Blogs
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Are offshore tires gaining acceptance?
For a few years now our research team has been tracking the perceptions and acceptance of the new offshore tires among both fleets and owner/operators. Our latest research, completed this summer, found that the general perception of the quality of…
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Don’t get too excited about latest shipment levels
Statistics Canada’s report this week that manufacturing shipments heated up in July – they rose 2.3% — should be taken with a distinct grain of salt for two reasons. First, most of the strength in July came from a return…
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The Truck of Tomorrow
I had the pleasure of getting behind the wheel of a medium-duty hybrid truck and going for a little test drive during the Great American Trucking Show in August. It looks like a truck, handles like a truck and pulls…
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Transportation now on the wrong side of the growth hump
Revenues for Canada’s largest motor carriers shrunk in the second quarter, decreasing 1.3% on average. To me that’s further indication that trucking, and transportation in general actually, is now on the wrong side of a growth hump pattern that has…
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What’s wrong with this picture?
Mark Richards, a professional driver based in Windsor, says he’s being punished by the MTO for simply doing the right thing. The trucker admits that last year he was signed on with a rather unscrupulous carrier. He says the company…
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Boom in automotive shipments only a short-term reprieve
Anyone feeling optimistic about what the summer’s rise in automotive shipments from the Detroit Three indicated about the future, should be sobered by this week’s news from General Motors about significant layoffs. That development, I believe, is more indicative of…
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Emissions standards should apply to older trucks too
Over the past few years I’ve been telling anyone who would listen about the environmental leaps and bounds being made by the trucking industry. I am always quick to point out that it takes 60 2007 trucks to create the…
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Why 100% scanning of containers is 100% wrong
If you think congestion can make picking up containers at our international ports a real hassle now, wait till July 1, 2012. That’s when the US wants to have its scan-all legislation in effect. The legislation decrees that as of…
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How NOT to help truckers with their costs
When I discuss with industry suppliers the cost challenges their owner/operator and fleet customers face, I’m often asked what would be the best way they could help truckers reduce their costs. Before addressing the ways to help, it might be…
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It’s so crazy it might just work
In the medical profession there’s a saying used, comparing horses and zebras, when a physician comes up with the misdiagnosis of an ailment. Something about looking for zebras instead of horses, or horses instead of zebras… Regardless of the situation,…
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Trucking may be the lion of the transportation industry but it’s not exactly growing fat on its kills
In my past two blogs dedicated to understanding the changes driving today’s motor carriers, we examined the increasing importance of accountability and the greater amount of complexity fleets face today. One thing that has NOT changed is the importance of…
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Complexity will radically change the trucking industry
In my last blog I began examining the three major trends – accountability, complexity and cost — that I think drive the success and fuel the fears of motor carriers. The first trend we looked at was the increasing amount…
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Infrastructure upgrades desperately needed
The tragic collapse of a Minneapolis bridge this week has demonstrated the need for immediate upgrades to North American infrastructure. The deadly collapse comes just weeks after Transports Quebec announced oversized loads will no longer be allowed to cross 135…
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It’s just lip service until you drink from the fountain of youth
I’m sure there has yet to be a generation of young people who have not felt slighted by their predecessors. And likely, along the same lines, there probably has yet to be a generation of decision-makers who has not wished…
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What drives the success and fuels the fears of motor carriers?
I’m often asked by companies selling products into the transportation industry to outline the major trends that are both driving the success and fueling the fears of their motor carrier customers. I put it down to three main trends: Accountability,…