U.S. | Increasing price spread increases viability of sales to U.S. Spring wheat bids at southern Manitoba elevators plummeted to $5 per bushel from $6 per bu. over the last several weeks. As a result, a senior market adviser with Agri-Trend is advising his clients to ship wheat to North Dakota elevators, where spring wheat bids on Dec. 13 were $6.30 US per bu. “We’ve been doing it two ways. We’ve had guys t

Wichita Business Journal A fire broke out Monday night at the Cargill meat packing plant just outside Dodge City in southwest Kansas. KAKE News reports the fire at the large complex was still burning after three hours. No one was injured. It's not yet clear how the incident will impact production at the plant, which employs about 2,700 people. View Ori

BY CHRISTINE STEBBINS http://www.reuters.com/ Dec 24 (Reuters) - Rents on prime U.S. crop land are expected to stay high in 2014 despite a sharp drop in grain prices, raising financial pressure on farmers who rent most of their land and risk big losses in the coming year, analysts and bankers say. More than half the 250 million acres (101 million hectares) of corn, soybean and wheat land in the United States, the world's biggest grain exporter, are rented. Negotiations on 2014 farm land l

We wish you and your families a very merry Christmas. We hope you’re able to spend time with loved ones and we look forward to seeing you back here in the BulkLoadsNow.com community after the holiday. From all of us at Bulk Loads Now, blessings and best wishes today and always. Your BulkLoadsNow Team View Original Article

John Elliott, the president and CEO of Load One LLC, a transportation and logistics company in Taylor that has grown to well over 300 trucks and 500-plus staff, has a passion for doing what’s right. Doing what’s right recently took him from Downriver to Washington, D.C., where he participated in the Wreaths Across America program, which lays holiday wreaths on the graves of U.S. veterans across the country. “When you serve this country, you don’t want it to be forgotten and you don’t want

WSB-TV A local trucking company is giving away more than $360,000 in bonuses to employees this holiday season. Kennesaw Transportation Company started the program 15 years ago, rewarding employees who had been at the company 5 years or longer with a $10,000 bonus every five years. Some recipients are banking their third bonus. The owner began the program to make sure he did not lose good drivers. The 2013 bonus will go to 36 employees, the highest number to date. Other employees wer

PEORIA, Ill. — Four-dollar corn has changed some of the conversations that many of the vendors of products and services at farm shows have had and will have with established and prospective customers. For instance, customers at the Greater Peoria Farm Show showed interest in programs such as The Andersons’ Farm to Market Program to potentially improve profitability with lower grain prices. “We’ve definitely had some good conversations about the program. It’s a niche program, so we’re trying

Posted by thebridge A stranger’s help on a lonely highway rescues the victim of a mysterious, late-night accident. by Betsy Frothingham It was almost midnight on August 1, 2012, and I was driving my Toyota Camry on Kansas highway 96 about 12 miles from Hutchinson. The weather was clear and calm, and there was no traffic in either direction. Just about four miles east of Haven, Kansas, a sleepy, little town of 1,200 inhabitants, my car was devastatingly rear-ended, breaking the stillness

By KIM SCHMIDT Hub Staff Writer KEARNEY — A man died following a semi-tractor accident Thursday night on Cottonmill Avenue west of Kearney. Around 5:30 p.m., the man pulled his semitrailer truck off Highway 30 north onto Cottonmill Avenue where he stopped partially on the shoulder of the road. A preliminary investigation by the Buffalo County Sheriff’s Office revealed the man exited the parked semi and was attempting to work on it when the semi rolled backward and injured him. The injured

By Bloomberg News Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. agreed to pay $36.5 million to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve allegations it bribed officials in Ukraine to win tax refunds. ADM paid about $22 million to Ukranian government officials in order to win more than $100 million in tax refunds in violation of U.S. anti-bribery laws, the SEC said today in a complaint filed with the proposed settlement in federal court in Urbana, Illinois. The agreement must be approved by a fed

http://www.truckinginfo.com/ The founder and one-time head of a group that sells insurance to truck drivers has been indicted by a federal grand jury for using numerous foreign trusts and secret Cayman Island bank accounts as part of a scheme to avoid paying more than $7 million in income taxes and for lying to federal authorities. Verna Cheryl Womack has been charged in a 10-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo. Womack owned and operated a number of busine

Written by Steve Law http://portlandtribune.com/ Scientists agree that diesel fumes can cause cancer and other respiratory disease, but what can we do with all those old diesel-spewing freight trucks on the highway? “Diesel engines last forever,” says Corky Collier, executive director of the Columbia Corridor Association. Even when a trucking company invests in a new clean-diesel truck, they typically sell the old one, which keeps polluting the air under new ownership. Collier’s group h

By Oliver Patton http://www.truckinginfo.com/ The Federal Highway Administration has chosen the types of vehicles it will compare in its comprehensive study of truck sizes and weights, and is gathering reams of data on how these configurations would affect safety, infrastructure, enforcement and competition among the modes. It is an ambitious effort ordered by Congress in the last highway bill. The aim is to produce an analysis that will help Congress make an informed decision about federa

Trucking Companies to California: Your Puny Laws Don’t Apply to Us By Jon Zerolnick/Capital & Main Several leading port trucking companies have taken a bold new position in the ongoing battle over whether or not they are misclassifying drivers as independent contractors. In recent filings with the U.S. District Court, they have attempted to position themselves as beyond the reach of California’s employee protection laws. In effect, they are saying that whether or not they are misclassifyin

BY SARA BURNETT AND SOPHIA TAREEN The Associated Press CHICAGO — Archer Daniels Midland Company announced Wednesday it is moving its global headquarters to Chicago, but said the agribusiness giant could still set up a new technology center in another state after failing to win millions in tax breaks. The company said in a written statement it would move a small corporate team of about 50-75 employees to Chicago, but won't, at least for now, be bringing 100 more jobs that were to come with

By WKTV News (WKTV) - Many lawmakers are trying to get bills passed before the end of the year, but U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna, R-Barneveld, is trying to delay one. Hanna says a new trucking rule that was imposed over the summer does more harm than good. And he has the backing of 53 other members of Congress to do something about it. The rule limits how many hours drivers can spend on the road. It sounds good on paper, but the safety director of a local trucking company says the new rules caus

BRAD KANE The funding of major and minor Connecticut transportation projects is increasingly relying on diesel fuel users — namely, truckers — who are facing higher taxes, as everyday motorists drive more efficient cars and use less regular gasoline. "The trucking industry is forced to subsidize projects that don't benefit the trucking industry," said Mike Riley, president of the Motor Transport Association of Connecticut. "What's frustrating for our members is the predictable congestion that

BY SALLY P. SCHREIBER, J.D. DECEMBER 6, 2013 Optional standard mileage rates for use of a vehicle will go down by one-half cent per mile for 2014, the IRS announced (Notice 2013-80). Taxpayers can use the optional standard mileage rates to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile. For business use of a car, van, pickup truck, or panel truck, the 2014 rate will be 56 cents per mile. Driving for medical or moving purposes may be deducted at 23.5 cents per mile. Both rates are

By: Dan Anderson, Farm Journal Columnist Which is cheaper: to fix equipment on the farm or transport it to the dealership for repairs? Cell phones and remote diagnostics are changing the equipment maintenance process. When a piece of machinery is in need of repair, is it more economical to haul it to the nearest shop or have a mechanic come to the farm? The answer depends on the machine, the type of repair and several other variables. The biggest and most costly factor is time. "If it’