Archive for August, 2013

Fuel Efficient Semi-Trucks

Wednesday, August 28th, 2013

With new fuel economy standards for semi-trucks set to begin next year, truck manufacturers are rolling out new models to comply with the regulations. Trucks will have to get at least 7.2 miles to the gallon starting in 2014, the first time that mileage for semi-trucks will ever be federally mandated. Most trucks today average about 6 miles per gallon.

 

Freightliner is set to deliver its 2014 Cascadia Evolution heavy truck which has delivered up to 10.67 miles per gallon in tests when combined with an aerodynamic trailer. The truck reached this mileage when tested on an 8.5 mile closed course for 1,000 miles with an average speed of 60 mph and a GCW of 76,000 pounds. In a 2,400 mile test rule from San Diego to Gastonia, N.C., the Cascadia Evolution averaged 9.31 miles per gallon at a cruising speed of 62 mph and a GCW of 76,000 pounds. The current model Cascadia, combined with a normal trailer, averaged about 7 mile per gallon on the same run for comparison.

 

Cummins and Peterbilt Motors are also set to put their new Class 8 Peterbilt 587 on the market, which averaged 9.9 miles per gallon on 11 test runs between Forth Worth and Vernon, Texas, with a GCW of 65,000 pounds. The aerodynamic truck and trailer combination was designed with lighter weight material, a more efficient engine, electronic controls that optimize fuel use based on route information, lower rolling resistance tires, and “a system that converts exhaust heat into power delivered to the crankshaft,” according to roadandtrack.com

 

The 54% increase in fuel efficiency of the Peterbilt 587 not only stands to save truckers $25,000 annually on fuel, it also results in a 35% reduction in greenhouse gas released annually per truck.

 

truck gas mileage

 

Evan Transportation was founded in 1992 by Jerry Wolfarth, who at the time had over 25 years of experience in the trucking and transportation industry. The initial operation consisted of a few trucks and drivers who were dedicated and professional. The goal of the company was to provide excellent, dependable service.

If you need materials and products moved in the Mid-Atlantic region, contact Evan Transportation. We hire professional drivers with excellent driving records, and maintain a fleet of trailers and vehicles that are reliable and ready to roll.

Contact us today for all of your freight shipment needs or call us at 443-673-3365

Before you hit the road, check us out on FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedIn and YouTube!

Sources

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2012/05/aero-enhanced-freightliner-semi-gets-real-world-9-mpg/1#.Uh4nzjbrxqk

http://www.roadandtrack.com/go/news/news-peterbilt-cummins-tractor-trailer-fuel-economy

CB Radio Lingo from Evan Transportation

Wednesday, August 21st, 2013

CB (Citizens Band) Radio is used by truckers to communicate with each other while they’re on the road. During the later half of the 20th century, truckers began to develop their own language to use when communicating via CB radio with other truckers. You might know what 10-4 or rubbernecking means, but do you know what a bunny hopper or a bear in the air is? Read on to find out.

trucking lingo

Bear- Bear is a term commonly used to denote a police officer. Therefore any phrase with the word bear in it has something to do with the police. A bear in the air is a police helicopter or airplane used to enforce speed limits on the highway. A bear den is police headquarters and a bear with ears is a police officer who is listening in on the CB radio. Other police related terms include a plain white wrapper, meaning an unmarked police car, and paperhanger when police are giving out tickets.

Lingo for Other Cars– Truckers have lots of names to describe other cars on the road. A bunny hopper is a vehicle that changes lanes a lot. A lane lover on the other hand is a vehicle that stays in the same lane. An armored car is a loot limo, a cowboy cadillac is a pickup truck and a cheese wagon is a school bus.

Traffic Lingo- Truckers run into a lot of traffic and have developed a lot of terms to describe it. A parking lot means you’re stuck in a traffic jam, and a rolling roadblock is a slow moving construction vehicle. In traffic a car that is wearing your bumper out is following too close, but once you’ve got a clean shot, you’re out of traffic and headed toward open road free of construction, police, and other obstacles. Unless you’ve got to make a 10-100 which is a restroom stop.

 

Evan Transportation was founded in 1992 by Jerry Wolfarth, who at the time had over 25 years of experience in the trucking and transportation industry. The initial operation consisted of a few trucks and drivers who were dedicated and professional. The goal of the company was to provide excellent, dependable service.

If you need materials and products moved in the Mid-Atlantic region, contact Evan Transportation. We hire professional drivers with excellent driving records, and maintain a fleet of trailers and vehicles that are reliable and ready to roll.

Contact us today for all of your freight shipment needs or call us at 443-673-3365

Before you hit the road, check us out on FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedIn and YouTube!

 

Sources

http://www.cbslang.com/popular/

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/library/a-guide-to-truckers-slang/

Trucking Trivia

Wednesday, August 14th, 2013

Think you know it all about trucking? Test your knowledge with a couple trucking facts. Some of them might surprise you!

trucking facts

 

What’s in a Name?

Semi trailers and semi trucks are actually two different things. The trailer can only be used when it’s connected to the truck because it has no front wheels, hence the name semi trailer. The term semi truck grew out of that, and it is often shortened to just a “semi.” A tractor trailer technically only references the trailer and semi truck designates only the truck, though they are sometimes mistakenly used to denote the truck and trailer together as a whole.

