Training Announcement: National Traffic Incident Management (TIM) Responder Training

Law Enforcement - Fire - EMS - Transportation - Towing & Recovery - Communications

A new coordinated, multi-disciplinary training program developed through the Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) is available for all emergency responders and those supporting traffic incident management operations. This training puts police, firefighters, state and local departments of transportation, towing and recovery professionals, medical personnel, and other incident responders on the same page, leading to a safer, faster, integrated responder team.

Save Lives

– Faster incident response and clearance times result in fewer secondary crashes.

– Training results in less exposure of responder team to moving traffic during recovery.

Save Money

– Less congestion leads to fewer freight and travel delays in backups.

– Fewer secondary crashes save on insurance claims.

– Faster cleanups lead to cost savings for incident personnel.

Save Time

– Smarter response techniques cut congestion clearance time – decreasing delays.

Training is provided at NO COST. Receive 4 hours of in-service credit through DCIS, OEMS, OR VDFP. 

Date: September 16, 2017

Time: 8:00am – 12:00pm

East Coast Truck and Trailer Sales

2906 Elmhurst Lane – Portsmouth VA 23701

To Register, contact: Jim Stanek at James.Stanek@VDOT.virginia.gov

*When registering, please provide agency, rank, name, and email address*

East Coast Truck and Trailer Sales is your Auto Transport Equipment and Towing Parts Superstore. We have been a part of the towing and auto transport communities for more than two decades. Stop by our store at 2906 Elmhurst Lane, Portsmouth VA 23701 and check out our wide selection of wreckers and rollbacks.  You’ll find the highest quality products to keep you on the road and earning money. We offer custom length towing chains, time saving 4 point tie-down systems, and led light bars.

Come Visit Us at the Dallas Tow Show!

Come visit us at the Dallas Tow Expo!! We are at Booth 627. The tow show is being held at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, TX 76051.

Tow Show hours are Friday 8/18 and Saturday 8/19 11:00AM - 5:00PM. We have great deals and would love to meet and greet our customers in person. Hope to see you there!

SmartLINQ - Peterbilt's Built-In Monitoring System

Here to Help You Stay on the Road

SmartLINQ is a factory installed diagnostic system in all new Peterbilt trucks – including all of the new Petes on our lot!! – and it is designed to help you stay on the road. SmartLINQ helps drivers, fleet owners, and vehicle service and maintenance coordinators by remotely keeping track of engine and aftertreatment diagnostic codes, notifying the appropriate parties of problems that need to be addressed, and instantly giving the driver an easy to understand alert with directions on how to proceed.

The online portal for SmartLINQ, through PACCAR, allows the fleet owner or truck maintenance person to view all of the fleet’s trucks color coded to show their current engine health, allows for customized notifications 24/7/365 of alerts from trucks, and tracks the vehicles through North America.

All new Peterbilt trucks come with a complimentary two-year subscription (longer with applicable warranties) to SmartLINQ. Whenever repairs are needed, SmartLINQ provides contact information for the closest three Peterbilt dealerships in order to get the repair handled quickly and efficiently. The system can be set to connect with these dealerships automatically so they can be prepared for you with the necessary parts and service to get you back on the road.

Drivers will see easy to understand fault codes that say whether they can keep running as normal, seek repairs immediately, or stop engine immediately, depending on the severity of the engine or aftertreatment issue. SmartLINQ will, at the same time, send their information to the PACCAR back office, which generates the email notifications via user-friendly text and graphics to convey the problem and what needs to be done to solve it.

SmartLINQ is designed with you in mind: affording maximum up-time, streamlining fleet service management, and ensuring trucks are running at their best so you can keep on truckin’.

More information about SmartLINQ

Need a new Pete? Check out ourinventory online or call 1-800-849-2178!

East Coast Truckand Trailer Sales – Our Sales Team is Here to Serve You!

U.S. Senate to Consider Bill Opposing Increases in FET

H.R. 2946: Heavy Truck, Tractor, and Trailer Retail Federal Excise Tax Repeal Act of 2017

A new bill has been introduced to U.S. Congress that will seek to repeal the federal excise tax (FET), which is at present 12 percent. The FET on heavy duty trucks dates back to 1917 when it was introduced to defray the cost of World War I. The tax on new heavy duty trucks later grew from 3 percent in 1917 up to the 12 percent we see today.

