Kevin Rohlwing
Key takeaways
- Position disabled trucks to give technicians a safe workspace away from traffic whenever possible.
- TPMS can alert drivers to low tire pressure before a roadside emergency develops.
- Proper use of reflective warning devices helps improve safety during roadside tire service.
In May, the Tire Industry Association (TIA) sponsored Roadside Service Safety Week to raise awareness on the steps technicians can take to protect themselves when servicing tires and wheels on the side of the road. Over the past year, the truck tire service industry has experienced several serious and fatal accidents during emergency road service. In most cases, those accidents were preventable.
As someone who performed emergency roadside service decades ago, I can speak firsthand about the dangers of working next to traffic traveling at highway speeds. I’ve had my share of close calls and had to dive under a trailer more than once to avoid getting hit by a passing vehicle. Today’s drivers have far more distractions, speeds have increased, and the number of cars and trucks has never been higher. Just a few months ago, I was on the side of the road filming a video, and we had a couple of cars drift to the right with ample warning devices and a film crew in reflective vests on the shoulder. There’s no shortage of distracted drivers.
TIA is the industry leader in tire technician training and certification, so it felt it necessary to raise awareness of the hazards associated with servicing tires and wheels on the side of a road or highway. We produced a new training video that emphasizes the importance of positioning the service truck behind the disabled vehicle, as parking in front has been a common factor in multiple accidents. TIA made the following video available to everyone on its website.
Furthermore, fleets share some responsibility in protecting the technicians who risk their lives to repair or replace tires on the side of the road. First and foremost, drivers must be trained to evaluate the position of the tire(s) in need of service before positioning the truck on the shoulder. If the tire or tires are on the driver’s side, the truck must be positioned as far to the right as possible so the technician has room to work between the vehicle and the fog line. Conversely, tires on the passenger’s side require more room away from traffic, so the vehicle should be positioned closer to the fog line.
In situations where there is insufficient shoulder space to service the tires on either side safely, the truck should be driven to an area with sufficient space or to the nearest exit. This may require replacing the wheel or wheels, but a technician’s life is worth far more than the cost of a wheel. As emergency road service providers move in that direction, more and more will require the vehicle to be moved to a safe location, or they will decline the job.
When a vehicle is disabled on the side of the road, it is also important to ensure drivers have reflective devices and position them properly. By law, they have 10 minutes to complete that task. In one recent accident, the driver did not position their reflective devices, and the technician positioned the service truck in front of the disabled vehicle to service a tractor tire. Combined, these factors almost cost a man his life.
Tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) help prevent accidents during roadside tire service by typically alerting the driver when a tire is losing inflation pressure. This gives them time to find an exit ramp or area with ample shoulder room so the technician can work safely. Impact-related blowouts will happen, and TPMS cannot prevent them. But TPMS can prevent separations caused by prolonged underinflation by warning the driver that a tire or tires are losing inflation pressure.
Emergency roadside tire service is not golf, so technicians are not going to play it where it lies. If the disabled truck is not positioned where the tire(s) can be serviced safely, it will have to be moved. If that requires a wheel replacement, then so be it. If it can’t be moved, then it will have to be towed to a safe location. Serious and fatal accidents can be prevented if fleets, drivers, and service providers work together to prioritize the safety of technicians working on the side of the road.
Click on link below to see video.
https://youtu.be/9LLv8Vv7lQY
Cliff Abbott
It took a while to get here, but small trucking businesses are finally finding higher freight rates and greater revenue opportunities than have been offered in the past few years. The higher rates, however, are at least partially driven by higher costs, especially fuel. It’s vital to your business to know your operational cost so you can determine if higher revenues are covering increased costs.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration publishes average gasoline and diesel fuel prices every Monday (except holidays) at eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel. The report provides national average retail prices, as well as average prices for different regions of the country.
The Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, report showed a national average price of $6.53 per gallon. Although higher prices may have occurred on a spot or temporary basis, it’s the first time the national average gallon price has topped $6. If you purchase your fuel in California, the average price shot above $8 per gallon for the first time. Even in the Gulf Coast region — typically the cheapest area for fuel — pricing exceeded the $6 mark at $6.03 per gallon.
This means record high prices for trucking operations.
Many Class 8 trucks average 6 to 6.5 mpg. Modern trucks can perform significantly better; but idling, traffic congestion and higher speeds can keep any vehicle from reaching maximum fuel economy.
At the national average gallon price of $6.53, small trucking businesses may find their diesel fuel costs have reached $1 per mile or more.
Petroleum-based fluids, like engine and other oils, see price increases, too. Oil-derived products, like plastics, cost more to manufacture. This impacts the cost of parts — and the cost of shipping those parts to maintenance facilities has gone up, too. Tires are more expensive, too.
