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Truckers Keep an Eye on Inflation, Chains, Tread for Winter

A Good Set of Wheels Can Take You a Long Way on the Road. Ensure You're Taking Proper Care of Your Vehicle! — A Good Set of Wheels Can Take You a Long Way on the Road. Ensure You’re Taking Proper Care of Your Vehicle!

Driving in the winter is stressful, doubly-so for those toting a fully-loaded rig. Luckily, you can take a bit of worry off your shoulders with the help of your electric yard trucks and a properly prepped fleet. The right tire, sufficient, even tread, and proper inflation levels can greatly improve traction and handling on icy, snow-covered roads.

Selecting Tires

Performance is intimately tied to tire selection. Look to tread designs to find your ideal winter tire match. The more open the tread, the better tires perform in snow and slush. In addition, look to skid depth: Full skid-depth tires offer better traction than those with shallow depth.

Ensuring Proper Inflation

Maintaining proper inflation positively impacts a number of factors, including tire wear, casing life, the ability to retread tires, and even gas mileage. In winter driving, it provides an ‘enhanced footprint’ essential to navigating snowy, icy roads. Ambient temperature affects inflation levels, with pressure drops proportional to temperature: 2 psi for every 10° decrease. This makes frequent calibration, at least weekly, essential.

Checking Tread

Tread depth ensures tire ‘grip’ on road surfaces. Use retreads? Choose tread designs with numerous biting edges and ‘sipes’ to boost traction.

Chaining Up

Though this process is considered antiquated by some, ‘chaining up’ tires to improve traction and grip remains an effective way to ensure additional stability in snowy, icy road conditions. When properly chained up, no impact on tire longevity should occur. When selecting tires, opt for styles designed for easy chain application. Be sure to apply chains tightly, removing them as soon as they’re no longer needed.

Shipping schedule blowing up? Stay on top of delivery demands, saving time, reducing labor, and preventing injuries with the help of yard trucks from DJProducts today.

Is Your Supply Chain Keeping Step? Smaller, Digital and Nimble are Key.

Supply chains have embraced tools such as our battery-powered yard trucks that make physical tasks easier. But when it comes to adapting digital technology, the industry has remained behind the curve.

This attitude has been showing signs of changing, as factors including a labor shortage and rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) are driving supply chain managers toward smaller, digital and more nimble operations. Here’s a look at some of the ways technology is changing the supply chain industry.

Move to the Cloud

Experts predict that by 2020, planning systems will remain on premises while 90 percent of spending for execution systems will be for cloud-based applications. The IoT will provide the means to create a digital network allowing for data flow from start to finish of operations.

Improved Forecasting

Another benefit of the IoT is the ability to replace short-term forecasting with demand sensing, which uses advanced math techniques and near real-time data for more accurate forecasting.

Preventing Disruptions

Shippers with a more resilient supply chain will be better equipped to identify and manage risks, making them less vulnerable to reduced capacity and inventory problems.

Shift to Micro-Logistics

Following Amazon’s lead, many manufacturers are evaluating a transition to micro-logistics, which entails a group of small, localized warehouses rather than the traditional DC model.

Less Is More

Whether due to financial struggles or strategic purposes, consolidation among transoceanic shipping companies, third-party distribution services, and over-the-road carriers will likely increase. As a result, 3PL agreements will center on value rather than price.

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Tips for Preparing Your Trucking Fleet for Winter Operation

Your yard trucks may be ready to roll for the winter shipping season – but is your fleet? Frigid winter temperatures and icy driving conditions put fleet vehicles under additional stress. Luckily, a few minor preventative maintenance tasks can help you avoid costly downtown and emergency repairs during the cold winter months.

Winter Fleet Maintenance Checklist:

Winterize

Winterizing with seasonally-enhanced fuels will help vehicles operate in temperatures as low as -30° F with a cold filter plugging point of -55° F. Special additives can increase both horsepower and fuel efficiency as much as 5%, alleviating common cold weather hauling hassles. Ditto for replacing fluids such as motor oil, wiper fluid, power steering and brake fluids with more winter-friendly options.

Swap It & Drain It

Regularly drain water separators and replace water-absorbing filters that can plug-up during cold snaps and create cold engine startup issues (fuel gelling) as well as water damage in sub-zero temperatures to fuel pumps and injectors.

Be Proactive with Wearable Components

Cold temperatures are tough on wearables like belts, hoses, and brake pads. Perform maintenance now to avoid shivering roadside later. Battery testing and maintenance (and a glow-plug check on diesels) are also wisely performed at this time.

Keep Things Clean

Prep vehicles for snow, ice, and salt, ensuring longevity with a thorough pre-season cleaning and protective waxing. Wash the exterior regularly, including cab, body, and undercarriage to prevent damage from corrosive salts.

Dress Up Your Digs

Confirm winter heater/defroster operation and outfit your rigs with winter comfort and safety gear like warm blankets, water, food, flares, jumper cables, fire extinguisher, and more for safety in an emergency.

Gear up for the challenges of the winter driving season with the help of yard trucks from DJ Products today.

How Can You Add Value to Your Supply Chain Clients?

Customer satisfaction is key to retention, and value-added logistics services can give your company a competitive advantage.

What Value-Added Services Could Help You Retain Customers?
Value-added services have moved far beyond rainbow pallets and shrink wrap. Consider these ideas that you can put to use in your current operations:

Expanded Offerings

From custom gift baskets to creating twin packs, expand buying choices to increase sales and clientele.

Shelf-Ready Options

Price, tag, and display the customer’s way to a more streamlined stocking experience.

Personalization

From embroidered apparel logos to custom smartphone covers, personalization is a hot trend.

More Efficient Inventory Management

Customized products = fewer SKUs = reduced inventory carrying/management costs.

Reduced Suppliers

Could your suppliers offer you more value-added services as well? This could reduce unnecessary suppliers and streamline your supply chain.

Reduced Labor

Automated solutions and value-added services reduce downtime and the number of ‘touches’ necessary to pack and ship, ultimately saving on labor.

Yard Trucks

Shipping times lagging? Product and equipment damage costing you dearly? Yard trucks can help, making the movements of trailers and cargo easier and preventing damage.

Transportation Management

The closer packaging/manufacturing/distribution/shipping destinations are to one another, the more cost-effectively you can manage transportation.

Continuous Improvement

Teaming up with a third party logistics company can help you analyze and streamline your current processes, from purchasing and packaging, to value-added services and delivery. Where might your processes benefit from reengineering?

Partnerships

Partnering with third party logistics companies could prove a valuable friendship, providing the flexibility to meet the needs of seasonal fluctuations, business growth, and more.

Falling behind in the ever-changing world of e-commerce? DJ Products has the tips and tools you need to ensure success. Learn more about electric yard trucks from DJ Products today.

Semi Truck Washing Has Become A Whopping $12 Billion Industry

When You're on the Road for Hundreds of Hours, You Rack Up a Heavy Coating of Dirt, and Businesses are Rising to Cater to That! — When You’re on the Road for Hundreds of Hours, You Rack Up a Heavy Coating of Dirt, and Businesses are Rising to Cater to That!

How clean are your yard trucks? In efforts to protect against the ravages of corrosion, truck washing has become a $12-billion industry in the U.S., and it continues to grow.

Wash Me

Newcomer Fleet Clean USA, a mobile truck cleaning service with over 1,000 businesses in 18 states, has reported growth of 40% annually, on average, since its inception 8-years ago, with a 50% increase in its scrubbing business since last year. The company’s founder and CEO, Scott Marr, touts Fleet Clean’s capacity to save customers time and money, eliminating the need for in-house or wash-bay activities while drivers are on-the-road.

Services are available 7-days-a-week, and offered a la carte, including exterior, interior, and engine bay cleaning. Their service even offers options to meet the needs of reefer trailers, who must conform to strict food-safety regulations. Prices run from $15 to $195 for the full shebang, which includes interior detailing. Most customers schedule maintenance washes 1-2-weeks in the same location.

Touchless

The company and its franchises determine pricing based on a computer program that takes into account travel distance, vehicle type, volume, and other factors. A crew of three can wash 5-8 units in an hour, working out of a custom-bodied Class 6 (non-CDL) vehicle equipped with a system that recaptures some of the 22-gallons of soiled water it takes to clean a tractor-trailer for filtering and later discharge.

Riding the Wave

The business is trying to grow, hoping to add to its 22 franchise locations by year’s end. Startup cost? $150-175,000, which Marr states can be recouped in just 12-24 months.

Wishing you could wash your hands of a little extra work? Save time and boost productivity with the help of yard trucks from DJ Products today.

Changes in Store for Calculation of Carrier Safety Scoring

Transportation industry stakeholders are constantly searching for ways to improve safety. Our battery-powered yard trucks are ergonomically designed to reduce risk of injury when shunting trailers, while the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is focused on safe conditions for drivers.

In 2015 President Obama signed the FAST Act, a five-year transportation funding bill. Last August, in accordance with one of the requirements contained in the bill, the FMCSA filed a report with Congress about proposed changes to the Compliance, Safety, Accountability carrier safety rating program.

Prioritizing Safety in Transportation

The FAST Act included the following mandates for the FMCSA:

– CSA’s public SMS percentile rankings were to be pulled immediately from public view.

– The FMCSA was to contract the National Academies of Science (NAS) to study CSA and offer recommendations to improve its fairness and accuracy.

– Finally, the NAS findings were to be incorporated in a corrective action plan that the FMCSA would then submit to Congress.

Opening the Channels of Communication

In addition, the FMCSA planned a public meeting in late August to get feedback from industry stakeholders about the best methods to incorporate the corrective action plan. Prospective reforms in their 10-page report include:

– Changing the methods of calculating scores using improved data.

– Making the scores more user-friendly for carriers to interpret and calculate.

– Instituting an absolute scoring program that provides a universal standard rather than relying on relative scores.

Testing of the new system was scheduled to begin in September.

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Amazon: Changing the Face of Logistics Forever

Are your yard trucks scrambling to catch up with Amazon’s fulfillment strategy? Amazon.com has a reputation for changing the shipping industry with its bold, innovative ideas. How will the trickle-down effect of such changes affect your business?

Rapid Response

Amazon’s dominance in the retail industry is courtesy of its uber-efficient supply chain, which it’s continuously evolving to deliver products in the quickest way possible. Their 2005 introduction of 2-day ‘Prime’ shipping changed the industry, leaving competitors scrambling to keep up. (When they did, Amazon introduced 1-hour shipping.)

Accomplished via sophisticated information technology, a vast network of warehouses, multi-tier inventory management, and unparalleled transportation has Amazon’s supply chain at the head-of-the-pack worldwide.

A Logistics & Retail Giant

Amazon’s supply chain relies heavily on outsourced inventory management: Third-party sellers comprise 82% of sales. However, it doesn’t rely on third-party shipping logistics, insourcing shipping via its own delivery vehicles for same-day/1-hour shipments.

Amazon also offers greater shipping options, including 1-hour, 1-day, 2-day/Prime, first-class and ‘free-super-saver.’ Warehouses are strategically placed with location and size key to success. Each warehouse is ever-closer to metropolitan/city centers: 70 fulfillment centers nationwide and a staff of 90,000 make the most of its ‘pure-push’ strategy for warehouse-sourced sales.

Storage is divided into 5-areas:

– Prime books/magazines

– Pallet/full-case Prime high-demand storage

– Prime high-demand items (less-than-case)

– Irregularly-shaped/low-demand inventory (reverse-storage)

– Modern-demand, small items

Amazing Automation

Amazon Robotics pick/pack without human assistance, speeding shipments. 45,000+ robots bring goods to people for picking. (Next-gen robots will pick, and drone-based delivery testing continues…)

Manufacturing to Support Retail Sales

Amazon’s realization it could provide third-party items more cheaply/quickly to customers have prompted Amazon to enter the manufacturing arena as well.

Scrambling to keep up with Amazon’s shipping standards? Give your operation a boost with yard trucks from DJProductstoday.

The Warehouse Automation and Robotics Market Is Hot!

Robots were once a staple in science fiction films, but the fantasy has become reality. Sophisticated technology, growth in e-commerce, and increased demand for automation have made robots a hot commodity in today’s warehouse equipment.

How Robots Are Transforming Warehouse Logistics

The speed, efficiency and accuracy of robots makes them a cost-effective option for warehouse tasks such as transporting and packing items. Some robots have intelligent programming that makes them fully autonomous, while others work in conjunction with their human counterparts.

Allied Market Research projects that the warehouse robotics market will reach $5.186 billion by 2023. This figure represents a compound annual growth rate of 11.6 percent from 2017. Not surprisingly, Amazon has been in the forefront of the warehouse automation movement with its Kiva robots, which use sensors and algorithms to pick up and drop inventory at various points.

What’s New in Warehouse Automation?

Here are some other recent innovations in warehouse robotics:

– In June 2018, Mobile Industrial Robots rolled out its MiR 500 to transport pallets and other heavy loads. In addition to a lifting capacity of 1,102 pounds, the MiR 500 features laser scanning and 3D cameras to prevent collisions.

– S20 is an interweaving sorting system from Geek Plus Robotics. Artificial intelligence and machine-learning technology make S20 a superior method of sorting parcels.

– Much like its namesake, the Butler PickPal from GreyOrange serves as a valuable assistant to a human worker. The two work side-by-side on order picking, consolidation and fulfillment.

Choose DJ Products for Your Warehouse Equipment Needs

Whether your warehouse is large, small or in-between, we have the battery-powered tugs, movers and pushers to accommodate any application. Visit our website and learn more from our sales engineers using the handy online chat feature.

Trucking ELD Mandate – Myths Debunked

There are many technology unknowns within the trucking industry. According to an informative article, the newest time-logging solutions known as ELDs(or electronic logging devices) have been under intense scrutiny and myths have emerged as a result.

Why veer away from the more traditional method of paper logging? Does new technology cause irreparable harm? What is a myth and what is real?

Factual Foresight

The facts acknowledge that ELDs solve complexities in logging, count driving times to the minute, and allow dedicated drivers to devote their time and energy to their deliveries. Similarly, DJ Products yard trucks use the newest advancements to take on the complex role of heavy-duty organization.

Progress continues to improve and eradicate the idiosyncrasies that cause costly mistakes. Likewise, yard trucks and ELDs bring an added sense of control and consistency to an industry fraught with the unexpected.

Are there areas in your business that need quality machinery to improve the work environment? The trucking industry is realizing that lower labor and logistics can go hand-in-hand. The right tools take the pressure off dedicated employees and allow them to manage their time wisely.

Well-designed, high-quality technology is the only solution to an industry that is racing to be current and applicable. The world is rife with the unexpected. Yard trucks are high-tech and the reliable constant in a constantly moving industry.

Fast-Forward to Success

It’s the age-old battle of familiarity versus progress. Don’t be left behind! Technology drives demand and demand drives technology. It’s important to safeguard the dedicated workers you have from extra labor and potential injuries on the job.

DJ Products can be the go-between solution for labor-intensive tasks that add unneeded strain on warehouse workers and drivers. Visit us today and discover high-tech problem-solvers!

A New Partnership Between Drivers and Self-Driving Semi Trucks

What will the future hold for the trucking industry once automated driving technology further enters the picture? As it turns out, your yard trucks will still be moving cargo for haul by the human labor pool, albeit with a slightly different chain-of-custody. Self-driving truck technology developers are working to ensure a future where drivers and automated vehicles work in-tandem for the safer, more efficient transport of goods.

A Gradual Pathway to Automation

Self-driving trucks won’t be equipped to handle all driving tasks anytime soon. But how human being and automated systems will work together remains an open-ended question, one with many possible answers. What is known: As self-driving trucks start carrying cargo, their limited operational capacity will leave them heavily reliant upon the assistance of drivers in conventional vehicles.

Potential Models:

– Transfer Hub Model
Long-haul trucks tote freight between exits on freeways, then trailers are swapped to local drivers at designated transfer stations.

– Tele-Operation
Autonomous trucks are monitored by remote/offsite backup drivers.

– Truck Platooning
Mixed convoys of piloted and autonomous haulers.

Human Labor Will Remain a Necessity for Trucking Tasks

Current technology will continue to build on readily functional active-safety and driver-assist technology with more automated steering functionality, advanced sensors and software. Eventually they’ll morph into ‘autopilot’ systems – with or without a human backup.

Although structural operations are sure to evolve alongside technology, change will occur at a slower pace as companies tailor their methods of transporting specific types of freight. Technology is expected to move toward a ‘hybrid’ business model – one, hopefully, with more desirable short-haul jobs.

Are you ready for the future? Advance your operation, saving time, manpower, and improving safety with yard trucks from DJ Products today.