TransportFool

Another tragic day for carhaulers

Cassens driver Edward Baer was struck and killed by a passing vehicle while unloading at Criswell Chevrolet in Gaithersburg Maryland

Baer, 44, was to celebrate his 20th wedding anniversary next year.  He and his wife have two daughters and a son, ages 15 to 9

Tragedy at Bay Cities Auto Auction

An auto transporter and a security guard both lost their lives in an incident at Bay Cities Auto Auction.  63-year-old Angelito Erasquin, a security guard and 56-year-old Jim Wightman, a trucker from Central Point, Ore have been identified by the police as the victims.  Our prayers go out for the families and co-workers as they deal with the loss. We also pray that the responsible party is brought to justice as well.

UPDATE: An arrest has been made and Karl George Sanft, 34 has reportedly confessed to these killings. Pictured below is Jim Wightman who was killed just because he “might” have been a witness to the murder of security guard Angelito Erasquin!

4-car burns in Calif

this is off of KSBY.com

Santa Barbara County firefighters put out flames on Highway 154 after a car carrier catches fire.

Fire crews found a car carrier towing four vehicles that was fully involved. Firefighters knocked down the fire quickly and saved the four vehicles.

However, the tow vehicle could not be saved. No one was hurt.

Truck stolen from Manheim Statesville, NC

$1000 reward is being offered by Reeves Auto Transport 336.492.7996

Keep your eyes out for a stolen 2005 Peterbilt it didn’t have any lettering on it when it was stolen. It has unit#108 on the hood and the last of the vin is 5N848819. The trailer is a 05 Cottrell 5G005629. If you see this truck contact the Iredell county Sheriff dept at 704-878-3100

Important info or propaganda?

The teamsters have released a report entitled “Damaged when Delivered“. I have started through it and They seem to have found some poor transport practices that need to be improved but some of them don’t look like a problem to me.  Why would dropping a tire into drop pockets be an issue? I used to drive a stinger rig that had a head rack equipped like the one in the picture and I never had any problems using those pockets the whole time I drove it. Leave me your comments.

Another blogger’s view “Teamsters try a new angle”

Update 12-8-09: Mr Fred Zuckerman took the time to go over the report with me and address my questions. I miss understood the issue with truck in the picture above. It isn’t a safety/damage issue but rather the manufacturer that this truck is loading for has some specific requirements that prohibit bottomless drop pockets. I would agree with him that if the customer wants it done a certain way then that is the way it should be done. Since that seems to be a whole different set of  issues then I think that picture needs more explanation under it. especially since the rest of the report deals with Damage and safety issues.

Basically the point he is trying to make is that if the manufacturers use the lowest bid model then the rate will be lower than what  is possible to do a safe quality job at.  He states that the typical union driver has had several weeks of training and that often non-union drivers have inadequate training and sometimes they have had no training.

If you have an opposing view point you are welcome to leave a comment but lets keep them professional.

Update 12-8-09: Another update, I spoke with Tom from Accelerated services and he looked up The load that truck 107 did out of Ohio and it appears that the vehicle pictured above is a 2005 Equinox that was a smart auction car that was successfully delivered to it’s destination with no damage.

If you are featured in this report you are welcome to leave your response to the allegations in the comments section.

Propaganda 4 votes

Important info 4 votes

New steer tire available

Continental Tire North America Inc. will begin selling its new HSL2 Eco Plus (Heavy Steer Long Haul) medium truck tires in size 295/60R22.5 this month.

“These truck tires are a full three inches shorter than the 275/80R22.5 sizes, but each has 1,215 more pounds of additional carrying capacity in a single fitment for Load Range G,” say Continental Tire North America officials.

Were the new police cars being delivered too fast?

Off of abc6.com:

According to the report the carrier had violated a weight restriction on a bridge but the reporter is evidently guessing because they also reported that the state police and the trucking company both had “no comment”

8 vans on a straight truck?

Car hauling isn’t done on the same type of auto transporters everywhere! Check  out the height and width of this transporter!

3/4-car wedge rolls over with Audi

This happened in East Hazel Crest Ill.

Salesmen have a tough job