2019 Nissan Altima: Midsize Bag of Tricks

digitaltrends.com

Article thanks to Matthew Guy and thetruthaboutcars.com. Links provided:

3/28/2018  In a flurry of robots and futuristic music, Nissan introduced the 2019 Altima today at the New York Auto Show. With available all-wheel drive and a variable compression engine, the sixth-gen Altima has a couple of tricks up its sleeve to take on the Accord and Camry.

Writers in different corners of the internet have been, rightly or wrongly, sounding a death knell for the traditional three-box sedan, citing sales declines for most models in the segment. For certain, Altima sales are off by about 100,000 units since its 2014 peak, but over a quarter-million buyers did drive off in a new Altima last year. That is not a number at which to sneeze.

Tellingly, the words “Intelligent Mobility” were the first ones shown on the screen behind the shiny new red sedan on stage in New York. The company was quick to tout the availability of its oddly-capitalized ProPILOT Assist technology, a suite of safety nannies that appeared on the new Leaf in December.

For now, Nissan is calling ProPILOT Assist a single-lane “hands-on” driving assistance technology that eases driver workload by reducing the amount of acceleration, steering and braking input under certain driving conditions. Your author has tried the system firsthand, finding it to generally play within lane boundaries so long as the markings are clear. Driving still requires plenty of attention with ProPILOT Assist, as it should.

Taking one’s hands off the wheel for an extended period of time triggers a claxon not unlike the Red Alert sound on the USS Enterprise. Fail to grab the wheel at this point and the system gradually applies the brakes, bringing the car to a full stop. I’m not entirely sure what to think about that last feature, as coming to a dead stop in an active motorway doesn’t rank too high on my Top 40, even if I am incapacitated for some reason. Better than sailing off into the weeds at 60 mph, I suppose. ProPILOT Assist will be standard on the 2019 Altima SV, SL and Platinum grades. Base S and sporty SR trims will do without.

Denis LeVot, chairman of Nissan North America and a former engineer at Renault, introduced the car on stage in NYC. He addressed the continuing market shift to crossovers and said he hopes the new Altima’s all-wheel-drive feature will capture some of those customers who truly want a sedan but feel the need for extra traction. The system, which can send up to 50 percent of the engine’s power astern, will certainly give the Altima a unique selling point against the other two top sedans in the market – Accord and Camry.

Two engines are deployed in the new Altima. Replacing the previous-generation Altima’s 3.5-liter V6 engine is the company’s unique 2.0-liter variable compression turbo inline-four. It makes 248 horsepower and 273 lb-ft of twist. The inner workings of a variable compression engine makes this author’s head spin like a tumble dryer, so I encourage you to check out our previous explanations of the technology.

Standard on all 2019 Altima grade levels is a 188 horse 2.5-liter inline-four with direct injection. Buried in the press release but not mentioned on stage is that the Altima’s unique selling point, all-wheel drive, will only be available with the base engine. This is Nissan we’re talking about, so I don’t need to tell you what type of transmission it has.

The interior gets a rethink, opened up by way of a tablet-style infotainment system and relocated controls. Photos show a dash top that’s lower than the door’s beltline, a feature that – at least in other cars deploying this architecture – goes a long way in making the interior feel more spacious and airy. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are said to be standard equipment on all models.

Year to date in 2018, the Altima trails only the Camry in America’s midsize car gladiator ring, selling 39,888 cars through the end of February. Toyota showed 55,503 Camrys to the door while Honda found 37,430 buyers for its Accord. A new Altima, then, is a bigger deal than most people realize.

The 2019 Altima goes on sale in America this fall.

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2018/03/new-york-news-2019-nissan-altima/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TheTruthAboutCars.com_new-content-unsold&utm_source=TheTruthAboutCars.com20180328

Where Did the Hours of Service Rules Come From, Anyway?

Article thanks to Jim Park and truckinginfo.com. Links provided:

Hours of service regulations originated in the 1930s and today are at the center of the debate around electronic logging devices.

March, 2018  How the hours of service rules for truck drivers ever became a safety regulation is a question that has vexed many in the industry. The rules came into being in the 1930s as a combination of labor and economic regulation intended to bring some stability to the nascent trucking industry, and to protect workers from overly demanding employers. There were few rules to speak of at the time, and little was known scientifically about fatigue, sleep, driver performance, or crash causation.

The earliest regulations requiring rest for truck drivers, circa 1935, allowed drivers to work 12 hours within a 15-hour period while requiring nine hours of rest and three hours of breaks within a 24-hour day. That rule also established a weekly maximum of 60 hours on-duty over seven consecutive days. Sound familiar?

A few years later, organized labor petitioned trucking’s regulator, the Interstate Commerce Commission, for a reduction in the hours drivers were required to work, proposing an eight-hour daily limit and 48-hour weekly limit. The ICC, lacking any specific knowledge on the matter, asked the U.S. Public Health Service in 1938 to investigate truck driver hours of work. The resulting report was not very conclusive, but it did note, “... a reasonable limitation of the HOS would ... act in the interest of highway safety.”

The rules would not change substantially until 1962, when the ICC eliminated the 24-hour framework and replaced it with a rotation that allowed the driver to drive up to 10 hours within a 15-hour period before being required to take eight hours off. The net effect allowed the work/sleep rotation to slip to as short as 16 hours. This meant drivers could get across the country in fewer days, but they would find themselves with no hours left in their 60-hour, seven-day cycles within five or six days.

The split sleeper-berth provision was added in the mid-1960s, which allowed drivers to split their sleeper time into two periods. This meant some would log formerly “clock-running” on-duty time as sleeper time, regardless of whether they were in the sleeper resting or not.

By the late 1960s, as highways grew more crowded, the number of truck crashes was rising, and several safety groups began calling on government to do something to prevent the carnage. They claimed truck driver fatigue was at the root of many crashes and called for changes to the drivers’ HOS rules. This prompted the first scientific analysis of driver fatigue. Three studies would be conducted in the 1970s that did note a causal relationship between fatigue and truck crashes, but the results were not conclusive enough to justify changes proposed in 1979 by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The HOS rules would remain fundamentally unchanged for almost 60 years until 1995, when Congress directed the DOT to establish a new set of HOS rules incorporating the latest scientific understanding of human fatigue and alertness. DOT published a new rule in 2003 that, again, merely tweaked the rule.

Those, and subsequent changes to HOS up to the present, have statistically done little to lower truck crash rates. While many in the industry complain that they did succeed in limiting trucking’s productivity and drivers’ ability to rest when they needed to rest, critics say the rule changes have not addressed the suspected problem of truck driver fatigue as it relates to crashes and to driver well-being.

Depending on which of the fatigue experts you believe, the various HOS rules developed over the past 80 years have increased driver fatigue while limiting opportunities for rest, have increased drivers’ alertness but could still be improved upon to reduce crashes, or, have done little to meaningfully reduce truck crash rates.

http://www.truckinginfo.com/channel/safety-compliance/article/story/2018/03/where-did-the-hours-of-service-rules-come-from-anyway.aspx?utm_source=email&utm_medium=enewsletter&utm_campaign=20180324-NL-HDT-TopNews-BOBCD180318006&omdt=NL-HDT-TopNews&omid=1000129208

Dreams Do Come True

Gregg Softy’s New Kenworth T680 Advantage
– Photo courtesy of Kenworth Truck Co

Article thanks to Sandra Bokovay and the drivewyze.com. Links provided:

Retired Army Officer Realizes Lifelong Dream to Drive a Big Rig

March 20, 2018  After serving nearly 30 years in the U.S. military with a distinguished record, Lt. Col. Gregg Softy didn’t go to work for a military contractor or go into law enforcement when he retired. Instead, he chose to follow his lifelong dream of driving a big rig.

Ever since he was a kid, Gregg says he has been enamored with trucks, truck drivers and the industry. At the age of 6, he visited the Vince Lombardi Memorial truck stop in New Jersey and asked truck drivers for their autographs.

But that dream took a backseat to his career as a U.S. Army officer after he attended and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. For 28 years, Gregg served in the U.S. Army, became an Airborne Ranger and was deployed six times for overseas missions in Iraq and Kuwait, Haiti, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Libya. During his nearly three decades of service, he earned three bronze stars, a Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious service medal, and a number of other service and combat badges, decorations and medals.

As he approached retirement age, Softy considered some post-military second career options, but always came back to his lifelong dream of becoming a truck driver. After discussing it with his wife, Gregg chose to take advantage of Stevens Transport’s Operation Patriot apprenticeship program, which is approved by IMCOM (the U.S. Army’s Installation Management Command).

Program Allows Soldiers to Complete Driver Training While on Active Duty

The program allowed Gregg to complete his driver training in Ranger, Texas, and obtain his CDL, while still serving in the military. Available to active duty soldiers on several military installations, Stevens Transport covers the cost of training. Then, when the soldiers retire or complete their tour of duty, they can go to work for Stevens, which pays them up to $50,000 in the first year. A soldier-turned-driver can also earn an additional apprenticeship bonus of a little over $20,000. Here are links to some additional information about Stevens Transport’s program for veterans – visit http://www.becomeadriver.com/veterans/ or http://info.stevenstransport.com/stevens-military-vet-hiring-ub/

Last year after he started driving for Stevens Transport, Gregg first learned at the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas that he was chosen as one of three finalists out of a field of more than 10,000 nominations for the 2017 Transition Trucking: Driving for Excellence Award. The award is sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Hiring Our Heroes Program, FASTPORT and Kenworth.

Then in December, a little over a week before Christmas, Gregg learned he had been chosen for thetop military veteran rookie driver honor during a special ceremony at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C.

Nearly 50 Years Later, Santa’s Elves Make Bigger Truck for Retired Army Officer

At that ceremony, in a scene somewhat reminiscent of a Christmas nearly a half century earlier when Gregg’s parents gave him a big toy truck at the age of 4, Kenworth presented him the real thing. It was a new Kenworth T680 Advantage equipped with a fuel-efficient 455-hp PACCAR MX-13 engine and a 76-inch sleeper featuring the Kenworth Driver Studio Package.

Recently, Land Line Magazine, the official publication of the Owner-Operators and Independent Drivers Association, published a story about Gregg.

In that story, Land Line staff writer Mark Schremmer talked with Gregg and learned about Gregg’s transition from company driver to owner-operator and his plans to start a trucking company with an Army buddy. And when Gregg started talking about his stepson, and how his stepson fulfilled his own dream of being a part of a national college football championship team following his tour of duty, Mark says “it definitely caught my attention”.

“Before I started working at Land Line, I worked as a sports writer for a couple of different newspapers,” he says.

Before Pursuing His Dream, Gregg Watches as Stepson Realizes His Own Dream

And as a sportswriter, Mark immediately recognized the name of his stepson – Brennan Goodnature, a walk-on to the former national champion Clemson Tigers football team during his last year of athletic eligibility. To learn more about what role Gregg played in Brennan’s life, check out the story ESPN wrote about Brennan in December 2015.

https://drivewyze.com/blog/truck-drivers/dreams-come-true/

Colorado becomes the latest state to require human trafficking training for CDL holders

c1training.com

Article thanks to Christine Loganbill and cdllife.com. Links provided:

April, 2018  A new law in Colorado will require truck drivers to educate themselves on how to detect and prevent human trafficking.

Gov. John Hickenlooper signed the measure into law on April 12, 2018 with bipartisan support.

According to US News, the law will require new drivers to complete a short training program as a prerequisite for attaining a CDL. The training is available at no extra cost to the driver.

“It just heightens awareness, and it shows you how you can be part of the solution,” said Senator Rachel Zenzinger, D-Arvada, one of the bill’s sponsors.

Colorado state Representative Dominique Jackson, D-Aurora expressed how truck drivers are perfect candidates to join the fight.

“It’s my understanding that the majority of sex-trafficking cases and labor-trafficking cases are identified by members of the public,” Jackson says. “Truckers tend to be at places where people come in and out of — motels, truck stops and gas stations. They see a lot of things.”

Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT) offers a free online certification course for truckers and will provide evidence of completion to the state. Their course includes a 26-minute video and a 15-question quiz.

“The course is geared to make commercial drivers to be aware of human trafficking, look for the tell-tale signs of individuals who may be with other drivers or around truck stops who may be victims of human trafficking,” said State Police Spokesman Bill Sadler.

As for Colorado, their new law is set to go into effect this summer.

https://cdllife.com/2018/colorado-becomes-the-latest-state-to-require-human-trafficking-training-for-cdl-holders/

Service Accused of Coercing Fleets into Paying Fake Fees Agrees to Settle

truckinginfo.com

Article thanks to truckinginfo.com. Links provided:

March 19, 2018  The operators of an online registration service for motor carriers has agreed to settle with the Federal Trade Commission over charges that they impersonated and falsely claimed affiliation with the U.S. Department of Transportation and other government agencies.

The two were accused of deceiving small trucking businesses into paying them for federal and state motor carrier registrations.

Under the settlement order, the defendants are banned from misrepresenting affiliation with any government entity and from using consumer billing information to obtain payments without expressed consent.

They must also adequately disclose that they are a private third-party service provider and any fees associated with their services. The order imposes a $900,000 judgment that must be paid within one day.

James P. Lamb and Uliana Bogash were accused of violating the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers Confidence ACT while operating under the company names DOTAuthority.com and DOTFIlings.com, Excelsior Enterprises International, and JPL Enterprises International.

Certain trucking companies that must register annually with the Unified Carrier Registration system can register through the official UCR website or the official website of their state.

In a released statement, Lamb characterized the lawsuit as a nuisance case, saying that it was “government overreach at best, a failed political hit job to disgrace me at worst.” Lamb said he believed that the lawsuit was retaliation against his businesses for two federal lawsuits he brought against the U.S. DOT in 2013 and 2015 as a non-profit trade group president.

Lamb and Bogash are accused of taking more than $19 million from thousands of small businesses by creating the false impression that they were affiliated with U.S. DOT, the UCR system, or another government agency.

Through allegedly misleading robocalls, emails, and text messages they would send false warnings to the fleets that they could be subjected to civil penalties, fines, or law enforcement actions unless they registered with one of their sites instead of through official government websites.  

They were also accused of obscuring the total amount charged, which ranged from $25 to $500 or more. In some cases, fleets alleged that they were automatically enrolled in an annual renewal program without knowledge or consent.

Lamb further went on to state that DOTAuthority.com offered customers a convenience-oriented alternative and were simply filling a need in the market and not deceiving carriers. According to the release, DOTAuthority.com displayed disclaimers on its website to make it clear that they were not affiliated with the government.

Some fleets were automatically enrolled in recurring payments, but there was an option to opt out that did meet the requirements for what is legally regarded as negative option marketing, and is in compliance with FTC rules, according to Lamb

“Their goal was not to protect the public from deception as they speciously represented, but to engage in character assassination to take down an outspoken trade group president standing up for small business and to corruptly put my legitimate business out of business in retaliation,” said Lamb.

Editor's note: Updated to include statements from DOTAuthority.com.

http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/story/2018/03/service-that-coerced-fleets-into-paying-fake-registration-fees-agrees-to-settle.aspx

Ryder acquires e-commerce logistics company for $120M

Article thanks to Debora Lima and bizjournals.com. Links provided:

4/3/2018  Ryder System Inc. has acquired an e-commerce logistics company, positioning the Miami-based Fortune 500 company to become the second-largest last-mile delivery provider of bulky goods in the U.S. and Canada.

The $120 million acquisition of Ohio-based MXD Group, announced Tuesday, is just the latest development for Ryder (NYSE: R), which in recent months has launched a number of initiatives to build upon its core business of commercial fleet management and supply chain solutions.

The company announced in March the launch of a peer-to-peer platform for commercial vehicles, just weeks after closing a deal to supply electric-powered delivery trucks to office supplies giant W.B. Mason.

By buying 109 MXD e-commerce fulfillment facilities in the U.S. and Canada, Ryder expands its fulfillment capabilities in two key areas: e-commerce and last-mile shipping.

The company's network for shipping online purchases now covers more than 95 percent of the U.S. and Canada within a two-day delivery timeframe, while expanded last-mile capabilities enable Ryder to service short-distance deliveries for retailers delivering large items, such as home appliances or furniture.

"This acquisition provides Ryder the opportunity to tap into an established network in the U.S. and Canada serving manufacturers, retailers and their customers, who have come to expect rapid deliveries," said Steve Sensing, Ryder president of global supply chain solutions. "With this new, expanded footprint, we'll be better positioned to lead the charge in delivering a complete turnkey solution that not only includes warehousing, distribution and transportation management, but also home delivery and white-glove installation."

The MXD acquisition is expected to be "nominally" accretive to Ryder earnings in 2018, though the company "anticipates earnings growth in future years" as a result of the transaction and expanded service offerings.

https://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2018/04/03/ryder-acquires-e-commerce-logistics-company-for.html

Truck Driver In Ooltewah Wreck That Claimed 6 Lives Sentenced To 55 Years In Prison

creativemarket.com

Story thanks to chattanoogan.com. Links provided:

March 12, 2018  A truck driver convicted in the death of six people at the Ooltewah exit of I-75 has been sentenced to serve 55 years in state prison. 

Criminal Court Judge Don Poole handed the sentence to 42-year-old Benjamin Scott Brewer. 

He gave him 11 years on each of six vehicular homicide cases and ran five of the cases consecutively. The range was 8-12 years for vehicular homicide. 

Brewer, of London, Ky., was also sentenced to four years on each of four convictions of reckless aggravated assault involving four people who were injured in the 2015 crash. Those sentences are concurrent.

He has no prior criminal convictions so is a Range One Offender who is eligible for parole consideration after serving 30 percent of the sentence.

Brewer made a statement, saying he is remorseful and prays several times each day for the victims' families. 

He said, "I am truly sorry from the bottom of my heart. There are now words to express my sorrow."

Brewer, who has an eight-year-old daughter, said he prays for the families two or three times a day. He said he is especially remorseful for the two young girls who died along with their mother and grandmother in a car that caught fire.

He said of the families, "I hope they will accept my deepest apology."

Brewer said he has asked God for forgiveness, and he said he was responsible for taking the lives and inflicting injuries on others.

Judge Poole called it "an unbelievably horrible wreck" and said it was testified that Brewer was driving unsafely on I-75 in Georgia before entering Tennessee. He said there was a half-mile sight distance looking toward where a line of vehicles were stopped for a construction project. 

He said Brewer did not apply the brakes at any point and left a 453-foot trail of "destruction."

Judge Poole said he read all of the numerous victim impact statements that were submitted.

Killed were well-known Cleveland musician Brian Gallaher and Dalton State assistant director of residential life Jason Ramos. Also killed were Tiffany Watts, her mother Sandra Anderson, and daughters Kelsie and Savannah.

A representative of state probation said Brewer has an active warrant from Wisconsin on a drug charge and a prior meth count in Kentucky that was dismissed.

He said he suffers from depression and anxiety. Brewer declined to answer questions relating to prior drug use based on advice of his attorneys.

He worked for seven years with a car dealership, then was in construction and drover for Ryder before joining Cool Runnings just prior to the deadly wreck.

District Attorney General Neal Pinkston had asked for consecutive sentences, while Jay Underwood of the public defender's office argued against any consecutive terms. He said it was "not an intentional act, but a reckless accident."

He said of Brewer, "He's never tried to hurt anybody."

Etta Faye Brewer, aunt of the defendant, said, "I'm proud to say that Ben Brewer is my nephew." She said he was raised in a good home, attended church and played Little League baseball.

She described him as quiet with "a good heart."

The aunt said Brewer is "a good man."

She said she prays for him as well as the victims.

Lt. John Harmon of the Highway Patrol said it was found that Brewer was falsifying his driver logs.

He said, counting the Ooltewah crash, in the last two and a half years there have been five wrecks involving commercial vehicles within 50 miles of Chattanooga that have claimed 13 lives. He said that does not count the Woodmore bus wreck.

http://www.chattanoogan.com/2018/3/12/364885/Truck-Driver-In-Ooltewah-Wreck-That.aspx

Solving detention problem requires cooperation and communication

joc.com

Article thanks to Jane Clark and fleetowner.com. Links provided:

March 5, 2018  Detention has been in the news lately with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General releasing a report that delays in loading and unloading trucks are not only costing the industry $1 billion a year, but also increasing the risk of crashes.

We’ve all heard stories of truckers sitting waiting to load or unload, watching their Hours of Service getting eaten into which may cause them to rush to get to their next delivery or rest area before they are out of legal driving hours.

While everyone is aware of the problem, other than detention pay not much has been proposed in the way of a solution. I think the solution is pretty basic. It all boils down to better communication. There seems to be a communication gap between the supply chain folks, the operational folks and the people in the accounting department who are paying the detention fees.

The communication has to involve all parties including carriers, shippers and customers. Driver arrival instructions along with delivery and receiving hours need to be clearly communicated. In addition, everyone needs to keep in mind the driver’s time constraints especially with the ELD mandate.

Companies are paying detention fees but are not bothering to look into the details of those fees and sharing what they are finding. If they made detention and appointment scheduling one of their Key Performance Indicators (KPI) they would then have to review what their operation is doing in terms of quickly getting drivers in and out during the loading and unloading process.

Reviewing the detention KPI on a monthly basis would make it clear how many times the company is successful in getting the driver in and out on time and where they are falling short. Then they could dive into the details on those instances when detention exceeded the limit they had set. This would allow them to adjust schedules or change procedures as needed.

This will not only help them improve their bottom line, but also ensure that they are seen as a driver-friendly business.

Brokers are dropping companies they do not perceive as driver-friendly, and detention time is one of the factors they use to make that determination. With current freight constraints, if a broker has to choose between someone who is going to get the trucks in and out quickly and someone who isn’t, it is easy to see who they will choose.

Solving detention problems will result in cost savings, smoother loading and unloading, and happier drivers. That’s a winning combination.

http://www.fleetowner.com/ideaxchange/solving-detention-problem-requires-cooperation-and-communication