The May / June 2006 Edition of the excellent Public Roads magazine includes a wonderful article on how the highways trucks use could take a hint from the information superhighway.

With freight volume on American highways expected to increase by a whopping 70% by 2020, over 1998 levels, Electronic Freight Management (EFM) can help considerably reduce congestion by better coordinating intermodal connections.

Biometric smart cards are already in use and contain information on truck drivers, including a photocopy of a commercial driver license as well as the driver’s thumbprint. This information, contained in the embedded gold-colored chips, is used to expedite the movement of cargo through intermodal transfer facilities and trucks through border crossings.

Learn more about EFM and the future of transportation by clicking on the title of this article.

Yet another important speech has been given by Norman Y. Mineta, df, before the prestigious U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in Washington D.C., at 11 AM, today July 6th, 2006.

The tone was resolutely engaging and the crowd listening to this speech meant business, big infrastructure development business. Most experts agree Mr Mineta want to help the American transports industry as well as the already stressed out commuters, especially in dense urban areas.

Click on the title to read the complete speech transcript.

At some point, it’s important that the transports and logistics industry ask some hard questions to our politicians. Every time we fuel our vehicles with gas, our wallets dry up and it’s getting scary.

What if all this time we’d been lied to? What if gas, or even hydrogen wasn’t our best alternative? What if some powerful people found happiness in enslaving you and your company to the fuel pumps?

Influent voices are now rising to explain, with abundant proof, that it would be a lot more productive and cost effective to use batteries, instead of hydrogen fuel, to power our vehicles.

Sadly for us all, though, it’s a lot more profitable for the apparently omnipotent petroleum industry to develop the hydrogen technology, despite the considerable dangers involved, than investing for the development of efficient batteries.

Why? Because hydrogen will keep us tied up to the pumps.

Again, it’s all about the money.

Would it be possible that we’re all spectators to a giant play resembling a global conspiracy to move us all from one dependency (fossil fuel) to another (hydrogen)?

Sony Pictures has launched, on June 28th 2006, in both Los Angeles and New York, an amazing documentary / movie titled “Who Killed the Electric Car?” that tackles this situation head-on. The movie should be available locally, in most cities, this summer — as a T&L Professional, you should probably see it.

You may ask yoursefl why you should sit at your local cineplex looking at a “documentary” for a few hours? It’s a good question but let’s start with a few facts. In 1996, not so long ago, electric cars began to pop up on California’s roads. They were quiet, fast (zippy, to be precise), produced no exhaust and basically ran without any gasoline… a dream on four wheels, right?

Ok, so why are electric cars on the way out?

What happened?

In the transports and logistics industry, it’s hard to imagine daily business without using fossil fuel but, in comparison, look at the rest of our lives.

We use batteries in toothbrushes, rasors, flashlights, remotes, wireless phones, portable devices and computers… nowadays, even the books we buy for our kids come with little battery powered sound systems that play music while they read!

I’ll admit we either have to recharge the batteries once in a while (or even change them) but overall, we’re getting decent performance.

Why can’t we use batteries in our vehicles, especially for shorter commutes?

Imagine the savings in the T&L industry if all short distances could be taken care of by electric vehicles. Nobody would want to switch back to fossil fuel or even hydrogen so why are we so passive and tolerant about those “alternatives” now?

The ongoing debate over how to fuel the many vehicles in our highly mobile society will not stop here but hopefull, by asking questions, T&L operators from around the world will keep an open mind about what the future may have in store.

Tags: electric cars, gm, mobile society, fossil fuel, hydrogen, no emissions, documentary

Part of the work associated with operating a vehicle fleet has to do with managing the refueling costs.

If the latest developments are any indication, the gas retailers will look to install much more advanced fuel pumps that’ll sell gas, of course, but a whole lot more.

Think about buying a cup of coffee, a lottery ticket, downloading MP3s and even check traffic reports — all without ever leaving the pump! Such a “modern” pump was previewed at the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas.

Killing time at the pump may never be same!

Based on Dresser Wayne’s popular and field proven Ovation fuel dispenser, the Ovation iX features the same stylish design, user-friendly interface and reliable performance. But it also offers a range of new tools specifically engineered to increase retailer’s profits while reducing their costs.

Powered by Dresser Wayne’s state-of-the-art iX Technology Platform, the Ovation iX can be equipped with:

iX Media, which helps retailers drive in-store sales with customized full-motion video promotions on a dispenser-integrated 10.4” color display, with built-in speaker.

iSense, which reduces ownership costs by remotely and automatically troubleshooting and fixing potential site equipment problems before they occur.

iDPOS, whose fault-tolerant design guarantees uninterrupted fuel and merchandise sales by independently managing transactions and credit card sales even if the in-store POS is offline.

The Xflo Meter, Dresser Wayne’s fastest, most accurate fuel meter ever, virtually eliminates meter drift, meaning it never needs recalibration and therefore, the retailer loses less money.

The Ovation iX also features clutter-free side-hanging hoses, an intuitive ATM-style interface, integrated flow rate controls, and an easy-to-access panel door. It can also be fitted with an optional cash acceptor, Wayne SCAN, Wayne TRAC and Healy vapor recovery equipment.

Transports and logistics companies should be happy such developments are underway because, in essence, they’re meant to help customers “refuel” faster and somewhat more conveniently (for gas and everything else).

On the flipside, since it’ll be easier to buy loads of stuff at the pump, company managers will probably want to check their employee’s gas bills more closely, in the future!

Tags: gas pumps, refuel faster, convenience, gas bills, dresser, ix media