Felton Resident is State Truck Driving Champion

DOVER, Del., July 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Keith Powell, of Felton, was named the best professional truck driver in Delaware after winning the three axle competition and receiving the highest overall score in the eight competing categories at the 2009 Delaware Truck Driving Championships. The annual event is sponsored by the Delaware Motor Transport Association, Inc.

Powell, who drives for YRC, now qualifies to compete in the American Trucking Associations' National Truck Driving Championships August 18-22, 2009 in Pittsburgh, Penn. -- also known as the "Super Bowl of Safety." The winners from each of the seven other categories are also eligible to compete in the national championship.

Nearly 400 drivers from all 50 states will compete in Pittsburgh for four days, challenging their driving skills, and knowledge of safety, equipment and the industry. From 18-wheeler five axle sleepers to tank trucks to twin trailers -- they will drive a course that recreates situations truck drivers face daily. These maneuvers may include: an alley dock, a rear line stop, a side park, a scale stop, a right turn, a front line stop, and straight line driving through a diminishing clearance.

On Saturday night, August 22, one contestant will drive away as the 2009 National Grand Champion Truck Driver.

"The Truck Driving Championships represent the culmination of the industry's dedication to safety," said Delaware Motor Transport Association Executive Director Byard O'Neal. "I congratulate all the contestants and I hope Delaware roots for our drivers as they move on to Nationals in Pittsburgh."

Delaware participants at National for each category include:

Michael Conway, FedEx Ground, Audubon, N.J. (Straight Truck)

Keith Powell, YRC, Felton, Del. (Three-Axle)

Daniel Zahn, Wal-Mart Transportation, Accomac, Va. (Four-Axle)

John Powers, Wal-Mart, Pocomoke, Md. (Five-Axle)

Lafayette Ferebee, Selbyville, Del. (Five-Axle Sleeper)

Robert Baker, Jr., YRC, Hartly, Del. (Flatbed)

Rusty Pederson, FedEx Freight, Townsend, Del. (Twins)

Joseph LeBlanc, FedEx Ground, Laurel, Del. (Step Van)

ATA's Truck Driving Championships include top professional truck drivers from around the nation competing at state and regional levels to make it to the national competition Aug. 18-22 in Pittsburgh, Penn. The NTDC annually attracts over 2,000 cheering friends, family, colleagues and spectators. For more information, visit the 2009 National Truck Driving Championships website: www.truckline.com/Federation/Councils/slpmc/NTDC/Pages/Default.aspx.

The American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of other trucking groups, industry-related conferences, and its 50 affiliated state trucking associations, ATA represents more than 37,000 members covering every type of motor carrier in the United States.

The American Trucking Associations leads the effort for safer highways, focusing on greater education, enforcement and enhancement of traffic safety laws for all drivers. ATA also supports slowing down traffic through a reinstatement of a national maximum speed limit of 65 mph for all vehicles and limiting truck speeds at the time of manufacture. www.truckline.com


SOURCE American Trucking Associations

I'm trucking.....

Last night I zumbaed out doors which was a first for me. Lululemon gives free classes on Sundays and Thursdays...this July it was July Jiggle. I've loved it and it's been FREE. It also opened my eyes to a zumba studio a few towns over. 12 classes for 75.00 drop in. Heck yeah!!!!! I will be bikini bound in no time.

I peeked at the scale today and I'm going to keep my momentum over the weekend. The past few I've been down low and then BLOWN IT. I've set some guidelines. I'm also doing a little contest with a friend to see who loses 7 lbs first....I hope I beat her!

...here is my plan for the weekend:

Tonight I'm making my mexican turkey skillet and will have that for lunch tomorrow (to save me having a hotdog on the course).

Dinner tomorrow, depending on if we see friends, will be fish. Exercise=18 holes of golf. I can, if I want, have 1-2 drinks on Saturday.

Sunday, Another 18 holes of golf in the morning. I am doing NO BOOZE on Sunday to have a good Monday WI. WATER WATER WATER.

Still trucking along...

I've now been working out since Easter. That means that I have purposefully done some form of exercise at least 3x a week for a little over 15 weeks!! I've bought actual workout clothes. I have running shoes. I have more fitness apps than game apps on my phone. It's really quite bizarre!

