New Highway Service Plazas for Car Transporters

Car transporters conducting car shipping services on the streets and highways of Connecticut in the days and weeks ahead in the century of the environment will have 23 highway service plazas to stop at in the future. Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell was one of many in attendance Monday at a groundbreaking ceremony for the redevelopment of the southbound Wilbur Cross Parkway in North Haven, Connecticut, just one of the 23 planned service plaza redevelopments planned for the highways of the state of Connecticut in the months ahead.

The 23 highway service plazas in question will be situated along the Connecticut Turnpike (Interstate 95), the Merritt and Wilbur Cross Parkways and I-395 in eastern Connecticut. A busy transport route for car movers in the United States of America and a car transport route that could certainly benefit from the 23 highway services plazas they have planned for redevelopment. This news is definitely good news that will help professionals in the business of shipping cars in America that need to use the transport routes where these 23 redeveloped highway service plazas are located and it should put a smile on the faces of transport professionals in the state of Connecticut and America.

What will the new digs at the North Haven service plaza be like? Apparently, they plan on doing a complete renovation of the interior of the facility and its restrooms, which includes new mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection systems to help car hauling professionals using the facility feel a little safer. Transport drivers will also be able to eat at Subway and a Dunkin Donuts, the gas pumps have been relocated for safer access and service, the site will be made easier to access for transports, and the exterior of the facility and grounds will be given a few enhancements to add to the appeal of the facility.

The work on the first of the planned 23 redeveloped highway services plazas has just started and the first facility won't be ready to receive auto transport drivers for another six months or so. The wait will be worth it once they get the first facility up and running though and the benefits for the economy of the Connecticut and the car shipping industry of the United States of America will certainly put a smile on the faces of Americans across the country.

Car Hauling on Unfamiliar Transport Route

Car transport drivers conducting auto transport services on the roads and highways of the United States of America often travel through new cities and towns they are unfamiliar with and this fact is significant in about 22 percent of the accidents on the roads of America involving transport vehicles, according to the United States Department of Transportation and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The problem of car shipping professionals operating on the roads of America having to constantly deal with unfamiliar roadways and transport routes and this fact being present in a significant percentage of vehicle accidents on the roads of America involving transport vehicles is something the FMCSA and USDOT want to fix and toward this goal they have provided a few tips to help professionals in the business of shipping cars to destination in the United States maintain their transport route and possibly prevent an accident while driving on an unfamilar transport route that you'll find below.

Reading a map while trying to operate a vehicle or having to stop to read a map during transport is going to add time to the trip. Plan your transport route before getting behind the wheel and this will help you stay on schedule and possibly prevent a deadly accident that could occur when trying to read a map or find directions. Always remember to pull off to the side of the road in order to look at maps or the navigation system, when in unfamilar territory, or finding your way could become one of the deadly distractions the FMCSA has been talking about lately.

When in unfamiliar territory, don't try to take a short cut, or you could waste even more time and could end up trying to rush, which is a safety hazard in itself. If you happen to miss a turn or exit ramp, pass the turn ahead and find a safe way to change directions. Trying to suddenly correct a missed turn or exit is possibly going to result in an illegal or unsafe maneuver, which could threaten your safety and the safety of the other commuters around you on the roadway.

The FMCSA suggests a certain order when changing lanes on the highways of the United States as well. The agency suggests you first indicate your intention to change lanes with your turn signals, before visually scanning for adjacent traffic and road hazards ahead, and then executing a safe lane change. You need to signal your intentions to change lanes, well in advance of your move, in order to communicate to the surrounding drivers your intentions to execute the lane change.

Open Road Tolling increases in Miami

Car transport drivers traveling north on SR 874 that pass through the exisiting toll plaza will still have to pay the current toll rate (SunPass), if they need to travel the entire distance north to the Palmetto Expressway or east to U.S. 1. Car hauling professionals that plan on exiting on Killian Parkway or Kendall Drive, though, will now pay a reduced fare, due to the benefits of Open Road Tolling along this route, according to sources. Apparently, Open Road Tolling has resulted in a redistribution of tolls throughout the entire length of the roadway, and the designers of this idea are so happy that they plan on implementing more Open Road Tolling on other roads in Miami in the days ahead in the future of the environment.

