Trucking Info: Trucking Moves America Forward Recognizes Industry Supporters

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Trucking Moves America Forward recognized 35 organizations and individuals for purchasing one or more TMAF-branded wraps for display on their company trailers to promote the cause.

The decals are available to all members of the trucking industry and are available as 53-foot trailers wraps, tank truck wraps, and 28-foot pup wraps.

“Trucking truly does move America forward, but we need to do a better job of promoting that message,” said Kevin Burch, co-chairman of TMAF. “By putting more of TMAF’s bold trailer wraps on the road, we hope to do our part in proudly demonstrating that trucking is the backbone of this country.”

TMAF began its decal-wrap program in July 2015 as part of an initiative to inform the public about the trucking industry’s benefits and mission. The full trailer decal wraps provide an opportunity to spread word about the trucking industry’s contribution to the economy and everyday life, according to TMAF.

TMAF would like to thank the following individuals, companies and organizations: Admiral Transport Corporation, American Trucking Associations, Baylor Trucking, Bill Graves, C.B. Wilson Transport and Truck Repair, Carbon Express, Erb Transport, Excargo Services, Fox Valley Technical College, Garner Transportation Group, Georgia Motor Trucking Association, Goggin Warehousing, Horizon Freight Lines, Illinois Trucking Association, John D. Rockefeller IV Career Center, Jet Express, Jung Truck Service, Keller Trucking, Kenan Advantage Group, K-Limited Carrier, Load One, Milwaukee Area Technical College, MTC Truck Driving School, Pinellas Technical College, Pottle’s Transportation, Regency Transportation, Steelman Transportation, Texas Trucking Association, TCW, Titan Transfer, TransLand, U.S. Legal Services, Holland, Waukesha County Technical College and Werner Enterprises.

Trucking Moves America Forward is a group that aims to establish a long-term industry-wide movement to create a positive image for the industry and ensure that policymakers and the public understand its contribution to the economy. To order a wrap contact TMAF@trucking.org.

Link: TruckingInfo.com

Trucking Moves America Forward Recognizes 35 Companies and Individuals for Displaying TMAF Trailer Wraps

Industry Rallies to Promote Trucking with ‘Moving Billboards’

Washington, D.C., May 25, 2016 – Trucking Moves America Forward (TMAF) today recognized 35 organizations and individuals who purchased one or more TMAF-branded wraps for display on their company trailers, signifying a growing enthusiasm within the industry to educate the motoring public on trucking’s essentiality to business and commerce.

“Trucking truly does move America forward, but we need to do a better job of promoting that message,” said Kevin Burch, co-chairman of TMAF, president of Jet Express, Inc., and first vice chairman of American Trucking Associations. “By putting more of TMAF’s bold trailer wraps on the road, we hope to do our part in proudly demonstrating that trucking is the backbone of this country.”

TMAF would like to thank the following individuals, companies and organizations: Admiral Transport Corporation, American Trucking Associations, Baylor Trucking, Bill Graves, C.B. Wilson Transport and Truck Repair LLC, Carbon Express, Inc., Erb Transport Inc, Excargo Services Inc, Fox Valley Technical College, Garner Transportation Group, Georgia Motor Trucking Association, Goggin Warehousing, Horizon Freight Lines, Inc., Illinois Trucking Association, John D. Rockefeller IV Career Center, Jet Express, Inc., Jung Truck Service, Keller Trucking, Kenan Advantage Group, Inc., K-Limited Carrier, Ltd., Load One, Milwaukee Area Technical College, MTC Truck Driving School, Pinellas Technical College, Pottle’s Transportation, LLC, Regency Transportation, Inc., Steelman Transportation, Texas Trucking Association, TCW Inc., Titan Transfer, Inc., TransLand, U.S. Legal Services, Holland, Waukesha County Technical College and Werner Enterprises, Inc.

“Reaching our goal of putting 100 TMAF-branded trailer wraps on the road in one year was a major achievement, and we could not have done it without the generosity and enthusiasm of these trucking companies and individuals,” Burch added. “Each of these moving billboards sends an important message about our industry – and we owe a special thanks to Holland and Load One for putting 20 and 14 trailer wraps, respectively, on the highways.”

TMAF first announced its trailer decal wrap program in July 2015, calling it a major education initiative to inform the motoring public on the trucking industry’s benefits and mission. With seven million trucking professionals working nationwide, the full trailer decal wraps provide an opportunity for the motoring public to learn not only about the industry’s contribution to America’s economy, but how important trucking is to their everyday lives. Each of these ‘moving billboards’ is seen by as many as 16 million people per city. TMAF’s goal is to put another 200 wraps on the road by March 2017.

Available to members of the trucking industry are 53-foot trailer wraps, tank truck wraps, and 28-foot pup wraps. To order a wrap today, contact TMAF@trucking.org.

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About Trucking Moves America Forward

Trucking Moves America Forward aims to establish a long-term industry-wide movement to create a positive image for the industry, to ensure that policymakers and the public understand the importance of the trucking industry to the nation’s economy, and to build the political and grassroots support necessary to strengthen and grow the industry in the future. To learn more, visit www.TruckingMovesAmerica.com.

 

Also join and follow TMAF through social media, on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Infrastructure Week: Failing Roads Threaten to Slow Down More Than Trucking

During Infrastructure Week 2016, TMAF is sharing the following message from Kevin Burch, TMAF co-chairman and president of Jet Express Inc. 

 

Moving America Forward is a job the trucking industry is proud of and a commitment we take seriously. We pride ourselves in delivering the goods that American communities need to thrive, from groceries and medicine to retail goods and school supplies. And we know that nothing can stop us – not the winter snow storms, not the long hauls, and not the deliveries that keep drivers on the road and away from family during weekends and holidays.

But while we can’t be stopped from delivering on our commitment, there is one issue that threatens to slow us down – failing infrastructure.

This is why our industry movement, Trucking Moves America Forward (TMAF), is proud to be an affiliate of Infrastructure Week for the second year in a row. Infrastructure Week is a national cause shared by a diverse coalition of groups dedicated to rebuilding America’s roads, bridges, rails, ports, airports, pipes, power grid, and more. This year’s theme is “Infrastructure Matters” – and affiliates like TMAF are setting out to tell the story of what infrastructure means to Americans, our country, and our economy.

Transporting critical cargo to towns and cities in every corner of the country requires America’s 3.4 million truck drivers to travel more than 400 billion total miles across our roads and highways every year. Yet, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), those very roads receive a “D” grade, as nearly one-third are in “poor or mediocre” condition, and one in nine of the nation’s bridges are structurally deficient.

To put those low grades in perspective, the ASCE found that by 2020, this deteriorating infrastructure will cost the economy nearly 1 million jobs and hurt GDP growth by $1 trillion. That includes deteriorating pavement and bridge conditions that alone will cost our economy $58 billion per year and the resulting highway congestion that will cost us more than a quarter billion dollars.

The time to address our failing infrastructure is now – and not just to make it a smoother ride for those logging the most miles on the road.

The fact is, if it affects trucking it affects Americans as a whole. “The costs of inadequate infrastructure investment are exhibited all around us,” said a report by the National Economic Council and the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. The report added that because of this investment gap, “American businesses pay $27 billion a year in extra freight transportation costs, increasing shipping delays and raising prices on everyday products.”

Fortunately, telling our story is easy for trucking, because when our trucks are moving forward, the nation and the U.S. economy move with it. In fact, the 7 million trucking professionals nationwide contribute $682 billion in revenue every year to our nation’s economy.

As long as we need to, TMAF will stand strong, advocating for infrastructure spending that improves the highway networks most critical to the movement of freight and interstate travel, and prioritizes the safety of the motoring public in the process. We’ll continue to call on our political leaders at the state and federal levels to work with us to close the nation’s infrastructure investment gap.

Our hardworking drivers deserve to deliver America’s goods on structurally sound and safe roads. The trucking industry, the American economy, and you and I are counting on it.

Frederick News-Post: Sharing the road with the big guys

I was riding with the best. Bob Weller, 67, of Monrovia, a tank-truck driver for Hahn Transportation in New Market for 42 years, is the 2014-2015 National Tank Truck Carriers’ Professional Tank Truck Driver of the Year. He was named Maryland Motor Truck Association Driver of the Year in 2012, and recently completed 4 million miles of accident-free driving.

All those qualifications helped ease my concern about sitting in the front of a 40-ton tractor-trailer on April 7 carrying 8,000 gallons of jet fuel from a tank farm in northern Virginia to Frederick Municipal Airport. Hauling milk or mattresses might also have worked, but you can’t beat going with an experienced, accident-free driver, regardless of the load.

Weller is tall, solidly built, scholarly-looking, with a bushy white mustache, and the ideal road guide. Anyone else would have cracked me on the side of the head with a lug wrench after my 120th question, but he’s quiet, thoughtful and patient.

What got me thinking about those trucks that are our lifeline to most everything we need was a Feb. 19 tractor-trailer crash on the Capital Beltway. The driver, 47-year-old Dennis Frampton of Halethorpe, in Maryland, was killed, and both sides of the Beltway were blocked for hours. TV news coverage of the single-vehicle accident included interviews with commuters annoyed at the inconvenience, but not as concerned about the driver.

