5/30/17

A & T Mobile Truck 24-Hour Road Service

A&T "Mobile" Truck Road Service is a 24-hour, 7-days a week roadside mobile truck repair service for light and medium-duty to heavy duty commercial trucks.

We will go just about anywhere for anything, at anytime. At A&T "Mobile" Truck Road Service we like to think of ourselves as the "Ambulance Service for Trucks."

If your truck is broken down, we will come to you and perform the necessary triage to get you back on the road. A&T now includes towing, load adjustments, and more.

5/27/17

Uber Freight Launches for Owner-Operators, Small Fleets

Owner-operators and small fleets can find loads via their mobile devices. Photo: Aether Films, courtesy Uber Freight
With the official launch of Uber Freight, an app that matches trucking companies with loads to haul, Uber is looking to transform the world of freight transport much as it has changed the world of taxis with its ride-sharing app.
After years of other companies trying to offer what are often nicknamed “Uber for trucking” freight-matching services, Uber itself is launching a load-matching app it says will make “logistics and transportation as magical as pressing a button and getting a taxi,” according to Eric Berdinis, product lead for Uber Freight.


5/24/17

Volvo pioneers autonomous, self-driving refuse truck in the urban environment


Volvo Group, together with Swedish waste and recycling specialists Renova, is testing a pioneering autonomous refuse truck that has the potential to be used across the urban environment. 
The project explores how automation can contribute to enhanced traffic safety, improved working conditions and lower environmental impact.

5/21/17

Road to driverless trucks clogged with unanswered questions


Driver training, safety, and cybersecurity among the topics discussed during FMCSA listening session.




With nearly daily media reports detailing new breakthroughs of highly automated commercial vehicles (HACVs), it may seem they are almost ready for large-scale use.

Yet a public listening session sponsored by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) illustrated just how many questions remain to be answered before the technology can become a reality on the nation’s highways.

“There is a gigantic void between what is reality and what is the Hollywood version of what is going on. We are a long, long way from a truly driverless truck, and I think everyone in this room knows that,” said Tom Balzer, president of the Ohio Trucking Association.

Source: http://fleetowner.com/regulations/road-driverless-trucks-clogged-unanswered-questions




5/18/17

Scorpion Truck Mounted Attenuator Impact Video


Advantages of the Scorpion Truck Mounted Attenuator, Including federal crash test videos and photos of actual crash aftermath.

5/15/17

TRACTOR TRAILER SEMI SCALE SYSTEM ALL AIR SUSPENSION




The Vulcan all-digital air scale system for tractor / trailer combinations provides an accurate way to obtain axle and/or payload weights. Corrosion resistant, stainless steel air sensors provide a rugged and reliable solution well suited to meet the requirements of on-board trucking applications. Air sensors are altitude and temperature compensated to enhance performance and accuracy. Vulcan VSL electronics allow unlimited mixing of tractors and trailers without any adjustments.

Learn more at: http://www.vulcanscales.com/index.php/general-trucking/tractor-trailer-semi/


5/12/17

Every fleet has a common goal to significantly minimize roadside service call.





It is well documented that the No. 1 cause of roadside service calls is tires. No wonder, there are 18 tires on a typical line-haul service vehicle, more tires than any other vehicle component. You can have the best vehicle maintenance program on the planet, but once that truck leaves the terminal, a number of tire issues can occur that can lead to a roadside service call.

Tread area punctures are the top cause of air loss. A tire failure depends on the size of the puncturing object, in combination with the specific penetration location. If that nail penetrates through one of the tread grooves, chances are higher the nail will break through the tire casing, causing air loss. Tires do not normally have a sudden air loss when a vehicle picks up a puncturing object; they lose air slowly. It may take a few days to lose enough air pressure where the tire sidewalls begin excessive flexing, which generates additional heat build-up.

The tire footprint becomes longer as the tire pressure is reduced, meaning more rubber on the road—which also leads to increased heat. Heat is a tire’s worst nightmare. When a tire continues to generate excessive heat, the rubber actually begins to chemically break down, which will lead to a tire failure. The fact that someone just checked all 18 tires at the morning vehicle walk-around has no bearing on picking a up a nail five minutes down the road.

Sidewall damage/snags are another cause of tire failure. Right side or curb side trailer tires are especially prone to sidewall issues. Vehicles that turn frequently in city driving have the highest incidence of tire sidewall damage. Driver education can play a major role in reducing trailer tire sidewall damage. Drivers who have been on the road for many years will have fewer trailer tire sidewall damage issues than a new driver.

