ITJ0918

Are you an Owner Operator 

or Owner Operator Team? 

It’s time for you to begin building your 

business with an industry leader. Get 

started with UPS today. 

Complete your owner operator application online at: 

upsfreightowneroperators.com

• Practical mileage pay 

on ALL miles 

• Full fuel surcharge 

• Fuel & tire discounts 

• Plate, permits, taxes 

(road & fuel) provided 

• PrePass Plus 

• Cargo & liability 

insurance 

• Fast pay 

• All no-touch freight; 

90% drop & hook 

• No NYC driving 

Call Jill or Amanda 

Teams always welcome! 

877-700-0692 

© 2018 United Parcel Service of America, Inc.

GENERAL MANAGER 

Megan Hicks 

GENERAL SALES MANAGER 

Ed Leader 1.256.591.0545 

edl@targetmediapartners.com 

ACCOUNTS PAYABLE 

Patricia Austerie 

CREATIVE DIRECTOR 

Kelly Young 

NATIONAL ADVERTISING SALES 

Jerry Critser 1.770.416.0927 

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johnh@targetmediapartners.com 

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TECH 

UP AND COMING 

ITJ NEWS 

AD INDEX 

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Target Distribution Partners 

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Independent Trucker Jobs 

1.800.786.4723 

P.O. Box 2685 • Anniston, AL 36202 

5

THE 

LANDSTAR 

ADVANTAGE 

Put more profit in your 

pocket and define success 

on your own terms as a 

Landstar independent 

owner-operator. 

• Non-forced dispatch: 

run when you want, 

where you want. 

• Earn a share of the revenue 

for every load hauled. As 

freight rates go up, your 

settlement check does too. 

Our Landstar 

Advantage 

earning a share 

of the revenue on 

every load we haul! 

• Big fuel discounts at the 

pump, no waiting for rebate 

checks. Big fleet national 

account tire prices. 

Cash rebates on new 

tractors, factory-direct 

trailer pricing. 

• Thousands of loads 

available every day. 

SEE THE ADVANTAGE FOR YOURSELF - 

LANDSTAR’S LIVE LOAD BOARD DEMONSTRATIONS 

contact us: recruiter@landstar.com or 1-877-312-4092 

www.lease2landstar.com 

VAN•REEFER•FLATBED•STEPDECK•EXPEDITED•HEAVY/SPECIALIZED•HOT SHOT 

1-877-312-4092 Follow us on Twitter @LandstarNow www.facebook.com/LandstarOwnerOperators

TECH 

TECHNICIAN ‘SHORTAGE’ MAY BE DUE TO 

LACK OF TRAINING BY CARRIERS 

There are certain issues that 

trucking seems to constantly 

contend with, vying for the industry’s 

attention and taking turns at 

the forefront in a ceaseless round robin. 

But nowadays, whatever other topic 

may be in the spotlight at any given time, 

the growing driver shortage is never out of 

the minds of fleet executives. It’s a bestof-times, 

worst-of-times scenario, with 

projections showing an ever-widening gap 

between the amount of freight to be hauled 

and the number of drivers to haul it. 

While it doesn’t grab nearly as many 

headlines, there’s another looming labor 

shortage that many in trucking are concerned 

about. As much as drivers are 

needed to keep the wheels turning, those 

wheels won’t even get out on the road 

without technicians, and just as with drivers, 

there seems to be a dwindling supply 

coming into the industry as demand grows. 

Back in March, Mobil Delvac held its 

2018 Fleet Maintenance Forum in Louisville, 

Kentucky, the evening before the 

start of the Mid-America Trucking Show. 

The panel discussion was led by George 

Arrants, director of training and recruitment 

for the WheelTime Network. Arrants 

has chaired American Trucking Associations’ 

Technology & Maintenance Council 

Super Tech Competition since its inception 

in 2005 and the Future Technicians Skills 

Competition. 