Numbers

There are about 5.6 million semi trailers registered in the U.S., about 3 times the number of registered semi trucks. Trailers are usually about 53 feet long. There are 3.2 million truck drivers in the U.S., who operate a total of 1.9 million semi trucks, a third of which are registered in California, Florida and Texas. According to Popular Mechanics, “About 90 percent of trucking companies and owner-operators have fewer than six trucks.” The maximum weight permitted for a truck with a full trailer is 80,000 pounds. The engine itself can weigh around 3,000 pounds. About 190,000 new semi trucks are sold every year, one third of which are manufactured by Freightliner, the most popular semi truck manufacturer.

Mile After Mile

Semi trucks collectively log 140 billion miles every year in the U.S., and individually average about 45,000 miles, though long distance trucks can reach up to 100,000 miles a year. While only 15 percent of commercial trucks are semi trucks, semi trucks travel 42 of the miles logged by commercial trucks every year. Gas is one of the biggest expenses for trucks, as they get an average of only 6.5 miles to the gallon. This can drop to less than 3 miles to the gallon if a truck is going up a steep hill, or it can increase to more than 23 miles per gallon going down a hill. New fuel economy standards that begin next year require semi trucks with sleeper cabs to get 7.2 miles per gallon or more.

 

Evan Transportation was founded in 1992 by Jerry Wolfarth, who at the time had over 25 years of experience in the trucking and transportation industry. The initial operation consisted of a few trucks and drivers who were dedicated and professional. The goal of the company was to provide excellent, dependable service.

If you need materials and products moved in the Mid-Atlantic region, contact Evan Transportation. We hire professional drivers with excellent driving records, and maintain a fleet of trailers and vehicles that are reliable and ready to roll.

Contact us today for all of your freight shipment needs or call us at 443-673-3365

Before you hit the road, check us out on FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedIn and YouTube!

Source

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/pictures/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-semi-trucks#slide-3

Weighing In on Weigh Stations

Tuesday, August 6th, 2013

Weigh stations are common sights along the sides of highways, but for as common as they are they are often easy to miss. Many times the long line of trucks waiting for their turn on the scale simply don’t exist because the weigh station is closed. So what purpose do weigh stations serve? And why do many of them seem to be closed much of the time?

weigh station closed

Weigh stations originally served the purpose of collecting fuel taxes that commercial trucks owed to the states for using their roads. Stations were commonly found near state borders to enforce the tax. Now, the fuel tax is administered via the International Fuel Tax Agreement, which applies to trucking companies that operate in more than one jurisdiction (the international component includes the lower 48 states as well as Canadian provinces, but not territories). Truckers keep a log of their fuel purchases and file a quarterly report. They are taxed on this report and the revenue is distributed among the states where the fuel was purchased.

 

Now weigh stations are used only to enforce weight restrictions. The federal maximum weight limit is 80,000 pounds, and any truck carrying a load larger than this must obtain a permit, or face a fine at the weigh station.

 

There are several reasons weigh stations might be closed. A common one is budget shortfalls in states’ Department’s of Transportation. Another is that state police departments are often taking weighing operations into their own hands and going mobile in an effort to catch trucks that dodge weigh stations when they see an “open” sign. In Massachusetts, the state police truck team operates an average of five weigh operations each week, weighing about 100,000 trucks a year and collecting $500,000 in fines.

 

 

Evan Transportation was founded in 1992 by Jerry Wolfarth, who at the time had over 25 years of experience in the trucking and transportation industry. The initial operation consisted of a few trucks and drivers who were dedicated and professional. The goal of the company was to provide excellent, dependable service.

If you need materials and products moved in the Mid-Atlantic region, contact Evan Transportation. We hire professional drivers with excellent driving records, and maintain a fleet of trailers and vehicles that are reliable and ready to roll.

Contact us today for all of your freight shipment needs or call us at 443-673-3365

Before you hit the road, check us out on FacebookTwitterGoogle+LinkedIn and YouTube!

Sources

http://www.iftach.org/

http://brokensecrets.com/2010/06/18/what-are-truck-weigh-stations-for/

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2010/10/01/curious-about-weigh-stations-on-mass-highways/

 

Your Name is on the Line

Friday, August 2nd, 2013

worker with stacker at warehouse

 

When you select a company to deliver goods for you, you are putting your name on the line with that company. When you select Evan Transportation, we are in it together. We at Evan Transportation know that you are putting your name on the line with us and our freight shipping tractor trailers will always arrive on time with your reputation intact.

 

What we need you to know is that not only do we understand that your name is on the line with a delivery, but ours is too. Every delivery you make with Evan transportation is cared for as if we were delivering our own product. Really, as if we were transporting our own family, since that is the importance our customers carry with Evan Transportation.

 

When we arrive at the destination from transit, our goal is for them to have your companies name on their lips, buzzing about the care you showed and the product that you delivered. When they buzz about you, you spread the buzz about our shipping prowess. On time delivery isn’t a “benefit” of choosing Even Transportation, so to speak. On time delivery is simply what we do for you.

 

Evan Transportation was founded in 1992 by Jerry Wolfarth, who at the time had over 25 years of experience in the trucking and transportation industry. The initial operation consisted of a few trucks and drivers who were dedicated and professional. The goal of the company was to provide excellent, dependable service.

If you need materials and products moved in the Mid-Atlantic region, contact Evan Transportation. We hire professional drivers with excellent driving records, and maintain a fleet of trailers and vehicles that are reliable and ready to roll.

Contact us today for all of your freight shipment needs or call us at 443-673-3365

Before you hit the road, check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube!