Archive for September, 2009

Trucking Association Says Drill Drill Drill

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

Minerals Management Service Home
Today, September 16, 2009 the American Trucking Association is asking for people to send a letter to the U.S Minerals Management Service. The goal of the ATA with the letter is get some off shore regions that are allegedly loaded with oil and natural gas open for drilling. Thisissue can be especially to those involved with truck jobs.

The ATA aims at getting the off shore areas included in the upcoming law changes that will open up some leases of natural gas and oil drilling regions. The areas that the AA would like to get included would be added in the 2010-2015 offshore program that will be no onger accepting new locatins as of september 21, 2009.

According to ATA vice president Rich Moskowitz, “Offshore areas are home to huge, untapped resources of oil and natural gas that are crucial to lessening our dependency on foreign oil and keeping our economy and our country going strong.”

Mr. Moskowitz certainly is going to bat for the trucking industry. With added offshore drilling could come increased supplies of quality fuel at prices that are more reasonable and less volitile then what we have now.

The offshore areas are estimated to have as much 17 billion barels of oil and over 75 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. This issue is certainly getting some publicity as we are approaching the the September 21, 2009 deadline.

Visit http://www.mms.gov/5-year/2010-2015DPPComments.htm to find out more about how you can voice your support of exploration for natural resources along the OCS. Visit the ATA Here for more information.

JB Hunt and PAM Trucking Hauling Less Freight

Monday, September 14th, 2009

NWA Online reported that some trucking companies are feeling the pinch of the slow economy. The article reported that some of the tough times may be due in part to the reduced inventory conditions that many retail stores are operating under.

The main discussion was dedicated to JB Hunt trucking and PAM trucking. Both companies have seen a slow down and reduce the number of tractors they have on the road.

According to the article one retailer in particular, Dillard’s Inc has reduced its inventory by almost 20 percent over the last year. The article points to cash strapped consumers as the root cause of the reduced inventores. The article points out that consumers ae saving money due to the countless lay offs and furloughs.

The article stated that JB Hunt trucking cut their tractor count by 1200 in 2008. PAM has also cut almost 300 trucks from its fleet. With less freight to haul its no wonder the companies have tride to cut back and reduce their power unit count.  Another note from the article was an announcement that JB Hunt made to sell an additional 700 tractors with a large portion of the sale coming from its intermodel and dedicated fleets.

Another important issue covered in the article was the issue of employment. With reduced freight quantities comes fewer truck driving jobs. PAM trucking along with cutting its fleet has had total miles traveled each work day drop by almost 100 miles. That is a significant number for any trucking comapny.

The article also mentioned how large retailers like walmart are doing what they can to save as well. Walmart for example has moved more cases in fewer miles during this economic slow down. That means fewer truck loads for other carriers to move for them.

More information on PAM trucking and JB Hunt form the original article written by Kim Souza and Lana F. Flowers of The Morning News can be found at   http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2009/09/12/business/091309bistruck.txt

 

Truckers Say Not This Time

Friday, September 11th, 2009

Truck job fuel station
The Trucker.com ran an article this Tuesday 09/08/2009 that spoke about a possible fuel tax hike that may take place in California. Truck Drivers and owner operators in California are beginning to protest the increase.

The key increase proposed is an increase to the excise tax. If the proposal passes the state fuel excise tax could double. Truck driving jobs will certainly be effected by this kind of change. The article which states that this change could cost over a billion dollars.

You can read more by visiting the full and complete article. The article can be found at: http://www.thetrucker.com/News/Stories/2009/9/8/SmallbusinesstruckerstoprotestpotentialCaliforniafueltaxhike.aspx

Truck Job Losses Slowing According to August Numbers

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Trucking jobs released by the Department of Labor
Some good economic news is starting to bubble up in the truck driving industry. According to recent numbers trucking jobs decreased in August by the smallest amount in a year. There was still a decline, but to see that the decline is now at the slowest pace in a year is a positive sign. The recent numbers show that some normalization is occurring. Growth would ultimately have been preferred, but this news was also welcomed.

The amount that employment for trucking companies dropped was 0.3 % seasonally adjusted. This information comes from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics and was released to the general public on September 4th, 2009.

The job losses of August bring the total number of Truck driving jobs lost so far this year just over 80,000, with a year over year number close to 130,000 jobs lost.

Since the pace of total jobs lost is slowing, this could be sign the we are on the right road to getting a recovery. Certainly we are not out of the woods yet. And having a jobs number that says the industry is still shedding jobs is proof of that. But overall if this is the last job loss number we see for a while, could mean that as freight increases, trucking companies will need to hire once again to keep pace with demand.

Large carriers like CR England and Con-Way have certainly been affected by the slow down. CR England has even continued to recruit and hire drivers through the slow down. Truck driving jobs information can be found at http://www.CREngland.com .