The Newly Modernized World of High Capacity Loading Posted by DC Cargo Mall on June 17, 2013

Shipping cargo overseas was not always so easy.

There were horses, there were buggies, and there were ships. Eventually, there were bikes, and better yet, tiny cars.

As time went on, and progressions took place, the truck and the plane and the modernized boat revolutionized what we now know as cargo loading and shipment.

Moving across the globe to Australia not only became a possibility, but hauling every armoire and car thousands of miles away suddenly did not seem so miraculous anymore. It’s quite ironic, that the easier it gets to do the seemingly impossible, the more we take it for granted.

In our days of old, farmers would transport their produce and hay via a small wagon, and business men their goods, by tying rope around each load at most, to keep from falling. When more freight needed moving, more than one wagon, or multiple trips, were the sorry solution.

Nowadays, a consistently growing capacity of shipment methods is taking place.

 Take a plane’s cargo hold, such as the world’s biggest transporter, the Antonov AN-225. This Russian developed plane was originally built to carry a space shuttle, and has been recently refurbished. It can now hold over 250 tons, about 4 military tanks, or 80 cars! Its wingspan is almost the length of a football field, which explains it, well, partly.

 Then there’s the CMA CGM Alexandor Von Humboldt. This grand wondrous cargo boat easily defines the word enormity.  And its capacity? A maximum of 16,020 TEU. (Twenty-foot-equivalent-unit)

 

As for trucks, there is the ‘Titan Terex’. This monster truck is a site to be seen. It is one-of-a-kind. Literally, only one of these grand things were ever built. It has been the world’s largest and highest capacity truck for over 25 years until the invention of the Caterpillar 797-F, an even larger version costing five million dollars just to construct. 

 

 You can only begin to imagine, that at this trucks capacity- a baffling 400 tons, the amount of heavy-duty straps, chains, or otherwise needed for safe loading. 

We are so lucky to have transportation of heavy items, sent in bulk, so quickly, efficiently, and at unlimited distances.

What we must take a moment to stop and remember, is that the only reason that tanks are not flying about in the belly of the transport plane, and why that enormous coil ring is not rolling off of the flatbed, why those boxes of chickens are not tossed about inside the truck’s interior van, and why the enormous shipload stays in place in spite of rocky waves, is due to cargo securing equipment, and is dependent on the expertise and carefulness of the loader- that’s you!

More specifically, straps, chains, hooks, and the like, hold more significance then we think. If safety is your priority, and loading your expertise, visit us at DCCargoMall.com to learn more safety tricks, and get any loading equipment you need, provided here only with the highest in caliber and quality.

Inspection is Hip Posted by DC Cargo Mall on June 03, 2013

The rules out there for truck securement are not there just to keep you on your toes. They exist to keep you alive and to keep your cargo in one piece.

 Let’s face it. Truckers would be out of business if not for the need to move the cargo that they haul.

  It all revolves around the cargo and its securement, but at the end of the day, it’s up to you to ensure that these standards placed by the FMCSA are adhered to in a no-kidding manner.

And it isn’t because inspections crop up on the roadside and you want to be prepared. Because whether the principal is watching the student or not, the school is there for his knowledge bank to inflate, and ultimately, for his own benefit. Trucking isn’t all that different.

Secure your load properly, and the value of hiring you to transport loads has just gone up one-hundred percent!  Similar to the graded student, your ranking is recorded with authority, and whatever decisions you make or don’t, will come back to bite you in the face, good or otherwise.

Take Y. Tager for example. He is out of the business before his time and is now working at a factory, screwing caps on bottles. He says he is qualified for the trucking industry and devastated to be removed of the privilege to continue. He was extremely knowledgeable in all the ins and outs, the rules, and the tricks.

“I knew how to pull the wool over various authorities’ eyes, as far as load securement goes.” He reminisces thoughtfully. “But,” He adds, “In the long run, I’m screwed.” Tager explained that on one of his routes, where he side stepped a couple violations, and got by without quite enough ratchet straps, it happened. He even remembers the song that blasted from his old radio as he swerved ‘round the bend and the contents of his trailer broke loose. The entire truck went on a mad frenzy and picked up momentum as it swirled into a circle, hitting an empty parked bus, and downing a tree.

