This paper shows the economic efficiency of allowing longer combination vehicles in Texas. First, an overview of the truck size and weight policies is explained, with an emphasis on those that affect Texas. Next, LCV operations in other countries are described. Then, an LCV scenario for Texas is chosen, with specific routes and vehicle types. Operational costs for these vehicles are calculated on a cost per mile and cost per ton (or cubic yard) mile. The LCV scenario and the current truck base case are analyzed to estimate the number of truck trips, the number of mile, and the cost per mile for the chosen routes. These are then compared to estimate the change if LCVs were allowed in Texas. / text

This dissertation is about the incorporation of labor migrants from Turkey in the context of precarious U.S. labor markets. Labor market transitions and work experiences are two aspects of incorporation. This dissertation analyzes the process by which first-generation Turkish male immigrants arrive in the United States, enter low-wage jobs, and then shift to the trucking industry. This shift brings a significant upward mobility for them. This discussion explains how the socio-economic cleavages within the immigrant community both conform to and challenge the dynamics of immigrant-dominated sectors. Moreover, this study examines the work life of immigrant truckers through their conception of money, time, occupation, entrepreneurship, and labor. This dissertation addresses two sets of research questions: The first set analyzes the structural reasons of labor market transitions by looking at the limitations that immigrants face. The second set looks at the role of agent, examining the formation of family-based and community-based networks and resources. It asks the question of how migrants navigate the labor market by changing jobs and sectors as well as by forming businesses. The findings of this research draw from investigations spanning three years. The qualitative data is based on 24 in-depth interviews, as well as several hundred hours of participant observations among first-generation Turkish immigrants who work as truckers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The present study contributes to sociological knowledge in general and specifically to three areas of the discipline. First, it enriches the limited literature on Turkish immigrants in the United States, as there is a dearth of research on their labor market incorporation in the trucking industry. Second, it contributes to the theoretical discussions on the entrepreneurship of first-generation immigrants by focusing on small and understudied immigrant communities. Third, this study extends the academic knowledge about the work experiences of immigrant truckers. It examines how the varying immigrant work experiences outcomes are influenced by employment status and the structure of trucking segments. Chapter 2 develops a conceptual framework regarding the labor transitions of immigrants focused on three dimensions: the migration policies of sending and receiving countries, the structure of labor markets in the receiving context, and the characteristics of the immigrant community. Chapter 3 details the methodology and methods used in this study. Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 encompass the empirical sections of this dissertation. Chapter 4 discusses the migration patterns of truckers by focusing on the importance of social networks. Chapter 5 explores the pre-trucking period during which Turkish immigrants work in dead-end jobs and prepare to become truckers. Chapter 6 examines the work life of truckers by revealing the processes of obtaining commercial driver's licenses (CDL), choosing the segment of the industry where they will work, and their search for and selection of trucking companies and loads. Chapter 7 scrutinizes the acts of entrepreneurship in which these migrants are engaged. Chapter 8 summarizes the empirical findings while engaging with the theoretical debates within sociology on the incorporation of migrants. First, the labor demands of U.S. capitalism attract immigrants to certain low-income jobs with little promise. After the early years of settlement, nonetheless, migrants are able to mobilize networks and resources to change this early labor-intensive occupational entrapment. Such a change provides income and status increases for the migrants. I term this new concentration “creative occupational entrapment,” which can (potentially) bring migrants some economic success via entrepreneurship. However, the accessed immigrant resources are constrained by the limitations of the dynamics within the trucking industry. The segmentation within the trucking sector is not something created by immigrants, as they only fill out the existing segments depending on their resources and ties. Second, the characteristics of a migrant community heavily shape the differentiation within the trucking industry in terms of an individual’s sector segment and employment status. The way in which immigrants mobilize ties are affected by three dynamics: hometown background, class-based dispositions, and family-based resources. I define three segments of trucking in this study: (1) national tractor-trailer trucking, (2) regional tractor-trailer trucking, and (3) local dump trucking. National tractor-trailer trucking attracts a variety of immigrants who tend to leave this “tough” segment after a brief while due to opportunities in the other segments. Immigrants of relatively higher education levels from urban backgrounds are more likely to work in the “cool” regional tractor-trailer throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania. These individuals have loose ties to the immigrant community and have no tight-knit community ties. Conversely, immigrants of relatively lower education levels from rural background tend to concentrate in “dirty” dump trucking in specific counties of New Jersey. They have closer ties with the immigrant community and strict ties with their tight-knit community. Within each segment, new differentiations based on employment status are formed. Through the course of this research, five categories of immigrants were identified. Such categories depend on an individual’s employment status and the number of trucks they have: pre-trucking migrant workers have nothing to sell but labor (Employment 1), company truckers (Employment 2), survivalist truckers with one truck (Employment 3), family truckers with two trucks (Employment 4), and boss truckers who have more than three trucks (Employment 5). For the regional tractor-trailer segment, having class-based dispositions (such as English proficiency and the familiarity with the economic system) enables for the transitions from Employment 2 to Employment 3. Those who have family resources are more likely to increase their position from Employment 3 to Employment 4 and 5. For the local dump trucking segment, having tight-knit community ties and resources is usually enough to jump from Employment 2 to Employment 3. Thus, class-based dispositions are not strictly required given their tight-knit community resources. Those who have family-based resources have additional likelihood to increase their position from Employment 2 to Employment 4 and Employment 5. While individual-based resources are important to be self-employed due to the lack of community resources in regional tractor-trailer trucking, an individual’s tight-knit community helps truckers in local dump trucking to be self-employed. In both segments, family-based resources are key to becoming employers. The use of labor characterizes the labor market experiences of immigrants. For my participants, such a process begins with taking commands from employers, and ends with giving commands to their own employees. Labor matters when immigrants are exploited in non-trucking as well as trucking businesses. It also matters when they exploit themselves and family members in individual or family-based trucking businesses respectively. Only those who have several trucks are exempted from getting exploited. Although entrepreneurship might be economically beneficial for some, success is not always guaranteed in the long-term. Moreover, entrepreneurship potentially brings destructive competition, long hours of work and the intensive use of family labor. / Sociology

