I'm not at this forum every day, so don't know how much this has been covered. My neice's boyfriend, (she just left her husband for him)is an Indiana truck driver. At our family Xmas gathering on the 11th,(I see my neice once a year at Xmas, I'm in Illinois, she's in Indiana) I was loading gifts getting ready to leave and I overheard him state that they would be off the road during December 31 to January 1. I paused with my hands full and asked "Why, because of Y2K?" and he said yes, they wanted to be off the road because (they thought?)the trucks could just shut down. We exchanged a couple words concerning Y2K, but then I continued loading up the car. Not much more was said about the matter, but some in the family showed mild concern with the rollover. My brother, the father of the neice, picked my brain concerning wiring a transfer switch for the 5kW generator he has, just in case,,,and T-storms do kill power around here, sometimes for hours, sometimes for days.. I am a machine repair electrician for a construction equipment manufacturer here in Illinois and have installed my own transfer switch in my home. I think the boyfriend was only speaking about his company, but I wondered if anyone else had heard more about the trucking industry staying off the road Dec. 31.

Personally....the more I have seen and heard from "officials" lately, ergo the prepared statements during interviews that are carefully worded, and there is a lot they "don't" say,,,makes me more and more nervous. I really hope we're all crazy for all these preps and just get to use up supplies at our leisure. Time will tell.

My best to all of you.

-- tumblebug (jphedden@npoint.net), December 13, 1999

Answers

http://www.news.com.au/news_content/breaking_content/a91214b.htm

Link

Cars Y2K safe: NRMA From AAP 14dec99

8.00am (AEDT) CARS were unlikely to be affected by the Y2K date change, the NSW State's peak NRMA motoring body said today.

NRMA State manager Malcolm Dooley said the organisation had contacted a number of car manufacturers who had given their vehicles the all-clear for the new millennium.

"Whilst many vehicles have computer components, date functions, which are potentially susceptible to the millennium bug, often do not feature in these systems," Mr Dooley said in a statement.

He said trip computers may be affected, but these were unlikely to cause the vehicle to lose control.

Motorists should check specific concerns with their car manufacturer.

Mr Dooley said the millennium bug may or may not affect the road network, including traffic lights.

"If road travel is essential, drivers should take sensible precautions," Mr Dooley said.

Most household appliances would not be seriously affected by the date change, the NRMA said.

Equipment malfunction caused by the Year 2000 date change is not covered under NRMA insurance policies, a spokesman said.

back

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), December 13, 1999.

I am the Network Administer's assistant at a trucking company with about 300 trucks. We are not planning to shut down, but I do know that the truck engines have quite a lot of computers keeping track of all sorts of things, including when and if the truck exceeded certain speeds, etc. so it wouldn't surprise me if we had trouble with some of them. We have upgraded our mini-computer and out NT server, and I am working on the tail end of the PC's. (If MicroSoft ever stops putting out new fixes I might get done by the end of the year...)

-- Titania Baildon (tbaildon@yahoo.com), December 13, 1999.

I have several close friends who are truck drivers for several different companies. They have indicated to me their companies will try to keep the trucks going. However, since these friends are all GIs and will not be taking any dispatches over the New Year, not sure how successful the companies will be in keeping the wheels rolling.

-- Lisa (lisadawn@yahoo.com), December 13, 1999.

A few weeks ago, I was listening to the Art Bell show. A trucker called in, saying he drove for a very large trucking company. The drivers were told to park their rigs, the 31st, since the trucks are computerized, and it was unknown how they would be affected.

-- Jo Ann (MaJo@Michiana.com), December 13, 1999.

tumblebug; Interesting story about truckers and their rigs. I was under the impression that most BIG rigs have satelite tracking systems for the main terminal to locate the rigs incase of breakdown or vandalism. My question is " Would you like to be driving a BIG rig with the words "PUBLIX" or IGA or SAMS on the side of it ? ? ? Should things get real bad, these trucks would be easy prey. Nope, I wouldn't want to be a trucker anytime soon...