Even the interest rate paid on your next truck loan could be impacted.
On Sept. 16, 2026, the Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously to increase the federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point. It was the first such increase in three years. The action came as inflation remained elevated, with crude oil prices above $100 per barrel contributing to increased price pressures. Fed policymakers indicated that another rate increase could come before the end of the year.
So, where do freight rates fit into the profitability picture?
According to data received from DAT Freight & Analytics, the seven-day rolling average linehaul freight rate for dry van, as determined from the DAT load board, was $2.17 per mile, excluding fuel surcharge. That figure is up 31.5% from the same week of 2025, an increase of 52 cents per mile. In contrast, the third week of September 2025 only rose 4 cents per mile from the same week in 2024.
Rates are definitely improving.
Refrigerated rates rose from $2 to $2.73 over the past year, according to DAT, an increase of 36.5%. Flatbed linehaul rates for the same period rose 55 cents, landing at $2.60 (that’s up 26.8%. However, expenses for these segments may be different from dry van expenses: Refrigerated trailers require fueling, and flatbed operations incur expenses for tarps, dunnage and securement equipment.
Here’s how owner-operators can work to maintain (or even improve) their bottom line.
The first order of business when considering a load is to make sure the fuel surcharge is covered. If the rate does not specify a surcharge amount, visit the EIA website and make a note of the current national average for diesel fuel in the U.S.
For example: The national average for diesel fuel in the third week of September 2025 was $3.75. This year, it’s shot up more than $2.50 per gallon (that’s a 67.8% increase) for the same time frame.
Now, it’s time to pull out your calculator. You should be able to divide that $2.54 increase by your average fuel mileage to determine how much your fuel cost per mile has increased.
Ask yourself: Have your freight rates, including any fuel surcharge, increased enough to cover the difference? If you’re tracking your other operational costs (as you should be), you can calculate how much more revenue you’ll need to cover your increased expenses.
There are resources to help you decide what’s needed.
The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) released its 2026 update to its Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking in July, providing some average trucking costs increases reported by survey respondents. The report is free, and it can provide some guidelines even if you don’t detail expenses for your operation.
The average operational cost per mile in the truckload sector in 2025 was $1.72, according to ATRI. That figure includes driver pay and benefits cost. Additionally, truck insurance, tolls, maintenance and truck lease or purchase payments continued to rise through the first quarter of 2026. It’s safe to assume that the 2025 cost of $1.72 has already grown to $1.80 per mile and is likely to be even higher, considering fuel increases.
Taking the DAT average dry van freight rate of $2.17 per mile, excluding fuel surcharge, and assuming operational cost of $1.80 per mile leaves just 37 cents per mile for driver pay and benefits — an amount many trucking business owners would determine isn’t worth their time and effort to manage the business.
Fuel efficiency can make a big difference.
It’s important to note that the ATRI operational cost estimates include fuel costs, so the fuel mileage achieved by your equipment can make a huge difference.
At the current EIA national average of $6.53, a truck that gets 5 mpg consumes about $1.31 in fuel every mile. If your truck gets 6 mpg, your fuel cost drops by about 22 cents per mile. Multiplied by a month’s worth of miles or more, the savings for just 1 mpg of added efficiency add up quickly.
For example: If your truck runs 100,000 miles in a year, the difference between achieving 5 mpg and 6 mpg is 3,333 gallons of fuel. Multiply those gallons by $6.523 and you’ll see that the truck getting 5 mpg will burn nearly $22,000 in additional fuel expenses in a single year.
Drivers know that keeping speed down and avoiding idling help increase fuel mileage. So does investment in aftermarket aero products such as wheel covers, fairings, trailer skirts, flow-through mud flaps and other products.
It all begins, however, with knowing your operational cost per mile.
Knowing where your business revenue is being spent helps you determine the areas where cost savings will have the largest impact. It also helps you make sound decisions about which loads, and which rates, will help your business profit.
Clifford Petersen
With apologies to the women in the audience, it’s no news that the vast majority of working truckers are men — here’s looking at (most of) you, readers. And if you’ve followed my fulminations here, you’ll know I’m passionate about health, about well-being, about truckers’ efforts to truly improve their lives by focusing on both.
And if there’s a single aspect of health I’m especially impassioned about, it’s the mental variety. Bear with me. I know it’s a subject difficult for many among us truckers to talk about — we’re supposed to be strong, dare I say the most independent, self-sufficient people on the planet, right? If not for us, this country would come to a grinding halt… You know it.
When we have a problem, we saddle up and get back on the horse. We keep our issues to ourselves, keep rolling the miles.
