Truck drivers have an on-the-job injury risk that's about three times that of employees in other industries. Roadway accidents account for 25% of driver injuries due to the risks of other drivers, bad weather, and unsafe road conditions. Yet many trucking injuries occur when the truck is standing still and the driver isn’t even behind the wheel. The most common injuries are slips, trips and falls; or struck with shifting freight or moving equipment like forklifts. 8% of trucking injuries that result in worker's compensation claims are related to tarping loads on flatbeds.
Pete Johnson
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Curtainsiders are a great investment that will last beyond their expected life span with proper care and cleaning.
Some costs of operating a fleet are beyond your control: fuel prices that rise and fall with the international market, insurance, and necessities like the cost of finding and training drivers. However, you’re not totally without options in the fight to reduce operating costs of a fleet. Numerous opportunities exist to make changes and improve the bottom line. More good news: many changes that lower costs also make your fleet more efficient and productive, as well as increasing customer satisfaction. Take a closer look at your own operation and you can probably come with a number of ways of cutting unnecessary expense. Meanwhile, here are three examples to start with:
Self-driving cars and solar-powered aircraft: the media is full of transportation advances that promise to impact our lives in the future. Likewise, the trucking industry is also spawning a stream of innovation. The future of freight hauling looks more efficient, more profitable, and greener. Eighteen-wheel rigs with micro-turbine electric drive, truck platoons linked by vehicle-to-vehicle speed and braking control—these techno-wonders are still well beyond the horizon. However, in the more immediate future of 2016, we can look forward to examples of practical innovation in trucking like these:
It won’t come as a surprise to any fleet manager: Traffic congestion is a factor that complicates daily dispatching and it’s only getting worse. Today, freight in urban areas moves slower than ever. Increasingly, fleet managers have to make on-the-fly schedule adjustments as trucks are snarled in standstill traffic. The Department of Transportation estimates that traffic congestion imposes $27 billion dollars in wasted fuel and labor hours on freight companies. It’s also a public relations issue for our industry. Trucks inevitably tend to be the highest-profile, most visible target for the frustrations of commuters fuming behind the wheel in ever-growing gridlock.
Curtainside trailers combine the best of many worlds: loading and unloading access from three sides without a dock, cargo-protecting enclosure and security minus tarping, and rapid conversion between configurations as circumstances require. Curtainside structures also blend load-bearing strength with light weight for maximum fuel economy and low maintenance. However, like any piece of equipment in your fleet, a curtainside is subject to real world wear and tear—particularly since its superior versatility usually means heavy utilization and high mileage—as well as the slings and arrows of random damage that occurs in busy freight operations. When you need replacement parts for any reason, We have your back—and the front, the roof, and both sides, too.
As one of North America's largest manufacturers of curtainside trailer systems, Roland Curtains not only makes curtainside systems for a wide variety of different configurations of existing trailers but can also produce a custom-built unit to satisfy your required specifications.
Whether you want a complete curtainside trailer built from the ground up, the installation of an upper curtainside structure system placed onto your existing chassis, or the upper structure in kit form for installation by you or your local service provider, we can do the job like no one else.
Curtainside trailers are getting quite a bit of traction here in the U. S. market as more owner/operators and trucking company fleet managers become aware of the many significant benefits these types of rigs have to offer. Curtainsiders are built for maximizing productivity, saving companies both time and money. And as more private fleets and for-hire fleets discover the facts, more are making the move to go with the curtainside concept.
Fleet managers keep the rubber on the road and freight moving on-time and cost-effectively.
The job requires having the right truck and trailer available for the load requirements at all times. This can be a challenge when the fleet mix is fixed—limited to only or predominantly van trailers or flatbeds. You need the flexibility to pick-up and deliver exactly the freight required, where and when it’s scheduled; and to make sure that both the quality and security of the shipment is maintained from the shipping dock clear through to the destination. Roland curtainside products offer alternatives to the limitations of a traditional fleet, readily adapting to the changing requirements of shippers.
A curtainside trailer is more than an adaptable trailer that blends the open access of a flatbed with the enclosure and security of an enclosed van. It’s also a customized moving billboard for your company logo and message—an artist’s palette of color and creative design in constant motion. Every company wants to heighten name recognition and brand, as well as advertise their trade and services offered. There’s no more effective means to establish a high profile than a fleet of billboards on the road every day, continuously keeping your name in the public eye. There’s also no better way to spend advertising dollars: the expense of renting a single stationary billboard situated along a high-traffic road for only one month is several times the expense of a pair of creative Roland curtains—lasting for years and displaying your message along countless miles down many roads.
