Big Rigs Go High Tech 288
pottercw writes "Trucking may not seem like a high-tech industry to the casual observer, but major carriers are starting to adopt an array of emerging technologies to combat rising fuel costs, tighter regulation and fierce competition. The technologies include systems that monitor and communicate vehicle conditions and performance, enhanced GPSs that keep tabs on tractors and trailers, and safety systems which issue warnings or even take action to help drivers avoid an accident — all working in real time. Computerworld has a cool mouseover diagram highlighting some of the gadgets we're beginning to see on high-tech trucks."
Huge costs lead to early adoption (Score:5, Insightful)
Communications (CB radios and trunked radio) have always been associated with truckers.
Big rigs were also the first to use significant engine management. J1939 (one of first uses of CAN) was originally done for big rigs.
fuel costs still not high enough priority (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Fuel Efficiency (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Fuel Efficiency (Score:5, Insightful)
Transportation is already factored into about 24% of the economy. From the manufacture of cars, planes, etc., to the cost of moving people and goods, fuel for police cars and fire trucks, fuel for the construction equipment that paves the roads, removes the snow, delivers mail and packages, runs the trucks that install and maintain your internet access, etc. So, unless you're not paying taxes, not buying anything, not eating, never sending or receiving mail, or surfing the net, you're already paying more than 1% of your income, either directly or indirectly, in diesel and gasoline.
I don't understand. (Score:3, Insightful)
How can locally produced goods compete with the shipped in versions? Raw materials have to be shipped in, even in agriculture where fertilizer and fuel are real costs. My impression was that goods from China were inexpensive because they had a large supply of very cheap and poorly treated labor. Just about everyone now uses material from there if they bother making anything. What is left of US and Western manufacturing? If you know so much about Ag shipping, can you tell me why so much cheap food at the grocery store now comes from China?
What competition do you see in the oil market after the merger of Exxon and Mobil? They closed half of their stations, major refineries and fired plenty of people so they could tighten up the market. Their "Project for the New American Century" has been a disaster for the rest of us and may even bite them in the ass when the US economy collapses under the cost of the Iraq war failure, Iran refusing to sell oil in dollars and persistent problems in Afghanistan. Sooner or later our weakened prestige and currency will ruin their string of "best year ever" profits.
I don't have a fancy degree in Economics nor do I trade commodities but the ruin of the US economy is easy to see. Excuse me while I drive my H2 to pick up another load of Chinese stuff at Walmart.
Trucking technology is extremely sophisticated (Score:5, Insightful)
While we are at it, a lot of people might be surprised how sophisticated trains and train operations are - modern locomotives were the prototypes of Prius' and othe hybrids, complete with regenerative braking.
Brett
Re:Fuel Efficiency (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know about the guy who posted the original message, but many people in cities don't even own cars. I own a car, but I only use it when I want to move furniture or buy a lot of groceries... my gas expenditure is nowhere near 1%.
1% is low for the suburbanite / rural folk, but not for the urbanite.
Re:Rig emmissions are very low (Score:5, Insightful)
Truckers invented the Internet! (Score:3, Insightful)
In case your memory is short: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaammaHevT0
Freight prices have not gone up in years (Score:5, Insightful)
Just the other day, I had a competing trucking company come in and quote out the job. Their quote was... $1050.
The price of diesel fuel has quadrupled in this time.
I can not believe that technology is making the difference here. I think truckers are getting screwed.
I know there were some threats of a trucking strike a month or two ago that came to nothing. I would not be surprised to see this happen, and if it did, the country would be brought to its knees.
Time for Railroads to make a comeback (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:fuel costs still not high enough priority (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:fuel costs still not high enough priority (Score:3, Insightful)
Companies care about cost and time. If it were cheaper and faster to ship via rail they would. It isn't, so they don't. Except for large bulky shipments.
"I agree that you would still need trucks for local and short deliveries, but so much of the industry is long haul or multi-state trucking."
And you would have the same amount of drivers. Except that you can pay the local ones less.... Trucks are far more convenient than rail lines. That's worth increased cost to many.
"They have rail cars that you can just pick up the trailer off the rail car and hook it right up to the truck for the first few miles to the rail yard and the last few miles from the rail yard."
Sure, if you don't want your cargo in a timely manner. I've worked in a warehouse-containers via rail are slow. It's quicker to ship cargo from LA to Seattle via truck.
In the end, efficiency is only important to companies if it reduces cost.
Who says truckies are stupid? (Score:5, Insightful)
Most people who have only ever driven cars fail to appreciate that driving heavy trucks is actually quite a demanding job, and not one for dummies. Those rigs are expensive, and no factor that saves fuel or wear and tear can be neglected. It may be popular to label truckies as ignorant yokels, but it is a fact that they need to be quite technically astute. For instance, tyre wear alone is a huge factor when you consider the cost of replacing over 40 tyres on a multi-combination rig.
As an aside, this reminds me of one time back in my trucking days, some idiot tried to steal my rig. He might have thought he was a shit-hot car driver, but couldn't even muster the coordination required to get the crash box into gear. He was still struggling with it when the police arrived...
Re:Fuel Efficiency (Score:3, Insightful)
I consider myself a conservative driver. I hate cars and I hate traffic, but between my wife & I, fuel costs are far above 1% and even approaching 5%.