“I got lucky,” he reminds us.  “I could have died in a few seconds flat. The bus could have been full. My cushioned seats happened to save my life but it was then that it hit me that it isn’t about whose watching and who isn’t. It’s about you making sure to watch yourself. I had a clean slated record of CSA compliance rankings like you wouldn’t believe, in spite of my violations, because hiding was my expertise. But in 20/20 hindsight, I obviously needed to inspect my truck's safety for my own benefit.”

He concludes that he is lucky today that he has not wound up in jail from killing someone in the accident, and that he has not wound up dead. His truck license though, is a thing of the past, and as he finishes capping on his last few bottles at the factory for the day, he shows us a beautiful picture on his now tiny mobile phone, of a shiny red truck with his smiling face in the window.

He advises to replace damaged parts instead of repairing them, or to at least spend well-worth amounts on proper repairs instead of doing it yourself, and to inspect details often.

“My truck is gone, and some of my dignity too, because that was my passion. I learnt the hard way, but I share my story so that others learn the easy way, and don’t follow my path.”

He learnt to think of inspections as a doctors’ visit for his child. “You want them to be okay, right? Even if you take care of them, you want the professionals to come and say yeah, that’s a guy we want hauling our stuff around, we feel safe around him on the road. That’s my dream.”

The Tragedies of Proper Load Securement Neglect Posted by DC Cargo Mall on May 06, 2013

            Thomas RIP: A Truck Saga

A truck is rolled over onto its side, its dismembered contents look like they are writhing in pain.

The driver, Thomas A., was on his way to his hometown in Indiana, heading back from Minnesota, where he had just picked up a collection of ATV’s he had found for a bargain on EBay.

He was in good spirits earlier that day, excited to surprise his family and their neighbors with his new find.

The ATV’s were crammed up into the back of the truck, and Thomas was no stranger to proper packing. However, his truck was freshly bought just 2 days prior, and he hadn’t had the time to install the logistic tracks to connect his securing E-Track straps onto. His ATV’s didn’t look like they were going to get tossed around, not with all that cramming, anyway.

He was quite proud of the calculated setup he’d formed into the interior and noted to his driving partner Pete that they would have to put off the strap and track method for later.

“He reasoned that his 8 years of truck driving and loading expertise allowed for him to trick his way out of standard load securement methods. The logistic straps were in a box right there in the corner of his sleeper, but I didn’t argue ‘cause I trusted his judgment and the drive was not going to be too long.” Pete encountered.

But Pete said this from the hospital bed only days after he’d just awakened from a head-trauma induced coma. He couldn’t remember much, but the image of his friendship with Thomas was sharp in his mind. Asking for his friend caused quite a frenzy in the nursing department, when each nurse argued for the other to be chosen to report the tragic news.

His friend had not survived the tumble of unevenly distributed cargo, and the shriveled remains of what were once sparkling ATV’s were rendered useless after the fatal crash as well.

Thomas never made it home.

Improper loading for cargo securement and overweight freight is the cause for a hefty number of truck accidents annually. These fatal crashes remind us that the huge tragedy of a life taken or damaged in seconds can be avoided simply by adherence to proper packing methods.

Federal Law and common sense both agree to a strict requirement in following these simple solutions.

Simply ensure that logistic tracks, vertically, horizontally, or both- depending on your cargo, are firmly installed onto the walls of your interior or cargo van.

The holes aligned in these tracks are there for your choice of ratchet strapping to click in, screw on, or weld onto, wrapping your precious cargo in the safe hug that is necessary to prevent any cracked eggs, flattened ATV’s and most importantly, the loss of you, or a loved one’s life.

A real expert knows that prevention is always the best medicine.

