35 years’ experience, or one year’s experience 35 times?

by Jim Park

Where I live, commercial drivers are required to rewrite their CDL test every five years in order to renew the licence. I wrote my renewal test today and aced it.

• Transportation

Nebulous is the perfect word to describe the future price of crude

by Roger McKnight

The word nebulous comes in handy when someone has no answer to a question, or needs to defend their answer with the most mysterious answer of all, “Well that’s…

• Transportation

Fast track your career by creating your own personal coaching staff

by Dan Goodwill

One of the business trends over the past couple of decades has been the employment of personal coaches to help key leaders and executives enhance their skill sets. These coaches…

• Transportation

The importance of credit checks

by Charles Sheppard

There is very little in the trucking business that is more frustrating than invoicing a customer for a delivered load and then not getting paid in time, or worse, not…

• Transportation

The journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step

by Lou Smyrlis

A few issues ago I wrote about breaking the stereotype of the obese and unhealthy trucker. I said it’s time to throw out the excuses – too many hours behind…

Trust Your Co-pilot: Bendix Wingman Fusion keeps virtual eyes on the road, foot upon the brakes

by John G Smith

First, a confession. I am a terrible passenger. My right foot is always pumping against the floor mat whenever I find myself riding shotgun. A knot forms in my stomach when someone takes anything other than my favorite route. When the Today's Trucking team carpooled to a trade show earlier this year, I was quick to reach for the keys before anyone else had the chance.

• Transportation

What’s happening in the world of crude oil during these lazy, hazy days of summer?

by Roger McKnight

I understand that we are in the hazy mid-August days of summer, but from the questions I’ve been fielding recently (that is not a “dog day” baseball inference, and I…

• Transportation

Attention fossil fuel fighters — they are not a luxury in the winter months, they’re a life and death necessity

by Roger McKnight

I’ve got this thing about time lately. Yes, the accidental pun master strikes again! “They,” whoever they are, say that, “Timing is everything.” For politicians, this is…

Fuel for the Fire: Tax change fails to recognize how diesel is used

by John G Smith

A house is not a home -- and in the eyes of the taxman it appears your sleeper is no longer a house on wheels. How else can we explain the end of Federal Excise Tax (FET) exemptions that have long been applied to the diesel that pumps through Auxiliary Power Units and bunk heaters? The heating oil used to warm a house is exempt. Add a few working axles underneath that house and it's a different story.

• Transportation

Look at your cards

by Ray Haight

It’s funny how age effects your decision making. I recall being advised when I was a young lad that to further invest in the trucking industry by applying for operating authorities…

• Transportation

You can build a fence but everything still permeates it

by Roger McKnight

I am sure you will all be pleased and interested to know that I have added another pastime to my morning ritual. In addition to retrieving two newspapers from…

• Business Management

Make way for the quiet leader who listens

by Lou Smyrlis

The leaders that shaped the trucking industry of today were forged in the cauldron of deregulation in the late 1980s. At a time of regulatory upheaval which saw once…

New CEO at Purolator–and he’s a trucker!

by Harry Rudolfs

I’m reluctant to write about Purolator since I waxed poetic about the board unceremoniously dumping Tom Schmitt back in 2012. At the time I was (and still am) wearing the…

• Transportation

No normal in the abnormal world of energy

by Roger McKnight

Unlike the rest of the normal world where there is winter, spring, summer, and fall, as I have mentioned previously, with stuttering regularity I might add (now there’s an oxymoron…

Cocooning: In conversation with WABCO’s Jon Morrison

by John G Smith

LOUISVILLE, KY -- We're approaching an era when trucks act more like trusted co-drivers than equipment alone. Optional Collision Warning Systems and Lane Departure Systems use things like radar and cameras to watch the road and sound the alarm if a driver fails to notice a hazard or drifts into danger. Collision Mitigation Systems - or adaptive cruise controls -- go a step further and actually begin to slow a vehicle before a driver reacts. And the technologies all come together in prototypes for "semi-autonomous" and "platooning" vehicles that promise at times to drive themselves. "The vision is about providing that 360-degree cocoon around the truck, to enable the truck and the driver to operate as safely as they can," says WABCO Americas president Jon Morrison.