Karen’s View

One of the ways you can cut down on your waste is to find other ways to use things than throwing them away.  You’ll be amazed at how many ordinary, everyday items around your house can be used or re-used for something useful.  Here are a few suggestions to get you started.

• Coffee grounds: Have you ever noticed that Starbucks usually offers used coffee grounds?  Coffee grounds can be used in your garden or in your compost pile.  Grounds make great fertilizers and break down quickly when they are composted.  You can add them to the soil in your garden or your indoor potted plants, sprinkle them on top of the soil, or add water and pour the mixture over your plants as a liquid fertilizer.
• Aluminum foil: Are you tired of buying dryer sheets or fussing with liquid softener?  Aluminum foil effectively eliminates static cling, and can be reused!  Just crumple up a piece of aluminum foil into a ball and toss it into the dryer with your clothes.
• Dryer sheets: If you aren’t ready to get rid of those dryer sheets just yet, don’t throw them away when your laundry is done, either.  Dryer sheets actually make great dust cloths for cleaning mini blinds.
• Empty wine bottles: Don’t you hate it when your tall boots crumple and fall over?  Empty wine bottles make a great way to keep the shape of the leg part of your boots without stretching them.  Most wine bottles are the right size, just make sure you wash and dry them well first.
• Orange peels: When you peel an orange, what do you do with the peel?  Or what do you do with lemon and lime wedges after you’ve done squeezing them dry?  Don’t throw these things away anymore.  Running them through your disposal eliminates smelly kitchen sink odors.
• Plastic shopping bags: Many stores are now pushing reusable shopping bags, and some have even eliminated plastic bags altogether, but you may still find yourself inundated with plastic bags.  Don’t just throw these away — besides taking back to the store to be recycled, you can also use them as packing materials when packing up your belongings for moving or putting together a box to ship to someone.  They aren’t as good as bubble wrap, though, so don’t use them for irreplaceable breakables.
• Used magazines: Today’s magazines often have full-color pictures of gardens, pets, and other interests.  Instead of throwing a magazine away once you’ve read it, tuck it away and use its pages as wrapping paper.  You can also use newspaper for this same purpose. For instance, the comics page makes great wrapping paper for a child’s gift.
• Empty glass or plastic jars: Glass or plastic jars, such as what you buy jelly or mayo in, have a lot of uses, so don’t throw them away. You can use them to store food such as nuts, raisins, sugar, and so on.  Glass jelly jars also make great little vases if you remove the label!
• Coffee cans: Coffee cans make great storage containers because of their size and durability.  You can paint the cans to cover the coffee labels and match your kitchen décor, and use them for storing flour, sugar, rice, and pasta.

You will be amazed at how many of the things you use and discard on a daily basis can actually be reused or reinvented.  How do you reuse everyday items?  Or do you have any ideas for how you can start reusing things from now on?

About the author

Vern Marker is a writer on several different topics including how to live cost effectively. She knows how to get the most out of everything from coffee cans to espresso machines.

In the last post, we talked about the Hours of Service regulations, how they impact your drivers’ hours and some of the exceptions that have been put into place.  Unfortunately, these regulations present some challenges to drivers and fleet managers.  Some of these challenges have already been addressed with exceptions to the rules — for instance, limits on driving hours don’t apply during bad weather, or during the Christmas season for retail company employees.  Other challenges, however, still remain an issue for fleet managers.

Falsifying Logs

All drivers that travel outside of a 100-mile radius from the fleet’s base of operations must keep precise logs recording the hours they spend driving, both on duty and off duty.  Unfortunately, falsifying logs is one of the biggest problems that trucking companies face.  Often with the goal of maximizing their pay as much as possible, drivers won’t record all of their driving time.  A company that permits or even subtly encourages this to happen, however, can get into a lot of trouble for violating the law.

One way to get around this problem is to utilize electronic on-board recorders (EOBR) on all of your trucks.  These basically monitor each truck’s movements via GPS, allowing the system to accurately track each driver’s time spent on the road, as well as other things such as how long they spend letting the truck idle at truck stops.  In fact, GPS would so completely eliminate the problem that requiring these devices in all fleet vehicles has been discussed, and will likely happen eventually.

Underused Vehicles

A parking lot half full of trucks sitting idle can also be a concern for many fleet managers.  In the industry, it is standard to assign a different vehicle to every driver.  Unfortunately, when drivers are taking their required 10-hour break, their trucks are sitting in the parking lot.  This results in vehicles being underused, or, more precisely, in fleet managers having to buy and maintain more vehicles than they actually need (if you count up actual driving hours).

Fleets that run around the clock might consider allowing drivers to share trucks on alternating shifts.  This allows a fleet to have the same number of drivers and routes, but also a fewer number of trucks.  Instead of assigning a gas rebate card to every driver, you can instead assign one to every truck, to ensure that you are still able to track each vehicle’s gas mileage and maintenance using the card.

Unfair Compensation Rates

The limits on driving hours is frustrating for many truckers because it prevents them from being able to make as much money.  Many over-the-road truck drivers are paid for the mileage, rather than the hours they spend driving, which is why falsifying logs and putting in more hours (and thus racking up more mileage) is so tempting.

Unfortunately, most trucking companies don’t pay their drivers based on actual miles.  Instead, they use software or mileage guides to figure out the mileage.  Unfortunately, these tend to be fairly conservative in their estimates, which means many drivers are underpaid for their trips.  This makes it even more tempting for drivers to falsify their logs and put in more driving hours.

In addition to using GPS, another great way to get around the challenges created by these rules of the road would be to pay drivers by the hour.  If drivers were paid according to the number of hours they worked, the Hours of Service regulations would thereby put a cap on their earning potential, while at the same time ensuring that they would get paid fair wages for all hours worked (and not just time spent driving).  In effect, it would completely eliminate the desire to falsify logs and drive for longer than regulations allow.

