After being cancelled earlier this year, the pilot program allowing Mexican trucks to carry cargo on U.S. roads may be back on. This is due to a six billion dollar lawsuit aimed at the U.S. government as well as the steep tariffs imposed on U.S. goods as punishment. Industries on both sides of the border have been calling for resolution.
The program was a long delayed response to NAFTA’s call for the creation of a trans-border trucking program to exist by the year 2000 and represents the first step toward compliance. For many, this news raises concern over the safety issues that initially delayed the project.
In 1995, the government responded to concerns that Mexican trucks could not pass U.S. safety checks by restricting them to designated commercial zones within twenty miles of the border. Goods destined for other areas of the U.S. and Canada were required to be transferred to new trucks to continue their journey. The safety issues in question are related to Department of Transportation studies that show forty one percent of Mexican trucks did not pass safety checks in 1998. In comparison, there is a twenty five percent failure rate for U.S. trucks and a seventeen percent failure rate for Canadian trucks. But these failures seem to be primarily related to certification, logbook issues, and English language fluency rather than poor equipment. When a meeting was called earlier this year to address these concerns, the American Trucking Association noted that the pilot program was working fine.
We hear a lot about the economic stimulus package and rightfully so, it is the moment of change that we pin our hopes for an improved economy to. What is it going to do for the fundamental problem of freight volume has not been addressed. This is an important question. In the past, one of the first predictors of depressed economy’s new health has been the growth in freight. But today that is simply not the case and the stimulus package is aimed entirely differently. It’s not going to deliver a radical change to freight volume and the trucking industry.
What it might do is help to stabilize and slowly grow industries that will create freight volume. The stimulus package has only begun to work upon the economy and as a result,
we simply cannot expect to see much change before the onset of 2010. The major areas of growth targeted by the package are energy, automotive, and infrastructure. Of these three, infrastructure has the most potential to impact freight volumes, both directly and indirectly, as long as automotive continues to struggle. Directly, because infrastructure projects will demand materials that need to be shipped. Indirectly, because successful infrastructure will increase jobs and consumer confidence, which may then increase spending and retail sales. Freight volumes will remain constant for the foreseeable futures and then, as an indirect effect of the stimulus package they may increase.
At the moment, it’s enough to know where we stand and plan for the future.
A load board provides a series of services to the trucking community. It is the entrance to an online network of trucking resources, the simplest of which is the posting of loads to ship and trucks needing cargo. This simple and original premise of a place to find carriers and loads, a place to find work, has been expanded over time to include all the tools and technologies necessary for planning and overseeing a successful trip.
The most important service a load board offers is access to information. This information, including ratings for trucking lanes, locations for support services and truck stops, automatic matching for trucks and loads, backhaul planning, accurate mileage reports, weather and road condition reports, and credit information for freight holders among other things, is designed provide as comprehensive a set of tools for trip planning as possible. Load boards are about getting the information together, making it accessible, and providing the tools to use it effectively. One of the most recent additions to load boards is the ability to use their services from a cell phone as well as via the internet. This makes it possible for a trucker to get vital information from a much wider geographic area, without needing to stop and find or pay for wi-fi along the road. Without load boards, a trucker’s world would be a lot smaller.
Load boards are an invaluable resource to the trucking community. They are a hub of information that is endlessly and easily accessible with an internet connection or even just a cell phone. First and foremost, they provide a place to list and find trucks and loads. But load boards are more than matchmakers. The wealth of resources that they provide can help a carrier maximize their opportunities, which is especially valuable in this economy.
The first thing that a load board can help you do is find a load. This is the easy part. In order to maximize profit, a carrier must plan ahead and consider their trip. Building a profitable career as a trucker now means planning for both the trip out and the return trip, being aware of your freight lanes, being aware of and making the most of your local opportunities, and diversifying your interests. It is no longer about finding the highest paying load and setting off. Because of this, a load board is an important tool for success. It’s the ultimate planning tool, providing technology that allows you to build multi-leg trucking routes, rate shipping lanes, and look for truck stops and support systems. It makes it possible to look at all of these factors, plan your trip, and then roll with the punches and change your plans from the road. The flexibility and comprehensive ability to plan that this information offers, are the key to success for a carrier in a challenging economy.
It has been said that if the trucks stop, America stops. The truckload industry is one of over sixty five billion dollars spread over more than fifty thousand carriers. It’s a large and vital part of American society where almost everything around you has been shipped from one location to another, often multiple times before it reaches its destination. There is a constant and enduring need for its services, and though it is suffering at the moment as the result of the depression, over time it is poised to become even stronger and more lucrative.
The challenges the trucking industry currently faces date back to 2006. They are due to falling automobile sales, problems in the housing sector, sluggish growth in retail markets, and the overall economic issues plaguing the country. These issues have resulted in low freight volumes and a difficult pricing environment. In spite of all of this however, the truckload industry is highly competitive. This is due to its rates, service, and equipment availability. The economy has finally bottomed out, and with it, the trucking industry. Although it is not expected to see significant growth for 2009, the expected rise in the economy means that a corresponding rise in demand and freight volume may occur as early as 2010. Once that happens the truckload industry is expected to see slow, but steady growth.