Most Amazing Stupid Truck Driver Ever - Only in New York Posted by DC Cargo Mall on March 14, 2013

FMCSA Grants Petition Killing Alabama Steel Coil Transport Training and Certification Posted by DC Cargo Mall on March 13, 2013

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has granted a petition submitted by the American Trucking Associations asking the agency to determine if Alabama's Metal Coil Securement Act is preempted by federal law. The ruling means the state can no longer impose the law's requirements on interstate movements, effective April 4.
In a Federal Register notice issued Tuesday, the agency said the law imposes certification requirements on Interstate drivers that are not required under FMCSA regulations and are more stringent than those imposed by federal law.
The law, adopted in 2009, prohibits a motor carrier from transporting metal coils in a movement that originates or terminates in Alabama unless the driver is certified in load securement. The law, as originally enacted, also required the driver to carry a copy of the certification in the vehicle and produce it upon demand. Maximum penalties for violating these requirements include fines of between $5,000 and $10,000, jail time and/or a court order prohibiting the driver from operating a CMV in the state.
On June 26, 2009, FMCSA sent a letter to then-Alabama Gov. Bob Riley stating that the law appeared to be incompatible with the requirements of FMCSA's Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program. FMCSA also drew attention to two federal laws authorizing preemption of state legislation and indicated that they might be applicable. The agency urged state officials to work with FMCSA officials to resolve any conflict between state and federal law.
Gov. Riley responded by explaining that the law was adopted in response to a number of accidents in Birmingham, Ala., involving metal coils falling off trailers along Interstate routes. He took the position that federal law did not preempt Alabama’s metal coil load securement certification requirements.
On Dec. 22, 2010, ATA petitioned FMCSA for a determination that Alabama's metal coil load securement certification requirements and penalties create an unreasonable burden on interstate commerce and are preempted under federal law. ATA contended that Alabama's requirement that drivers obtain certification in metal coil load securement is more stringent than and incompatible with federal metal coil safety regulations.
In 2011 Alabama issued regulations offering drivers three options to become certified in load securement: obtain a Metal Coil Certificate by taking and passing the  “Securing Metal Coils Course'' available for $25 and on the web site, www.metalcoiltraining.com, obtain a commercial driver's license endorsement that allows the driver to haul metal coils in the state, or obtain a Metal Coil Certificate from a motor carrier authorized by the Alabama Department of Public Safety to issue the certificate, which would require the carrier's safety compliance officer to submit a notarized affidavit that they have personal knowledge that the carrier requires every driver to be trained in the requirements of hauling metal coils.
Later in 2011, Alabama amended the Act, rescinding the requirement that drivers carry copies of their metal coil load securement certification in their vehicles. It continued to require drivers to obtain certification, but drivers are no longer were required to produce the certification upon demand.
FMCSA published a notice in the Federal Register on Nov. 23, 2011, seeking comment on whether the Act is preempted by Federal law. The five comments opposing preemption included one each from an individual driver, a motor carrier, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Alabama Trucking Association and the Alabama Department of Public Safety. The eight comments supporting the preemption petition included four from motor carriers, and one each from an owner-operator, ATA, an Alabama aluminum coil producer and the Owner-Operators Independent Drivers Association.

Cargo securement tips to lower CSA scores Posted by DC Cargo Mall on March 01, 2013

By Jack Roberts

By Jack Roberts

A freshly-minted driver who recently had graduated from a CDL school came by to chat with his instructors and let them know how things were going. He’d just gotten hired by a big fleet, and the instructor asked him how he liked his job so far. “I love it,” the driver replied. “I only work about 15 minutes a day, tying down my load. The rest of the time, I just drive.”

The driver’s attitude was instructive. Cargo securementdemands repetitive attention to detail, patience and consistency – traits that are rare among all humans, but for truck drivers, extremely critical to safety. Properly securing a load always has been vital for a successful fleet operation – and in today’s Compliance Safety Accountability environment, even more so.

Dan Doran, president of Cincinnati-based Ace Doran Hauling and Rigging, says that while his fleet hasn’t seen an increase in inspections or violations since CSA was implemented, his shop and drivers did prepare beforehand to limit their exposure on the road.

“We educated our contractors as to the importance of inspecting their tools when it comes to chains and straps and blocking components,” Doran says. “It used to be that if it was a strong chain with hooks on both ends, it was good enough to go. Now straps are being looked at as the inspector goes by them on the road or as they go through a scale to see if they can find a reason to pull them over and go over the truck a little more closely.”