These are just a few of the challenges that come up as a result of the rules of the road.  What are some other challenges you have encountered?

Technorati Tags: fleet fuel cards, fuel compliance

Many drivers choose their jobs because of the amount of independence and solitude they get to enjoy.  No co-workers to deal with all day, and no managers monitoring their every move.  Being alone in a truck all day may sound like torture to some, but to others it’s the perfect job.

However, there are rules of the road that need to be followed — regulations that determine how much time your drivers can spend on the road.  Both drivers and their fleet managers may find these regulations to be very limiting, especially if your fleet is short-staffed or your drivers want to maximize their earning ability.  However, penalties for violations of these regulations can be quite stiff, so it is good to know what your drivers can or cannot do.

Before we discuss the actual regulations, however, remember that these rules are put in place for the safety of your employees and other drivers on the road.  Driving for long periods of time without rest is physically and mentally taxing, and the risk of falling asleep behind the wheel puts your drivers, your business’ property, and the other drivers and passengers on the road in danger.

• Commercial drivers are not allowed to drive for more than 11 hours in a 14-hour period.  This allows three hours for breaks, meals, and other duties such as loading or unloading the truck.  After 14 consecutive on-duty hours are over, the driver MUST have 10 hours off.  This allows them plenty of time to sleep before their next shift.
• Drivers also can’t drive more than 70 hours total in an eight-day period.
• Over-the-road truck drivers must keep detailed logs indicating driving time, non-driving on-duty time, and off-duty time.  On the other hand, if the fleet has electronic on-board recorders (EOBR) in their trucks, driving time is tracked by GPS, and the handwritten logs don’t have to be kept.
• Drivers who stay within a 100-mile radius of “home base” do not need to keep logs, as long as their employers keep track of their driving time to ensure they don’t exceed the limits.

These regulations were put into place because of trucking companies that were making their drivers work long hours, endangering them and others on the road.  However, the law does recognize that there are some times when driving longer hours simply can’t be helped, and there are exceptions written into the law for these circumstances.  For instance, during bad weather the limits don’t apply, recognizing that weather can cause longer than normal times to go the same distance.  Also, short-distance drivers for retail businesses are allowed to exceed the driving limits during the holiday season.

Even with allowances for special circumstances, these regulations can cause some difficulties in scheduling drivers, planning routes, making deliveries, and scheduling fleet service.  In the next post we’ll look at some of these difficulties.

Although most people use plastic these days for the majority of their daily transactions, from their morning coffee to dinner out, there are still those who hold out in favor of cold hard cash. But, cash can actually be an inconvenience at times.

Here are several reasons why cards are better than cash — and why running your fleet on a cash system can actually be a hindrance to your drivers when compared with the advantages of fleet credit cards. From ease of use, to potential for fraudulent activity, we examine the reasons why cards are ultimately, better than cash.

Most gas stations now require customers to prepay or pay at the pump. If your drivers aren’t swiping a credit card at the pump, they will have to park the truck, lock the truck, go into the store, and prepay for their gas before they can lift the nozzle and start fueling. Plus, having to prepay makes it difficult for drivers to fill the tank, unless they want to have to go back in for their change — which doubles the potential for wasted time at every stop.

Carrying cash leaves the company vulnerable to theft. Drivers who carry cash, especially on nighttime runs or routes in certain areas, are more likely to get robbed.  It’s better to have drivers use a card (which can be cancelled in the event of a robbery), and put bumper stickers or signs on your vehicles stating that drivers do not carry cash.

Cash makes fraud easy. Let’s say you give your driver a hundred dollars for fueling.  When they come back at the end of the day and give you the receipts and the change, they are 80 or 90 cents short.  Maybe it’s just some change that got lost in the seat, but maybe your driver bought themselves a candy bar on the company’s dime.  When you give drivers cash, it’s easy to steal a little here and there. Protecting yourself from fraud is extremely important.

Cash is easy to lose track of. A lot of people aren’t careful about cash.  They stuff coins and bills in their pockets or the center console of their truck.  Cash can also easily get mixed up with the driver’s own money.  How are you to be sure at the end of the day that the cash you’ve given your drivers has been managed carefully?

All of these issues are resolved when drivers are assigned business fuel cards instead of carrying cash.  They save company time because they are able to swipe their card, fill the tank, and get back on the road more quickly; plus their cards can be easily monitored, controlled, and even cancelled if need be.  Cash is a liability, and these are just four of the reasons why.

Technorati Tags: fleet cards, fleet management, gas stations

My sister and I have been looking at a lot of the family’s old jewelry lately.  We are the only two relatives who care about our past relative’s trinkets and baubles.  We don’t mind really, some of the pieces are very memorable and I couldn’t stand to part with them.  My Grandmother for instance always wore jewelry and there are a few pieces that to this day just put a smile on my face and I think of her when I come across them.

There are other pieces though, (most from an older cousin who did not want any of his mother’s jewelry when she passed away) that my sister and I are not very fond of and there is no sentimental value.  We’ve been considering the sale of these items and came up with what we think is a great idea. 

We have heard where shops are offering cash for gold.  We’ve had several pieces unofficially appraised and have been told that the only value in the rings, bracelets and necklaces is the gold itself.  Many of the pieces have gemstones and we’ve been told that there is no real value to the gems.   These appraisers sell gold for a living and have given us a fair price for the lot.  In return, my sister and I are opening a checking account that will help with incidental education expenses for 3 young family members.  It isn’t much, but I believe that our departed relatives would really like this idea:  helping their grand or great grandchildren with education expenses, rather than having this jewelry rattle around in one of our dresser drawers.