Volvo Trucks: A Trucker's Pride   The North American trucking industry is in decline. By 2014, the United States is projected to be short 110,000 drivers (Wikipedia). The hardest hit segment is the long-haul sector, due to the difficult lifestyle of the long-haul trucker. Drivers experience long periods of time away from home, mediocre pay, and “miserable” working conditions. In order to revive the struggling industry and refresh the lifeblood of our civilization, the long-haul trucker lifestyle must be made more appealing. This project is a study into how to make the North American Long-Haul trucker lifestyle appealing to future trucker generations through both interior and exterior design.   In-depth research found that emotional needs of American long-haul truckers are not being met.  Emotional needs are directly linked to the concept of “quality of life”. Therefore, increasing the trucker’s quality of life would help truckers meet their emotional needs and thus help revive the North American trucking industry. Through interviews and questionnaires, pride was determined to be the key emotional need of the American Trucker. These interviews revealed that the best method to appeal to this key emotional need was to rethink the exterior form. It was decided that a design sculpture should be used to illustrate the concept of emotionally appealing transportation. For the interior design, research showed that a trucker’s fundamental human needs were not being met aboard the truck. Expanding the living space on-board and providing truckers access to their basic human needs allow people to truly live life on the road.   The Volvo Vision Long-Haul (VLH) helps future truckers take pride in themselves and their lifestyles. Pride comes from the aesthetics of assertive strength and the confident stance of the vehicle. A higher seating position gives drivers a commanding view of the road and the use of noble materials helps drivers feel they live in a quality environment. Onboard, the Volvo VLH maximizes interior space, providing enough room for a trucker to live life on the road.  To meet basic human needs, the truck has a shower and toilet onboard, along with a kitchen complete with stove and sink. The lofted bedroom offers feelings of exclusivity and expands upward when the vehicle is parked. This unique expanding space is accessed via a spiral staircase, which stores neatly away when not in use. The Volvo VLH meets the emotional needs of the American long-haul trucker, making the lifestyle appealing to future generations.

This diploma thesis deals with the changes of toll taxes and their implication in the Czech Republic between years 2007 -- 2015. The research was done using a dynamic regression analysis of monthly data provided by the web portal MYTO CZ. Based on the available data it was shown that the increase in average prices of toll transactions of ecologically unfavorable EURO groups leads to a decline in the share of total realized transactions. As a result carriers are most likely motivated to vehicle fleet renewal, which is reflected in the increase in the share of cars with lower environmental load.

汽車貨運業一直以來都為台灣的經濟帶來極大的貢獻，雖然之前相關的研究提供了這個產業許多價值，但是目前還沒有是針對汽車貨運公司主要所載的商品來做研究，如此的把所有汽車貨運公司一視同仁忽略了承載不同的商品有不同的競爭程度的事實，倒置這些研究所提出來的架構無法解釋許多這個產業裡發生的現象。 將會焦點放在承載鋼鐵的汽車貨運公司，這份研究延伸策略管理的相關文獻來了解這個產業的運作，以質性研究之案例研究法來了解是什麼因素影響了公司表現、公司行為，以及產業所衍生的問題。研究發現產業的狀態，公司所擁有的資源，與正式和非正式的制度錯中交雜的影像了產業間的行為與競爭程度，所以管理者應該避免過度專注於某一層面的策略，他們應該在擬定策略時考慮到策略管理中的產業基礎理論、資源基礎理論、與制度基礎理論。 / The trucking industry has been a major contributor to Taiwan’s economy for decades. Previous research concerning strategic management practiced in the industry, while insightful, did not pay enough attention to the specific commodity primarily carried by trucking companies. The generalization that all trucking companies carry the same commodity neglects the fact that competitive intensity varies considerably within the industry depending on the commodity carried. Consequently, many phenomenons could not be explained using frameworks from previous researches. This study concentrates on trucking companies primarily carrying steel and extends various disciplines from the strategic management literature to the trucking industry. Using the qualitative method of case study, this research attempts to understand the underlying drivers of firm performances and behaviors in addition to challenges faced by the industry. The findings suggest that industry conditions, firm resource portfolio, and formal and informal institutions collectively affect the behaviors and competition in the industry, therefore managers should avoid focusing on a single strategy and bear in mind the industry-based view, the resource-based view, and the institution-based view.