When a vehicle is pulled over for a roadside inspection, tires are high up on the inspector’s checklist. Inspectors are looking for tires with tread depth below the minimum 4/32-in. for steers and 2/32-in. for drives, trailers and dollies. They also are looking for exposed belts and/or fabric along with flat tires. By definition, a tire is flat when the measured air pressure is 50% or less of the maximum tire pressure molded onto the tire sidewall.

If any of these tire conditions are present, the vehicle is flagged as being “out-of-service.” A roadside service call is the only solution for getting the truck up and running again.

There is no excuse for a fleet to have an inspector flag its vehicle as being out-of-service because of a tire-related issue. These types of tire conditions should have been caught during the daily vehicle walk-around. Drivers must be trained to visually inspect tires, take tread depths and even measure tire pressure. It sounds like it is routine, but it’s not. Working with your tire professional on a tires 101 training class will go a long way to reduce roadside service calls.

Visual tire inspections should include running a hand over the tread and sidewall to look for signs of irregular wear and punctures. If a tire is getting close to the legal tread depth, a tread depth gauge measurement is strongly suggested. Make sure to check that the tread depth gauge measures 0 on a flat. Don’t take a measurement at a treadwear indicator location or on top of one of those stone ejectors located at the bottom of many grooves. If you do, you could be off 2/32-in. or 3/32-in.

Measuring tire pressure using a calibrated pressure gauge is very critical. Air carries the load, and tires with low air pressure will lead to excessive heat and premature tire removals. Tire gauges are simple devices, but will quickly lose accuracy. Even a new stick gauge is only accurate to +/-3 PSI brand new, out of the box.

A serious tire program, which includes comprehensive driver training regarding tires, will go a long way in reducing-tire related roadside service calls.

Learn more at: http://www.fleetequipmentmag.com/reducing-tire-related-roadside-service-calls/










5/09/17

“Managing” can minimize downtime: Why trucks experience unscheduled downtime and addressing remedies

Unexpected out-of-service events, especially when they happen on the road, are always expensive—too expensive to be dismissed as being inevitable. Yet many fleets, in their busy day-to-day operations, too often fail to address how the road breakdowns that they do experience might be avoided in the future.

Dick Hyatt, president of Decisiv Inc., a provider of service relationship management software that can help minimize unscheduled downtime, said, “The traditional costs of commercial vehicle maintenance are measured in hard dollars, but while the trucking industry focuses on cost pressures and other challenges, many completely out of their control, fleets still ignore the fundamental business impacts associated with days out-of-service for service and repair events. This fundamental flaw misses the impact that this has on revenue, customer and driver retention and net profit.”

Ryder System Inc. is one fleet that has not fallen victim to neglecting the financial problems associated with unscheduled downtime. While it’s a call no one ever wants to get, Ryder’s management knows if it happens, getting a disabled truck back on the road as quickly and safely as possible is vital. The company also understands it’s important to determine exactly what caused the problem so procedures can be developed to minimize or eliminate such problems in the future.

According to Ryder, heavy-duty trucks often experience at least one emergency breakdown annually. Not only are such events disruptive, compromising delivery schedules, customer commitments and product safety; they also can be dangerous. Idle vehicles and their drivers waiting for assistance are exposed to the dangers of drivers who are distracted or traveling at high speeds.

Prevention via PMs

Based on experience with its more than 2,000 assets, Ryder found that the most frequent reasons for road breakdowns are tires, electrical system problems, brake issues and running out of fuel. It also found that regularly scheduled, thorough preventive maintenance (PM) routines can help pre-empt many such problems before they cause emergency situations.


Melvin Kirk, vice president of maintenance and quality operations at Ryder, said, “Traditionally, when a vehicle came in, we would execute the activities that were mandated by federal or state regulations or by our customer’s requirements. We now have intensified our focus around what we have started calling the perfect PM. This is essentially taking advantage of the opportunity, during each preventive maintenance routine, to execute all of the maintenance activities that might be required at that time.

“The objective of such activity is to ensure that the vehicle will run from that event to the next scheduled PM without any break in service. That means we execute everything from existing campaigns to any necessary repairs—doing more of a diagnostic evaluation of the vehicle at the time of the scheduled PM in order to prevent any unscheduled event midstream.”

Efficiency is important

Ryder looks upon a PM as an opportunity to improve the overall health of a vehicle. During time studies done in its shops, the company found that a maintenance technician, left only with his experience and a PM sheet, could walk as much as 4 mi. while working on a single vehicle.