Today, Saturday July 17, 2010, Open Road Tolling will start on the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority's (MDX) SR 874/Don Shula Expressway and SR 878/Snapper Creek Expressway in Florida. Overhead gantries will now automatically collect a toll based on the distance car movers travel, which eliminates the need for car transporters to use toll plazas, and simplifies the process of paying tolls. This idea appears o be catching on in Miami as plans for the future include implementing Open Road Tolling on the five expressways operated and maintained by MDX by the time we reach 2013. This means that overhead gantries will soon be replacing traditional toll plazas and tolls will be automatically calculated based on the portion of the road traveled. According to the implementers of Open Road Tolling this idea might even reduce traffic congestion, make the roadways safer, and reduce the total carbon wheel-print of the vehicles traveling along the expressways in question. In addition to only making users pay for the distance they travel along the expressways and helping to fund the infrastructure investment needed to keep the expressways in operation in the years ahead in the century of the environment in the United States of America.

Avoid CSA 2010 Intervention in Car Shipping

Car transport firms conducting car shipping services on the streets and highways of the United States of America that have been looking for a web-based driver management tool that delivers flexibility in idenfifying driving behaviours that put everyone on the roads at risk that has also been certified by the American Trucking Association (ATA) can stop looking! The American Trucking Association announced recently that it endorses EBE Technologies CSA 2010 Dashboard as an effective driver management tool to help the car transporter of any size effectively manage their responsibilities under the upcoming CSA 2010 rules and regulations.

EBE Technologies CSA 2010 Dashboard provides both company and car hauling driver percentiles on all measurements and also gives the user the ability to target specific areas for analysis. The information provided by the system can be displayed by summary or detailed views and users can search by specific criteria, such as inspection category, driver ID, division, fleet manager, and points and percentiles. The system also allows for monitoring and retrieving of auto transport company and driver related inspection information from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Compass portal daily and providing car movers with nearly real-time visibility of driver behavior. This means car shipping firms operating in the United States can stay in total compliance with CSA 2010, keep accidents and associated costs to a minimum, and make sure the drivers they employ are the safest in the business. Users can even analysis company trends by category, measure, percentile, points and time period and the system allows for email alerts to be sent to the appropriate personnel based on the driving behaviors identified, events and even new activity.

CSA 2010 will soon replace SafeSat as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's tool to prioritize firms for interventions. The ATA endorsing EBE Technologies CSA 2010 Dashboard is great news for firms that were looking for a tool to help them take a critical look at their safety performance to determine how to focus their resources to ensure safety compliance with CSA 2010 and avoid costly and time-consuming FMCSA intervention in their auto shipping services.

National Truck Driving Championships

Car transport professionals looking for entertainment or to show case the vehicle transport driving expertise they have developed from years of experience car hauling on the streets and highways of the United States might want to enter the upcoming 2011 California Truck Driving Championships. Trucking professionals from around California and the United States will be competing and this is your chance to show case your automobile transport skills and have a great time with Americans that have similar tastes and skills. Truck driving championships build confidence and pride among the transport drivers that compete and foster a commitment to safe driving techniques and provide the perfect opportunity for transport professionals in America to come together to celebrate the transport industry of the United States and being American.

What criteria to you need to meet to qualify to compete in the 2011 California Truck Driving Championships? Auto transport drivers that want to take part in the 2010 California Truck Driving Championships need to have been on the job as a full time professional truck driver or hostler for at least eleven of the twelve months prior to the date of the competition. Have been employed as a transport truck driver by a motor carrier that maintains a terminal in the State of California for twelve consecutive months preceding the date of the competition. Have a minimum of one year of accident-free driving prior to entry and participation in the competition and a valid CDL and Medical Certificate in their possession at the regional or state competitions.

Automobile transport drivers that want to compete will need to enter one of the three regional competitions that will be held in the State of California in 2011. The exact dates haven't been finalized as yet, so you'll have to check on this later. The 2010 California Truck Driving Championships were recently held and the winners from each class in each region will soon be competing with other states in the National Truck Driving Championships. Car movers that want to stop by and check out the National Truck Driving Championships should stop by the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio between August 3 to Saturday August 7, 2010.