Good load securement is critical, and not only because law enforcement is keeping a closer watch. Customers entrust a fleet to transport its products safely and have them arrive in good condition. Add potential litigation resulting from property damage or injury into the mix, and the stakes are raised even higher. And since proper load securement takes time, it also affects a fleet’s bottom line – even before the load is under way.

 “Tarping a secured load can take up to two hours for a driver and sometimes more, depending upon the weather,” says Roland Lockard, operations manager with UltraTarp. Often, drivers don’t get paid additional money for tarping secured loads for shippers and receivers, Lockard says.

CSA’s microscope

Under CSA, violations for improperly secured cargonegatively impact both a fleet and a driver. If a citation is issued, it now is entered into the fleet’s Vehicle Maintenance BASIC (Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category). Admittedly, there are several violations for which a driver is not responsible – including aspects of the law that assigns responsibility to either the shipper or the fleet – but if the ticketing officer determines that the infraction is one the driver could have rectified, a separate violation will be entered into that driver’s personal database.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration made additional changes in December after four months of study. It did away with the Cargo-Related BASIC and replaced it with the Hazmat BASIC, moving improper securement violations into the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC.

The severity weights of many securement violations was reduced then, too.

As law enforcement attention on cargo securement increases, all fleets are reviewing their securement procedures. As a carrier with a large flatbed operation, Maverick finds itself under a more intense spotlight than fleets hauling box trailers.

“We’re definitely seeing more flatbed inspections as CSA kicks in,” Newell says. “I’m not saying that’s a bad thing – it’s to be expected.” That’s why Maverick monitors its drivers and how their CSA scores are faring within its fleet. “Both (fleet and driver) scores are important,” he says.

Under CSA, cargo securement includes a wide array of inspection points and potential violations. Beyond simple unsecured loads, failing to flag a load properly or marking hazardous materials improperly can result in a violation. Similarly, a driver transporting hazardous materials can expect to be ticketed for failing to have improper emergency information on hand when it is requested.

Flatbed operations bear the brunt of cargo-related CSA concerns simply because of the visibility of their loads and securement devices, but reefer and van operations don’t have it any easier. CSA also specifies that cargo inside a van trailer must be secured against movement in all four directions. As with a flatbed operation, if the driver fails to secure the load with straps or load bars across the back of a load that does not reach the back doors, he will end up with a ticket.

“Drivers bear the brunt unless it is a sealed load and the driver is doing a drop and hook,” says Bob Dissinger, director of U.S. sales for Kinedyne. If the trailer is loaded but not sealed, the driver should open the trailer doors on the trailer and check to see it is secured properly, Dissinger says. On flatbeds, he should check all cargo securement devices to ensure the proper amount and tightening, he says.

Keeping up to date

Continuing education is the most important factor in fending off CSA hits. “You really need to monitor and keep up to date on cargo securement rules and regulations,” Dissenger says. These laws change regularly at federal, state and local levels.

Dissenger says fleets also must conduct regular safety training for drivers and anyone else loading and securing a trailer. “At Kinedyne, we tell our customers to be aware that not all safety-related securement products are the same,” he says. A lower price tag often translates into lower product quality, consistency and life expectancy, he says.

Newell directs Maverick’s cargo securement training programs and describes them as extensive and intensive, relying heavily on a systematic approach to education and procedures. Basic orientation last five days, and if the driver will be working in Maverick’s flatbed division, load securement consists of another week on hands-on exercises at the company’s training facility – and if they’re hauling glass, another week on top of that.

Maverick’s training also is ongoing. The fleet films its own in-house safety videos – some as short as 15-second reminders of proper safety procedures – that are beamed out to trucks on the road for drivers to watch at their convenience.

“It’s been very beneficial for us,” Newell says. “I think our drivers like the fact that they have that information handy if they need it.”

 More research

Maverick’s commitment to load securement goes even deeper. “Everything that we haul is closely examined before it ever gets loaded onto a trailer,” Newell says. This starts early in the sales process: When a Maverick salesman closes a deal, one of the check-off boxes on his list is to contact the company’s safety department and initiate a process for assessing proper load securement.

“We start with the basics and look at the securement of the load and make sure we can handle it with our existing equipment and systems,” Newell says. “If not, we come up with alternatives to make it safe.”