I still can't run more than half a mile at a time (and I've only done that once!), but I am proud that I'm still doing it. It's unbelievable to me that I've stuck with something for this long.

I have an account on nikerunning.com, and update my info every time I run. I also signed up for challenges on there yesterday, and I'm very excited. The first one starts tomorrow, so I guess I'll be running on an off day! I also started thinking about if/where/when I'm going to run when we go to Disney. That's definitely something I never thought I'd be thinking about.

My weight and measurements aren't moving much, but I can tell I'm more tone and more fit than I was 15 weeks ago. I might have only lost 6ish pounds, but I definitely feel better, think I look better, and am looking forward to getting in even better shape in the future!

C’mon Time to Give Something Back

This goes right along with other favorite liberal phrases such as “It is just not fair” and “it’s for the children” and it really sets me off.

First of all I am no where near the mythical “rich” level, pretty much no matter where one puts the slippery slope sliding scale of who is rich. But that does not matter, bad ideas and faulty logic are always wrong no matter what.

In order to “Give Something Back” one must first have “taken something away” to begin with. With notable few exceptions such as Bernie Madoff, and the US Federal Government which “Takes away” 40%+ (more if you follow BBCW one man many taxes) of my income and generously “Gives back” a portion of that in the Spring, most people who have accumulated wealth have done so by doing several things. They have worked hard. I have never met a lazy rich person, I HAVE seen several lazy worthless kids of rich people. But the creators of wealth did something. They have fulfilled some need. They invented a new device or technology, or they did something better and different than someone before them.

Did Ray Kroc invent the hamburger? Nope, but he did invent cooking it faster and delivering it to the customer faster and cheaper than anyone else. Thank you McDonald’s.

These people did not start out rich, but through their work they became wealthy. They did not go around stealing everyone’s money to get that way, they fulfilled a need and other people traded their money for their goods or services. They then in turn saved more than they spent (wow what a concept) and accumulated wealth. They then, in most cases, put that wealth in a bank, which tries to grow the wealth further, by making loans to people who need business loans to create something else… it is a VICIOUS cycle I tell you.

People who create things or fulfill a need PRODUCE something. And they employ people. Which is in its’ own way “spreading the wealth around.”

Wealth is not distributed it is created.

When a rancher puts a bull and a cow in the same lot, within a year ,if everything goes right, he has three head of cattle. He produced Something (well in all fairness the cows produced something). He did not steal a cow from his neighbor. No one had to take all the cows from the cattle baron and “distribute them”. The reason that so many people fall for this lie of Wealth Redistribution and believing that in order for one person to have wealth it must first be taken from another is because they are too far from the source of production.

McNuggets do not come from the box, Nancy. They come from a chicken. The chicken was raised in a chicken house, which was constructed by someone. The Chicken house is owned by a farmer and leased to a corporate entity. That corporate entity is staffed by thousands of people and likely listed on the NYSE. The chicken house is one of several and attended to by several people in the employ of the farmer. The chicken is fed grain, grown by another farmer. Using a tractor probably green in color made in Illinois or Iowa, using union labor. And using seeds and or yield increasing products developed in a laboratory probably in Texas or Missouri . The chicken grows up and is loaded on a truck driven by a truck driver. The truck was made either in TX, WA, OR, or PA most likely. Then the chicken is *gasp* killed, cleaned, deboned, pressed, battered, cooked, and flash frozen, by several people working in a processing facility (incidentally built and staffed by other people). Put on another truck, driven by another truck driver, leased from another trucking company employing all kinds of staff people to make sure your McNugget gets to the store on time. They are stocked, and eventually opened, re-cooked, and packaged in your happy meal by either a High School student, High School dropout, a seasoned citizen , or an immigrant. and handed to you out a window while you sit in your luxury SUV (oops I mean sustainable environmentally friendly Eco Box). Who made all this possible? The EVIL rich man. How many people did it take to get your brat a McNugget? More than 500 easily. How many people were stolen from in the making of your McNugget? NONE.

