Allen, from www.askthetrucker.com is committed to helping everyone related in the trucking industry and beyond. Allen and his wife Donna are two of the nicest people I have met on Twitter. They literally would/will do anything in their power to help out the fellow truck drivers, and probably anyone that was in need of help.

With the technology growing like it is Allen had developed an application for the iPhone that just recently came out. He named it appropriately Trucker app and it is available at the Apple store or on Allens website. It is available for just $.99 and is well worth that for all it does. All relevant trucker related links and applications are located within and accessed right at your fingertip.

The home page for the trucker app, has been transformed into a visual like you are staring out of the windshield of your truck, with a working wiper blade and horn. It can also be set to use a picture that you have taken with your phone, or in many cases you can get the pictures that truckers send in from the road and Allen has loaded onto the app for your viewing pleasure. Allen will feature certain pictures throughtout the week, and it gives a really nice touch, to an already priceless tool.

The Trucker App, puts all available trucker related information right there in one application. The trucker App features:

• Twitter Button!
• Trucking Songs Videos
• Trucking Videos
• Weather Updates
• Mileage Calculator
• Accurate Driving Directions
• Weigh Scale Locator
• Low Clearance Directory
• Legal Forms
• Traffic Alerts
• Informational PDF Files
• Official U.S. Time Zones
• Truck Wash Locator
• Calendar of Events
• Lowest Fuel Price Locator
• Up-to-Date Crude Oil Price
• Truck Stop Directory
• Repair Services Finder
• Better Truck Driving Job Locator
• Owner Operator Load Board
• Affordable Health Insurance Program
• The DAC REPORT
• Trucking Industry News
• Official Links for the Trucking Industry
• Daily Thought
• AskTheTrucker Blog
• Trucking Sounds
• BEST of Truth About Trucking “LIVE” – Blog Talk Radio!

• This is all available to you at the touch of a button. The best feature the Trucker App has is, how easy it is to use. Most times if truckers or anyone for instance buys a tool or something to work with, it is usually suppose to make the job easier or why would you buy it? If I buy something and try to use it going down the road, and it seems to hard to use well it usually ends up being tossed in the sleeper to never be found again, or out the window. The Trucker app, is set up to click four times or less and you have what you are looking for.

  Allen can update the Trucker App, when needed. You know as well as I know Time is Money in the trucking industry. This is a very needed tool, if not the most needed tool. It will save you in the long run. The best part is I hear Allen is working on version 2 of this app…Man I can’t wait to see it!

  Allen, hands down this is the best tool by far I have seen yet. Now a driver does not have to go out and buyಏ different tools, it is all combind into one! Great Job!

  © 2009, Truck Drivers News. All rights reserved.

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Bankrupt auto maker General Motors Corp. (GMGMQ) said Monday that it will wind down production of its medium-duty trucks by the end of July after failing to find a buyer for the operations.

GM started its search for a buyer as it looked to raise capital and streamline its North American operations four years ago.

The company thought in December 2007 it had found a buyer – Navistar International Corp. (NAV) – but that deal fell apart this past August amid tough economic environment and a big downturn in commercial trucks due to high gas prices. That deal had been expected to generate less than $1 billion in proceeds for GM, which said at the time that it would continue to look at other options for the business.

As a result, the Chevy Kodiak and GMC Topkick trucks will join a host of other GM models that are being unceremoniously cut as the company tries to make itself leaner and meaner for the vehicle market’s new realities.

Through May, Kodiak sales were down 48% at 2,075 while the Topkick slumped 69% to 1,806.

GM shares recently traded on the Pink Sheets at 99.3 cents, up 12.8 cents.

Full Story

© 2009, Truck Drivers News. All rights reserved.

As oil prices rose over $70 per barrel last week and Goldman Sachs raised its forecast for oil prices, the American Trucking Associations joined a coalition of trade associations asking Congress to rein in excessive speculation in the commodities markets.

ATA joined a broad coalition of 79 other trade associations in sending a letter urging Congress to bring full transparency in the commodities markets and prevent excessive speculation.

Energy commodity prices have surged recently, even though the demand for petroleum products has declined significantly and supplies of crude oil are plentiful.

Friday, oil prices rose above $70 a barrel for the first time since October, after a U.S. Labor Department report showed the number of layoffs fell in May. Brokerage and market analysis firm Goldman Sachs raised its oil price forecast for 2009 to $59 a barrel from $50 a barrel and for 2010 to $80 a barrel from $70 a barrel.

