Truckers Need Meditation and Mindfulness

From here 

Did you know that 1 in 15 people in the United States is employed by the trucking industry? There are over 7 million drivers. For those behind the wheel, their work is categorized as ahigh risk occupation given the long periods of isolation, time pressures, lack of sleep, exposure to negative stereotyping, driving stresses, financial pressures and violence. Their life expectancy -- 61 years of age?! Their rate of obesity is double the national average, and they have staggering levels of diabetes, hypertension as well as other chronic health issues.

Let me get this out of the way first. At the conclusion of the podcast, I took caller questions/comments from all over the U.S. I realized quickly that I, too, had preconceived notions of who a trucker was -- and, I needed a kick in the pants. These callers blew my mind. They discussed their NutriBullets, they were gracious, beyond smart, passionate, caring, etc. So, if I can help dispel some of the undermining stereotyping... let's start there.

So, how can truckers implement meditation and mindfulness and why? As science continues to prove, meditation offers hard core assistance in dealing with stress,enhancing longevity and assisting with loneliness. Here are some practical implementations and thoughts.

• Let's start with a real life situation. So, you are on a big job, with a tight deadline and suddenly there is an unexpected truck repair. Mindfulness allows you to step back from the intensity of the situation and see it with more clarity versus getting all bunged up with the "what ifs." What if this puts my vehicle out of commission for an extended period? What if the repair cost is beyond my budget? What if this messes up my deadline? With awareness you calmly realize what you can control and what you can't. That is huge. You eventually start to trust life more, trust yourself more, you start to look at the bigger picture instead of all the clogging minutia.

• As I always emphatically state, everyone can do meditation and mindfulness regardless of age, background, religion, etc. One caller and I discussed meditation not "being your momma's meditation." You don't need incense, an exotic location or to be transported to some elevated state of being. Your truck can be your sanctuary. Start your morning with a brief moment of quiet, scanning your body for places of tension, attempt to loosen those areas, then visualize your day... a day of peace and awareness. Then, throughout the day reconnect to this idea by simply noticing and then being with your breath. Oooo and maybe even throw in a sprinkle of gratitude.

• Meditation also isn't just sitting with your eyes closed... it is a waking experience to constantly be practiced. One driver shared his ability to fully experience the beautiful scenery around him. I encouraged him to take this up a notch by also playing some of his favorite music and literally singing with gusto as he looked out the window. Life can be incredibly repetitive... especially when on the road. So, if you are going to be "in it," participate and make it more.

• How could meditation help you eat healthier on the road? Well, the practice opens the door for you to see how important you are... how important food is... and how it provides nourishment not just for your body but also your soul. I suggest mindfully paying attention to your eats which means having an active relationship. You must engage in the tastes/smells, how your body reacts, and what makes you feel good or tired or happy. Listen. Listen. Listening prompts change.

And, here's how I end almost every discussion about meditation and mindfulness. These practices are just that... practice. Yes, you have to make a commitment to do it. At first, it can really be a struggle, but once you get in some sort of groove... instead of your life changing because you meditate, you change your life because you meditate. The trickle down effect is amazing. Choosing to do this work is like looking at the long haul of your life instead of just the short trips. Are you worth it? Yes, yes, yes. Every person is worth it, every age, every color, every faith and every profession.

Reducing the drag to reduce CO2

Salari and Ortega found that adding both of the devices... reduced the aerodynamic drag by as much as 25 percent, which represents about a 13 percent decrease in fuel consumption. "Even a minor improvement in a truck's fuel economy has a significant impact on its yearly fuel consumption," Salari said. "For example, 19 percent improvement in fuel economy, which we can achieve, translates to 6.5 billion gallons of diesel fuel saved per year and 66 million fewer tons of carbon dioxide emission into the atmosphere. For diesel fuel costing $3.96 per gallon, the savings is about $26 billion."

Full article

Transport Management on the web

The web makes for great transport management. Well, by definition transporting things means they are moving and the Internet covers all areas (well with occasional dropouts). So what are the problems with getting transport management into the Internet cloud? Well, there is trust, there is connectivity and there is safety.

One of the problems of cloud computing is trust. How safe do you feel knowing that someone in a software company can view your data if it is loaded onto their servers. There is nothing I can do about this viewing problem, except to say that even if you had the the application loaded locally your feelings of security are largely misplaced. Most programmers would know how to transfer every bit of that data to some remote site. The relationship of client to application developer is essentially one of trust.

Another problem with cloud computing that if your not hosting with Amazon or Google, well you don't feel safe having all your data in your cloud. What if the hosting company disappears? One final issue with cloud computing is that if a client needs to interface their data with other in-house systems. It turns out these last 2 issues can be solved in 1 fell swoop with data replication.

What is required is that you run a process that polls the server, and downloads any changes to a local database. It is relatively easy for the local polling service to request all changes since ????, provided the database has been built correctly. This is how the problem at http://www.freightfreedom.com/ was solved. The last pieces to the puzzle was to make it cross-platform so that the database could download to Linux or to Windows, and to abstract the database layer so that the client could choose the database to store the local data into.

This solves both of the problems of connectivity and safety. You have a local copy of the data so you can connect other applications to it. You have a local copy of the data so that if the hosting company goes under you don't lose your data. It is in a database format that is you have skills to deal with, or you could find someone to help with.

So the solution to 2 of the problems is data replication. Sorry I don't have the answer for the issue of trust but, 2 out of 3 ain't bad you will just have to trust me on that.

Free route planner

Got a number of different destinations and don't know which is the best way to travel? Well, here is a tool to help you make the trip as efficiently as possible.
www.supplychaindomain.com
Select the "Free tools" tab.
You can put in as many addresses as you want re-arrange the rows as you see fit, then click the "REPLOT" button. The total distance will be calculated.
If you would like other features, just let me know.

Google gadgets for freight companies

Been looking around for some Google gadgets to help out freight companies who need some support.
Go to:
http://www.supplychaindomain.com/
Look for the Free tools link.
If you find anymore that would be worth including please let me know

Freight costing for free

I get a lot of people asking after software for transport management. They tell me that they are a small operation with a couple of vehicles. Quite often I hear that they currently quote clients by accessing whereis or google maps. They figure out how far it is and quote a cost based on that.
Now I don't want to put myself out of a job but if they feel they really can't afford an entire package ... well I thought I would create a free tool to help:
http://www.supplychaindomain.com/
Look for the link to "Freight calculation"
It will let you set the flag fall, rate per mile/km and other rating options and then you can calculate the distance (as well as getting driving instructions).
Use it as much as you want, hope it benefits someone.
Let me know if there is anything else you would like included.