Archive for September, 2008
Monday, September 29th, 2008
While truck drivers have tons of steel protecting them on the road, they can still be in danger. There are some safety tips to help ensure truck drivers are safe on the roads, and that makes the safer for everyone else in small vehicles as well. A truck driver needs to take care of his or her own needs before anything else. Failing to get enough rest, not eating properly, and not getting enough exercise can all affect a person physically and mentally.
Taking care of the truck they are driving is very important as well. There is plenty of routine maintenance that needs to be done on a new or used semi truck. This includes checking the fluids, checking hoses, changing the oil, and looking for any leaks or problems. Tires need to be in good condition so they don’t blow out. We have all seen though large pieces of rubber on the roads that come off of big trucks. These can create a hazard for other drivers when they are driving behind a big truck.
Even if you don’t own the truck you are driving, it is your responsibility to make sure it is in good enough condition to be on the road. If you are picking up a trailer you need to inspect it as well. Make sure the trailer is properly connected to the semi truck before you leave so that you don’t cause any problems when you get onto the road.
No matter what you are driving, you always have to on the look out for other drivers not doing their part to be safe. New or used heavy duty trucks can’t stop as quickly as other vehicles so you need to be prepared for road construction, accidents, and congestion on the roads. Leave enough room between you and the vehicles ahead of you to anticipate anything that could possibly occur. Make sure you pay close attention to blind spots on your truck before you attempt to change lanes or pass other vehicles.
It is a good idea to always wear your seat belt while in a semi truck. Too many people have the misconception that they are perfectly safe up there but in the event of an accident you could be seriously thrown around or even thrown out of the vehicle. It is a good idea to always have a fire extinguisher in the cab of the vehicle as well.
Since most truck drivers travel from one part of the country to the next in order to pick up or deliver a load, the weather changes can be quick. It is important for a truck driver to have essential clothing for any kind of weather including the extreme hot and the bitter cold.
Both the heater and the air conditioning need to be in good working condition in the cab and in the sleeper of the semi truck. Make sure you have dry foods and water in the cab in case you have to stay in there for any length of time. Tire chains are also good to carry in case you are facing harsh ice and snow conditions.
Most truck drivers carry cell phones, and they can use it to be the eyes and ears of the road. Reporting stranded motorists, poor road conditions, road kill, or even other drivers who are being careless and reckless can prevent serious injuries and accidents from occurring. It is never a good idea to pick up hitchhikers while driving a semi truck. They can be distracting and they might even be dangerous.
Many truck drivers log thousands of miles each month without incident. This is due to the fact that they work hard to take care of their own needs, they routinely inspect their truck and trailers, and they pay attention to what is taken place around them. Accidents can happen in the blink of an eye, so professional truck drivers know to be prepared for anything.
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Friday, September 26th, 2008
Every industry has its accepted truths. These are the things that everybody knows - the obvious answers. The problem is that yesterday’s truths may be out of date, and things that appear to be common sense on the surface may be a lot more complicated when you look a little deeper. When the question is a potentially expensive one like the purchase and maintenance of your forklift fleet, it’s a good idea to examine both possibilities.
Most operations that run a large fleet of forklifts select a primary new truck manufacturer (for example, Toyota or Hyster for pneumatic/cushion trucks, Crown or Raymond for electrics). It’s more convenient, dealing with a single company when arranging purchase or lease agreements, but that is not the primary consideration.
Full service leases are supposed to cover maintenance costs up front. Ideally, they allow you to plan maintenance schedules and costs, and then forget about it for the duration of the lease. There are two problems with this pretty picture. For one thing, most full service leases do not cover repair costs on the failure of components that are out of factory warranty, or on the failure of wear items such as brakes, etc.
Not all forklift manufacturers like Caterpillar, Hyster, Ford etc are good at everything that a forklift does in your operation. There are just too many variables. Electrics are quiet, inexpensive and nonpolluting, but of limited range. In some narrow aisle warehouse applications, turning radius can become a major consideration. In extreme cases, turret trucks may be required.