-- Furie (furieart@dnet.net), December 13, 1999.

HEY FURIE!!

Glad to spy your handle again my friend. You are correct about the locators on vehicles. But they are still quite new, and may not affect most rigs.

The bigger concern would be the distribution centers automated systems being operational. Without these systems, JIT will become a choke point in a matter of hours.

Have you ever been to a major distribution terminal? Hysters, mules, shrink wrapping machinery, turntables, scanners, back orders, warehouse shipping and receiving terminals, bills of lading, pull tickets, loss control documentation, shipping instructions, on, and on. All tied together and VERY date sensitive, as you can imagine. It "MAY" be possible to manually work around 1, but if a max of 2 of these become even partial impaired, the JIT system grinds to a halt.

Bottom line, the manual workaround could fulfill orders in process, albeit in an exponentially slower capacity, but the employees could not handle the shock for long, and neither could the chain.

At the end of the day, there won't be much for the truckers to be haulin' anyhoo. And that's a big 10/4 buddy!

Then of course there's purchasing, accounting, loss control, expediators, marketing, sales, manufacturing, inventory control, etc, etc. Better hope this Y2K thing is all a BIG HOAX!!

Got seeds?

Respectfully

Michael

PS What percentage of order pullers do you suppose actually read English well enough to convert bar codes to items on the pick ticket?

Loss control clerk to the Mom and Pop store on the coast "What do you mean you got 120,000 Nestles Ice Cream Bars!!!" (gun shot rings out over the phone line)

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), December 14, 1999.

Interesting that this should just come in from "Raliegh for the web"

American Payroll Association works with IRS on Y2K-Related Employment Tax-Deposit Failures: - Deposit Procedure Alternatives - Call Right Away to Abate Penalties

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=105&STORY=/www/story /12-10-1999/0001093916

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), December 14, 1999.

Did I say accounting already?

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), December 14, 1999.

If the distribution system breaks down a lots of rigs will run out of fuel; then will have a lot of rigs with frozen or busted engines due to low temps in the northern states. Also, running diesel engines completely dry really screws them up.

-- Ocotillo (peeling@out.===), December 14, 1999.

Michael; Send me those ice cream bars, I could use them to barter with... ship them UPS. would ya ??? Like I told you I was at ROOMS TO GO recently and what a mess there... All Aliens I think ??? not sure,couldn't see their Federal Foreign Techno badge numbers/glyphs. Or do they get thier badges from the Trilateral Commission ???

-- Furie (furieart@dnet.net), December 14, 1999.

The above post listing all kinds of distribution center items is certainly fairly accurate. Distribution centers have become more efficient through the use of technology. Picking performed by the controls of a computer talking to the pickers by way of radio units (small pc's). Anyway some info for what its worth;

We have tested all of our computer systems through the entire process with a working rollover test. Worked okay, but we are still reliant on every utility including the internal network equipment which is listed as mostly compliant or the date function will not impair the operation.

If power fails we are not working. If the network goes down we are working at very diminished capacity. If there are travel restrictions we are not working, etc... etc...

Trucks and trailers backhaul all kinds of things. The truck and trailer may say the name of a grocer but contain artificial xmas trees. A plain blank trailer hauled by Joe-Bob's trukin Com. Ink. could be filled with canned food.

Some trucking company's May be responding to concerns expressed by their drivers. Also automation on trucking is by no means standard across the entire industry. The larger carriers have more automation for the centralized dispatching and tracking.

Keep on truckin.

-- Squid (ItsDark@down.here), December 14, 1999.

Squid; My question is ,will the trucking industry be able to deliver items considering the possible fuel shortage if,as you say, we will not run because truckers also get fuel from Truck stops that are computer linked to terminals for fuel purchases. Every truck will be at a standstill at some truck stop if the trucks that bring the fuel don't arrive,right?

-- Furie (furieart@dnet.net), December 15, 1999.