It can go on endlessly, with the toll on relationships back home mounting. Home fires begin to die. It’s easy to fall into the trap of just rolling on, playing out worst-case scenarios on our big-screen windshield like a late-night movie.
Social isolation can hit any of us unawares with huge destructive force, building stress, anxiety, even capital-D Depression. Combined with the constant push of the job, it can be a literal killer.
Suicide rates have been on the rise among workers in male-dominated trades like trucking in recent years. For veterans, the rate’s even higher at an annual 35.2 per 100,000 vets. Truckers and veterans, who already deal with increased risks of social isolation, can easily find themselves behind this eightball, particularly if yet another wrench is thrown into the gears.
I’ve been a trucker myself now for 27 years, and I’ve experienced it. Chronic pain, an illness, financial problems, bullying even — all primary reasons we might tiptoe closer to the edge. I have spent most of my life with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder and spent several years dealing with suicidal ideation. When I was finally diagnosed at 43 years of age, I began to learn about the tools I needed to live with it, and just when I thought I had finally beaten that monster into submission, he snuck around the corner and almost ended my life.
Fortunately, I had a support system in place, and God intervened. But I had traveled well down that path of hopelessness.
We can help each other, and ourselves
You can help yourself, or your fellow trucker in need, by simply recognizing the risk. It’s not easy when we spend 95% of our time on the road alone. I can go weeks without talking to anyone other than those at the company I haul for. (Dispatchers among you reading here can be a lifeline.)
Still, truckers can be tight-knit with their fellow haulers — pay attention to shifts in behavior, speech, or mood among those you interact with regularly.
Changes can come on quickly or more slowly — a friend may start to self-isolate, with activities they usually enjoy no longer pursued. Increased risk-taking — yes, as my own experience on a motorcycle in the past proved, that may well include aggressive or foolhardy driving — could be a sign, too.
Changes in mood could range from subtle expressions of loss of control or feeling trapped to more extreme hopelessness. Personality shifts from near depression to extreme happiness or calm, detached reactions might signal something more serious.
Starker warning signs:
- Giving away once-treasured personal items/property.
- Extreme rage/anxiety.
- Direct complaints of emotional or physical pain.
- Morbid fascination with death.
- Frank or not-so-frank talking about wanting to die.
- Expression of just how much of a burden someone is to everyone in their life.
If someone begins to say goodbye to friends and family, sometimes precipitated by sleeping a lot less or a great deal more than usual, or big dietary changes, they’re at a critical point.
While it may be difficult for truckers to spot, you may also notice a decline in personal hygiene. (I’m not saying that truckers lack personal hygiene in general, but we all have probably been that guy who goes too long without a shower.)
Today, the World Health Organization’s Suicide Prevention Day, the thing I want you to truly understand is that it is not a weakness to ask for help, or to ask on someone’s behalf. If in doubt, it is always better to share your concerns with someone who can assist in intervening.
If you know someone or are struggling yourself, you can use the suicide hotline by calling or texting 988. When you do, you’ll be connected to a trained crisis counselor who will listen without judgment to your concerns, provide support, and help you explore options for resources and safety. This service operates 24/7, and is strictly confidential.
You may be the saving grace for someone truly in need.
Kris Rutherford
The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) recently released a major policy white paper outlining a comprehensive set of reforms to modernize the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and strengthen commercial motor vehicle safety oversight across the United States.
The growing list of organizations supporting TCA’s efforts includes the American Trucking Associations, National Tank Truck Carriers, the National Motor Freight Traffic Association, the Trucking Association Executives Council, the National Industrial Transportation League, the National Association of Publicly Funded Truck Driving Schools, the Institute for Safer Trucking and the Intermodal Association of North America.
The 24-point paper, entitled “Proposals for Comprehensive Reform: Prioritizing Investments in FMCSA’s Core Safety Mission,” highlights what TCA sees as a growing mismatch between FMCSA’s expanding responsibilities and its limited staffing, outdated systems and fragmented oversight tools.
The recommendations serve as a wake-up call for Congress and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to “realign FMCSA’s resources, modernize its registration and vetting systems, update its safety fitness framework and streamline its statutory portfolio to focus on crash prevention.”
“The FMCSA is responsible for overseeing one of the largest and most diverse regulated populations in the federal government — yet it remains one of the smallest agencies within the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT),” said TCA President Jim Mullen.
“This imbalance compromises safety, weakens oversight and leaves the motoring public at risk,” Mullen noted. “These recommendations offer a path toward a more modern, data-driven and accountable safety system, and Congress must ensure FMCSA has the resources to fulfill its mission.”
