Rolf Lockwood
Rolf Lockwood is editor emeritus of Today's Trucking and a regular contributor to Trucknews.com.
Opinion: Rust never sleeps, but what’s your biggest truck maintenance headache?
What’s your biggest maintenance headache? I actually do want to know because, believe it or not, planning for next spring’s Canadian Fleet Maintenance Summit on April 15 is already underway. It’s at a preliminary stage, for sure, but we’re already at it. We haven’t yet held a meeting of the dozen or so members of the advisory council that helps us devise the program, but individually we’re creating short lists of subjects to cover.
Opinion: Use your head when approaching emergency workers at roadside
Every time I see a policeman or a tow-truck driver working at the side of a busy road, I get the willies. The risk is so obvious, so profound. A driver’s momentary inattention or wilful carelessness can snuff out a life in a millisecond. It happens far too often.
Where are the techs?
The maintenance people of trucking are a resourceful breed. They get things done. Yet there’s a challenge that’s been haunting almost every shop manager – at fleets, dealerships, and independent garages alike – for as long as I’ve been writing about this industry of ours. The shortage of skilled technicians is a plague that just won’t go away.
Truck parking shortage is a productivity killer
What are the industry's biggest issues these days? Most everyone will say the driver shortage leads the way. Everyone except drivers, of course. I'd say top spot belongs to hours of service rules followed closely by the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate, both of which are key reasons for the shortage... of drivers willing to work long hours within that arbitrarily constructed straitjacket. So it's no surprise that the top three issues for drivers are those two plus the lack of parking facilities.