Maverick’s sales team works closely with the safety department, including the driver training aspect. If the customer has a new unfamiliar load, Newell’s team will obtain pictures of it – or even send someone to the customer’s location to inspect the load firsthand and figure out how to transport it safely.

“Load securement is more important than ever because everyone – fleets and drivers – are focused on their CSA scores,” Newell says. “You have to try to control it.”

Tractor-trailer damages bridge in Snyder Posted by DC Cargo Mall on January 15, 2013

The U.S. Highway 180 overpass at U.S. Highway 84 in Snyder was damaged Tuesday by a truck carrying an oversize load, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

No one was injured in the wreck, in which an 18-wheeler carrying a rock crusher attempted to pass underneath the bridge, said Senior Trooper Sparky Dean, DPS spokesman, in a statement.
Dean said the truck, which is registered to Price Construction in Big Spring, was traveling west on U.S. 84 when it hit the bridge at about 4:30 p.m.

The truck, which is permitted to travel at 14 feet in height, attempted to pass beneath a bridge marked at a height of 14 feet 5 inches.

The DPS' commercial vehicle enforcement team will measure the truck's load to see whether it fit the permit's specifications, he said. The bridge also will be measured.
Dean said traffic is being diverted on both roads.

"This bridge is currently closed and will remain closed until repairs are completed," said Darah Waldrip, Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman, adding that TxDOT personnel will assess the damage today.

In late September, an 18-wheeler struck and damaged the concrete pillars of a U.S. 84 bridge where it crosses Interstate 20 just east of Roscoe. TxDOT has scheduled the bridge for replacement.

Landstar moving toward electronic logs Posted by DC Cargo Mall on January 09, 2013

Known widely as the nation’s largest all-owner-operator fleet, Landstar System has since August installed in the neighborhood of 1,000 electronic onboard recorders (EOBRs) on trucks operating leased to one or another of its fleets. The installations are the result of a new policy company Vice President and Chief Safety and Operations Officer Joe Beacom described as stemming in part from Landstar Inway (with Landstar Ranger, one of the company’s primary truckload fleets) moving above the intervention threshold in the Hours of Service Compliance BASIC (Behavioral Analysis and Safety Improvement Category) under CSA.

All new leases signed at Ranger and Inway now come with the requirement for the business capacity owner (or BCO, Landstar’s internal nomenclature for its leased owner-operators) to keep their hours of service electronically using one of three Qualcomm EOBRs with other communications/reporting tools embedded. The program also applies to current BCOs, but adoption of EOBR technology remains voluntary in large part. “Anybody who’s already here can voluntarily get one” of the units, said Beacom, “and [Landstar] will pay for the purchase of the unit.”

The  BCO is responsible for airtime costs at rates of $27.25 per month for the Qualcomm MCP50 and MCP110 units and $36.25 per month for the MCP200, company officials said.
Such applies only with voluntary adoption, however, and will be an option for contractors as long as “they don’t have any [hours] violations or roadside issues,” said Beacom. “As they get violations, they’ll have to get one — and pay for it.”

The policy — not applicable to contractors with expedited fleet Landstar Express America, though BCOs there can purchase EOBR-capable units through the Landstar Contractors’ Advantage Purchase Plan for volume discounts — has been in effect since August, Beacom added, when Landstar Inway crossed the then-Fatigued Driving BASIC’s intervention threshold for hazmat carriers, 60. (Today, the Inway fleet remains slightly above the threshold, at 61.60, the only score in any of the BASICs above threshold level among all of Landstar’s fleets.)

Before that happened, “we had talked an awful lot,” said Beacom, about how to introduce EOBRs, given the large fleet’s peer group’s wide adoption of the devices, which virtually eliminate the minor so-called “form and manner” violations that are the most common hours violations. “Our peers are the large companies that have them on every [truck]. I’d say we’re fortunate to be in the low 60s that way. Our guys historically have not had a lot of log violations, but when somebody has next to zero because it’s all automated, it’s hard to compete with that. We like the progress we’re making.”
Beacom said customers have asked “what we’re doing” to combat Inway’s hours BASIC ranking, “and they like our answer. We show them our Crash Indicator BASIC measure, which is not public — it’s 9 or so, the top ten percent best in accident frequency in the peer group.