The 12 percent FET on the purchase of heavy duty trucks is a burdensome tax – higher than taxes for all other vehicles, and when combined with recent federal emissions and fuel-economy mandates, can add up to thousands of extra dollars when purchasing a new truck. At its present 12 percent, the FET depresses heavy duty truck sales and, as a result, slows companies from replacing their old fleets with new cleaner and more fuel-efficient trucks.

Truck purchase prices have been hiked which directly impacts the cost of food, consumer goods, as well as other products. “This is taxation on American jobs”, said the bipartisan group of U.S. House members led by Sen. Cory Gardner. The truck FET affects more than 1,800 commercial truck dealers in America and the National Automobile Dealers Association and American Truck Dealers which has over 7.3 million Americans employed in the U.S. trucking industry. The difficulty and complexity of administering FET forces truck dealers to spend their time and effort navigating complicated IRS regulations associated with collecting the tax.

The move has the full backing of American Truck Dealers, commercial trucking, towing, and auto transport companies and should be considered by the House Ways and Means Committee when they draft legislation to reform the overall tax code.

Given the current financial condition of the Highway Trust Fund, and the possibility of an infrastructure bill, increasing the FET remains a prospect. Lately, reports published by different government and NGO gatherings have proposed expanding this tax by an extra 1 to 10 percent. However, Congress should oppose any further increase in the FET and consider lowering it if not eliminating FET to deal with detrimental impacts on safety, the environment, and the trucking industry. Congress should include H.R. 2946 in its upcoming tax reform bill. Lowering or – hopefully – eliminating the FET will help the industry grow.

East Coast Truck and Trailer Sales has a huge selection of trucks and trailers on the lot – we have what you’re looking for. Check out our car haulers, wreckers, and rollbacks in inventory today and give us a call at 1-800-849-2178. Our in house finance department works with over 30 different lender types to get you on the road faster. Let us get you in the truck you need today!

Simple Steps to Keep your Truck Tires from Eating Profits Alive

We know tires are expensive. We also know most drivers mean to keep up with their tire maintenance programs, but driving often gets in the way. Until you drop a tread, or pick-up a bolt, it's easy to forget about your tires. Problem is, tires are very unforgiving, and will eat up your profits any chance they get. Don't let them. Here's how.

Any tire showing damage is trying to tell you something. You might need an alignment if you see certain patterns, so knowing which tire patterns to look for helps you identify the problem. Tire sites usually have a chart on types of damage to expect with each problem.

Keep tires of the same diameter together (New with new. Used with used). If not, you end up with one tire skipping and scraping the road because it isn't the same size. Premature wear isn't pretty.

Know when to replace/retread your tires. Minimum legal depth is 4/32" on the steer and 2/32" on others. Tires wear at approximately 1/32" per 13-14,000 miles. Measure your treads now, and mark their expected replacement dates based on your average mileage. Problem solved.

Service those bearings and kingpins. This WILL make your tires wear better. 

Always install new tires - not retreads, on your steering axles. Better safe than sorry when it comes to steering gear.

Make sure your inflation is correct for your load. Underinflated tires, especially under load, will chew tires quickly.

Adjust pressures for cold climates you are driving in. If you're coming from a warmer area, when you hit cold weather areas the air in your tires contracts, and suddenly you're running underinflated. Check your pressures.

Damaged, improperly balanced wheels will damage tires. Look over all of your wheels for signs of damage - every trip.

Keep radials with radials, and bias ply with bias ply. Don't mix them, or you will see a shorter tire life.

Tires do have a maintenance schedule. Whether you're a single O/O, or have a fleet of trucks, have a plan for replacement and/or repair with an escrow fund and based on mileage and you'll keep those tires from eating your profits alive.

Summer Towing Tips: Avoid Heat Illness, Get Ready for these Common Summer Issues

How to Stay Cool and Safe This Summer

The hot weather that's paired with the summer months adds more difficulty to the towing industry. Not only does the heat provide additional health risks for you, but also for your towing truck and for the vehicles of your customers. Here are some summer towing tips for avoiding heat illnesses and dealing with common summertime towing issues to help you ride out the heat waves.

Safety Tips for You

Working out in the sun provides two big threats for towers: heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

Heat Exhaustion
Heat Exhaustion is an illness that occurs through a combination of exposure to high temperatures and dehydration. While not as serious as heat stroke, failing to intervene may lead to more danger from heat related illnesses. 

Symptoms of heat exhaustion include:
- Confusion
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Fainting
- Pale skin
- Dizziness

Heat Stroke

If heat exhaustion is left untreated, you may suffer a heat stroke. A heat stroke is a potentially fatal heat related illness that occurs when the body temperature reaches 104 degrees. If you are suffering from a heat stroke, you need medical attention immediately. 