Joining Arrants were Mobil Exxon CVL 

applications engineer Paul Cigala; Jerry 

Clemons, automotive and diesel technology 

program coordinator at Elizabethtown 

(Kentucky) Community and Technical College; 

Ken Shafer, director of maintenance 

12 ITJ hundreds of jobs at www.TruckJobSeekers.com

TECH 

and tank cleaning for Superior Carriers; 

and Mike Morvilius, vice president of maintenance 

for Moore Transport. 

The discussion was titled, “Facing the 

Technician Shortage: How to Recruit and 

Retain Top Talent.” Arrants threw the 

audience a curveball when he opened the 

discussion by challenging the premise that 

there truly is a technician shortage, showing 

that the raw numbers don’t bear it out. 

He cited a 2014 survey that showed there 

were 263,900 diesel technicians at the time 

and projected that by 2024 the industry 

will need to have 291,500. Allowing for the 

number of technicians expected to leave 

the profession for one reason or another, 

it’s estimated the industry will need to 

come up with 76,900 new technicians in 

that 10-year span. 

Meanwhile, the technician programs at 

public and private schools are churning 

out an average of 10,700 graduates a year, 

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TECH 

Arrants said. “Do the math,” he said – there 

shouldn’t be a shortage. 

So what’s the problem? Even with 

roughly 30 percent of students being 

poached by other professions, there should 

still be enough to keep the wheels turning 

everywhere. 

There isn’t so much a shortage of technicians 

as there is a squandering, the panel 

proposed. But that’s good news because 

that is an easier fix. 

Arrants said, when “we go to these conferences, 

we go to these events, we think 

someone’s going to find this magic bullet 

and find technicians.” His reaction is to 

pose the question, is it really a shortage of 

applicants or of qualified applicants? 

“And nearly 90 percent of them say, ‘we 

have a shortage of qualified applicants,’” 

he said. 

He and his fellow panelists suggested 

that fleets need to look at their definition of 

“qualified,” and how they determine who 

meets that definition. Too many companies 

have come to rely on formulas and computerized 

algorithms that take the humanity 

out of human resources, Arrants said. 

Morvilius agreed, noting that when Moore 

Transport opened, he had no problem 

finding people. But a few years later, when 

he started to have to replace a few, he was 

finding he could place an ad and after a 

month he wouldn’t see a single candidate. 

He went down to the human resources department 

and found out that, yes, there had 

been applicants, but they’d all been rejected 

for not meeting the hiring criteria. ITJ 


RENEWED. RECOMMITTED. READY. 

With extensive freight networks, self-dispatch load board and steady pay, USA Truck 

puts you in control of pursuing and maintaining your successful driving business. 

Owner operator truck driver partnerships with USA Truck offer: 

• Fantastic freight options w/load boards • Fuel discounts 

• Self-Dispatch – you know how 

• No forced dispatch 

you work best 

• Free EZ Pass 

• Choose your pay package – 

• Complimentary lumpers 

• Percentage: 65% of Load Revenue + FSC • Referral bonuses 

• Mileage: $1.05 CPM 

• Lease Purchase - Low down 

• Plenty of miles 

payments and NEW Trucks 

This is the renewed, recommitted USA Truck – 

READY to offer the support your driving business deserves! 

Call 877-826-3345, Text (479) 471-6623 

or visit driveusatruck.com to begin your partnership today.

Are you an Owner Operator 

or Owner Operator Team? 

It’s time for you to begin building your 

business with an industry leader. Get 

started with UPS today. 

Complete your owner operator application online at: 

upsfreightowneroperators.com

• Practical mileage pay 

on ALL miles 

• Full fuel surcharge 

• Fuel & tire discounts 

• Plate, permits, taxes 

(road & fuel) provided 

• PrePass Plus 

• Cargo & liability 

insurance 

• Fast pay 

• All no-touch freight; 

90% drop & hook 

• No NYC driving 

Call Jill or Amanda 

Teams always welcome! 

877-700-0692 

© 2018 United Parcel Service of America, Inc.

Peterbilt Motors Co. is 

offering two new options for 

Models 567 and 579 trucks: 

the alert switch and the 

pass-through seat. 

These features were 

designed with input from 

influential driver groups 

such as the Women In 

Trucking Association. 