What have any of these people “taken” from someone that they need to “give back”?

To further drive the point home do this experiment. The next time you are at Mickey D’s there will be a cute little girl there of about 20, she might be your kid, heck try it with a middle aged man it will probably work. Lean over while he/she is just getting ready to eat his/her McNugget and ask, “why are you eating that poor ol’ dead chicken?” they will put it down and push it away 99% of the time. Eggs are even better…think about it.

I have been asked where pork comes from. I have been asked where CORN comes from. I have shown kids …scratch that… I have shown 35 year old adults cotton in the field or brought them a cotton plant and they were AMAZED “it is just like a cotton ball” No Kidding….no kidding, it just grows like that. Remember I live in “rural” “Podunk” Missouri and people don’t know this stuff. WE ARE TOO REMOVED FROM THE SOURCE OF PRODUCTION.

Wealth is created by the sweat of the brow and the relentless pursuit of improvement through thought. It is not created by the Government.

Money is the direct result of effort. Effort takes time. Time is the essence of life. We only have so much time on earth. So in a very real non clichéd sense Time is Money. The confiscation of Money is the confiscation of Time, is the confiscation of Effort and essentially the confiscation of our LIFE.

Barack Obama is not going to fill up your tank, or make your house payment lady! He MIGHT, nay he WILL, take money that some farmer, factory worker, or factory owner PRODUCED from their Effort, and give to you to pay your bills or feed your children, you parasite! argh… sigh..breathe in…breathe out…goosfraba…WoooSaaa

Ontario fleets expressing increased optimism in latest OTA survey

TORONTO, Ont. -- Ontario carriers are beginning to express some optimism heading into the third quarter, according to the latest Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) Business Pulse e-Survey.

The Q3 survey suggests that fleets are divided on their expectations for the third quarter, with 32% expressing pessimism and virtually the same percentage expressing optimism. (In the previous survey, 43% were pessimistic and 27% were optimistic).



However, despite the renewed sense of optimism, 35% of respondents were still “unsure” about prospects for the next quarter.



Fifty-two per cent of respondents said they felt the Canadian economy had bottomed out, which was more than double the 25% who felt that way last quarter, according to the survey. In Ontario, however, 54% of carriers felt the economy had yet to bottom out. But in the previous survey, only 19% of respondents had felt the Ontario economy had reached its worst, so the 46% that feel that way now is a marked improvement.



Where the US economy is concerned, 66% of fleet respondents said they foresee further problems. Most carriers don’t expect an immediate improvement in north-south volumes, according to the OTA survey. However, the 26% of carriers that say they expect southbound volumes to improve over the next six months is significantly higher than the 16% who feel further deterioration is in store, another positive change from previous surveys.



Adding perspective to all this, OTA president David Bradley said “While the results may indicate that the economy is inching its way towards staunching the bleeding, things are still very uncertain, especially for Ontario. What we are seeing is an indication that economic activity may have or may be approaching the point where it has found the bottom; we are not seeing signs of meaningful growth and recovery at this point. There are so many variables right now – the US economy, the recent appreciation of the dollar, the availability of credit – that continue to overhang our view of things. I would characterize our outlook as being slightly more hopeful than optimistic at this point. “



Bradley also pointed out early indicators of a recovery have yet to translate into healthier freight rates.



“Most carriers would say recent rate discounts are way overdone,” he said. “We can blame shippers for being greedy and taking advantage of the desperation that some carriers are feeling, through using tendering processes that pit incumbent carriers against illusory rates suggested by unproven carriers who may or may not be willing and able to provide the service at those prices, or by changing the rules of the game. We can blame them for using load brokers who have no accountability to the actual cost of hauling a load.”



“But, we also need to look in the mirror. Who can realistically afford to give up 15, 25, 35% or more in revenue and expect to break even? The margins in trucking can’t support those sorts of rate decreases. Surely, it is insane to think that after 20 years of economic deregulation carriers can cut their costs by the same order of magnitude in order to preserve margin.”