The company continues to have a very low turnover rate, Beacom added — “Our turnover rate is going to end up this year at 25 percent” — and the policy has had no effect on contractor profitability with the carrier. “Things haven’t changed,” Beacom said. “It’s not moving the needle on profitability. It’s just a way to automate and use technology to do something you were doing already.”

Just mention or type DISCOUNT CODE 2013 on any order over 99$ to receive your instant discount. Posted by DC Cargo Mall on January 07, 2013

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Driver Shortage Boosting Dedicated U.S. Trucking Business Posted by DC Cargo Mall on January 03, 2013

Retailers and grocery stores are among companies increasingly using dedicated-fleet services as a shortage of drivers constrains U.S. trucking capacity while the economy heals.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. (JBHT) and Werner Enterprises Inc. (WERN) are among carriers benefiting from an “accelerating trend” that’s helping to buoy the trucking industry, according to John Larkin, managing director in Baltimore at Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Dedicated-fleet services -- provided by a carrier that allocates a fleet of trucks to specific customers -- are “in vogue” because shippers want to eliminate the uncertainty related with procuring vehicles, he said.


These services now are “the preferred approach to lock in capacity” for core shipments, Larkin said. Further, because customers are charged the same amount whether a truck is empty or full, they can better manage their costs in the event of a shortage by negotiating rates for “defined, predictable routes” in advance, he added.
Businesses also can preserve capital, while avoiding expenses from accidents and other risks associated with operating their own trucks, said Vincent McLoughlin, chairman of Cardinal Logistics Management Corp.
The Concord, North Carolina-based carrier sees more interest in dedicated-contract carriage services, particularly from retail and building-supply companies, boosting revenue for this $330 million business, he said. Cardinal Logistics provides supply-chain consulting, warehousing and distribution to AutoZone Inc. (AZO), Office Depot Inc. (ODP) and other customers.

Driver Hiring

J.B. Hunt has made “significant efforts in driver hiring due to shortened lead times for contract start dates,” the carrier said in an Oct. 11 statement. This shows demand is accelerating as customers want quicker access to dedicated-fleet services, said Larkin, who maintains a “hold” recommendation on the company.
Retail sales rose 1.1 percent in September following a 1.2 percent increase in August, the best back-to-back showing since late 2010, according to Commerce Department data.
Building supplies also are rebounding as the housing market improves. New-home construction starts jumped 15 percent in September from the prior month to an 872,000 annual rate, while residential permits -- a proxy for future construction -- rose to 890,000, based on Commerce figures. Both were the best since July 2008 and exceeded the median forecasts of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Expanding Business

While J.B. Hunt’s dedicated-services business is expanding, growth slowed in the third quarter, when this segment accounted for 21 percent of the Lowell, Arkansas, carrier’s total operating revenue, down from 23 percent a year ago, and revenue rose 1.4 percent, compared with 7.2 percent in the first quarter of this year.
This could be a result of the sluggish economy, Larkin said. “You can read between the lines to conclude what we already knew, that the third quarter was pretty soft.”
Gross domestic product grew at a 2 percent annual rate in the three months ended Sept. 30, more than the 1.8 percent median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg but trailing the 2.8 percent average for the five years before the recession, according to data from the Commerce Department.
The average number of trucks in J.B. Hunt’s dedicated- contract services fleet grew 4.8 percent to 5,153 in the three months ended Sept. 30, company data show. The increase was “more or less in line with expectations,” Larkin said. Meanwhile, Omaha, Nebraska-based Werner Enterprises has a long- term goal that one-third of its revenue will come from dedicated-fleet operations, he said.