“Women place a higher 

priority on safety and 

security when it comes to 

choosing a truck, a carrier 

or rest areas,” said Ellen 

Voie, co-founder, president and CEO of Women 

In Trucking. “We challenged all of the OEMs 

to make the truck safer for all drivers on the 

road, and Peterbilt led the way with their new 

security alarm system. We are proud to be the 

impetus in this new option.” 

At the same time, Peterbilt revealed that the 

Paccar MX-11 engine is now available with the 

Paccar Transmission. 

Located in the sleeper control panel, the alert 

switch is an alarm that behaves like a panic 

button on a car, flashing external lights and 

sounding alarms when activated. This feature 

ensures that drivers parked at truck stops or 

other locations are able to alert others in case of 

an emergency. 

“The alert switch is an example of Peterbilt’s 

commitment to driver comfort and safety,” said 

Wesley Slavin, on-highway marketing manager 

for Peterbilt Motors Co. “This convenient alarm 

system provides drivers an extra layer of personal 

security.” 

UP AND 

COMING 

Alert switch and pass-through seat options being offered on 

Peterbilt Models 567 and 579 

The pass-through seat was also introduced in 

response to customer input and is designed to 

help drivers when they are packing their vehicles. 

Located under the passenger seat, this convenient 

storage cabinet is accessible from both 

the inside and outside of the cab. The passthrough 

seat allows drivers to load the cabinet 

before climbing into the cab, and unload it once 

they are inside the truck, easing the physical 

strain when packing the vehicle. 

“The pass-through seat is a great convenience 

feature,” Slavin said. “Drivers can easily 

access their items from both inside and outside 

of the truck.” 

Both options are available for order. 

The Paccar 12-speed automated transmission 

is the lightest heavy-duty automated transmission 

on the market, designed to work seamlessly 

with Paccar engines and axles to increase 

fuel economy and truck performance, according 

to a Paccar news release. 

The MX-11 offers exceptional fuel efficiency 

to increase profitability and uptime while offer- 


UP AND COMING 

ing a high power to weight ratio. The Paccar 

12-speed automated transmission features low 

cost of operation with 750,000 mile oil change 

intervals. 

“When combined with the MX-11 engine, 

the Paccar automated transmission offers superior 

drivability, with industry-leading maneuverability 

at low speeds,” said Wesley Slavin, 

on-highway marketing manager. “The transmission 

is the best in class for both drivability and 

weight, making it the best choice for heavyduty 

fleets and vocational trucks like the Model 

567 and 520.” 

In other Peterbilt news, the OEM has delivered 

the keys to the first production unit of the 

new Model 579 UltraLoft to David Freymiller, 

president and CEO of Oklahoma City-based 

Freymiller Trucking. 

Peterbilt had announced the introduction of 

the Model 579 UltraLoft earlier this year. 

The UltraLoft features a high roof integral 

cab and sleeper design for Peterbilt’s flagship 

on-highway Model 579 that provides the ultimate 

driver comfort and distinctive style and 

quality, according to Robert Woodall, assistant 

general manager-sales and marketing. 

“The Model 579 UltraLoft was designed to 

exceed customer demands, offering increased 

space and storage to create a comfortable 

environment for drivers,” Woodall said. “The 

UltraLoft is the result of the collaborative process 

between Peterbilt and many of our customers 

and drivers. They asked for the best and we 

delivered.” 

Driver experience was the key driver in 

designing the Model 579 UltraLoft, Woodall 

said, adding that by optimizing the space available, 

the new sleeper model includes “industryleading 

storage and comfort.” 

“The UltraLoft gives drivers the largest 

upper and lower bunk mattresses, best-in-class 

headroom in both bunks and class-leading creature 

comforts with space to accommodate the 

industry’s largest microwave and enough room 

to fit a 32 inch flat screen TV,” Woodall said. 

The UltraLoft provides an estimated 2 

percent aerodynamic improvement and a 220- 

pound weight reduction to push the limits of 

efficiency even further. 

