In Gear - Today's Trucking

duty diesels don’t meet the standard just yet, so it’ll use emission
credits to sell older engines for the next few months, buying it
more time to meet EPA’s numbers or fight on in court.
TANKERS: Cylinder trailers appear to be under a lot of
scrutiny by safety officials. As we reported last fall,
Obama’s truck regulators seem bent on implementing
rules that would make tankers far more expensive. One
proposal requires purging of so-called “wetlines” which are located
underside on petroleum containers. It would also require
retrofits and ban wetlines on all future tankers. (Industry folks
say the rule is costly and puts workers at risk). Then at the last
minute, authors of the hazmat safety bill inserted a provision to
examine ways to cut down on cargo tank rollovers as well. The bill
was pending passage at press time. Separately, NHTSA is working
on a rule that could make electronic stability control mandatory
on trailers, beyond tankers. Expect a proposal later this year. (See
pg. 40 for more on this).
UREA: Required for 2010 SCR engines, the liquid is
more accurately named Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF)
in North America, but good luck coming up with
something better for “U.” A year ago at this time,
there was plenty of speculation that industry wouldn’t be able to
build the infrastructure to produce, supply and sell urea-based DEF
in time to meet 2010 truck demand. While customers won’t be pining
for more expensive 2010 engines for a while, chemical producers,
OEMs, and truckstops have done an adequate job of ramping
up. Rumors that DEF would cost up to $7 a gallon have also proven
to be far-fetched. It can be had for about three bucks.
Customs remains under pressure
from Homeland Security to improve
container-trailer scanning.
VEHICLE WEIGHTS & DIMENSIONS: When it comes to
environmentally sustainable transportation, governments
talk a good game but are agonizingly slow in
making life easier for truckers to adopt green-friendly
technologies that make actual business sense.
Promoting hybrids and LCVs are lofty goals, but shorterterm,
policy makers need to close the gulf between older VWD
regs and modern, affordable fuel-saving devices like single,
wide-base tires; APUs, and aerodynamic trailer add-ons like
skirts and boat tails as promoted by CTA via its “Envirotruck”
concept. Will truckers be given a break for buying this stuff in
2010? It might be cheaper than flying all those bureaucrats and
NGOs to Copenhagen.
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WINDSOR: Sure, there isn’t much in the air here
except diesel exhaust but over the last few years the
political drama in this border town has become to
transport writers what the fictional town of Salem is to Stephen
King. There’s no shortage of weird events to scribble about. So, is
2010 the year shovels get in the ground for a new truck bridge to
Detroit? Will American trucking mogul and owner of the private
Ambassador Bridge, Mattie Maroun, continue to launch scuds at
the public bridge process? These and many other questions
answered in the next episode of As Windsor Turns.
X-RAYS: Since 9-11, crossing the border has been about as
fun as crawling under your trailer and measuring the brake
pushrod on a January morning. Weak cross-border volume
has shortened queues a great deal, but the myriad of
draconian security protocols persist. And don’t expect
relief in 2010. In December the Government Accountability Office
gave Customs a failing grade for its weak attempt to meet a
Congressional requirement that 100 percent of U.S.-bound cargo
containers be scanned by 2012. Meanwhile, abuse by a few smugglers
of the C-TPAT-FAST system has some officials calling for
tighter controls on that front as well.
YRC: Every month that passes without the yellow submarine
sinking indicates that the LTL giant could survive
after all. The beleaguered carrier, one of the
world’s largest, has been fighting off shark-like pricing
attacks from competitors who’ve been smelling blood in the
water for months. With the help of some “creative” maneuvering
by lenders and creditors, though, Yellow has managed to stay
afloat. Its future, or lack thereof, has significant impact on the
North American LTL sector with possibly over 15 percent of
market capacity up for grabs. Or will the band play on for YRC?
Zzzz: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is quickly
becoming the most scrutinized fatigue-related issue
in the industry. U.S. regulators are working on a
screening rule and if that happens, we’ll have to come
up with a “made-in-Canada” solution that passes
muster with the Americans. Treatment for OSA comes mainly in
the form of CPAP machines, which are effective but existing models
are bulky and uncomfortable for some people. Upon seeing
one for the first time, this writer’s five-year-old asked his grandfather
why he “has to sleep with a vacuum cleaner on his face.”
Drivers with OSA will undoubtedly have similar questions and
regulators should spend the year crafting a reasonable answer. ▲
JANUARY 2010 31