“Absent strong and sweeping reform, we will continue to witness extreme price volatility and excessive speculation,” said the letter from The Commodity Markets Oversight Coalition to congressional leaders. “Trading will continue to grow in ‘dark’ or unregulated markets and investment speculators will continue to elude federal oversight, data reporting requirements and position limits.”

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© 2009, Truck Drivers News. All rights reserved.

More than 100 associations and companies — including Kraft Foods, MillerCoors and International Paper â€� today, June 8, officially launched the Coalition for Transportation Productivity (www.transportationproductivity.org), urging Congress to responsibly raise the federal vehicle weight limit on U.S. interstates.

CTP supports the Safe and Efficient Transportation Act of 2009 (H.R. 1799), which would increase the interstate weight limit, which it says would improve trucking productivity and allow for safer highways, a cleaner environment and a stronger economy.

“America’s freight transportation infrastructure is on the verge of becoming overwhelmed over the next decade,� says CTP Co-Chair John Runyan. “Freight hauled by trucks in the U.S. is expected to double by 2025, and truck traffic is growing 11 times faster than road capacity. The Coalition for Transportation Productivity is asking Congress to responsibly reform truck weight limits with proper safeguards to allow the same amount of freight to be carried on fewer trucks, which will improve the efficiency of our interstates, reduce fuel use, and curb emissions.”

Legislators in Congress are lining up on one side of the truck size and weight issue or the other. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.) introduced legislation (S. 779, H.R. 1618) that would extend the current limit of 80,000 pounds and maximum length of 53 feet for tractor-trailer trucks on interstate highways to the National Highway System. The NHS covers some 160,000 miles of highway, while interstates represent 44,000 miles. Within the trucking community, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters are backing the Lautenberg-McGovern bill, citing safety and infrastructure concerns.

Full Story

© 2009, Truck Drivers News. All rights reserved.

Safety experts from outside the trucking industry will comment on the American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) expanded highway safety agenda at a press conference on Tuesday, June 9, on Capitol Hill at 10 a.m.

ATA’s press conference will announce the trucking industry’s bold new 18-point safety agenda that addresses commercial and passenger vehicle driver performance, safer vehicles and equipment, and motor carrier performance.

Speakers from outside the trucking industry supporting key ATA safety initiatives will include:

• Former Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator John Hill of the Hill Group Inc., Greenwood, Ind.
• Road Safe America Executive Director Tom Hodgson. Road Safe America is working to make our highways safer by requiring that speed governors in tractor-trailer trucks be set at 65 mph or below, a policy advanced by ATA. Road Safe America is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded by Stephen C. and Susan Owings, whose son Cullum was killed in a tractor-trailer crash.
• American Insurance Association Vice President and Associate General Counsel of Public Policy David Snyder. The American Insurance Association (AIA) is the leading property-casualty insurance trade organization, representing 350 insurers that write more than $123 billion in premiums each year.

• ATA speakers will include:

• ATA President and CEO Bill Graves;
• ATA Vice Chairwoman and Safety Task Force Chairwoman Barbara Windsor, President and CEO of Hahn Transportation Inc., New Market, Md.;
• Arkansas Best Corp. President and CEO Bob Davidson, Fort Smith, Ark.;
• FedEx Freight President and CEO Doug Duncan, Memphis, Tenn., Chairman of the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI); and
• David May of Con-way Freight in Buffalo, N.Y., America’s Road Team Captain and professional truck driver.

• The press conference will be held at an ATA tractor-trailer parked at Maryland Avenue and Garfield Circle SW, near the United States Botanic Garden. Following brief remarks, there will be a question and answer period.

  In case of extreme weather, the press conference will be held at Park Hyatt Washington hotel,ಘ & M Sts. NW, Washington, D.C.

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Virginia State Police say that a Richmond trucker put his life in harm’s way to keep 6,000 gallons of gasoline from exploding.

“The whole thing could have gone up,” State Police Sgt. Lee Elliott said as the ruins of a truck tractor smoldered on the shoulder of westbound Interstate 64 early this morning shortly after midnight.

State Police shut down east and westbound lanes of the interstate last night shortly after 10 p.m., when a tractor of a tractor trailer rig carrying the gasoline caught on fire. All lanes were reopened by 4:30 a.m.

