Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/835233
12 commercial carrier journal | june 2017 JOURNAL NEWS • Ride-sharing technology giant Uber last month unveiled Uber Freight, a matching app aimed at small fleets and owner-operators and focusing on dry van and reefer loads. The app is avail- able for both Android and iOS devices. Fleets can sign up at https://www.uber. com/info/uberfreight/signup. • Only six weeks after a March 30 bridge collapse on I-85 in Atlantasnarled traffic around the city, the interstate fully reopened May 15, a full month sooner than the original June 15 timetable for the project's comple- tion. Even though through-trucks are not allowed to use I-85 through downtown Atlanta, the closure caused car traffic to be diverted onto the I-285 perimeter, as well as surface streets and other highways, causinglonger-than- normal backups and delays. • The multibillion-dollar merger between Swift Transportation (CCJ Top 250, No. 4) and Knight Transportation (No. 24) received federal antitrust approval from the Federal Trade Commission May 1, clearing the way for shareholders of the two Phoenix- based companies to vote on the pro- posed transaction to form Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings, which would become the nation's largest truckload carrier. • Daseke Inc. (CCJ Top 250, No. 42), an Addison, Texas-based consolidator of North American open deck specialized transportation solutions, announced the addition of two more companies to its conglomerate: The Schilli Companies, headquartered in Remington, Ind.; and Big Freight Systems Inc., based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. • Polaris Transportation Group, a Toronto-based less-than-truckload cross-border carrier, acquired the shares of Toronto-based J.G. Drapeau Ltd. and Commercial Warehousing Ltd. Drapeau will continue to be led by its current management team. • Celadon Group (CCJ Top 250, No. 32) named Jonathan Russell president and chief operating officer, replacing Eric Meek, who resigned to pursue other interests, according to the Indianapolis- based company. Russell, 45, is the son of Stephen Russell, Celadon's late founder and former chairman and CEO. INBRIEF 6/17 Testing supports trailer underride guards R ecent testing by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows underride guards mounted on a trailer's side provide similar safety benefits as rear-mounted guards. Proposed man- dates to install rear-mounted underride guards on trailers and other types of trucks are at various stages in the federal rulemaking process. Earlier this year, IIHS conducted two 35-mph crash tests: one with an AngelWing side underride protection device from Airflow Deflector Inc., and a second test with a fiberglass side skirt intended to improve aerodynamics but not designed to prevent underride. IIHS said its tests marked the first time it had evaluated a side underride guard. In both tests, a midsize passenger car struck the center of a 53-foot dry van trailer. In the AngelWing test, the underride guard bent but kept the car from going under- neath the trailer, IIHS said. In the second test with no underride guard protection, the impact sheared off part of the sedan's roof, and the car wedged itself beneath the trailer. IIHS said the car's occupants in a collision similar to the second test likely would suffer fatal injuries. "We think a mandate for side underride guards on large trucks has merit, espe- cially as crash deaths continue to rise on our roads," said David Zuby, IIHS execu- tive vice president and chief research officer. – Jason Cannon In IIHS' 35-mph crash test, the underride guard mounted on the trailer's side bent but kept the car from going underneath the trailer. TSA warns of truck-ramming terrorism T he Transportation Security Administration last month issued an internal report warning of the potential for terrorists to use trucks as weapons to conduct attacks. TSA also released a list of countermeasures – mostly involving awareness of surroundings and reporting suspicious activity – that truck owners and operators should heed to help pre- vent such attacks from occurring. Though none have occurred in the United States, truck-ramming attacks have been carried out elsewhere, including a July 2016 attack in Nice, France, that killed 87 people and injured 430, and another in December 2016 in Berlin in which 12 people were killed and 56 were injured. Carriers and drivers should maintain "a high level of alertness," the report says, and should report suspicious activity to authorities and, in the case of drivers, to their carrier. Other countermeasures for carriers and drivers include parking in secure locations, ensuring vehicles are locked, refusing rides for hitchhikers and other strangers and, for carriers, ensuring route compliance of drivers. Dubbed "Vehicle Ramming: Threat Landscape, Indicators and Countermeasures," the seven-page internal memo, marked unclassified, was issued to Homeland Security staffers, law enforcement agencies and others. – James Jaillet and David Hollis Recent truck-ramming attacks include thisDecember 2016incident in Berlin in which 12 people were killed and 56 were injured.