News - page 55

January CCJ Innovator: Crete Carrier Corporation

Lincoln, Neb.

With its new Patriot Fleet, Crete Carrier delivers its message of appreciation for military veterans over the road

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The suit brought against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration last summer by the Alliance for Safe, Efficient and Competitive Truck Transportation (ASECTT), with four other trade associations and several trucking companies and brokers, saw action in December, as plaintiffs filed written arguments in court. ASECTT Chairman Tom Sanderson, writing in an email to ASECTT members, said FMCSA “will file its brief in opposition on January 8, 2013, and our rebuttal brief is due on January 22.  Oral argument will be scheduled soon thereafter” in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

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The Q4 results of 2011 were surprisingly good, and the results couldn’t have come at a better time, boosting confidence going into 2012.

But then — The Euro crisis deepened, truck sales dropped, and foreign markets sagged. The U.S. election fostered uncertainty; and The States’ growth was slower than expected. All of it ­contributed to a year of uncertainty.

So here we stand, at the very edge of the calendar year. Will 2013 be as unlucky as it sounds? For this, our annual economic look ­forward, Today’s Trucking perceived a few key rays of sunshine, piercing the fiscal fog.

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Weather forecasters are predicting not only one of the coldest, but the snowiest winters in the last five years. Here are a few simple tips to help maintain your equipment and fuel tanks.

1. Be sure you have adequately treated the bulk fuel tanks for the temperatures you will be dealing with. Think in terms of where the coldest point the truck will run to and treat accordingly.

2. Block heaters are not designed to warm an engine. They are designed to maintain the heat already generated in the engine. Thus it is crucial that the truck be plugged in while the engine is still warm.

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For-hire trucking companies added 2,500 payroll jobs in November on a seasonally adjusted basis after a downward revision by 1,600 jobs of initial October trucking employment figures, according to the latest estimates released Dec. 7 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The overall U.S. economy added 146,000 nonfarm jobs in November, but that followed a downward revision of October levels by 49,000. The national unemployment rate in November was 7.7% — down from 7.9% in October, according to BLS figures. BLS said its analysis suggests that Hurricane Sandy did not substantively impact the national employment and unemployment estimates for November.

Payroll employment in trucking in November totaled 1.3584 million jobs — up 0.18% from October and 3.6% from November 2011. Trucking employment is up by 124,200 jobs, or 10.1%, from the bottom in March 2010, but it remains 95,000 jobs, or 6.5%, below the peak in January 2007. The number of trucking jobs is up 3.1% since the beginning of the year.

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