With that mission in mind, TCA’s recommendations are comprehensive when considering issues facing the industry. At the top of the list of priorities are staffing, funding and targeting the focus of the agency’s responsibilities, including the vetting of commercial carriers.
Staffing
It’s no surprise that TCA recommends increased staffing as a top priority when it comes to reforms for the FMCSA. As Mullen noted, the agency is among the smallest in the USDOT in terms of manpower and budget but is charged with regulating one of the largest populations of entities overseen by the Department.
As TCA points out, the FMCSA is critically under-resourced and suffers from overly complex statutory constraints, increased oversight responsibilities and unfunded functions, non-safety related functions, and inadequate oversight and enforcement resourcing.
In short, the FMCSA is charged with performing functions above and beyond its principal safety mission but is not provided the resources to do so.
A look at the staffing levels at the FMCSA proves TCA’s concerns valid. FMCSA employs only 300 investigators — a minute number, considering that the agency oversees safety requirements of 700,000 commercial carriers and millions of drivers and vehicles.
TCA recommends a modest increase in the number of investigators (+600) to handle the existing workload, a number that still falls short of what function demands.
Likewise, TCA recommends the employment of investigators specialized in areas such as hazardous materials, complex investigations, entry-level drivers and registration investigations. Among others. Specialization will allow for more in-depth investigation into specific types of incidents and lead to development of rules and regulations that might otherwise be overlooked.
Funding
The FMCSA’s budget of $1 billion is among the smallest of any agency within the USDOT — and 60% of that relatively small budget goes to grant programs. This leaves just $400 million to focus on functions that directly impact safety.
The FMCSA has been assigned a growing mix of responsibilities, not all of which are tightly tied to its central crash-prevention mission of vetting carriers, overseeing drivers and vehicles, targeting unsafe operations, and reducing fatalities and serious injuries.
The agency’s workforce is spread across too many fronts, TCA states. This results in , not allowing enough investigators, attorneys and other staff members to focus on safety programs that address the timely needs of the industry it oversees. This situation leads the TCA into another recommendation, narrowing FMCSA’s responsibilities.
Targeted focus
TCA’s recommendation is clear and simple: Congress should adopt a general rule that any new statutory duty imposed on FMCSA be tied directly to crash reduction and core CMV safety oversight. The FMCSA is expected to focus on responsibilities that far exceed its core mission of protecting the safety of the nation’s highways.
In 2022, more than 165,000 people were injured or killed in accidents involving commercial trucks and buses, and 70% of those casualties were drivers and passengers in other vehicles. The safety of the roadways is of paramount concern, and with the large numbers of lives at stake, the FMCSA is one of few agencies focused on the issue. If FMCSA were as well funded as the Federal Aviation Administration (with a budget of $27 billion and 46,000 employees), perhaps that number of highway casualties could be reduced. After all, while the FMCSA was busy in 2022, the FAA investigated commercial airline incidents that resulted in no deaths during the same period. The FAA is proof that manpower and money do result in oversight and rulemaking that have results when it comes to safety.
Vetting of carriers
Among the most important safety reforms proposed by TCA is increased vetting of new registrants for commercial carrier registration. “Implementation of meaningful vetting processes is key to identifying pre-operational safety status of applicant motor carriers,” TCA states.
TCA further recommends that this vetting process be funded by the carriers themselves. Charging of filing fees would allow for the hiring of personnel and employment of technology to operate the vetting process.
Currently, vetting carriers is more of an administrative duty than a genuine safety gatekeeping system, TCA notes. Vetting carriers for safety BEFORE their vehicles and drivers hit the road would be a major step forward as under current regulations, a new carrier can be in operation up to a year before being looked at by the FMCSA.
“New entrant oversight should likewise be restructured so that provisional authority is conditioned on meaningful review, including onsite examination and enforceable knowledge requirements,” TCA states regarding the vetting of new carriers
In other words, vetting of carriers can’t done from behind a desk. Field work is necessary to gain a meaningful overview of a carrier’s operation. Data on a computer screen is not enough to make decisions when the safety of the nation’s highways is at hand.
Reform needed
While staffing, funding and vetting of carriers are seen as priorities under TCA recommendations, the call for reforms does not stop there. Other key recommendations include strengthened oversight of CDL licensing, ELDT providers and third-party testers, and improved crash causation analysis and data integrity.
“This is a moment for Congress to act,” Mullen said. “A stronger, more efficient and more accountable FMCSA is essential not only for public safety, but also for the stability of the nation’s supply chain.
“TCA stands ready to work with Congress and USDOT, and we strongly urge Congress to provide the resources necessary to support FMCSA’s critical mission,” he concluded.
To download a copy of the white paper, click here.
40 years of trucking history……