To get the most efficient vehicle for every job, you would have to determine the features and characteristics required for that job, and then buy the necessary number of trucks from the manufacturer who makes the best forklift with those features and characteristics - and then repeat the process for every job in your operation. A multi-location facility could easily end up with four or five different makes of lift truck. Remember, you are still only using one brand of fork lift for a given task, and because you have selected the brand with the best performance for that function, your maintenance for that brand is likely to go down.
Keeping a larger inventory of parts may cost a little more to begin with, but maintaining that inventory over time should result in no significant additional expense. As for training, it may be possible to specialize there as well.
Another accepted truth that may no longer be true is that refurbished forklift trucks, while less expensive than new ones, are less reliable and therefore not a good investment.
With the ever-increasing costs of capital equipment, refurbishing used lift trucks has finally become big business. Only a few years ago, the market for reconditioned forklifts wasn’t big enough to justify the expense of setting up an assembly line to tear down, inspect and re-assemble a vehicle with enough quality control to insure reliable operation in heavy use conditions.
The term refurbished means different things to different people. Before you even consider this option, make certain that the unit has been disassembled to the bare frame, sandblasted, painted and rebuilt. Even the engines should be completely broken down, refurbished and repainted to work and look like new. Purchasing used forklifts can be risky, but buying quality refurbished ones doesn’t have to be.
Renewed vehicles have had some run time, a kind of shakedown cruise after which the weak components are replaced. The result is a more reliable unit. Obviously, a refurbished truck has less of its reliable service life left than a new one, but consider the following scenario. You purchase a refurbished unit at one third the cost of a new one. You have already skipped the first wave of high maintenance cost that occurs during the run-in phase. You maintain it regularly and retire it perhaps a year earlier than you would a new unit, thus avoiding the last stage of high maintenance as it nears the end of its useful life. You have saved considerably in terms of capital investment, and your maintenance costs may actually go down as well.
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Thursday, September 25th, 2008
Trucks don’t usually tend to make the best hybrids, their large engines and very heavy bodies mean that their gas mileage is notoriously low, and it’s difficult to keep the essence of the vehicle and still be able to improve that. People who want a pickup truck, cargo truck, beverage truck etc typically want something with good towing capacity, power, and able to carry large loads. All of that added together makes it hard to save gas on the road, but with fuel economy becoming one of the most important buying decisions in automobile sales, Chevrolet thinks they can do just that.
The Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid is a brand new offering for the 2009 model year, and so most review companies are only getting their first look at it. It’s known that the truck uses GM’s 6.0L V-8 combined with a hybrid electric motor that helps with extremely low speed and coasting. Combined, the truck gets 21 mpg in the city and 22 on the highway in two-wheel drive.
The 4WD version gets just about an even 20/20. As is pretty standard for most used trucks and SUV’s that are converted to hybrid models, the gas mileage offered is superior to the non-hybrid models by only a small margin, and very ’so-so’ for the hybrid car market overall. Chevrolet trucks hope that their new offerings keeps buyers interested in their full sized line up for years to come.
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Monday, September 22nd, 2008
Monaco is a popular motorhome company. You can purchase a Monaco motorhomes from dealerships, online, or from newspaper ads. Using a new or used motorhome on vacations will help you to save money on vacation expenses and to add quality family time to any trip.
Every Monaco motorhome is a luxury coach. Monaco does not feature trailers or campers. Their coach motorhomes are powered by engine and have many exciting features.
You can choose a new or used Monaco motorhome in one of seven different exterior colors. There are also seven available choices in interior colors for each model. Many models feature custom designs for cabinets, floors, furniture, paint, and fabrics.
Monaco has many motorhome models to choose from. Their coach models include the Signature Series, Executive, Windsor, Camelot, Diplomat, Knight, Cayman, La Palma, Monaco Dynasty etc. Models are currently available in the years between 1999 and 2003.
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Sunday, September 21st, 2008
There is a wide variety of minivans to choose from if you are shopping for the best deal in used cars. Each minivan has its own personality and has tremendous features for family comfort. For example, the Chrysler Town and Country has a DVD player with remote audio and wireless headphones. It’s got a 3.3L V-6 engine as well, with 180 HP. It’s comfortable and a smooth drive at the same time.
