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.

Safer Car Transport Industry with CSA 2010?

Auto transport professionals operating on the car transport routes of the United States and North America that have been growing more and more concerned about the growing problem with unsafe car hauling professionals on the roads will be glad to hear that CSA 2010 is going to target unsafe operators in the years ahead in the century of the environment. The American Trucking Association (ATA) has commented recently that it fully supports CSA 2010's objective of targeting unsafe transport vehicles operating on the roads of America. They also think that there are a few problems with the current proposals included with CSA 2010 and that the agency should maybe take a look at making a few changes to the current proposals.

What kind of problems does the American Trucking Association see with the implementation of CSA 2010? Professionals in the business of transport in America have recently commented that they applaud the CSA's focus on safety performance, rather than compliance and paperwork requirements. The association still thinks that work needs to be done on recognizing the difference between at-fault accidents on the roads of America and non-fault crashes in its performance measurement system. The association has called for crash accountability or causation determinations in transport truck involved accidents, before entering them into a car movers driving record, so that hopefully drivers and companies are only held accountable for crashes they actually cause.

This news will certainly make car shipping professionals operating on the roads of North America concerned about unsafe drivers on the roads feel a lot better when they're on the road. This news is only one step in a long process to try to improve the safety level of the transport drivers operating on the roads of America though and a lot of work is still left to be done. Still, one good step down the road to safer transport of cars is America, is still one good step.