SmartWay Certified Retread Tires for Car Transport

Automobile transport drivers conducting car shipping services for an American car transporter that have been dreaming of a low-rolling-resistance, fuel-efficient retreaded tire that has been certified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency's SmartWay program might be able to stop dreaming in a few months time. Car movers need only look at the United States Environmental Protection Agency's list of low-rolling-resistance, fuel-efficient tires will tell you that there are no retreads on the list at the present moment. This could change by sometime in 2011, now that the interest in getting retreaded tires onto the SmartWay list, has apparently increased sufficiently to get the ball rolling, according to the latest sources.

Why aren't retreaded tires on the United States Environmental Protection Agency's SmartWay list already? Sources around the car hauling industry indicate that the Environmental Protection Agency could be having a little trouble finding away to quantify the relative fuel efficiency of a retreaded tire, which is a two-part system. That casing and treads are designed to work together, but the variables involved in testing makes it difficult to objectively quantify the measurements obtained during the tests. The Environmental Protection Agency therefore had the tire manufacturers of America work together on developing a system to help the Environmental Protection Agency sort through the multitude of treads and casings on the market that could conceivably one day become a single retreaded tire.

These could be just the beginning of the challenges in front of the desire to get retreaded tires onto the Environmental Protection Agency's SmartWay program though as there could also be problems classifying retreaded tires within the current contest of the SmartWay program. Do you measure the casing or the tread and how do you measure the rolling resistance contribution of the tread and the casings? Every retreaded tire is going to be a unique product because of the history of the casing of the tire in question and this is going to make it extremely difficult to measure the rolling resistance values for each casing.

Decelerating Car Transports Produce Electricity?

Car transports stopping at toll booths, traffic intersections, rest areas, and even border crossings along the transport highways of the United States of American in the years ahead in the century of the environment could be generating enough energy to power the electrical needs of the auto shipping company they work for. The latest idea in electric generation using the power of heavy-duty transports is to capture the energy of the decelerating car hauling transports traveling along the highways of America in the future and use it to provide electrical energy for the heavy-duty trucking industry. In a few years time this system could even be used to power the electrical needs of weigh stations and other facilities in America and that the opportunities for using the power created by decelerating transports on the roads of the United States are increasing.

Say hello to MotionPower-Heavy technology by New Energy Technologies, a possible alternate source of energy for the car hauling industry of the future that will be tested on the roads of the United States this year at trucking facilities, warehouses, transportation depots, weigh stations and truckstops, if New Energy Technologies has its way. The company is planning a first testing of MotionPower-Heavy technology's ability to produce electrical energy while decelerating on the highways of the United States at an unnamed cargo port in the Northeast of the United States in the days ahead. They also plan to be on the road this summer traveling around the United States of America giving two day demonstrations to Americans that are interested in their MotionPower-Heavy technology.

How does New Energy Technology's MotionPower-Heavy technology work? Designed to be an unseen and unfelt power generation system that doesn't take away from a car transports fuel economy or add to the wear and tear of the automobile transport in question. MotionPower-Heavy technology captures the kinetic energy of a decelerating truck using embedded systems in the roadways and works on even ground, so there's no ramp to travel up, and drivers to date have reported not even knowing New Energy Technology's MotionPower-Heavy technology is even in use.

Car Transporters Welcome!

Owner operator trucking professionals conducting car transport for a car shipping firm in the United States of America operating in Utah that require a little tender loving care for their auto transport can now drop by Kenworth Sales new dealership in Salina, Utah. Kenworth Sales Company has just opened a new parts and service facility located at 545 West Main Street, about a mile north of Interstate 70 in Salina, Utah with a 5,200 square-foot service department with four service bays and a large parts warehouse to help keep your auto shipping transport in the business of shipping cars to destinations around the United States of America. Sources around the car transportation industry of South Central Utah indicate that this new facility is centrally located on a 1 1/2 acre site located at the intersection of State Routes 50 and 85 and is only about an hour from most transport firms operating in the region.

This is great news for vehicle transportation professionals operating in Utah that find they need a little maintenance for their car transport. This particular facility has PACCAR MX engine and Cummins certified technicians on staff to help you with any problems you might have with your automobile transport and get you back on the road and moving to destination in no time flat. Car transporters traveling along I-70 should find this new facility handy if they find they need the services of a Kenworth dealership, but you might want to phone ahead to make an appointment, if possible, just to give them a heads-up that you're on your way. The shop is open Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., for your convenience, and after-hours parts and service is available by appointment.