Popular Used Minivans :
The used Honda Odyssey has a nifty disappearing rear seat with a deep storage well in the floor. The small and nimble Mazda MPV has a 3.0L V-6 engine and gets 25 mph on the highway, 18 mph in the city. The Dodge Caravan is the most popular of the bunch, and as a used minivan it is very sought-after. The Caravan comes in two models; the 150 HP Caravan and the 180 HP Grand Caravan.
The Ford Windstar is the second most popular used minivan for sale, with 200 HP in a V-6 engine. It’s a four speed automatic with 15″ steel wheels and anti-lock brakes. Ford also has a smaller, economy minivan–the Ford Focus. The Focus has a 130 HP four cylinder engine. It’s small, but quick and manageable, with a five speed manual transmission and great fuel economy.
Don’t overlook the Kia Sedona, a strong performer with a 3.5L V-6 engine with 195 HP. It’s a five speed automatic with 15 mpg city and 20 mpg highway. Other best selling vans are the used Toyota Sienna, the Chevrolet Venture and the Volkswagen Eurovan.
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Thursday, September 18th, 2008
An airport is a location where aircraft such as new or used airplanes, blimps, and new or used helicopters take off and land. It consists of at least one surface such as a runway, a helipad, or water for takeoffs and landings, and often includes buildings such as hangars and terminal buildings. Incepted the conventional transportation by palanquins, which was one of the luxurious methods used by the rich and nobles for traveling purposes, a list of Airports In India is grouped by state or Union Territory.
One can not say they have been neglected from the top priority list. Going by some important facts, it is completing to take a re-look in Airports in India. To satisfy the splurge in the demand for air travel, Air India purchased more than 68 jets from Boeing and Indian Airlines purchased 43 jets from Airbus. Also, others who have recently made significant investments in air travel are Jet Airways, IndiGo Airlines and Kingfisher Airlines.This has made air travel more luxurious and has immensely benefited the travelers and the travel agents.
Today, India boasts of a well-developed air network. In a vast country like India air-travel is the fastest mode of transportation to reach from one end to another. There is a good air connection to nearly all corners of India. Almost all the states and Union Territory have more than two airports, which are regularized by necessary air services with several airlines.
The number of full-fledged Airports in India is total up to nearly 92, out of which 12 are international airports. Each airport has good arrangements of signaling, landing, waiting lunge, etc. much of that many of the Airports in India are going under modernization every soon. Of that some are Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai, Bangalore International Airport Bangalore, Karnataka, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport Kolkata, West Bengal, Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport Guwahati, Assam, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport Ahmedabad, Gujarat, Chennai International Airport Chennai, Hyderabad Airport Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, Goa Airport Vasco Da Gama, Goa, Amritsar International Airport Amritsar, Punjab, Cochin International Airport Cochin, Kerala, Trivandrum International Airport Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, etc.
In the past few years, several investments have been made in the Indian air industry to make use of its vast unutilized air transport network. Many low cost air carriers have also entered the Indian market in the past two to three years. This has also benefited the Indian economy and is the cause of the boom in the tourism industry.
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Thursday, September 18th, 2008
Racing has become a popular sport among all categories of vehicles, ranging from F1, race cars, bikes, sports car to even new and used antique trucks. These races pull large amount of crowds and are also followed by Auto enthusiasts from all over the world.
Truck racing is another form where modified versions of heavy trucks battle it out on racing circuits. Started over 20 years ago, this type of racing is mainly popular in Europe, UK and America. Some of the popular truck makes involved in this truck racing are MAN AG, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Volvo, Renault Trucks and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series held in America is one among the well known truck racing series, where race modified production pickup trucks race against each other. Some other top truck racing series include ARCA Lincoln Welders Truck Series (held mainly in Indiana and Ohio, this series runs on numerous short tracks throughout the Midwest), Fórmula Truck (it’s a Brazilian truck racing series), Pickup Truck Racing and Thunder Nationals.
