Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/119523
Business New services for OTR drivers Among the announcements at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky. RAND MCNALLY partnered with GETLOADED to provide an exclusive load board for owners of Rand's WI-FI-enabled IntelliRoute TND truck GPS devices. The new service will enable drivers to view available freight and post truck availability. The HOTELS4TRUCKERS.COM online directory and search engine for truck-parking-friendly hotels will be available free within the free My DAT Trucker Services app for the Android this month; iPhone to follow. A CAT SCALE Android app, available in June, will allow drivers to weigh their truck without leaving the cab and allow paying via PayPal and getting the weight displayed on a smartphone. An iPhone version is planned. USHIP.COM is testing with 100 owner-operators a system that delivers live load alerts for no-bid instantly booked freight, based on a customer's location and preferences, via text message or email. The company expects to introduce the service by midyear. DRIVEWYZE says owner-operators lead the pack among new users of the PreClear weigh station bypass system, which is functional on most smartphones and tablets and uses devices' GPS capabilities. DETROIT introduced its Million Mile Club, which rewards owners with 1 million or more miles on their Detroit engines. Perks include a baseball hat, coffee mug and more. Register at detroitmillionmileclub.com or the Detroit Facebook Page. For details on these and other show news, visit OverdriveOnline.com/MATS2013. Gauges 2013 spot rates off to a bad start Driver jobs surge to pre-recession numbers DRY VAN FLATBED REEFER Bureau of Labor Statistics Spot market rates continued to slide in February for the third consecutive month except for a one-penny increase in flatbed rates. That segment had been mostly stagnant since last September and has seen rates fall 18 cents since June 2012's peak. In the same span, reefer rates dropped 52 cents and van rates dropped 35 cents. Reefer rates dropped 10 cents in February alone. For-hire trucking companies have been adding thousands of jobs in recent months as the nation's overall employment scene improves. The total number of truckTrucking jobs added ing payroll jobs in 5,600 February was 1.375 02/13 01/13 5,000 million, 70,500 jobs 4,200 below January 2007's 12/12 11/12 2,500 peak but 148,900 10/12 3,600 jobs higher than 09/12 700 March 2010's bottom. $2.50 $2.25 Internet Truckstop $2.00 $1.75 $1.50 Feb. 2011 Feb. 2012 Feb. 2013 250,000 That's a rough estimate from Wanted Analytics as to how many truck driving jobs were advertised online in the 90 days preceding March 5 – 20 percent more than a year earlier. Drivers score 93 out of 99, the most difficult level on Wanted's hiring difficulty scale for employers. 20 | Overdrive | April 2013 Business_Lead_0413.indd 20 4/1/13 4:57 PM