I'd guess that the vast majority of households are at least 5 percent of income to fuel. Figure that based on average yearly fuel costs on the following minimums: two fill-ups per month at 50 dollars (12 gallons E to F) to 70 dollars a visit (17 gallons E to F), plus an extra two visits because there are four weeks extra spread over twelve months, for a yearly total of 1300 to 1800 dollars at current prices. That's just for one typical (Accord, Camry, etc) car, and before taxes are taken out. If taxes suck away a third of your income before you see it, then that almost doubles your percentage of income for fuel.
Thank the piss-poor US dollar, inflation, needless war in Iraq, greedy oil execs, or whatever else suits your fancy. The 1920's will look like a cakewalk compared to what awaits us on our current course, and those of us who still have money will wish they could only spend a handful of percent of it on gas.
Balance that (Score:2, Insightful)
Rail sure is way better where it can be used.
Re:Big Red (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Time for Railroads to make a comeback (Score:5, Insightful)
Transporting 250lbs of flesh and 50lbs of luggage doesn't really show a train's ability to pull cargo cheaply since that 300lbs of cargo needs to be in a multi-ton box car with many niceties (food, water, sleeping area, toilet, possibly shower).
Try comparing costs of carrying 100s of tons of cargo (such as grain, oil, furniture, vehicles) where the overhead of the train is a smaller percentage.
Try even comparing the cost to the environment: both the air (burned fuel) and, for comparing with "Big Rigs" (to stay loosely on topic) the damage caused to the roadways (vs damage caused to railways) for the same load.
I've been hoping for more railways for years...
Re:Freight prices have not gone up in years (Score:3, Insightful)
Wages used to be the #1 expense. Diesel also used to be $1.30 a gallon three or four years ago.
The grandparent poster is right - it's all a bidding game, and if you try to raise your rates, someone else will do it cheaper. Rates will increase, but probably not until a lot of the little guys are out of business. I know my company is struggling.
Re:fuel costs still not high enough priority (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:fuel costs still not high enough priority (Score:1, Insightful)
The cost part of the equation is skewed a bit ... trucks get to travel on taxpayer-funded roads, whereas the railroads have to build and maintain their own tracks.
If that were evened out, rail would see a lot more use (which would in turn make it quicker ...)
Re:inefficiency of driving too fast (Score:5, Insightful)
Let me second that from a UK perspective.
Since the inclusion of the former Eastern European states into the EU, we have seen a huge [timesonline.co.uk] rise in traffic accidents caused by foreign drivers, especially Eastern Europeans with badly maintained rigs.
Disclaimer - I'm not a trucker, but I regularly do about 40,000 miles a year on the roads, and have never had an accident while moving (been rear-ended twice, but hey, what can you do?).
Re:Time for Railroads to make a comeback (Score:3, Insightful)
i've been searching for something to back up this theory - i heard it several years ago, but cannot find anything concrete.
Incorrect and impractical (Score:3, Insightful)
Much as I like trains in principle, it has to be said that trucks are not that bad especially where they can run at constant speed and be Diesel fueled. Problems come when they have to mix with other traffic, and that was the strategic error- not providing dedicated truck lanes and separating them from other traffic. One factor driving up SUV/light truck use, in Europe as well as the US is surely fear of heavy trucks.
However, in many countries exactly the same mistake was made with rail - the traffic pattern meant that passenger trains had to be built to the same shunting capability as freight trains, making passenger trains unnecessarily heavy and lacking in efficiency.
Re:Fuel Efficiency (Score:3, Insightful)
Good for you, to be able to manage 1%. Unfortunately, for most Americans, it's closer to 10%, if not higher, and even if we can cut out all extraneous driving, going to work is getting less and less profitable due to the increased costs of going. I respectfully disagree with your position that our sharply rising fuel costs are not going to increase the costs of transported goods, but even if that is the case, the supply of money people have to buy said goods is going down. This -is- a problem, and it's a problem that's going to affect just about everyone.
Re:Who says truckies are stupid? (Score:3, Insightful)
Professional truckers are quite capable and skilled people, but many "truckers" aren't professional.
I don't assume that just because someone passed a quickie driving course and got a license that they have a clue. (Lurk on a few towing forums if you want to see how much business "truckers" generate for towmen recovering the results of their mistakes!).
Of course, since your post refers to "tyres" you may be in a country with stricter standards and enforcement than the US.
Re:Fuel Efficiency (Score:3, Insightful)
I personally live in a dense east-coast US metropolis that happens to have the most expensive mass transit in the US, and found a good job that happens to be in the burbs. I can spend almost ten bucks a *day* if I commute by subway. It does keep the *gas* expenditures down to do that, so I guess I can compete with all the other urbanites on that score.
Exercise for the reader: Name that metropolis!
Re:Time for Railroads to make a comeback (Score:3, Insightful)
The rails DID leave, because funding for rails was cut in favor of spending it on the federal highway system as a system of corporate welfare designed to benefit the auto companies. Don't let history get in the way of a good argument, though.
Obviously we still have rail, for purposes that cannot reasonably be served by truck, like feeding major concrete plants raw material or, ironically, getting materials into and cars out of automobile manufacturing plants. Oh, the humanity.
And you have a spelling problem. Do yourself a favor and switch to Firefox.
PRECISELY the same problem exists with freeways.
The simple truth is that rail can be efficient. If we hadn't dismantled the rail network to the extent that we did - which is to say, we made it less profitable in a number of situations by eliminating subsidies, while spending horrific amounts of money on the interstate highway system. On top of that, the increased truck traffic means that small roads never designed to carry trucks have tons of freight on them (literally) and break down faster. You can especially see this happen in hilly/mountainous states, like California.
Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. How many times do you typically turn around to check if you turned the oven off?