Electric Trucking

In my consulting career, I was not always an environmental professional - I spent a lot of time on supply chain consulting and automation, including logistics. In those days, the issues of efficiency were all about cost reduction and waste elimination. The icons of the industry were the processes that folks like UPS and FedEx put in place - things like planning delivery truck routes with all right turns (saves gas, you don't wait at red lights as much), decisions on whether to keep engines running when leaving trucks (you burn extra fuel starting up), skylight truck ceiling panels (don't have to have lights inside the truck then), etc.

There was one thing we were missing back then - we never challenged the basic technology of the forklifts, trucks, ships, and aircraft we were analyzing. Now, one US company has done just that - and given us the electric urban delivery truck (http://www.triplepundit.com/2009/07/all-electric-commercial-vehicles-now-available-in-the-u-s/). 100 mile range, 50 mph top speed, payload of over 16,000 pounds - and an operating cost that is about 20% of diesel trucks. Sounds good on the user's end, but I have reservations about the cost numbers - I'm not sure if they include the full life-cycle cost (including battery and motor manufacturing and disposal) or not. Also, the manufacturing company is taking advantage of government programs and getting US economic stimulus funds to accomplish what they do.

It's a big splash - delivery of the first six trucks in front of the US Capitol; PR frenzies; and everyone involved wants this to look good. The US government wants it to look good because it shows stimulus at work and progress. The manufacturer wants it to look good because it makes them look good. The buyers want it to look good because they invested in these trucks and want the payback of the extra publicity. And, frankly, I want it to not just look good but be good - because I would like to see an electric vehicle solution that truly works from all sustainability angles. Unfortunately no one has broached the full-life-cycle sustainability aspect - and since no one has, I suspect it isn't there, particularly because of the emphasis in the articles about the company using existing battery technology. Existing battery technology is terrible to the environment - both in the manufacturing and in the disposal stages.

No one has broached the issue of production capacity, either - or the issues of support infrastructure (these things have to be charged up somehow, somewhere, and not by plugging in to a household plug), servicing (try taking an electric truck to your regular mechanic), or the rest of the myriad of commercial vehicle implementation issues that need grappling with. And, while the cost of operation has been trumpeted, the cost of acquisition has not - of course, the trucks having a higher list price compared to diesel options would not be surprising. All in all, a lot of issues have been left untouched - and they are ones that should be touched on in detail by anyone considering acquisition and implementation of these vehicles.

The article does say that the US government allocated $2B to electric vehicle battery research stimulus - so maybe we'll see some improvements in all this before too long. But, if all we spend the money on is a productization of technologies deployed in Europe (as the article states as the main strategy for the company that makes the electric trucks) then I fear the money will have been applied to achieve less than optimal (let alone spectacular) results. It is very disappointing that everyone seems to be spending more time making progress look like it is happening instead of making it happen.

The Highest Paid Jobs are Trucking Jobs

Trucking jobs have been and probably always will be the highest paid entry level jobs that a person can get without any experience or going to college. Not only are trucking jobs the best entry level jobs you wont be wasting four to eight years in school and spending tens of thousands in tuition and expenses.

After searching the internet for the highest paying entry level jobs I was amazed. Every website and search result on the first few pages was for college graduates and salaries for people with specific degrees! The fact is that most anyone that is searching for an entry level job with no experience is doing so because they did not go to college. 

Truck drivers can be earning money immediately with no experience. A person get into the trucking industry and get trained without spending any money out of their pocket! Most trucking schools will even pay students while they are being trained! With a little ambition and a good plan a person can get a trucking job and out perform even the top college graduate starting salaries driving a truck.

With as little as three months experience driving a truck I was able to get a trucking job with a trucking company enabling me to make over $60,000 a year with the ability to be home everyday! I have searched jobs for months and I have not found any entry level positions anywhere that will pay this type of money at an entry level without a college degree.

Not only are trucking jobs the best entry level jobs but the freedom these jobs have to offer is unparalleled. There are thousands of trucking companies and many different types of trucking jobs available each year. With a CDL and the need for truck drivers you will have job security that few industries can offer you as an employee.

All you need is a drivers license if you are looking to make college graduate type wages with one of the highest paying entry level jobs in the country. Trucking jobs are the ideal jobs for people with no experience looking to make a lot of money!