“To correct this,” Kirk said, “we establish the most efficient flow around the vehicle to minimize all of that walk time. We now also have the parts readily available that will be needed for the scheduled routine based on historical PM data. For example, any filters that will be needed will be right at hand. As a result, our technicians can more efficiently execute a PM from a quality and a speed standpoint. That is one of the most significant advances we’ve made over the last two or three years in our maintenance routines. We’ve taken time and distance out of the exercise and improved the quality of it.”

As indicated above, Ryder data indicate that tire problems are the most frequent cause of on-the-road breakdowns. This is particularly true during the summer months. Kirk said, “We find tires represent a very important part for maintenance uptime; so in our PM routine we stress an evaluation of the health of tires.”

The fleet’s maintenance technicians will do everything from rotating to changing out tires during preventive maintenance events to minimize the chance of having any issues before the next scheduled PM from the tires or wheels. The entire wheel system is evaluated every time they see a vehicle. They record the wear on each individual tire on the vehicle and have protocols in place requiring the position of the tires be changed if there is an excessive variance between two side-by-side tires. They also look at the wear patterns of the tires all around, which could result in changing a tire or rotating it across the vehicle. Kirk said, “In our preventive maintenance routine, we also do laser measurements to ensure we have correct wheel alignment.”

Ryder Heavy Duty Truck Fleet program
Ryder is good, but no one is perfect, so if a vehicle fails on the road the fleet has established breakdown analysis teams in each one of its shops with specified roles in each one of our shops that are responsible for determining exactly what led to the problem.
Service island activity

Once a truck crosses the threshold of a Ryder facility, the first place it’s going to go is to a service island. At that island there will be a service attendant who will initiate the fueling of the vehicle. He or she will also do a prescribed inspection around the vehicle that will include lights, tires, windshield along with a visual inspection of the undercarriage etc. Kirk said, “We maintain a 12- to 17-point inspection depending on the vehicle type that comes into the service island. Every time you cross the threshold of a Ryder facility, we are going to inspect that vehicle as if we were evaluating it from the DOT standpoint, as well as a maintenance health standpoint.”

Although drivers are required to do pre- and post-trip inspections of their vehicles, Ryder does not make the assumption that either of those has been done as completely as possible nor does the company make the assumption that when a vehicle enters a Ryder facility that there hasn’t been some issue develop since its last inspection. Kirk said, “Such a policy allows us to catch many issues, for example, small fuel leakage or a light that might be out, which could draw attention during a DOT inspection standpoint or, more importantly, from a maintenance standpoint.”

Breakdown analysis and warranty

Ryder is good, but no one is perfect, so if a vehicle fails on the road the fleet has established breakdown analysis teams in each one of its shops with specified roles in each one of our shops that are responsible for determining exactly what led to the problem. Such a program has proved to be an effective method of improving the fleet’s PM and fueling station inspection programs.

Although it was not established to be so, the breakdown analysis program has also been an important contributor to effective warranty management for the fleet. Kirk said, “It forces the team to go back through the information about the event and make a forensic analysis of what happened. Was the failure related to activities we did or should have done during our PM or was it the result of a premature failure of a part? Was it possibly an engineering related issue of the vehicle itself? Once they do that, we have a fairly robust understanding of the cause of the event and if it was related to the failure of a component, which would allow us to make a warranty claim. We also share that analysis with the rest of our team members to help shorten the time required to analyze a future event.

Technology can help

Many of its customers use telematics to provide management data related to hours of service and operational safety. Ryder has taken a further step and is accessing information from the engine’s ECM via telematics on the condition of the engine itself. Kirk said, “Using this information we can alert the customer to any impending problems with the vehicle. We plan on building up, over time, more and more data that will help us better understand the on-road health of our vehicles.”

Another technology that offers fleets the possibility of addressing the causes of vehicle down time is offered by the use of service relationship management (SRM) software to measure and manage the causes, both internal and external, of service and repair events to improve vehicle uptime and availability. Decisiv Inc., a supplier of such software, has found that formal attention of vehicle’s days out of service can significantly influence a fleet’s bottom line.

Some conclusions, based on a recent survey of nine fleets attending the company’s maintenance summit, are of particular interest. These fleets averaged:

• 277 tractors;

• 9,538 revenue miles per truck per month;

• $20,695 in revenue per month ($2.17 per mile);

• 1.51 service events per month; and

• 3.19 days out of service (DOS) per month.

