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TDMST Weekly Round-Up 2023.06.03

This is the TDMST Weekly Round-Up of news affecting professional truck drivers, written by Vicki Simons for the week ending June 3, 2023.

We welcome your comments, thoughts and feedback on the items of your choice below.

TDMST Weekly Round-Up

1. Regarding equipment error, inspections, roadside assistances, and safety:

Equipment error

If you’re experiencing this kind of equipment error, please contact your fleet manager or dispatcher right away and seek a fix.

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Inspections

If you keep yourself and your rig in perpetual readiness for an inspection, you’ll never be caught off-guard.

Roadside assistance

It would be helpful to know whether or not you have this kind of service before you need it.

Safety

The video embedded in the last article just above is extremely important (language warning).

Please see this group of related articles on our site the subject:

2. Regarding autonomous vehicles, batteries, electric vehicles, emissions, and fuels:

Autonomous vehicles

I absolutely oppose the operation of self-driving, autonomous, or driverless commercial motor vehicles on the roads with the motoring public, but I share these to help you stay current with the topic.

Batteries

Electric vehicles

If you are considering purchasing an electric commercial motor vehicle, please do your due diligence ahead of time.

Emissions

Fuels

3. Regarding airbags, crashes, drugs, fatalities, and weather:

Airbags

Crashes

Please glance through these articles to see if you can learn something about what triggered each crash so that you can avoid being involved in a similar situation.

Drugs

Never ever haul illegal drugs, no matter how big of an incentive you may have been offered.

Furthermore, never take narcotics prior to driving any vehicle, particularly a commercial motor vehicle.

Fatalities

We express our deep sympathy and extend our condolences to the families of those who passed away in large truck crashes.

If you even suspect that you’ve hit a vehicle or person, don’t be a coward, but rather stop, call, and report your suspicions.

Weather

4. Regarding business, insurance, legal, and records:

Business

Insurance

It would be helpful to know more about this.

Legal

Records

5. Regarding distracted driving, move over, operations, platooning, and politics:

Distracted driving

Move over

Operations

In the next-to-last article in this section, there’s a video showing a type of retaliation from a trucker.

This is unprofessional and is never acceptable.

I am confident that eventually, the trucker will be caught and held responsible for his actions.

In the last article in the section just above, there’s a video showing a trucker making a very dangerous maneuver that could have ended badly for 3 reasons:

  • Depending on the load in the truck whose driver made the quick exit — and depending on the kind of exit it was — that kind of quick response could have led to a rollover crash;
  • The vehicle from which the video was being recorded was obviously a car and it was “fortunate” that the car driver had the opportunity to move to the right lane of the exit ramp and make room for the fast-maneuvering trucker; and
  • Things could have turned out very badly had the vehicle in the left lane of the exit ramp been a fully loaded big truck with another vehicle on his right side!

Platooning

For safety reasons, I disapprove of platooning.

6. Regarding ELDs, regulations, speed limiters, and technology:

ELDs

Regulations

Speed limiters

Technology

7. Regarding border, brokers, and fraud:

Border

Brokers

Fraud

8. Regarding chain, climate, economy, employment, and trends:

Chain

Climate

Economy

Employment

Trends

9. Regarding overweight fine, parking, recalls, and weights:

Overweight fine

These are two different violations in two different states:

Parking

Recalls

Weights

Pay

Quotes from article:

FMCSA must study driver compensation and its effects on safety under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The FMCSA has entered into a contract with the Transportation Research Board (TRB) to conduct a study on the impacts of various methods of driver compensation, including hourly pay and payment for detention time.

… Research shows [driver detention] costs drivers $1.1-1.3 billion in lost wages and the industry $3-6.5 billion in driving time annually.

10. Regarding pay, surcharges, taxes, theft, and tolls:

Surcharges

Taxes

Theft

Tolls

11. Regarding APUs, team driving, testing, and truckers:

APUs

The top 3 are: fuel savings, reduced engine maintenance, and driver comfort.

Lovely!

Team driving

Testing

Truckers

12. Regarding awards:

Recognition and Awards

We appreciate and recognize the efforts of those who help out their fellow human beings in a time of needs:

We applaud this trucker for his accomplishments of having “driven more than 3 million miles” without either “a preventable accident” or “a violation or citation”!

My husband Mike and I wish you — and all professional truck drivers — safe travels and lots of money saving opportunities on the road.






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