Peterbilt Service Unit Locator
To help trucks needing body repair get back on the road faster, Peterbilt has introduced an online Service Unit Locator. This Internet application is designed to inventory used and rebuilt hoods, cabs, and sleeper units for sale throughout the United States and Canada.
Information and pictures of many of the units for sale are available. Pull-down menus allow users to sort and locate hoods, cabs, and sleepers by truck manufacturer, model, year, price, condition, Peterbilt dealer location, and state or province.
Inventory on the site is kept up to date, with units added or removed as they become available or are sold. Peterbilt dealers provide parts and service for most leading medium- and heavy-duty truck makes, so users with a truck other than a Peterbilt can benefit from the site.
Prime Contractors Get Whole Fuel Surcharge Prime Inc, a refrigerated, flatbed, and liquid bulk truckload carrier based in Springfield MO, is contributing to the success of its contractors with a fuel surcharge program that protects them from fluctuations in fuel prices. The company passes 100% of all fuel surcharges it collects from its customers on to its contractors. If the amount Prime collects from its customers falls short of protecting its contractors from fluctuating prices, the company makes up the difference. Since August 1999, Prime has passed $18.25 million in fuel surcharges on to its contractors, with the company paying $3.5 million of that amount.
Long before fuel prices became critical to the success of operators, Prime began indexing the cost of fuel based on actual cost to contractors, calculating the actual number of gallons they used and the cost per gallon from fuel stop to fuel stop.
For contractors driving fuel-efficiently, or averaging six miles per gallon, Prime's fuel surcharge program limits the impact of fuel prices to $1.08 per gallon. The company's current fuel surcharge is $.10 per mile, which equates to $.60 per gallon for contractors averaging six miles per gallon. Prime also has substantial fuel discounts in place with fuel vendors that range from $.03 per gallon to $.26 per gallon. Contractors pay no transaction fees at Prime's network fuel locations, receive all company-negotiated discounts, and are entitled to free services at select fuel locations.
Transpacific Lines Plan Chassis Use Charge Transpacific shipping lines serving the United States export trade to Asia say that the established practice of providing customers with truck chassis to deliver their container cargo to US port locations has become too costly and inefficient to continue without charge.
As of Jan 1, 2001, lines in the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement said they each will adopt a $40 chassis charge to cover a portion of lease, purchase, maintenance and repair, licensing and registration, repositioning, administration, insurance and other costs associated with carrier-provided chassis.
The full cost of providing a chassis runs about $72 per shipment. Total annual costs for providing chassis are estimated at $30 million to $45 million per carrier.
Carriers said the chassis charge is intended to address direct chassis-related costs, as distinct from detention of a unit beyond a reasonable time period. Existing detention charges beyond the free time period will remain in effect.