Car Shipping Hours-Of-Service Changing?

Car transporters conducting car shipping duties for auto transport firms around the United States that have been hoping for a change to the Hours-Of-Service regulations can stop hoping. A recent lawsuit brought against the current Hours-Of-Service regulations currently implemented by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration might see some changes made to the Hours-Of-Service rules and regulations by the time we reach July 2012, according to sources close to this affair. The process to actually change the Hours-Of-Service rules and regulations is actually a very involved process according to sources and we should expect it to go through a number of different stages, before we see any changes made implemented.

Reports indicate that the FMCSA's first draft of a new Hours-of-Service rule has been sent to the Office of the Secretary of Transportation and is currently going through what is called the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking stage, one month earlier than required by the settlement of the lawsuit brought against the current Hours-Of-Service rules by the Safety Coalition and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Present plans apparently call for the rule changes to be reviewed by the Department of Transportation and the Office of Management and Budget, before being published in the Federal Register and subject to comment from Americans.

Sources around this affair also indicate that things are looking pretty good for car transport professionals that wanted to see a few changes made in the Hours-Of-Service rules and although the changes are by no means set-in-stone, we can probably expect that the final road taken by the new rules will be in the direction desired by auto shipping professionals in the United States?

Car Transport Along 31.8-Mile Stretch of US 35

Car transport firms providing car hauling services for customers within the borders of West Virginia that need to travel along a 31.8-mile stretch of US 35 in the days ahead in the century of the environment might have to pay for the right to use this part of US 35. The West Virginia Parkways Authority has decided that it could use the money to upgrade the highway between Buffalo and Henderson to four lanes and this means that automobile transport services traveling along this stretch of US 35 might have to pay a toll in the future.

The upgrade to the stretch of highway in question is almost complete according to sources and this money would help finish the job. The final okay on this idea still has to be given, but the West Virginia Parkways Authority apparently gave the heads-up to state Secretary of Transportation Paul Mattox's request to take a look at putting the tolls in place along the stretch of the US 35 in question. The heads-up from the authority should actually get the ball rolling on this idea, according to many sources in the auto transport industry of West Virginia, so this most likely means we'll start seeing some progress on this idea, pretty quick. Reports indicate that most believe the final part of the upgrade to the highway between Buffalo and Henderson won't get finished without the money the tolls would provide, so it might be that tolls along the 31.8-mile stretch of US 35 in question is only a matter of time?

This idea still has a ways to travel down the paper trail before it will be implemented though as any toll implementation along the stretch of US 35 in question would require the approval of a two-member citizen committee in the counties of Mason and Putnam, in addition to the Mason and Putnam county commissions.

Good News for Car Shipping in America!

Car transport firms that have been watching the bottom line of their auto transport services very closely will be glad to hear that the national price of diesel was at about $2.924 today, compared with about $2.956 a week ago. The latest sources at the United States Energy Information Administration indicate and around the American car shipping industry report that the price of on-highway diesel has gone down by 3.2 cents from a week ago and appears to have gone down in every reported area of the United States. Reports have the price of diesel down in the Midwest regions of America the most, with a recorded drop of about 4 cents over the past week or so. The price of on-highway diesel reported went down by about 3.6 cents in the Central Atlantic regions of America during the same period of time, while the East Coast of the United States recorded a drop in the price of on-highway diesel of about 3.1 cents, and car movers in California reported a drop of about 1.5 cents.

This is great news for car hauling services across the United States and the differences in the price of on-highway diesel could even have some car transporters deciding to pick and choose where and when they purchase diesel. Still, fueling up for car transporters on the roads of America is costing less this week, and hopefully this continues to be the trend as we travel further along the car hauling roads of the century of the environment. Car movers should probably expect the price of diesel to continue to go up and down in time with the price of a barrel of US crude oil though and make plans that take this into account.

Car Transporters Will Interact More With CSA 2010

Car transport drivers operating on the highways and roads of the United States in 2010 can probably expect to be talking to an official from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) more often, once CSA 2010 is in full operation across America. A recently conducted 30-month field test by the FMCSA and its state partners was designed to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of the new safety management system (SMS) and the systems that have been put in place in CSA 2010 to fix any safety problems that might exist on auto transport vehicles operating on the roads of America. The field tests also showed according to sources that car movers in the United States might be sitting on the side of the highway talking to an official from the FMCSA, once CSA 2010 is fully implemented. The field tests were at first conducted in Colorado, Georgia, Missouri and New Jersey, but in the fall of 2009 they started field tests in Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota and Montana, as well.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's new safety management system is an initiative designed to improve car hauling safety on the roads and highways of the United States and hopefully reduce the total number of motor vehicle related accidents, injuries and fatalities associated with the work of the car transporters of America. This initiative will replace the current SafeSat compliance review system in place in the United States, later this year, once they get CSA 2010 in operation.

Just how did they conduct this road test of the new safety management system that's included with CSA 2010? Apparently, the FMCSA and its state partners applied the new SMS and CSA 2010 interventions to all of the motor carriers they talked to in the states in which they conducted the field tests, in order to try to figure out any operational issues automobile transport professionals might experience during the implementation of CSA 2010 in the states in question, before they decide to roll CSA 2010 out onto the roads of the United States in the months ahead.

Car Transport Business Improving?

There are quite a few automobile transport professionals that believe the financial storm could be over for the vehicle transportation industry of the United States and that sunny skies and increased volumes of customers vehicles needing to be moved to destination are just around the corner for the car hauling industry of America. According to a Business Expectation Survey recently conducted many in the car shipping business some firms are starting to look at acquiring car transport firms that might not be doing quite as well financially or thinking about maybe merging with a suitable partner in order to improve business even more. Hardly surprising news considering the rough times the transport industry just experienced and there were probably quite a few smaller car transport firms that might have been thinking about getting into another business. Larger transport firms are generally going to be in a stronger position, now that business seems to be improving, and will probably start to recover quicker, than their smaller competitors?

What did the transport professionals surveyed have to say about the year ahead? According to the survey almost half think the year ahead is going to be a better one and will be thinking about purchasing another firm in the year ahead. Apparently, transport firms of all sizes are thinking about acquisitions and mergers at this point in time, but larger firms are the ones thinking the most about expanding through acquisitions. Increasing freight rates and volumes of cars that need to be transported to destination in the past few months could have something to do with this? Now that things are looking better, fewer firms will be thinking about getting into another business, and larger firms will certainly be dreaming of even larger volumes, revenues and profits in the months ahead.

Information for Car Haulers

Owner operators working with car hauling firms in the United States to provide customers with top quality automobile transport services that drive a transport that implements Eaton's UltraShift Plus heavy-duty automated transmission can now obtain an overview of Eaton's transmission. Eaton has announced that it has released two new brochures outlining the features and benefits of Eaton's UltraShift Plus heavy-duty automated transmission. Apparently, printed copies or downloadable versions of these 22-page brochures are available at no cost, so this makes it harder for car shipping professionals to come up with a reason to not take a look at the brochures.

What do these two brochures cover exactly? The first brochure (TRSL2505) takes a look at linehaul applications by providing an overview of the Linehaul Active Shifting (LAS), Multipurpose High Performance (MHP) and Multipurpose Extreme Performance (MXP) automated transmissions. This brochure also provides readers with information on drivetrain integration, gear selection logic and low-speed maneuverability, along with important data on fuel economy, safety and life cycle costs for each transmission is also covered in this new brochure.

The second brochure offered by Eaton is a vocational applications brochure (TRSL2506) that takes a look at the Vocational Construction Series (VCS), Vocational Multipurpose Series (VMS) and Vocational Extreme Performance (VXP) transmissions. It provides information on the amount Eaton claims users can save using their transmissions, along with any advantages the company believes users can gain by using an automated transmission versus a torque converter automatic transmission.

Eaton also claims its new family of automated UltraShift Plus transmissions features improved automated clutch technology and intelligent shfit selection software that uses grade sensing weight computation and driver throttle commands to make intelligent shift decisions while conducting auto transport services on the roads of America. We'll let the professionals on the road determine the truth of this statement.