“Peterbilt trucks are the class 

of the industry. The superior 

craftsmanship, performance and 

design set them apart from the 

crowd and the pride of driving a 

Peterbilt is a tool we use to retain 

and recruit quality drivers,” said 

David Freymiller, president and 

CEO of Freymiller. “The Model 

579 UltraLoft is a game changer 

as it takes it to a new level. Our 

drivers are excited to take advantage 

of the increased space and 

premium cab design.” 

For more information about 

Peterbilt, visit peterbilt.com. ITJ 


ITJ 

Herald 

FMCSA working on NAS’s CSA 

suggestions 

In what appears to be an effort to make a 

substantive change to the CSA safety evaluation 

program rather than a piecemeal fix, the 

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration 

July 13 said it had withdrawn its most recent 

proposed changes to CSA so it can concentrate 

on a more sweeping overhaul suggested 

by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). 

A key recommendation of the NAS for 

an overhaul of CSA’s Safety Measurement 

System (SMS) was that FMCSA build a new 

system of data collection and analysis called 

the Item Response Theory or IRT, which is 

said to be more about probabilities than tallying 

violations. 

In background information accompanying 

its withdrawal announcement last month 

FMCSA noted that “the NAS cautioned the 

agency against making changes to the algorithm 

based on ad-hoc analysis and instead to 

rely on the IRT.” 

The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation 

or FAST Act required NAS to conduct 

a study of CSA and SMS, the agency’s 

current algorithm for identifying patterns of 

non-compliance and prioritizing carriers for 

intervention. 

FMCSA was to hold a public forum last 

month to discuss CSA data issues and NAS 

has created a committee to provide oversight 

of the IRT modeling process. 

In a report to Congress on its findings NAS 

gave benchmarks for development of IRT: 

• In September, run a small-scale IRT 

model test 

• April 2019, run a full-scale IRT model 

test, and on 

• June 2019, evaluate test results and effectiveness 

of the full-scale model. 

The rationale for IRT is that FMCSA needs 

“a more formal, statistical model to replace 

the current SMS algorithm and that the agency 

should focus on improving its data, including 

exposure and crash data,” the NAS report to 

Congress said. 

The FMCSA proposals that were withdrawn 

include changes to the intervention thresholds 

used by the agency to decide which carriers 

are a crash risk; segmenting the hazardous 

materials BASIC and making it public; making 

the violation for operating out-of-service 

show up under the unsafe driving BASIC 

rather than under the specific violation BA- 

SIC; increasing the maximum vehicle miles 

traveled in its carrier calculations; making the 

intervention threshold in the vehicle maintenance 

BASIC the 75th rather than the 80th 

percentile; raising the controlled substances 

BASIC to the 90th percentile; and keeping the 

65th percentile the intervention threshold for 


THE 

LANDSTAR 

ADVANTAGE 

Put more profit in your 

pocket and define success 

on your own terms as a 

Landstar independent 

owner-operator. 

• Non-forced dispatch: 

run when you want, 

where you want. 

• Earn a share of the revenue 

for every load hauled. As 

freight rates go up, your 

settlement check does too. 

Our Landstar 

Advantage 

earning a share 

of the revenue on 

every load we haul! 

• Big fuel discounts at the 

pump, no waiting for rebate 

checks. Big fleet national 

account tire prices. 

Cash rebates on new 

tractors, factory-direct 

trailer pricing. 

• Thousands of loads 

available every day. 

SEE THE ADVANTAGE FOR YOURSELF - 

LANDSTAR’S LIVE LOAD BOARD DEMONSTRATIONS 

contact us: recruiter@landstar.com or 1-877-312-4092 

www.lease2landstar.com 

VAN•REEFER•FLATBED•STEPDECK•EXPEDITED•HEAVY/SPECIALIZED•HOT SHOT 

1-877-312-4092 Follow us on Twitter @LandstarNow www.facebook.com/LandstarOwnerOperators

ITJ 

Herald 

unsafe driving, crash indicator and Hours of 

Service compliance. 

Since CSA’s deployment in 2011 (it was 

delayed a year), trucking stakeholders have 

claimed CSA is flawed. The NAS in June 

last year said CSA was a sound idea but the 

system the government used to collect and 

evaluate data was flawed. 

