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CSA 2010 Pilot Program Shows Better Safety Scores

Friday, August 20th, 2010

According to TruckingInfo.com’s article, “8/12/2010 CSA Changes Look Promising, Carriers say” by Oliver B, Patten, Washington Editor, and shortcomings are being removed.  This is the opinion of those Truck Driving Companies that are testing CSA 2010.  Those companies in pilot states see extreme positive changes in safety scores.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is hoping that Trucking Driving Companies learn the CSA 2010 program and how it works.  Beginning 8/16/2010, Carriers can go online to http://csa2010.fmcsa.dot.gov to review their performance in all seven Behavior Analysis & Safety Improvement Categories, or as they call it, the BASICS.

FMCSA has evolved the CSA 2010 program in response to feedback, both good and negative.  They believe it is turning into a very good program that will benefit the driver as well as the Truck Driving Companies.

American Trucking Association met with FMCSA with their concerns.  FMCSA, was quoted as stating:

“We held a series of private meetings with (FMCSA Administrator Anne Feero) and her staff, showing them examples of how we felt the previous methodology was not accurate and didn’t do an effective job of targeting truly unsafe carriers.  We were able to show instances of carriers that have super crash rates and great recent compliance reviews, but the system showed that they were labeled as safety deficient.  If you target carriers based on flawed methodology, you’re really using your limited resources to focus on the wrong carriers.  We really appreciate the administrator’s willingness to listen and address our concerns.”

As the pilot program comes to its end and it is rolled out to all, the Trucking Industry seems confident that the truck driver records will help to hire and train better drivers across the board.

http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/news-detail.asp?news_id=71328&news_category_id=3

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How to avoid Depression

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

depression

Depression is becoming a common problem among Americans today.  Jobs that impose high levels of psychological demands such as truck driving may be at an increased risk.  Things such as sleep deprivation and loneliness are common among truck drivers and create more cases of depression.  Although this life style is a hard one there are certain steps that can be taken to help with depression and improve the life of all drivers.

One way to prevent depression is to maintain a healthy life style. Eating healthy and exercising as much as possible while on the road will improve your over all mood and energy.  Try to add more fruits and vegetables into your diet and drink more water.  Doing this will improve your over all quality of life and will help you feel happier and better about yourself.

Another tip to avoid depression is to reach out and help someone else.  Psychologists sometimes recommend volunteer work to their patients as a healing mechanism.  Although its hard to volunteer while on the road look for small opportunities to help another person out. Open the door for someone walking into the convenient store, slow down to let a car in your lane, or say thank you to anyone that helps you along the way.  Any little bit helps and as you help others you are really helping yourself.

Keeping in communication with family and friends is a great way to fight depression.  This may be the hardest one but it is effective. Call when you are at stop, write a letter when you can’t sleep or send a postcard from a favorite city.  Any communication is appreciated and it gives you something productive to do and think about.

Even if you aren’t fighting with depression these steps are a great way to improve the over all quality of your life.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Truck-Drivers-Can-Beat-Back-the-Depression-Monster&id=2424447

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Posted in CDL Jobs, Truck Driver, Trucking News | 1 Comment »

Truck Drivers Who Inspire Me

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

I found this article online this morning that inspired me to keep living even when I’m 90 years old.  Al Weidtz, a retired trucker, is riding his bike in the “Wheeling Heritage Trail Bicycle Tour” for the fourth straight year.  He rides his bike about a 100-miles a week, can you believe it?

His history is interesting enough.  He served in the 28th Airborne Tank Battalion in World War II and came home, married Rose and they operated a trucking company they named “Roaming Rosie”.  They traveled the country together as well as staying physically active.  They boated, did skin diving, and even archery.  They had a wonderful life together.  When Rosie passed away, he moved and made new friends.  Now he has taken up biking.

Al loves to bike with his children and grandchildren.  Last year, he, his daughter, and grandson, rode the Columbus Ohio Zoo ride along with 4,500 other people.  He fell, but only scraped his knee.  He got up and finished the race!

When truck driving, Al and Rosie Weidtz’ “Roaming Rosie” trucks were known as the “Knights of the Road” and traveled though out all of the United States.  Back in 1959, they travelled from the Ohio area to the New York City and back, making a whole $100 a trip.  Times have definitely changed.

People have such interesting stories and finding this article this morning has reminded me to live.  I may sit in a cab and see the scenery, but this reminds to get out of my cab once in awhile and enjoy what I see.  Maybe I’ll take up biking someday and since I’m not quite 90 yet, I could try 200 miles a week.  Nah, I’ll stick with 5 to start out.

http://www.news-register.net/page/content.detail/id/537089.html?nav=515

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Posted in CDL Jobs, Truck Driver, Truck Jobs, Trucking News, Wellness | No Comments »

MRM/Driving Behavior As One

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

Check this out!  Qualcomm and GreenRoad are working together and they have created a device that actually monitors “safety and driving behavior.”  Called the MRM/Driving Behavior Solution, it is the first in existence of one mechanism that sends feedback information about mobile resource management and driving behavior management from one source of data.  Very cool indeed!

Do you know what this means?  It means that fleet owners have a more simplified process of gathering information from their trucks and save money as well.  As the article states;

“Qualcomm’s Service Fleet Manager mobile resource management system uses GPS technology to give fleets visibility into their assets and provide an immediate snapshot of critical vehicle information through a web-based interface.”

Earthtimes.org wrote an article about the MRM/Driving Behavior Solution, and interviewed Norman Ellis.  He is quoted as saying:

“Mobile resource management and driver safety are vital issues to every local service fleet,” said Norman Ellis, vice president of sales, services and marketing at Qualcomm Enterprise Services.  ”GreenRoad’s unique driving behavior service offers a different dimension to our mobile resource management offering, enabling our customers to obtain more value from each of the two services.  We are proud to work with GreenRoad and offer the first combined mobile resource management and driving behavior service.”

If one of a fleet owner’s truck drivers takes risk that could hurt people or their truck, the information is instantly sent back to the office so that someone is aware and can take immediate action.  This is a wonderful program that may save lives.

Save money and have more access to truck information to protect from hazardous driving and mechanical problems.  That’s a win-win for me!

http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/news-detail.asp?news_id=69729&news_category_id=52

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/qualcomm-and-greenroad-to-provide,1205165.shtml

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Police Citating Cars That Cut Off Trucks

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Who says the highway patrol is against the trucking companies ? Here is an article that ran not to long ago that says quite the opposite.’

In February, the North Carolina state Highway Patrol started a safety campaign that focuses on aggressive drivers.  They call it “Operation Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks, (TACT) and are looking at both truck drivers and those driving too aggressive near the trucks.

The same thing happened last summer in an Idaho county.  They were looking specifically for drivers driving aggressively near trucks.

Paul McDaniel, an instructor for the SAGE Truck Driving School in the area, stated, “Aggressive driving includes tailgating big trucks, cutting them off, or staying in their blind spots… It’s a huge problem for everybody, especially for trucks.”

The Idaho State Police were very clever and were passengers in a truck on I-15.   The police gave out 34 citations to drivers in Idaho and handed out brochures on why the police are cracking down on reckless driving around trucks and how to drive safer in their vicinity.

Last September, Alabama police ran a similar campaign because of safety issues rising in their state from reckless drivers around trucks.

These ticketing campaigns bring the issue to the front about safety and the road.  It looks like states are starting to look into it pretty seriously.

http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/7072105/

http://www.kidk.com/news/local/51521397.html

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/09/alabama_to_continue_targeting.html

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