Onerous Operations

It’s onerous for shippers to operate their own trucks, said Charles Clowdis, managing director of transportation advisory services at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts. That’s because they must cope with Department of Transportation regulations, including pending and recent rules from its Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
There’s a shortage of qualified drivers, as some rules have made it more difficult to add workers, while other industries -- such as construction -- have poached potential employees, Clowdis said. This “phenomenon is getting worse,” which could hinder hiring even more, though dedicated contracts tend to appeal to potential drivers because they have an established route each day or week, increasing the likelihood they can be home more often, he added.
Though rates may be a bit higher for customers to use dedicated-fleet services, supermarkets and retailers like this option because it’s “better to have capacity when they need it,” Clowdis said. A sense of urgency also is fueling the increased popularity, even if shippers have to pay when there isn’t merchandise to fill the trucks, Larkin said.
As a result, the benefits appear to be outweighing the costs as more customers of Cardinal Logistics are looking “more critically” at this option, McLoughlin said. “Why invest in the trucks if you don’t need to?”
To contact the reporters on this story: Anna-Louise Jackson in New York at ajackson36@bloomberg.net; Anthony Feld in New York at afeld2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Feld at afeld2@bloomberg.net

Driver gets 18 months for falsified logbook Posted by DC Cargo Mall on December 30, 2012

A federal judge has sentenced a Philadelphia trucker to 18 months in prison for falsifying his logbook in connection to a sentence he was already serving for vehicular homicide.

On May 7, U.S. District Court Judge James Knoll Gardner sentenced Valerijs Nikolaevich Belovs, 58, on 15 counts of making false statements in connection with a falsified log book, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The Philadelphia judge also fined Belovs $1,000, levied a $1,500 special assessment and prohibited him from operating a commercial vehicle without court permission.
In October, Belovs pleaded guilty to the charges for 15 false logbook entries made in the 13 months leading up to his Jan. 23, 2009 crash.  Three days before the crash, he had left Guadalupe, Calif. with a load of broccoli bound for South Philadelphia and New Jersey’s produce markets, according to the U.S. transportation inspector general.

Belovos had kept four logbooks, each falsified to fit possible situations with authorities.  One example cited was that on Jan. 22, he said he had been in his sleeper berth in Wyethville, Va., when he actually had been driving to Pennsylvania.

The day of the accident, Belovs had been eastbound on Interstate 76 in Philadelphia when he rounded a curve and encountered stopped rush hour traffic. His Kenworth rear ended a car, causing a crash chain reaction for four more vehicles. The driver of the car Belovs hit died, his passenger sustained serious injuries and four other commuters were treated at local hospitals.

The Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas sentenced Belovs to 23 months in prison and a $300 fine on April 26, 2010. He had pleaded guilty to various state charges, including a vehicular homicide department.

The U.S. DOT’s Office of Inspector General reported that, though the truck had a seven-week old inspection sticker, the brakes were severely worn. Belovs drove for Victor Kilinitchii of Philadelphia, who leased drivers to the three trucks he owned. The sticker had been provided by Philadelphia’s Pratt Auto, which was owned by Joseph Jadczak Jr. of Milton, Del.

Belovs had told OIG investigators he had brake trouble on his trip to and from California. Near, Chicago, he said he telephoned Kalinitchii, who refused to approve a repair and ordered him to deliver by 1 p.m. Jan. 23. After that, Belovs contacted Kalinitchii again over steering problems while braking and the truck owner said he would have the brakes checked when he returned the truck in Philadelphia.

Later, Kalinitchii and Jadzack told authorities the stickers had been purchased without inspection or necessary repairs, according to the DOT inspector general’s office.
The same day Belovs was sentenced, the Montgomery County court sentenced Kalinitichii to 23 months in prison, a $2,000 fine and $26,000 in restitution, while Jadczak was sentenced to 23 months incarceration and fined $1000.

Happy Holidays from DC Cargo Mall Posted by DC Cargo Mall on December 25, 2012

Everyone at DC CARGO MALL, Inc. wishes you and your company a Happy Holiday season and prosperous New Year. We hope that you will enjoy the season and that you will be spending some time with your family and friends.

We thank you for your business throughout the year, and we are very excited about being a part of your 2013 success. Your continued support helps us to maintain our high quality while keeping your costs as low as possible.

DC CARGO MALL, Inc. is here for you, and we are happy to help you with all of your Cargo Control needs.

We will continue to do everything possible to earn your trust and goodwill. Have a safe and happy holiday season!

Sincerely,

David Majesz
DC Cargo Mall - The cargo securement people.


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