Category General

3 Reasons to Stock Heavy-Duty Motor Oil for Your Fleet

Many businesses have a fleet of trucks for their shipments and deliveries. When you’ve got your mind full of your company’s day-to-day operations, you might not be paying close attention to how your truck drivers and managers are performing maintenance on their vehicles. However, it’ll save your company big on repair costs in the long-term if your drivers and maintenance team takes preventative measures to extend the life of each truck. Stocking up on heavy-duty motor oil is one such preventative measure.

It’s More Durable

Peak Heavy Duty Oil is perfect for semis and other trucks that are frequently on the road for hours each day. It’s got the capacity to handle a truck’s engine, which has little in common with the engine in the small vehicle on the road. If your trucks idle their engines for long periods in stop-and-go traffic or traffic jams or when picking up or delivering, you need heavy-duty oil that can handle the excess strain. The weight of the amount the truck is carrying can also cause more strain on the engine, so you need oil that’s up to the task.

It Offers Better Fuel Economy

When a truck’s oil is better suited to its larger engine and frequent heavy-duty use, the whole vehicles gets better fuel economy. More miles between fill-ups means less money your company spends on transportation logistics. Since heavy-duty oil is only a small amount more than the average motor oil, it’s a worthwhile investment simply because you’ll save so much more on fuel costs.

It Prevents Corrosion and Rust

The vehicles that see the most use are often among the most likely to have parts corrode or rust over time. The right oil will decrease the likelihood of the development of rust, which means your truck’s parts will last longer. A corroded part can cause a truck to break down in the middle of a delivery, which is not only potentially dangerous for your drivers, but it will also delay your delivery schedule. Replacing these parts is costly, as is a delay in deliveries.

Quality motor oil is just the first step to making your fleet of trucks go longer between repairs, but it’s one of the most important. Everything from the vehicle’s engine to the emissions system runs better when you select the best oil. Purchasing quality oil in bulk saves you on maintenance costs; oil changes are a form of maintenance your drivers can do themselves, even without a large number of auto mechanics on staff.

 

 

Safety Tips for Truck Drivers

Being a truck driver has plenty of perks. The competitive pay and the ability to work out in the open are just two. But when you work with owner-operator companies like Landstar, you’ve got even more, including freedom to make your own schedule and choose your hauls. But while you’re trying to run a successful business, you also need to make sure you’re taking care while out on the road.

Here are some safety tips to keep in mind when driving your truck for a living.

  1. Follow the Three-Point Rule – It’s never safe to immediately jump out of your cab without triple checking where you’ll be landing. After being behind the wheel for many straight hours, your senses can often be compromised, which means you could actually be jumping a lot farther down than you initially may think. Your body simply may not be ready for the landing. When getting in and out of your truck, always keep three points of contact— two feet and one hand, or one foot and both hands — in contact with your vehicle.
  1. Be Cautious of Fatigue – One of the biggest and most dangerous obstacles that truck drivers’ face is fatigue. Staying alert on the road at all times is critical to safety. If you feel that you are getting tired, it’s time to pull over to rest up and rejuvenate. Being able to recognize your fatigue and admitting that it’s time to rest is something you should always be serious about when driving for long hours.
  1. Get Some Movement In – Remaining seated in your driver’s seat all day long isn’t exactly good for you. Not only can it get uncomfortable, it is also bad for your cardiovascular health. You need blood to flow properly, and the only way to do that is to move about. Pull over every so often and take a brisk five-minute walk to get the blood flowing.

 

Preparing Your Car for Summer

Summer is just around the corner, and it’s time to get you car ready for it. Winters can be hard on them, especially in areas that get a lot of snow and ice. If your area is one of them, you should have been washing your car often, but chances are you weren’t. No one really thinks about going to the car wash when it’s freezing out, but it’s actually a really good thing to do if you do a lot of driving in snow and ice. The salt and chemicals they use to melt them can wreck havoc on your car’s undercarriage and paint. So if you haven’t washed your car all winter, now is the time to do so. Wash it thoroughly, including the undercarriage. Once it’s clean, inspect it carefully for any signs of rust or damage. If you find any, take care of it now before it gets any worse. Trust us, if you don’t, it will mean you’ll pay dearly with very costly repairs. After you’ve cleaned everything, check your spark plugs and fluids, and change your air filter. Check your fan belt too and replace it if it looks frayed or damaged. Inspect your tires too! If you have snow tires on, swap them out for all season radials. If not, look your tires over carefully for bald treads, nail and other punctures, and general stability. Do they look like they’ve got bubbles on them? That’s a sign that they are dangerously overinflated. Use a tire gauge to check each tire and have them rotated as well.

This is also a good time to check your windshield. They take a lot of abuse out there on the road.  Wash it and give it a good look. Do you see any chips? If so arrange to get them fixed right away. Most insurance companies will cover it. Failing to do so could result in that tiny chip becoming a big crack, and something as simple as going over a bump could cause it. If your windshield looks good, go ahead and change the windshield wiper blade. This is a big safety issue too. Old blades often have a build up of road grime on them and this keeps them from clearing your windshield properly. This would obviously be a big problem in a storm!  Finally, have your car inspected to make sure it passes emissions, and enjoy summer!

What Can You Expect as an Expedited Truck Driver?

There’s plenty of money to be made in the targeted expedited trucking niche of the truck driving industry. Plenty of businesses in many different industries require the need of fast shipment, often within the same day.

If you’re an experienced CDL truck driver who’s either looking for a challenge or is seeking to advance your career in a profitable and lucrative way, going the expedited trucking route with Landstar is a great way to go.

The Distances Will Vary

As a truck driver in the expedited trucking niche, you can expect to travel all sorts of distances. In fact, there’s no limit to the distance a client may ask you to travel in order to get their goods to a specific location in an urgent time frame. You could be heading across town or across the country, depending on the requirements of the customer.

Of course, logistics play a key role here, as plenty of coordination is called for in order to ensure that the right goods are delivered in the proper condition to the appropriate delivery location. Managing and streamlining an expedited delivery is crucial.

Big and Small Businesses Alike With Need Your Services

Being in the expedited trucking industry means that you’ll always be in-demand. There will always be clients who will require the services of trucking companies who are able to deliver goods as quickly as possible.

There’s no restriction on the type or size of business that will require these services, as businesses of all sizes use them on a regular basis. Whether you’re working with a huge pharmaceutical conglomerate or a smaller-scale food service, deliveries will often have to be expedited in any given circumstance.

Logistics Are Important

As mentioned earlier, logistics are an important component to this niche within the trucking industry. This factor helps ensure that all deliveries are made on time, and are delivered in the condition promised to the location specified.

The individual shipping the products will be better able to track the delivery at any time, in real time. This provides a sense of relief knowing that the shipment is on track, especially considering its urgent nature.

LED Driving Lights

So, what really is a LED Light Bar? You might have heard the term before, but do you really know what it means and how you too can benefit from it in your life and in the life of your vehicle?

In simple terms, LED Driving Lights are nothing else but a strip of Led lights that are bright and that are installed on many vehicles. Those bars are usually very durable and can last you for a number of years without the need to every change them, which can be great in case you are one of those people who want to see the results of their hard work for many years. A ll you need to do is to install one of such bars on your vehicle and voila, look at the results and enjoy!

One thing I like about the LED bars is how energy efficient they are. I enjoy having things that are energy efficient at my disposal because it means that I never have to be worried about recharging them. An average life of a LED bar can be as high as a few thousand of hours. Of course, it will all depend on the model you choose, but the general rule is that such bars can really last you for a very long time, which is always a plus when you don’t have that much time on your hands and don’t want to be bothered by many small things you need to take care of.

While no law requires you to have LED light bars, they are a great addition to your already existing headlights. Because of this, they are really useful in places where it gets dark early as they provide that extra protection needed to ensure the safety of everybody on the road.

The 2015 Honda CR-V

When we get satisfied by the things we have at present we close our scope of improvement in the future and limit our capability. Same goes with the manufacturing of different cars by Honda. We feel honor and pride to satisfy our customers and make them extremely happy and thrilled. Its our foremost duty to indulge them in the astounding driving experience. So we present the Honda CR-V a complete car for all who are crazy to drive.

Honda the stupendous automakers have put all the excellent minds to manufacture this car. Be ready for the breath taking experience. Right from the design to exterior features to interior features to the drive train to the engine and at last to the transmission we have kept our eagle eyes on every speck of manufacturing.

The new 2015 Honda CR-V is designed in such a way that it is highly comfortable, hassle free and safe for our clients. It is provided with exceptional fuel economy, highly spacious cabin, nifty self folding rear seats and a wide-cut cargo area to increase the comfort. Anyone can surely be amazed by its various appealing high-tech and safety features.

All the features are refreshed and is provided with direct injected four-cylinder engine, Continuously variable transmission and richer feature content like a supple suspension, great steering, power driver’s seat, a sunroof, grippy brakes front console armrest, rear climate vents, two-zone automatic climate control, a 7-inch touchscreen and a highly-end touring trim level with additional safety technologies.

Its new innovative direct-injected 184 horse power, 2.4 liter four cylinder engine increases the power at low (rpm) revolutions per minute. Apart from this the continuously variable transmission puts a torque converter between the transmission and the engine to give the CR-V a normal feeling of takeoff when it starts. Along with this feature of front wheel drive is provided as standard and all wheel drive is optional.

When we look at mileage EPA Fuel Economy estimated on a Highway is 33 MPG with cruising range on a highway is 504.90 miles and is estimated 29MPG in a city with cruising range of 397.80 miles in a city which are an outstanding features.

To ensure the security, a comprehensive list of protective gear is now offered on the CR-V. Honda’s camera based Lane watch bind-spot monitoring system is provided on all versions except the base LX. A camera watches the passenger-side blind spot and activates when the right turn signal is flicked, the touch screen display mounted in the center of the dashboard shows an image of what’s hiding next to the car. These features saves time and make the drive worry less.

The Top touring trim offers even more safety technology, including adaptive cruise control, lane-departure warning with lane keeping assist and forward-collision warning with automatic braking. Exteriors are also enhanced richly by new headlights, grille, bumpers and wheels. The 2015 Honda CR-V wins not only the hearts but also the brains when we consider its striking features so it is a perfect choice to opt for this car.

More info about cars at: Carsoid.com

Mercedes Parts

Every Mercedes owner needs some car accessories such as a braking system or a cooling system. Even though cars come ready to use straight from the factory, some accessories might still make a car better and more useful.

You might also need to change some of the parts that are about to stop working soon. It is always true that some parts wear off and need to be replaced with newer ones. This is simply how things work. You will know what I am talking about here especially if you are a car owner and have been one for a long time.

Whatever your reason for replacing car parts is, I suggest that you find a trusted seller that will offer you what you want. It is no secret that online sellers offer better and more affordable prices on even the most complicated and rare car parts. The reason they can offer competitive prices is that they do not have to own a place to sell the products. They store the products in their warehouse and send them to customers. They don’t have any showrooms, but even if they have them, this won’t be calculated in the price you have to pay for your items.

My advice is that you buy car parts from famous car manufacturers. Not only will you avoid disappointment, but you will also have a chance to get the highest-quality car parts you can obtain on the market. When it comes to car parts and car accessories, they can be divided into original car parts and car accessories and aftermarket. Sometimes you might prefer to buy something that has already been used, while sometimes you might want to buy a new part. This is entirely up to you, but from my experience I can say that new parts are always superior to used ones since they haven’t had a chance to be used up.

Drums and Percussion

Do you like the sound of percussion? I have to admit that from time to time I like to sit down behind a drum set and just let my imagination flow. I don’t know what it is about questlove drums, but playing them somehow makes me feel better and I believe that others feel similar about the power of drums as well. If you are unsure about what instrument to pick,. consider drums and you should be happy with your choice.

The Valuers Group is professional Car valuations Services provider in Melbourne

If you are having a second hand car and you are planning to sell the same then it is necessary for you to get the car valuations from the value’s group. When you are planning for selling a car means you are not going to get higher price for the same. When you are planning to purchase any second hand car and you do not want to pay the over price for the same then it is important to get car valuations Melbourne first. You should get the proper valuations like the model of the car and how much it is used and what it is going to cost you.

carvaluersmelbourne1

When you visit to any specialist or visit any website you would be able to gain access to all the required tools which are needed for valuation. There are different search tools available and it can help you to determine the actual cost of your car with the complete statistics. But, when you are using such search tool you should take care of one thing that the wording of listing might confuse you. The wording like lower mileage and extras can boost up the cost of your car. When you are planning to use such search tool then starting off with basic search tool is the easiest way to start. You can simply start your search with the make and model of your car. You will get a complete list of the cars with the given criteria. There is a possibility that you might get thousands of cars as a result because they might have more in their database. So, based on the popularity of any car you can narrow down the search and get the exact thing you want.

 

Another thing you can try in to the valuers group website is the facility of extended search. You can narrow down your search with mileage of the car and also search with sunroof and condition of the vehicle. This will help you to start better and you can also have a good comparison. If you look at the website you can notice that all the listing also comes with photos of a car and complete review of the car. Even it can also give you basic idea whether this car is being sold by some car dealer or by some private seller. This can also give good idea that what would be the exact cost of any specific make and model. This will help you to set a budget for the car you are planning to purchase.

 

Another good point about any specialist is they can also offer lots of good advice and other information while getting car valuation. Such information can be in the form of FAQs or articles on the website. They can explain what we should look for validation and also how to remain safe while talking about selling or buying any car. If you try to follow the advice correctly and proceed further with caution then you might get your car at the excellent price with good quality.

 

I have purchased a new Volkswagen vehicle? Do I really need gap insurance?

Traffic accident - one driver on the mobile phone, second expressing anger

Traffic accident – one driver on the mobile phone, second expressing anger

What is Gap insurance?
When you buy a new car, the moment you take it off the property of the dealership, it starts to lose its value. This means, even if your car is brand new, its value has decreased greatly. So if your car is destroyed, the insurance you receive will be much lower than the original value of your car. Simply speaking, gap insurance is the difference between the value of the car and what you owe on your car. The purpose of a gap protection therefore is to cover this difference between auto loan and auto value. If you have gap insurance, your insurer pays the difference and not you. This might sound like an attractive policy but don’t rush into it because not everyone needs it.

Why you might need gap insurance

Not everyone needs gap insurance and not everyone should get it. But you should know if having it will be useful for you. The following reasons are why gap insurance might be useful for you:

Negative equity

If you owe more than the value of your car, you risk being in negative equity. This situation can arise if:

  • The down payment of your financial arrangement was too small, such as 20%
  • The interest is too high
  • Your kind of car is loses value very quickly
  • the debt payment is going too slowly, or
  • your financial deal is such that you are going to be left with a huge sum to pay at the end

You will not be able to replace your car

If your new car is depreciating fast in value, you are concerned that you will not be able to afford a replacement later

Contract hire deal

If you’re financial deal involves a long-term contract hire arrangement, and your vehicle is stolen or written off, you are at a risk of owing the contract hire company more than the amount that your insurance agency is willing to pay out.

For a Volkswagen vehicle, or for a vehicle of any other company, you will need to do your research and see if you really do need to buy gap coverage. For instance, Volkswagen is a reliable company that and its cars do not lose value fast. In that case, the risk of negative equity is not high and you don’t really need gap insurance. However, as explained earlier, if your purchase of the Volkswagen vehicle has left you with too much debt repayment then gap insurance is something you might want to consider. Another important point to consider is your finance agreement. If it already covers the difference between the official value of your car and how much you paid, then you don’t need gap insurance. The need for gap insurance differs from car to car and owner to owner. Therefore, it is important to do your research and discuss your coverage with your insurer before you purchase gap insurance.