Elliott said that the truck driver, Michael Hickman, of Richmond, pulled the rig over, left the cab, and tried to separate the gasoline-filled tanker from the tractor before the tanker caught fire.

Hickman had to turn from the flames and run from the scene. At least one nearby resident said she heard two explosions.

Henrico firefighters put out the fire but the westbound tanker and demolished cab were still sitting by the interstate last night after midnight about a half-mile east of the Parham Road exit.

It was not clear last night how the tractor caught on fire or how far Hickman drove the rig before pulling over.

Hickman, who was still at the scene early this morning, said he could not comment on the incident before getting aproval from his company.

–Bill McKelway

© 2009, Truck Drivers News. All rights reserved.

FedEx is expected to launch a multimillion-dollar lobbying offensive as early as Tuesday to thwart legislation that would put the Memphis, Tenn.-based package delivery company under the same labor laws as its main competitor, United Parcel Service Inc.

The legislation would make it far easier for some 100,000 FedEx Express drivers and certain other employees to unionize.

“There’s a giant cost for the passage of this legislation that the American people shouldn’t have to pay,” FedEx spokesman Maury Lane said. “We are going to do everything we can so people understand what kind of legislative bailout this is and why it is so bad for consumers.”

“We are going to ask Congress to stop it in its tracks,” he added.

FedEx said the legislation, if passed, could lead to major traffic disruptions and reduce the reliability of its shipments.

UPS, whose employees are unionized, said the bill would simply level the playing field between the two companies.

The lobbying effort will target both the Washington market and outside-the-Beltway audiences.

“We are going to use every media means to talk about this for as long, for as loud and as simply as we can,” Lane said.

He declined to give any more details on FedEx’s lobbying strategy except that it would be “dynamic.”

The company’s public affairs campaign is the latest move in the decades-long pitched fight between the two companies over FedEx�™s work force, which is regulated by the Railway Labor Act. FedEx has always been regulated under the RLA because it began as an airline company.

UPS began as a trucking company, so it is governed by the National Labor Relations Act.

FedEx, which transports most of its packages via aircraft, is less than half the size of UPS, with annual revenues, respectively, of $22.7 billion and $49.7 billion.

An amendment in the House version of the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that passed late last month would put FedEx’s work force under the NLRA, which would make it easier for its employees to unionize.

Under the RLA, FedEx’s employees require national elections in order to unionize.

The NLRA allows single-location based union organizing.

FedEx isn’t taking any chances that a Democratic-controlled Senate will pass the provision.

CEO Fred Smith recently upped the ante when he threatened in Congressional testimony to cancel a $10 billion contract for Boeing 777 planes if FedEx Express workers were to be put under the National Labor Relations Act.

UPS said it will continue lobbying the provision as it has in the past.

“We continue to educate the Members of Congress and officials looking at this issue on the merits of the issue,” UPS spokesman Malcolm Berkley said.

“Employees performing the same jobs should be covered under the same labor law,” Berkley added.

FedEx spent nearly twice as much on federal lobbying as UPS during the first quarter: $2.37 million to UPS’ $1.32 million.

Both companies have a large retinue of lobbyists.
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© 2009, Truck Drivers News. All rights reserved.

The Boston Globe’s truck drivers today agreed to ratify a new contract and save the parent New York Times [NYT] Co. $2.5 million.

By a 89-69 vote, members of Teamsters Local 259 agreed to new concessions, which are part of the Times Co.���s overall effort to cut $20 million and curb the Globe’s staggering financial losses.

Ralph Giallanella, the union’s secretary-treasurer, said his members “voted to save their jobs, and the jobs of every man and women at the Globe.���

He declined to provide specific terms of the cuts.

The Globe is on track to lose $85 million this year without the cuts, according to a Times Co. regulatory filing.

Two months ago, the Times Co. told its Globe unions to cut $20 million or the

paper would be shut down.

And this morning at an Adams Corner union hall, several Globe drivers said they approved the cuts because they thought the threat of closure was real.

“And if they shut it down today, I can’t raise my family on unemployment,” said one longtime Globe driver who voted in favor of the concessions. “This gives me time to plan for something else.”

Also today, the 30-member machinists union reportedly refused to ratify their proposed agreement, but sources said, because the union is so small, that decision wonâ€�t affect the company’s overall situation.

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© 2009, Truck Drivers News. All rights reserved.