Some symptoms of heat stroke include:
- Headache
- Dizziness
- Decrease in sweating despite heat
- Muscle cramps
- Nausea
- Confusion
- Seizures
- Unconsciousness

Prevention Tips

While heat related illnesses are scary, protecting yourself from them can be quite easy. The best prevention tip is to stay cool. By wearing lightly colored clothing, taking breaks in cool areas, and drinking fluids frequently, you can stay safe from the dangers of the heat.

Common Reasons for Towing in the Summer 

High temperatures aren't the only danger in the summertime. These are the things you can expect to receive towing calls for this summer:

Battery Failure

Battery Failure occurs often in the summer months because of the inability of the battery to cool down, which is a result of the weather and the heat from the engine. The evaporation of electrolytes occurs at high temperatures and causes internal damage to the battery grids, resulting in battery failure. 

Tire Damage

An increase in temperatures results in added air pressure in tires. When the pressure of an inflated tire increases, the potential for blow-outs increases.

Overheating Vehicles

Poorly maintained cooling systems can fail, resulting in overheated vehicles. If you are called to tow an overheated vehicle, it is wise to carry sorbents in the event of spilled coolants.

Construction Zones

The driving conditions in construction zones are more hazardous because of debris in the road. This debris can cause damage to the vehicle. If you need to tow a vehicle from a construction zone, be wary of the distractions in the surrounding area and the smaller amount of available towing space.

Bad Weather

Storms are more severe in the summer months and can provide dangerous conditions for drivers. Floods, loss of control from hydroplaning, and hail storm damage are all things that can lead to more towing calls.

Lockouts

People spend more time outside in the summer. Because of this, more people lose their keys or lock them inside their vehicles. A locked-out car may need to be towed to a dealership in order to get a replacement key.

If you find you need any parts or service this summer to keep you on the road, East Coast Truck & Trailer Sales is the place to come - choose from our selection of reliable, DOT compliant tow truck parts. Supplying you with the everyday tools you need to get the job done safer and easier is our number one priority. Check out all of our towing parts online or give us a call today at 1-866-490-7278.

Free Shipping Is Not Really Free!

We all love really love free shipping but let’s face the truth. Like free appetizers at a restaurant, the cost is either baked into the prices of the products, or it's part of a strategy to increase a customer's order size. Knowing the biases of the customer base, and how good free shipping makes them feel, increasing product prices by a small, unnoticeable amount is occasionally the strategy retailers will use to offer the incentive and cover their costs. Often, the lack of quality customer service is the most common way for a company to reabsorb the costs associated with free shipping. Time after time, consumers swap horror stories of customer service phones that just ring and ring, disconnect over a period of hold time, or messages that go unanswered. For many small online retailers that are trying to compete with powerhouses like Amazon, Target and Zappos, this is the easiest tactic to stay in the game. Another strategy retailers employ is requiring a minimum purchase in exchange for free shipping. Processing larger orders costs companies less than filling a multitude of smaller purchases. Consumers, attracted by the offer of free shipping, purchase more, which reduces overhead costs and allows the retailer to reabsorb the shipping costs. The customers who don’t purchase enough to waive the shipping usually wind up paying a slightly inflated shipping fee to make up the difference. Again, the money has to come from somewhere. Someone has to pay the cost of shipping. If customers or investors aren’t footing the bill, e-commerce companies could easily lose money on every free shipment. That’s sustainable if a new round of financing is coming; otherwise it can plunge a retailer or e-commerce company, especially a smaller one, into financial oblivion. In fact, free shipping was partly responsible for one of the most prominent crash-and-burns of the 1990s dotcom boom. Pets.com, whose commercials are still seared into the consciousness of many readers of a certain age, offered free shipping on expensive-to-ship dog food. In his book Thinking Inside The Box, author Kirk Cheyfitz explained how low profit margins due to an insistence on free shipping helped sink Pets.com.

The goal at East Coast Truck & Trailer Sales is to remain in business for years to come while providing auto transport and towing professionals the lowest price to-the-door in the industry. We’re not going to build our shipping costs into the price of our products or make those who purchase less pay more for shipping. Like the great retailer Walmart,  we provide our customers “Always Low Prices”, competitive shipping and expert service. Our bottom line is clearly the lowest. See for yourself – shop and compare on towing parts and supplies, tow straps, winch cables, lock out kits, tire skates, jumpboxes, tow dollies, snatch blocks, and more at Parts.ECTTS.com.