Testing the New UltraShift Plus by Eaton

While my truck is in the shop here at the Hattiesburg, Mississippi, International Dealer, I got the opportunity to take a new Prostar International Tractor out for a test drive.  It was equipped with the latest transmission by Eaton, the UltraShift Plus.  Once I got past the obvious differences between the trucks I have been driving and the luxury, space and quiet in this tractor, I was able to concentrate on how much nicer this version of automatic transmission is.  The ones I have been using are at least five years older than the current generation, but the difference in smoothness and responsiveness makes the changes enormous.

The first difference is how easily and smoothly it shifted gears, it seemed like we were between gears longer than we were in some of them, as the transmission just touched them on the way up.  It wasn't until we got on the highway and I commented on how nice it was that he even mentioned that we were grossing 70,000 pounds.  With the engine noise bing so quiet and the shifting so smooth, I never felt like we were heavy, until I checked my speed and saw that we weren't quiet up to highway speed yet.

Decelerating for an off ramp was just as smooth as climbing the gears.  It wasn't until we got back to the yard that I saw how it would downshift on its own as we coasted to a stop, rather than needing a foot on the accelerator to allow the transmission to shift.

Another nice feature was the hill holder, which allowed me to use only one foot to drive.  I no longer needed to put my left foot on the brake to keep the truck from rolling forward or back while I pressed the accelerator down to move away from a stop.  I am so used to needing two feet to drive an automatic that it was extremely difficult to not put my left foot on the brake.

The last item that I loved was backing, I didn't need to rev the engine up to get the truck to back up, it was able to take just a little power and back on its own after I took my foot off the accelerator.  Gone is the need to rev up to 800 or 1000 rpms just to get the transmission to engage, a real plus when trying to back up a hill into a dock.

So if you get the chance to try out one of these transmissions, I highly recommend it.  It certainly changed my mind about automatics, up until now I have really hated them.  I have gone a complete 180 on that and now would actually consider getting a truck equipped with this transmission, if I ever became insane enough to become an owner operator that is.

GM Assembly Plant in Arlington, Texas: An illusion of efficiency

To the casual and not so casual observer, the plant in Arlington, Texas, is an efficient user of Just In Time (JIT) freight.  There are a few trucks parked in a lot on the hill, but for the most part trucks simply run up to the gate and head to their door.  A majority of these trucks are day cabs, local drivers, bringing in items from staging warehouses nearby.  It is at these staging warehouses that the illusion is shattered.  The worst of them is located on Avenue E and is run by Penske Logistics.  There you see those day cabs backing in at the front of the building, unloading, reloading and back to the plant.  The back of the building is where the ugliness is.

Starting in the driveway for receiving the first thing you notice is the back of a truck, just barely past a yellow line with a sign stating no trucks past this point, so the driveway isn't blocked.  This truck is the first of almost 15 that you will find as you drive around the building.  They will be on either side of the drive with the small spaces between each truck revealing a red line with the words fire lane in white.  When you get to the docks there will be even more trucks on either side of that fire lane line.  The drivers stopping anywhere they can to get inside and drop their paperwork, each with a carefully written cell phone number at the top so when the dock is ready for them, they can be called from where ever they find a space to park.

Dropping off your paperwork is the last time you have any control over anything at this location.  The only restroom is at the front of the building where the fast moving day cab drivers can use them easily.  Half the time it is easier to find a parking spot somewhere on a street in this industrial area, than it is trying to squeeze another truck onto the property here.  Then it is just a waiting game, knowing sooner or later they will call and you can finally feel like you are doing something by getting your truck into a dock, only to wait again.  Today it took me only fourteen hours to get into a dock.

From a conversation that I had with one of the employees last week, they have had some drivers wait over a day to get in, and that they only bring a truck to the dock when GM requests it.  So all of these trucks are just little warehouses, idling the day away, wasting fuel and man hours day in and day out, just so GM can say they use Just In Time Freight.  The look on their faces when I requested a copy of the detention form that is posted on the wall outside the office was precious.  I don't think they have had that request for some time, I was told that they didn't have any and that they needed to take that down.  If they never get filled out, they can never be billed for detention, and they will only pay detention if that form is the one filled out, good plan.

I have now been in the dock for forty minutes, and nothing has happened yet.

Day 1 in Arlington

Today started out fairly good, after driving my eleven hours to get here for my first scheduled appointment time I got unloaded fairly quickly at the GM plant in Arlington.  I ended up going to two different docks at the plant but was still done within an hour and a half of getting there.  The problems started at my next stop.  This place is operated by Penske Logistics, and I can finally say that there is something worse than Ryder to go to.  The lot is small and cramped, and there are trucks everywhere in here.  So much so that it is actually difficult to maneuver.  Half of them are parked in fire lanes.

When I got here I had been awake for almost eighteen hours, so was a little cranky when they said to give them my cell number so they can call me when they are ready.  In hindsite my reaction wasn't diplomatic, I left and went to get some sleep.  After getting caught up somewhat on sleep I can back and checked in again and have been around here ever since.  I really needed that sleep though, sleep deprivation and driving are a really bad combination.  I will likely get some more before I take off out of the area.

I did actually get in a dock as I was typing this, not to bad, about eleven hours after my appointment time, which was actually within my ten hour break time.  When ever they get their stuff off of me, it will be off to the third stop then back towards the north.  I haven't slept enough so far today to drive far tonight, but I will get out of the Dallas area before morning if I can.