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Wednesday, September 17th, 2008
The most popular used Dodge truck is the Ram. The Ram is the most resold pickup in the U.S., and its owners claim years of heavy duty use. The design of the Ram was modeled after a big rig, and it has a big rig’s staying power.
The Dodge Ram comes in the 1500, 2500 or 3500 models. The 1500 has 175 HP, and higher models go up to 345 HP. These pickups are automatics in three or four speeds with a full range of add-ons.
Another popular used pickup truck is Dakota. As a used truck it’s got hauling capacity but also acceleration and pickup. In fact it’s the only small pickup truck to offer a V-8 engine. The Dakota also offers a 3.9L V-6 engine with 175 HP. It comes with a five speed manual transmission with overdrive. If you’re shopping for used Dodge truck, don’t forget the Durango SUV, which has a V-8 engine with 235 HP. Used SUVs for sale can sometimes give you the best buy with a 4×4’s hauling power and a passenger car’s comfort.
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Wednesday, September 17th, 2008
Nowadays there is a great demand for qualified heavy equipment operators because of boom in the infrastructure, construction and the mining industries. Most of the new and used heavy equipments are used in the industries mentioned above and there is an acute shortage of qualified heavy equipment operators the world over and the demand for the heavy equipment operators has outstripped the supply. Therefore, a number of training schools have come up to cater to the growing demand for heavy equipment operators. The heavy equipment operator training schools are run by people who have been in the industry for many decades and who are competent enough to teach you all about the heavy equipment operations. Basically the Heavy Equipment operator training program is designed keeping your utmost safety in mind and they re divided in two phases. One phase is known as the home study phase and the other resident training phase.
The home study phase is very useful even for people who urrently hold a job and the material provided by the school can be used as a reference guide. You can enhance your skills by sitting in your home, thereby reducing the classroom attendance by more than 50% and when you go onto the practical training part, you can totally concentrate on the critical aspects of the equipment operations rather than starting from the basics of machine operations.
These courses are lucid, easy to read and to the point. These courses are accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the Distance Education and Training Council, Washington, D.C. The nature of work of a heavy equipment operator employed in the construction and maintenance of various work sites by the construction companies, contractors, public works departments and lots of logging companies vary from industry to industry, but the only thing common between all the operators is that they operate the equipment by moving levers, pedals, and switches. The Heavy equipment operator trainees have a variety of jobs to choose from after the completion of the course, a list of which is given below:
Apprentice asphalt plant operator, backhoe operator, bulldozer operator, dredging, equipment operator, excavator operator, grader operator, heavy equipment operator, loader operator, aving equipment operator, side boom tractor operator, road oiling truck driver, shovel operator, sewer flushing truck operator, snow-removal equipment operator, apprentice pile driver and a bridge worker. The working conditions are not so ood, you have to learn to work in mud, dirt and noisy environments, almost around the year, but there are a few lucky ones who operate in air-conditioned and dust free environments, but then you are compensated by a handsome pay which is at least 0% above the average provincial salary. The heavy equipment operators are mostly employed by the construction companies which accounts for nearly 52% of operators employed and the rest is contributed by the mining, gas, agriculture, fishing, logging and the manufacturing industries.
One can progress to a supervisory or a managerial position in due course of time with experience and skill of using heavy equipments like backhoes, bulldozer, cranes, skid loader, excavators etc.
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Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
Toyota trucks have won awards as the top performers in their class. These trucks and 4×4s are heavy and durable, with plenty of horsepower for hauling. Used Toyota trucks are a great buy, getting high marks for low maintenance and engine durability.
The Toyota Tacoma is a pickup with a 142 HP, four cylinder engine. It’s got a five speed manual transmission. The Tacoma has steel wheels with a radius of 15″.
The Toyota Tundra is more powerful, with a 190 HP V-6 engine. The Tundra also has a five speed manual transmission with overdrive. Wheel radius on the Tundra is 16″.
These used trucks for sale are at the top of their class for fuel economy. When you’re shopping for a used Toyota, don’t overlook the Toyota SUVs, the Sequoia and the Sienna, both with over 200 HP. The best used car dealerships are on the web, and a recommended website will allow you to get the best price for a used Toyota truck.
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