Heavy Duty Trucking, July 2015

Truckings Most Respected Business Report Keep up with the latest news each day at www truckinginfo com JULY 2015 A Q Fred Andersky Director Government Industry Affairs Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems LLC Q Will the pending mandate for electronic stability control or the possible mandate for forward collision avoidance have the most impact on safety A We believe both technologies have a positive impact on safety It depends on how you define impact lives saved vs crashes mitigated From the perspective of fatalities stability will have the larger potential impact Why More trucks are involved in rollovers and jackknifes that result in fatalities than in fatal rear end collisions If viewed in terms of crash reduction collision mitigation technologies will likely have a larger impact Q While the ESC rule is truckspecific an FCA mandate might well include cars Does that duality complicate the rulemaking process A The physics involved in stopping or controlling a heavy vehicle are quite different from a light vehicle This is why the sine with dwell performance test received a lot of concern from the industry when applied to heavy vehicles If NHTSA decides a rulemaking is appropriate a concurrent timeline is fine but my view is that the rulemakings should be separate For the full interview go to www truckinginfo com Andersky TM Logistics Report It boils down to capacity T he numbers are in and 2014 was the best year for the supply chain industry since the Great Recession Over the course of the year the transportation sector grew by 36 That was due not thanks to higher rates but to stronger shipment volumes Nonetheless the truck driver shortage still greatly concerns the logistics sector not surprisingly given that the 2014 turnover rate wound up at over 95 annualized All thats per the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals 26th Annual State of Logistics Report presented by Penske Logistics Its authored by transportation consultant Rosalyn Wilson senior business analyst at Parsons She has tracked and measured all costs associated with moving freight through the U S supply chain since 1988 The report shows that total U S business logistics costs rose to 145 trillion in 2014 a 31 increase from the previous year However the growth rate for logistics costs was lower than the U S gross domestic product resulting in a slight decline in logistics as a percent of GDP from 84 to 83 Overall the report finds that last year the U S economy was on solid ground with consistent creation of new jobs inching up of real net income and household net worth low to moderate levels of inflation and lower fuel prices In 2014 truck capacity grew extremely tight with the demand for spot market truck capacity running high as well Rates held steady despite the tightening capacity Wilson cautioned supply chain firms to be aware that a trucking shortage allows carriers to be selective in who they do business with They are interested in maximizing driver pay and satisfaction which means more time actually driving to deliver or pick up goods since drivers are generally paid by the mile Shippers who hold drivers for long periods of time waiting to load or unload or who do not treat their drivers well will fall to the bottom she said According to Wilson the state of logistics through 2015 will be shaped by the expected sustained growth in freight volume and the capacity and cost problems this increase will create Indeed she stated that most of the problems that the freight logistics industry will face in the next three years will boil down to capacity issues Freight volume is expected to increase at a moderate rate but capacity is not going to keep pace The second half of 2015 is sure to be fraught with capacity issues and bottlenecks for most modes Rates should rise faster in the second half of 2015 to cover the higher costs faced by carriers and needed investment David Cullen Executive Editor PHOTO ISTOCKPHOTO COM KGTOH 16 HDT JULY 2015 www truckinginfo com