Using average industry financial data, Decisiv calculated that, were these fleets able to reduce days out of service by just 25%, they would achieve a monthly increase of $1,123 in revenue per tractor, a 5.5% increase in asset utilization, an increase of $685 in variable operating expense (due to increased truck utilization) and an increase of $438, or 45%, in net profit per truck. Note these are monthly figures! According to Decisiv, the use of its service relationship management software can achieve these improvements.

Unscheduled downtime can significantly deteriorate a fleet’s profits. Attention to the reasons why trucks experience time out of service and subsequent attention to eliminating those reasons can help increase a fleet’s bottom line.

Source: http://www.fleetequipmentmag.com/verizon-telematics-eld-ready-bundles/


5/06/17

5 Benefits of Having a Truck Optimized GPS on Your Phone


If you are a trucker working hard day and night, it is essential to choose a truck optimized GPS as your navigation tool while getting behind on wheels. The fastest routes navigated by the standard GPS may cause you ending with more time and money unpredictably.

Here is the list of benefits to get a GPS navigation tool that are specially designed for truckers.

  • · To Avoid Low Clearance Or Truck-Restriction Routes
  • By using the GPS tool that is intended and designed only for truckers, it certainly helps you to avoid the non-friendly truck routes, low clearance or low bridges that could crash your truck trailer.
  • · Save Money On Fuel
  • NO more feeling headaches of searching for the best deal on fuel. There are bundle of GPS navigation tool provides you the up-to-date and accurate diesel price of nearby fuel stations.
  • · Delivery Freights on Time.

The truck specified GPS tool helps you to prevent the traffic congestions. You can plan the route to an unfamiliar destination in advance according to the live weather and traffic conditions provided.

· Save Time
No doubt, you can save your precious time in searching for the nearby Truck POI locations with the truck optimize GPS. Knowing in advance where to pull over your truck, it is definitely beneficial for you.

· Convenience
Within the GPS system, you can easily find the nearby Walmart stores with truck parking, scales, truck washes, hotels and restaurants nearby. It is the most convenience way to find places to fill your stomach and take a nap or relax your mind.

The Truckbubba app is the best companion app for truck drivers in North America. This app is integrated with several different mobile app assistants such as Truck Weigh Station App, Diesel Fuel Locator App, Truck Route Planner, Speedometer, Weather Forecast, etc.

Speedometer feature is a speed limit alert that allows you to adjust the speed limit for highways and cities respectively with no speeding violation.It will automatically warn you with vivid yellow or red value if your truck is over speeding.

Truckbubba app — Truck optimized GPS with speed limit alert is the best matching solution to ensure the safety of the truckers on the road.

Learn more at: www.truckbubba.com


5/03/17

A&T - Our Road Service Detail


A&T "Mobile" Truck Road Service is a 24-hour, 7-days a week roadside mobile truck repair service for light and medium-duty to heavy duty commercial trucks. We will go just about anywhere for anything, at anytime. At A&T "Mobile" Truck Road Service we like to think of ourselves as the "Ambulance Service for Trucks." If your truck is broken down, we will come to you and perform the necessary triage to get you back on the road. A&T now includes towing, load adjustments and more.
We repair engines, axles, brakes, electrical, hydraulic, tires and wheels, trailers, air brakes and hoses, transmissions and we even do a little body repair when needed. We carry replacement parts and all the tools we need to get what ever needs fixing done as quickly and efficiently as possible. Most of the time, we can do the repairs at the site of the truck breakdown. If we need to take it to our shop, we have a full service truck repair facility with the capability to service and repair virtually any truck or trailer.

We now offer in-house towing, load adjustments, fuel delivery, crane inspections, glass replacement, vehicle rentals, vehicle storage, welding, new and used tire replacement, liftgate repair and service, and welding services.

At our facility, we have tens of thousands of parts, fittings, filters (we have one of the largest selections of Baldwin filters in the U.S.), brake linings, belts, hoses, brake drums, electrical parts--you name it and we probably have it and if not, we can get it very, very quickly. We have a large selection of Grote lighting products including LED. We stock a huge selection of Goodyear belts and hoses for all truck uses. Our entire business at North Bay Truck Center and A&T Road Service is fixing your truck right the first time in the minimum amount of time.

We are also available to come to your shop for repairs and routine service of your fleet in order to keep your downtime to a minimum and your business moving and prosperous.

A&T "Mobile" Truck Road Service is a part of the BIT Inspection Program and is able to do inspections for you on-site. We are DOT Certified and all BIT inspections are performed utilizing DOT/BIT Inspectors. A&T "Mobile" Truck Road Service meets all requirements under Title 49 of the DOT Inspectors Guide.