LoadTrek.net: New Postal Compliance Audit Report

If you were in today's LoadTrek.net HCR webinar, you saw the new Postal Compliance Audit Report. This new tool, to be released next week, will allow you to spend your time running your business - and less time determining your USPS compliance.

The USPS is serious about compliance with the GPS mandate on applicable highway contracts. And, as more HCR's are released, more have the GPS clause.

This new postal compliance tool is unique - because it compares your actual data to USPS data. You can easily see and manage:

• Trips that are being run differently from the USPS schedule. Are drivers running them out of order, are they being dispatched incorrectly, or is the USPS headquarters not updated on its own latest service change?
• Is the USPS expecting trip data that you are not sending?
• Are you sending trip data that the USPS has no record of requesting?
  
• Are drivers properly logging in and running their routes?
  

Watch for more webinars on this subject. We'll also be holding sessions at the NSRMCA conference in Baltimore on August 7-11.

Contact us to set up an appointment in Baltimore, or for information on our next webinar.

USPS Report: A Strategy for Future Mail Processing & Transportation Network

Contact us to obtain a copy of a report by the Office of the Inspector General, "A Strategy for Future Mail Processing and Transportation Network".

If you are in the business of supplying transportation or logistics services to the USPS, there will be opportunities. But, the opportunities will be different.

Wisconsin truckers can apply for idle reduction grants

Wisconsin truckers can apply for idle reduction grants

Come see us in San Antonio August 1

LoadTrek will be attending the Texas Food and Fuel Expo in San Antonio at the Henry Gonzales Convention Center on August 1. We will be discussing items important to the convenience and petroleum retailer industries: EOBR's, CSA, route optimization, and delivery confirmation & validation.

Contact us to set up an appointment.

Free Webinar for Customers - USPS Compliance Self-Audit

Review the Audit Postal Compliance Report and Discuss Steps to Improve USPS Compliance.

Title:	LoadTrek.net - Review New Report: Audit Postal Compliance
Date:	Thursday, July 28, 2011
Time:	1:00 PM - 2:00 PM CDT

IRS Gives Truckers Three-Month Extension; Highway Use Tax Return Due Nov. 30 - Truckinginfo.com

IRS Gives Truckers Three-Month Extension; Highway Use Tax Return Due Nov. 30 - Truckinginfo.com

LoadTrek.phone Seminar 7/14 at 1:00 PM - USPS Compliance

FMCSA Seeks Comments on Strategic Plan to Improve Truck and Bus Safety

"Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration 2011 - 2016 Strategic Plan: Raising the Safety Bar" is a plan is shaped by three core principles:

1. Raise the bar to enter the motor carrier industr
2. Maintain high safety standards to remain in the industry
3. Remove high-risk carriers, drivers and service providers from operation.

Comments on the draft strategic plan can be submitted to the Federal Docket Management System at www.regulations.gov, Docket ID No. FMCSA-2011-0098.

In addition, FMCSA has set up an IdeaScale Community on its main Web site at www.fmcsa.dot.gov to comment on the plan. IdeaScale is a Department of Transportation initiative providing an interactive, on-line, transparent space for people to engage in conversation about draft proposals and vote whether they agree or disagree, which also allows FMCSA to ask clarifying questions to make sure the best comments and ideas are submitted.

Public comments at the www.regulations.gov and the www.fmcsa.dot.gov web sites will be accepted through July 29, 2011.

Commodity or Transportation Partner?

Many of our clients are contractors for the USPS. Most of our clients are in the truckload or LTL business, and even our private fleet clients haul for hire on backhauls. When you backhaul off load boards, for brokers, etc., you are a commodity. To the shipper, you are a 53 foot trailer. However, this is not the way your primary customers should view you.

Do your primary shippers view you as a commodity or a partner? If you are a commodity - you'll get bumped for someone cheaper. And, simply being good is not good enough. Even with our USPS contractors who fall under the GPS mandate - the USPS many times does not really know how good you are. They're getting your LoadTrek-generated arrival information - but they may not be "getting it".

I have found that one approach is to ask the right questions of your shippers. Deep, thought-provoking questions. What are their biggest challenges with their customers regarding the supply chain? What trends do they see affecting their supply chain in the coming year? Questions that show you know their business, you know your business, and that their success is your success. Questions that reveal problems you can help them with.

If you are met with a blank stare - you're dealing with a person who sees you and your company as a collection of trailers that somehow magically move around. You are a commodity. If you get back answers that are meaningful, you have found your internal champion.

Roadcheck 2011 Saw Lowest Out-of-Service Rates Ever - Truckinginfo.com

Roadcheck 2011 Saw Lowest Out-of-Service Rates Ever - Truckinginfo.com

Idle reduction contest at U.S. Xpress

Idle reduction contest at U.S. Xpress

FMCSA’s Five-Year Plan: Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace

FMCSA’s Five-Year Plan: Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace

Who is responsible for your company's success?

Of course - it's you. However, you may not be acting like it. If you purchased a service or product (even LoadTrek.net) thinking that it can transform your company with no fundamental change in behavior - you are shifting responsibility away from yourself to this product or service.

You can buy the best hoping to simplify your office, organize your dispatch, help your drivers be accountable, fill in the blank with anything. But, it takes more. Some ideas that have helped me are:

1. Nothing good happens without effort. Work, learn, and be rock-solid consistent.
   
2. Once isn't enough. Don't turn your attention to your newly-purchased product or service only when things go bad and you need answers.
   
3. Keep a journal. Make notes, keep a spreadsheet, write a document. Make your own learning ledger of training notes and good ideas.
   
4. Find a partner, someone using the same product or service you can share ideas with.
   

If you have other ideas, I would like to hear them - let me know.

A Dozen Ways to Drive MPG - Truckinginfo.com

A Dozen Ways to Drive MPG - Truckinginfo.com

Comprehensive Trucking Cost Study Available

An Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking: Contact us for your free copy.

ATRI Operational Costs of Trucking - 2011 Update

ATRI's study found that the average marginal cost for common/contract carriers is $1.49/mile as of Q1 2010 -based on responses from ATRI participants.

• Fuel and Oil = $0.465
• Truck/Trailer lease or Purchase Payments = $0.235
• Repairs/Maintenance = $0.12
• Truck Insurance = $0.052
• Permits and Licenses = $0.023
• Tires = $0.026
• Tolls = $0.024
• Driver Wages = $0.404
• Driver Benefits = $0.142
  

FMCSA To Publish New HOS Rule October 28

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) says it will not meet a court-imposed deadline to issue new hours-of-service rules for drivers of property-carrying vehicles.

According to a status report filed on May 20, 2011, with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the FMCSA now intends to publish a final rule by October 28, 2011, about three months later than originally scheduled.

The original deadline for a final rule — July 26, 2011 — was part of a 2009 settlement agreement with Public Citizen and other petitioners. The FMCSA published a proposed version of the rule on December 29, 2010.

Roadcheck eyeing buses, movers, hours-of-service

Roadcheck eyeing buses, movers, hours-of-service

70% of HOS Violations are Clerical, Only 30% are Rules Violations

Roadcheck 2011 is June 7-9, and the CVSA has announced that they will be focusing on hours of Service violations this year. 70% of all HOS violations are "form and manner", which means they are completely avoidable. When you run paperless logs - these issues go away.

New HOS rule expected by October

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator Anne Ferro said the agency expects to complete work on hours-of-service rule revisions by late October. FMCSA asked for additional time so it could consider four new research studies that were entered into the docket in early May. Fleets are facing the possible reduction of one driving hour from the current 11 to 10, as well as strict new limits on rest periods, both during work and between assignments.