Some stakeholders have commented that 

if changes were made using the same CSA 

data-collection chassis, as it were, the vehicle 

would still be broken. 

The Government Accountability Office 

(GAO) in February 2014 recommended that 

FMCSA revise its SMS methodology to better 

account for data limitations when drawing 

comparisons of safety performance across 

carriers. 

FMCSA Administrator Ray Martinez told 

The Trucker News Organization recently that 

he wants “the regulated community to have 

confidence in our [CSA] system of evaluation” 

and that “it starts with data. Are we 

collecting good data? Are we evaluating it 

properly and what does it mean? How are we 

then turning that, along with our state partners, 

into enforcement?” 

Asked about making the data available for 

viewing by the public once again, Martinez 

said that while he is all for transparency, the 

agency needs to make sure that the analysis of 

that data, the methodology used to collect it 

and the analysis of it, are “fair.” 

Martinez added that redoing CSA is “a 

work in progress” but that “I’m hopeful that at 

some point we would get to a point where we 

would all agree that the information should be 

transparent.” 

NAS in its Congressional report gave 

FMCSA two years to develop the IRT model 

and said the agency estimates it will take $2.5 

million to implement. 

Funding for the most part is to come from 

other programs within the agency’s general 

operating expenses with additional money 

coming from research funding, new labor 

contracts and reallocation of resources. 

The IRT model has been used in the health 

care field and NAS said it “may provide the 

agency with tools to make decisions about 

the importance of different variables within 

SMS, such as which violations to include in a 

BASIC, severity weights and others.” 

Class 8 truck orders back up 

If you need to order a new Class 8 tractor 

get in line. 

There are few others ahead of you — 

150,000 to be exact. 

That’s the word from Kenny Vieth, president 

and senior analyst at ACT Research, who 

says with the current build out rate, it would 

take 7.8 months for your order to be delivered. 

“We are hearing right now if you want to 

order a truck today, you are looking at late 

first quarter or even second quarter,” Vieth 

said, noting that U.S. fleets are competing 

with Canadian and Mexican fleets for tractors. 

Build-out of tractors had decreased for 

three consecutive months before a significant 

increase in June, mainly because parts manufacturers 

couldn’t find enough workers. 

In March, 15,400 tractors were produced 

by OEMs, 14,100 in April and 13,600 in May, 

before the uptick that saw 19,200 in June. 

“The OEMs had difficulty in April and May 

getting fully produced units off the end of 

the assembly line so there were a lot of units 

that were red tagged in April and May,” Vieth 

said. “They were coming off the assembly 

line, but they had missing parts such as wiring 

harnesses or interior cab components, and in 

one instance we even heard windshields were 

a problem. ITJ 


Independent Trucker Jobs 

Advertiser’s Index 

Brisk.........................................................13, 32 

RTI............................................................10, 11 

Coal City Cob..............................................7, 25 

Sherwin-Williams..........................................21 

KL Breeden.................................................5, 29 

Star Freight................................................6, 23 

Landstar.....................................................9, 27 

UPS Freight.......................................2-3, 18-19 

Logix...........................................................8, 15 

USA Truck.................................................17, 31 

Page Trucking................................................30 

30 ITJ

RENEWED. RECOMMITTED. READY. 

With extensive freight networks, self-dispatch load board and steady pay, USA Truck 

puts you in control of pursuing and maintaining your successful driving business. 

Owner operator truck driver partnerships with USA Truck offer: 

• Fantastic freight options w/load boards • Fuel discounts 

• Self-Dispatch – you know how 

• No forced dispatch 

you work best 

• Free EZ Pass 

• Choose your pay package – 

• Complimentary lumpers 

• Percentage: 65% of Load Revenue + FSC • Referral bonuses 

• Mileage: $1.05 CPM 

• Lease Purchase - Low down 

• Plenty of miles 

payments and NEW Trucks 

This is the renewed, recommitted USA Truck – 

READY to offer the support your driving business deserves! 

Call 877-826-3345, Text (479) 471-6623 

or visit driveusatruck.com to begin your partnership today.

ITJ0918

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