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Post by swamprat on Nov 19, 2015 9:42:52 GMT -6
Uncle Sam would like to know a little more about just what we are doing. All for improving efficiencies and safety, of course! Tracking freight flowsDate: November 17, 2015
Source: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Summary: A new freight database that will help transportation officials improve highways, railroads and other trade routes across the country. With about two million records in the database, this resource captures freight movement by origin, destination, commodity, mode, trade type, tonnage and value.
A new freight database developed with assistance from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory will help transportation officials improve highways, railroads and other trade routes across the country. With funding from the Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) and Federal Highway Administration, ORNL data experts recently provided specialized data development, statistical analysis and modeling support to create the Freight Analysis Framework (FAF), the most comprehensive public source of freight transportation data in the nation.
Read more: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151117131929.htm
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2015 12:26:36 GMT -6
"The FAF4 is one of the most used tools in a suite of transportation analytics developed by ORNL's Center for Transportation Analysis, which supports vehicle and transportation system-wide efficiency gains through the development of predictive information, analytical methods and vehicle systems data."
I imagine that Skywalker can give us an analyses on this issue. He has been a "trucker" long enough to know how his own job data collection has changed from daily paperwork, including a check-up list on his vehicle daily.
When he goes into underground storage, his company (which has a check-list on him) has permission.
Highways, railroads, that are "state and federally funded" (our taxpayers' dollars), don't I have a right to know who is using them?
Weight stations for trucks, always (already) seemed a little "radical" to me. Probably harder to avoid (at one time) than I realized.
All in the name of safety, and wear and tear on roads and railways.
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Post by skywalker on Nov 23, 2015 21:45:36 GMT -6
Everything is done by computer now. We get all of our dispatch info by computer. Almost all of the communication between the drivers and dispatchers is now done by computer. Directions to the warehouses is on the company's GPS system. Fueling, tolls and repairs are all handled automatically by computer. The logbooks are almost all computerized now. There are still a few small companies out there that haven't switched over yet but they will sooner or later. I really don't see what the point of this database is though besides the government's incessant desire to micromanage everything. All kinds of freight is being shipped to all kinds of different areas and if the Feds only have two million records in their database then they haven't even scratched the surface yet. There are over 450,000 trucks registered in the US. That means their vaunted database has the equivalent of about four days worth of data. Ha! I hope the Feds aren't planning on going back to totalitarian regulation of the trucking industry like it used to be. They started regulating things back in the 1920s and had total control over which companies could haul freight, what kind they could haul, how many trucks they could use, which warehouses they could pickup and deliver to, which roads they had to drive down to get there, how much they could charge for their services...etc... The stupid feds even regulated what type of clothes the drivers had to wear and what color sheets had to be on the bed in the bunk. It was idiotic. In the mid 1970s due to the OPEC oil embargo (which was Jimmy Carter's stupid idea) the price of diesel fuel almost tripled in just a few short years but the government wouldn't allow the trucking companies to raise their rates to keep up with the rising fuel costs. As a result about 90% of all the trucking companies went out of business by 1980. Luckily Ronald Reagan came along and deregulated the entire transportation industry which allowed the few remaining companies to stay in business and start making a profit. Thanks to deregulation the transportation industry is now more efficient and effective and transportation costs have actually gone down over the past fifty years even though wages and fuel costs have gone up dramatically. If the Feds start regulating things again we are all screwed. I seriously hope that is not what this database is all about.
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Post by skywalker on Nov 23, 2015 21:56:41 GMT -6
Not only that, but all truck drivers are required to have a commercial drivers license and if they haul hazardous materials they have to have a haz-mat certification plus get fingerprinted and have a background check done on them by the FBI. And there is a bunch of other requirements that have to be met if a driver hauls any "sensitive" freight or goes into any "secure" areas. Most trucks also have satellite tracking devices on them so the company knows where the truck is at all times, plus they can tell whether or not the engine is running, how fast the truck is going, whether or not the clutch is engaged, what RPM the engine is running, what the fuel mileage is and a whole bunch of other crap. Some companies (including mine) now have anti-collision radar systems on the trucks that can tell how close a truck is following the vehicle in front of them and automatically applies the brakes if they get too close. We also are starting to have video cameras on the front of the truck to record everything that happens, and stupid lane-change warning devices that record every time a truck crosses the line without having the turn signal on. Naturally all of this info is being sent via computer to the company also. Hmm...maybe Big Brother already has totalitarian control after all.
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Post by casper on Nov 24, 2015 20:41:23 GMT -6
I used to have that lane change warning thing in my truck too. Thank goodness it broke! It was driving me batty! That dumb buzzing noise it makes sounds like a big electronic fart.
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