Cell Phone Ban for Commercial Truck Drivers

Feds weigh cell phone ban for bus, truck drivers


I am not too excited about the possibility of banning truck drivers from using cell phones.  Requiring a hands free device is one thing, but a complete ban is a bit extreme.  Being able to stay in contact with family, friends, and relatives is one of the ways a lot of drivers keep up with their lives.  It isn't like we have a whole lot of time when not driving to talk to people.  Especially if you are trying to do something during normal business hours.  While I was buying my house I can't count the number of calls to contractors, mortgage broker, real estate agent, and setting up the utilities, that I made.


A universal ban on hand held devices should be made though.  I can't count how many times I have watched someone merging with a cell phone glued to their head, apparently making it impossible to look over their shoulder to check traffic.  For some reason most of those people are surprised when they end up next to me and are running out of road to merge on.  Sometimes I am able to get over to avoid the possibility of an accident, but a lot of times there are no options for me, so surprise.


One thing is for certain, if they write the law too vaguely they may end up banning CBs as well.  A phrase that says communications device instead of cell phone will certainly turn a truck staple to an illicit item.

On the road again

After staying pretty close to home while I purchased a house, I am back driving over the road.  It is a dedicated route right now going from Romulus, Michigan, to Arlington, Texas.  Due to the schedule most of the driving is at night, and last night being the first night was a bit brutal.  The load was late leaving the shipper in Ontario, and it got delayed again crossing the border.  So I ended up being up a lot later than I had planned for yesterday.  I finally stopped in Mount Vernon, Illinois, at 6:30 AM because I just could not physically keep driving.  I still could have driven further with my hours, but it would not have been safe at all.  Tonight's bit of driving should be better, but I will have to use every driving hour I have just to get to the GM plant in Arlington.  Then I think I have three stops to go to, but the paperwork is so confused from customs sorting through it, that I have no idea what paperwork goes with what stop.  Just to make it more fun the directions that I have for the plant have nothing to do with the direction that I am coming from.  I have been there once before, so have some idea, but will have to look more closely at the route for the final bit of driving before I leave here.

Right now just relaxing in the truck waiting for my sleep timer to put me back to sleep.  I know I need more but my body woke me up for some reason a little over an hour ago.  At least I have time, I won't be leaving out of here until around 6 or 7 tonight.

Driving in Mexico

This article gives all the reasons a US or Canadian driver will never go to Mexico. It also gives plenty of reasons to doubt any Mexican driver coming north.

Mexico cartels go from drugs to full-scale mafias

I don't think I would even want to go to Mexico as an individual, at this point the country has way to many problems to risk my life there. This risk and the risk of it spilling over into the US brings to head the possibility of the US doing more than just assisting the Mexican Government with money and equipment. I wonder whether we are looking at a possible 31 more states, starting with the ones closest to the US. An ever expanding security zone that it would be hard to believe that the residents would fight against, given how many want to come here already.

Cash for Clunkers Boondoggle

Boondoggle is all I can call the $3 Billion spent on removing around 700,000 so called clunkers from the roads. With three stated purposes of reducing pollution, saving fuel, and stimulating the economy; this program fails in every respect. Actually I shouldn't say fails, it does accomplish all of those things, but at such a high cost it is mind blowing. More than a few articles can be found that back this up, and this isn't coming from crazy news outlets people have never heard of either.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/cash-for-clunkers-too-much-cash-for-cutting-emissions/

http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/11/cash-for-clunkers-autos-economy-opinions-columnists-shikha-dalmia.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/business/08clunker.html?hpw

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gBK8ygR_GgJVJ_9QEjvOcx4J8MxQD99SA4101

Now take that same $3 Billion and spend it on something that actually does have a true cost benefit to the environment, auxiliary power units for trucks, and all the sudden we are talking about some real savings. That amount of money could purchase 352,941 APUs at $8,500 a piece, which is the high end of APU pricing. Just purchasing those would have the possibility of cutting idling by at least 10 hours a day, 300 days a year (we do get home sometimes), for 3,000 hours of idling saved per truck. That is 1,058,823,000 hours of idling saved in a year for the same amount of money that is getting the common man a new car that may save him 3-5 miles per gallon.

Lets be generous and call it 15,000 miles driven in a year (I would call that high) divided by 5 miles per gallon saved times 700,000 new cars. That gives us 2.1 Billion gallons of fuel saved in a year. Which only is saved if everyone actually drives 15,000 miles a year, most people don't even come close to that.

An idling truck consumes an average of a gallon of fuel an hour. An APU typically uses around 2 tenths of a gallon an hour (again a bit high). Now if calculate the fuel used on those trucks idling all that time; 1,058,823,000 gallons of fuel are burned while idling in a year. Now those same 352,941 trucks using an APU would only burn 211,764,600 gallons, a savings of 847,058,400 gallons of fuel.

Now you are looking at that and saying what are you talking about, cash for clunkers is saving more in fuel than buying APUs for trucks. So rather than buying them outright, lets make it more like CARS and have a rebate of $4500 which would allow the purchase of 666,665 APUs. That generates a fuel savings of 1,599,996,000 or about 1.6 billion gallons of fuel in a year. Again a difference in fuel savings, but remember we used an average of 10 hours of idling a day for the trucks. This doesn't include the time idling at a shipper or receiver, or just waiting for a load (in this economy that could be over 24 hours).

Again there are no guarantees that the cars swapped will actually be driven as much as I calculated, but it is a real guarantee that the trucks will be idling to maintain driver comfort while in the sleeper.