As news of severe droughts seems to be a yearly concern, some farmers are looking to technology for alternative ways of producing some of our nation’s favorite produce. Vertical farming is the practice of growing crops in vertically stacked layers. It conserves space while at the same time amplifying yield per square foot compared to…
Traveling to the recent Truckload Carriers Association Refrigerated conference in Traverse City, MI, it was hard to escape just how different trucks are in the state. Michigan truckers take it for granted, but to everyone else worldwide, the 11-axle truck/trailer combinations look like centipedes on wheels. Michigan truckers DAT interviewed said they have limited backhaul…
After a period of record revenues, this year small carriers and owner-operators have felt their profits squeezed by skyrocketing fuel prices, a softer spot market and rising operating costs. In times like this, it’s important to recognize that the market is cyclical. For owner-operators who optimize their business and weather the storm, this means reaping…
Hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean typically begins to ramp up in earnest around mid-August. But things had been eerily quiet without a single storm to be seen anywhere in August. After predicting an above-average hurricane season, many forecasters were left wondering about their initial predictions of a busy season. According to Phil Klotzbach, a…
September 27th, 2022–Determining the cost of operating a truck in 2022 depends on who you ask, plus a range of other factors, including the type of business (for-hire, private fleet, power-only, etc.), length of haul, fleet size, truck and trailer type, customer base, accounting methods, debt levels, and commodity hauled, to name just a few. It’s…
The wild blueberry season winds down in Maine, pumpkins roll into farmstands around the country, the sugarbeet harvest wraps up in Minnesota, potatoes are dug up, processed, shipped, and stored in Idaho and Prince Edward Island (PEI), apples are picked in Washington State and also imported from China, and watermelon season runs out of juice.…
This year, the focus of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) International Roadcheck Week was on wheel ends. Out of the top 10 vehicle out-of-service violations, tires ranked second, and wheels came in seventh. Of the 18,213 total vehicle out-of-service violations, there were 3,374 out-of-service tire violations, accounting for 18.5% of all vehicle out-of-service violations,…
November means a focus on drowsy driving after daylight saving ends as the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) gears up for Drowsy Driving Prevention Week (DDPW) from November 6-13. It’s also the perfect time to focus on sleep deprivation and drowsy driving as it coincides with the end of Daylight Saving this Sunday at 2:00 AM…
American teenagers aren’t getting enough sleep these days, nor are their parents, and that’s especially dangerous when there’s a long-distance trucker involved. Since the iPhone was released onto the market in June 2007, we’ve all been subjected to an increasing amount of light pollution, severely disrupting our sleep. In more recent times, teenagers who already…
The recently released traffic fatalities report from The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) projects that an estimated 42,915 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes last year, a 10.5% increase from the 38,824 fatalities in 2020. The projection is the highest number of deaths since 2005 and the largest annual percentage increase in the…