Today’s Pickup: Zuckerberg talks to truckers at Iowa 80

Good day,

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg visited the Iowa 80 truck stop last week, continuing his A Year of Travel. Zuckerberg spoke to truckers and relayed those conversations through his Facebook account.

“Trucking is a unique lifestyle — that often involves your family,” Zuckerberg wrote. “One trucker I met put eight kids through college with the money he’s made on the road. He also had some strong views on the second amendment.

“I met another trucker who drives from Chicago to Reno with his wife and three dogs every week. They take 12 hour shifts driving and sleeping in the bed in the cabin,” he added. “Another man I met spent 17 years in the military before becoming a trucker. His wife rides with him sometimes. She’s not a trucker, but she just wants to spend time together.”

Zuckerberg also touched on the topic that is dominating industry talk these days – electronic logging devices.

“When the truckers I met started driving, you logged your driving hours on pieces of paper. Now it’s electronic and automatic, which makes it harder to drive more hours than you’re supposed to,” he relates. “Some people said they want to work longer, but they feel like regulations are getting in the way of their freedom and doing what they want to do. It’s tough because those regulations try to keep people on the road safe.”

Did you know?

According to TruckerPath, machinery accounts for 10.4% of all freight moved by truck. Electronics is second at 8.3%.

Quotable:

“Finding a vacant trailer on larger trailer yards sometimes can be time consuming for drivers. Trailer Finder addresses the issue by using augmented reality to leverage the geolocation from our Orbcomm tracking device to give a driver a visual location of the trailer at the site.

Tracy Black, senior vice president of information systems for J.B. Hunt, on augmented reality tests the company is working on.

In other news:

Amazon’s beehive

Amazon has a filed for a patent for a “multi-level fulfillment center for unmanned aerial vehicles” that looks suspiciously like a large beehive. (Business Insider)

In search of warehouse space

With online retail sales growing, America has a mall problem. There are too many of them. But it also has a warehouse problem. There are not enough of them. (CNBC)

Augmented trailer finder

J.B. Hunt is testing an augmented reality system that can help drivers find empty trailers in its large yards. (Talk Business)

Nikola expanding operations

Nikola Motors has expanded its team recently and made some design tweaks to its Nikola One hydrogen-electric tractor ahead of its planned September launch. (Trucks.com)

USA Today report on port truckers missed the mark

Greg Feary, president and managing partner of the Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson & Feary law firm, took issue with USA Today’s recent report on port truckers in an op-ed for Transport Topics. (Transport Topics)

Final Thoughts

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s visit to the Iowa 80 truck stop last week served as a great platform to help boost trucking’s image. It should serve as an example of how political leaders can better understand the industries they regulate – by visiting with those industries to better understand their problems.

Hammer down everyone!