Trucking Articles

A trucker's Drive-A-Check, or DAC report works similarly to their credit report. It lists your driving record as well as your employment history as a driver. You should request a copy of your DAC report at least once per year and any time you switch jobs to make sure that the information it contains is accurate.

Why It's Important

Choosing the right trucking company for you is an important step in developing your career as a professional driver.  Asking the right questions during the interview is a good way to learn more about the company, and if it is the best job for you.

Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT), is a nonprofit organization that was created to combat domestic sex trafficking through education, mobilization, empowerment, and equipping members of the truck driving industry and workers of travel plazas. Human trafficking is a major problem in the US; incidents have been reported in every state.

When it comes to determining the amount of money it costs to operate a tractor trailer, most people think about the amount of money it costs to fuel the truck. However, this cost is only one aspect of the real cost associated with keeping the truck on the road legally. It has been shown that the average annual cost of operating a tractor trailer for one year is approximately $180,000 per year or $1.38 per mile, depending on the number of miles the truck drives in one year.

The Truckload Carriers Association, known as TCA, and Carrier’s Edge, an online training provider, has recently announced the results of its survey to name the Best Fleets to Drive For. This contest is for all of the North American trucking companies that result in a list of the top twenty trucking companies. Anyone looking for truck driving jobs will find this to be very valuable information and it can put them at an advantage.

The 20 Best Fleets

A new law, known as the Food Safety Modernization Act, may have far-reaching ramifications for the trucking industry. Also known as Public Law 111-353, it was passed by the U.S. legislature in 2011 and seeks to strengthen federal control over how food is handled during transportation. The new law addresses every aspect of the food transportation industry, from the equipment and procedures used to record keeping.

Several brilliant scientific minds have been at work in recent years combining and utilizing technologies that can pave the way for an entirely new system of roads in the not so distant future. Because of the rapidly increasing costs of asphalt and the fact that it is produced using petroleum, many experts have concluded that making roads with asphalt is not a viable way of doing things in the long term.

A survey conducted by Fleet Owner magazine in conjunction with investment company Jefferies & Co. has found that many trucking companies are pessimistic about the odds of obtaining rate increases for 2012 and believe that this state of affairs will only make earning a profit even harder.

Tax time is especially stressful for truck drivers because they are often away from home and may not have all of the information they need to file on the road with them. Over-the-road truck drivers must also be aware of allowances and deductions available to them that do not apply to workers in any other industry. Owner/operators have even more responsibility when it comes to taxes because they are running trucking companies as well as driving their own trucks.

As long as there isn't any sort of serious new recession in 2012, demand for trucking will outpace the drivers and vehicles that trucking companies can muster. While they are starting to add some extra capacity, truck driving jobs might be left vacant considering that qualified drivers aren't always easy to find. While there might be a 5% average increase in trucking base rates in the coming year, capacity is going to be a major problem.