Frampton was more than an annoyance. According to one news report, he was married for 30 years, had two adult children, was active in his community, including as a youth sports coach, and had lots of friends — not unlike many of the other commuters in their smaller vehicles.

I wanted to see what those truck drivers deal with in Beltway traffic and how we can safely share the road with them. Thanks to Louis Campion, president of the Maryland Motor Truck Association in Baltimore, and Barbara Windsor, president and CEO of Hahn Transportation, I got my chance.

Weller already had a two-hour traffic tie-up on a morning trip along the Baltimore Beltway. Our early afternoon trip from New Market to northern Virginia, down I-270 and I-495, was easier, but not traffic-free. The rig, including a 2015-model, 425-horsepower Mack tractor, is a hefty 14 tons, even with the trailer empty. Those drivers who cut in front of us, reducing the truck’s stopping distance, weren’t being smart.

With all that was going on, actions that would have had me breaking out the bad words, Weller never once ranted about the traffic. “It goes with the job,” he said. “You’re never going to get rid of the traffic. If you don’t like traffic, don’t get in the trucking industry.”

Following too close ranks up there with cutting in as a safety hazard. “If I can’t see you in my mirrors, you’re too close,” Weller said. “In bad weather, use your headlights.” Then, there’s what he calls the big thing — paying attention, including not using a cellphone.

You can add to that making fewer lane changes and having respect for other drivers. “It doesn’t cost you anything to be courteous,” Weller said. “It’s not costing you one penny.”

You know the one about being careful what you wish for? Well, I got my wish to experience rush-hour traffic in a tractor-trailer on the way back from Newington in northern Virginia to Frederick. You’re right, it’s not much fun for any driver, but you don’t want to get stuck in stop-and-go traffic, squeezing by two minor crashes and dealing with occasional rain while driving a tractor-trailer.

But Weller maintained the same composure on the return 60-mile, 2½-hour trip as he did earlier, even getting a chuckle out of reckless drivers who couldn’t decide what lane they liked best. “As you can see, they don’t believe in turn signals,” was his observation. “I guess that little lever is hard to pull down.”

The word of the day was “patience.” “As a driver, is it worth getting upset, winding up upside down in a ditch or hurting somebody?” Weller said. “If I pull back into the yard and haven’t had a problem, that’s a great day.”

Sharing the road with big trucks won’t change anytime soon. But at least for me, keeping Weller’s tips in mind to pay attention, be courteous and, most of all, have patience, should help make that sharing safer.

Link: Frederick News-Post

TMAF Announces Its Continued Support for Infrastructure Week

For Second Consecutive Year, Industry Group Joins National Movement to Show ‘Infrastructure Matters’

Washington, D.C., May 16, 2016 – Trucking Moves America Forward (TMAF), the industry-wide image and education movement, announced it will be an official affiliate of Infrastructure Week 2016 – a series of events, education, and advocacy efforts aimed at bringing infrastructure to the forefront as a critical issue impacting all Americans.

“We’re proud to support Infrastructure Week once again because the trucking industry knows firsthand how important safe, state-of-the-art roads are to making our jobs possible,” said Kevin Burch, co-chairman of TMAF, president of Jet Express, Inc., and first vice chairman of American Trucking Associations. “We are committed to safety for our drivers and everyone they share the road with – and, as any driver will tell you, well-built roads, bridges, and tunnels are key to helping us fulfill that commitment.”

TMAF will join hundreds of organizations from the public, private, and non-profit sectors in raising awareness around the need to invest in the infrastructure that makes up the backbone of the United States. This year’s theme is “Infrastructure Matters,” and throughout the week, affiliates will demonstrate how infrastructure matters to the country, the U.S. economy, quality of life, safety, and communities; they will also urge leaders from the public and private sectors to address the country’s trillion-dollar infrastructure investment gap.

“We often speak about everything that trucking brings communities – the food on your shelf, the medical supplies for hospitals and the supplies in your schools – but what some may not realize is that our jobs rely on infrastructure to make that happen,” said Burch. “Infrastructure Week aligns with our priorities and is yet another opportunity to join powerful voices in telling our story and how it affects all Americans.”

Last year’s Infrastructure Week brought nearly 30 mayors and dozens of state legislators, business executives, and labor leaders to participate in events on Capitol Hill; in addition, affiliates met with more than 300 members of Congress and their staffs, while Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx also addressed the issue.

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About Trucking Moves America Forward

Trucking Moves America Forward aims to establish a long-term industry-wide movement to create a positive image for the industry, to ensure that policymakers and the public understand the importance of the trucking industry to the nation’s economy, and to build the political and grassroots support necessary to strengthen and grow the industry in the future. To learn more, visit www.TruckingMovesAmerica.com.

 

Also join and follow TMAF through social media, on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn.