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Walcott Truckers Jamboree to Welcome over 40,000 Attendees

The Walcott Truckers Jamboree began in 1979 as a small event in the parking lot of the Iowa 80 Truckstop. It’s since grown to become a massive three-day extravaganza, drawing more than 40,000 truck enthusiasts nationwide

The event will be held July 11-13 at the Iowa 80 Truckstop, I-80 Exit 284. This year marks its 40th anniversary, and Iowa 80 Group is pulling out all the stops.

Firework show at the 2018 Jamboree (Iowa 80 Group)

Festivities will include concerts, carnival games, firework shows, an antique truck display and a super truck beauty contest.

Document Automation Puts Trucking Back Office in Fast Lane

The deluge of documents that trucking generates is increasingly managed and processed via automation. Providers of document-management systems, and the trucking executives who use them, said these systems yield labor savings and efficiencies.

Automating the processing of documents also benefits shippers, carriers, freight brokers and logistics providers by accelerating the completion of transactions — helping all parties pay and get paid more quickly, vendors and trucking executives said.

Solar Transport, which transports petroleum products, uses services from EBE Technologies, including a mobile app that enables document capture for billing and settlements.

Senate Panel Schedules July 10 Hearing on Highway Reauthorization Priorities

Senate surface transportation leaders will meet July 10 to examine the merits of having a long-term highway policy bill on the books.

The GOP-led Environment and Public Works Committee will kick off its task of producing a successor for the five-year FAST Act highway law, which expires at the end of September 2020.

Witnesses include Carlos Braceras, president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

Diesel Rises 1.3¢ to $3.055 a Gallon

The U.S. average retail price of diesel rose 1.3 cents to $3.055 a gallon, the Department of Energy reported July 8. Crude oil slid to below $58.

Diesel still costs 18.8 cents less than it did a year ago when it was $3.243, DOE said.

Regional diesel prices climbed in five areas and fell in five others.

Diesel remained the highest in California despite a one-cent drop and was $3.953.

Also, the national average price for regular gasoline jumped 3 cents to $2.743 a gallon, DOE’s Energy Information Administration said.

Regional averages fell in three areas and increased in six others.

Meanwhile, the latest data, covering 2018, shows California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard continues to drive production of a growing volume of cleaner transportation fuels: almost 3.3 billion gallons of petroleum diesel have been displaced by clean, low-carbon alternatives, according to the California Air Resources Board.

As Marijuana-Use Laws Spread, Drug Still Illegal for Truck Drivers

Last month, drug-testing firm Quest Diagnostics scientist Barry Sample had a serious warning for U.S. employers: Be on the lookout for marijuana use by your workers. It’s on the rise.

“Our in-depth analysis shows that marijuana is not only present in our workforce, but use continues to increase,” said Sample, Quest’s director of science and technology. “As marijuana policy changes, and employers consider strategies to protect their employees, customers and general public, employers should weigh the risks that drug use, including marijuana, poses to their businesses.”

Indeed, an analysis of 10 million drug tests Quest administered in 2018 concluded that every segment of overall workforce is increasingly flunking lab drug tests for marijuana. Also, Sample noted, attempts to cheat on drug tests are on the rise. Those tested include federal safety-sensitive transportation workers, which include truck drivers.

Tesla Must Go ‘All Out’ to Set Deliveries Record, CEO Elon Musk Says

Tesla Inc. could be on the verge of a quarterly record for vehicle deliveries, though the electric carmaker will need to go “all out” in the last few days of the month, CEO Elon Musk wrote in an internal memo.

“There is a lot of speculation regarding our vehicle deliveries this quarter,” Musk told employees in an e-mail June 25. “The reality is that we are on track to set an all-time record, but it will be very close. However, if we go all out, we can definitely do it!”

Tesla shares have slumped 34% this year, in part due to concern about demand that Musk has repeatedly downplayed. The company has forecast it will deliver 90,000 to 100,000 cars in the second quarter after handing over just 63,000 vehicles to customers in the first three months of the year. The stock rose as much as 1.8% June 26.

Philadelphia Refinery Wrecked by Fire Set to Close

The biggest refinery on the East Coast will shut down, after a massive explosion and fire crippled operations at a site that has helped fuel the region for 153 years.

The Philadelphia Energy Solutions Inc. complex on the banks of the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers in Pennsylvania has been in place since 1866, a year after the Civil War ended. It emerged from bankruptcy just 10 months prior to two fires in June that closed down key gasoline-making units just as the summer driving season gears up.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said June 26 the refinery will close within the next month. The complex produces 335,000 barrels a day, meeting about 3% of gasoline demand in a densely populated region. Futures in New York jumped more than 5% on a Reuters report June 25 night that the refinery would close.

PES will lay off half of its 640 union workers and 130 salaried employees June 26, said a person familiar with the plans.

On June 24, the United Steelworkers union said any decision to shut the complex would have lasting consequences “starting with almost 2,000 workers directly employed by PES and tens of thousands more whose employment depends on the refinery to some degree,” according to a statement by USW International Vice President Tom Conway.

Diesel Declines 2.7¢ to $3.043 a Gallon

The U.S. average retail price of diesel dropped 2.7 cents to $3.043 a gallon, the Department of Energy reported June 24. Crude oil prices jumped about 10% to more than $57 a barrel amid increased tensions in the Persian Gulf, then climbed higher later in the week.

Trucking’s main fuel costs 17.3 cents less than it did a year ago, when it was $3.216, DOE said.

VW, Ford Near Deal on Electric, Autonomous Vehicles

Volkswagen AG is nearing a deal to cooperate with Ford Motor Co. on electric-car technology and self-driving vehicles, according to CEO Herbert Diess, who also called for a faster transformation of the German manufacturer.

Talks with Ford are “progressing well” and are close to being finalized, Diess said in prepared remarks seen by Bloomberg and delivered at a gathering of the carmaker’s 500 most senior executives in Wolfsburg, Germany. The pact, which already includes co-producing vans and pickups trucks, is part of VW’s plan to add scale and save costs to counter slower sales and record spending requirements to develop new technologies.

Refiners’ Group Asks Appeals Court to Block Expansion of E15 Gasoline

A trade organization representing U.S. refiners is asking an appeals court to reject a Trump administration plan to expand nationwide the blending, distribution and year-round sale of E15 fuel.

The fuel is gasoline blended with 15% ethanol.

Though E15 is currently allowed on the market, nearly all gasoline sold in the United States has a 10% blend with ethanol — E10.

Most heavy-duty trucks are powered by diesel, but nearly 30% of fuel used by other trucks is gasoline, according to American Trucking Associations.

The final Environmental Protection Agency rule regarding E15, published in the Federal Register on June 10, will permit sale of E15 blends year-round. Previously the E15 blend was not permitted to be sold in the summer months because it creates higher emissions in warmer weather.