Blog Category: Legislation

U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Hear ELD Appeal

Extra Long Trailers, the Future Looms Large

California Leads Again With New Meal/Rest Break Legislation

Are You Ready for the New Driving Log Regulations?

Are You an Employee or Independent Contractor - Case Study

Fed Eyes Law Change Allowing Under 21 Year Old Interstate Truck Drivers

ELD Mandate Questions?

California Mandated Trucker Breaks Face Federal Review

Truck Weight Maximum Increase Defeated in Washington

The Central States Pension Fund is going to cut pensions by about half, come July 1st, 2016. If you are one of the 400,000 truckers who are covered by the Central States Pension Fund, you may want to start planning for this.

400,000 Retired Trucking Teamsters May Get Pension Cut

Will a Program Like Celadon's WageLock Be In Your Next Benefits Package?

Truck Drivers Win Overtime Settlement in Alabama

Wisconsin Governor Signs Do Not Track Bill, But One That Does Not Impact Business and Fleet Tracking

With a trucker's schedule, finding time for your DOT physical can be tricky. You need to find a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration–approved medical examiner every two years to maintain your CDL, and sometimes the two-year-deadline approaches when you're out on the road.

The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development funding bill for fiscal year ending in 2016 could have a big impact on truckers. As we have previously pointed out at Trucker To Trucker, it is extremely important to always keep up-to-date with new federal trucking legislation whether you have a single truck or a large fleet.

One of the risks that goes along with owning a trucking company is having to make liability payments if one of your drivers injures someone in an accident. This amount is decided on through the legal system and typically goes toward compensating victims for medical care. The minimum liability requirement right now is $750,000.

Tired of filling out paperwork when you have no changes to report on your DVIR (Daily Vehicle Inspection Report)? Well, apparently the U.S. D.O.T. is also tired of reading them – so as of December 2014, if you have no mechanical or safety issues to report, fuh-get about it.

The trucking industry can be a dangerous one, especially when so many trucking companies constantly break the rules, or try to take advantages of loopholes in the system. According to a recent article on JOC.com, there is a growing number of trucking companies in the United States that fail to comply with safety regulations and that have been shut down for this or a variety of other reasons.

As Shakespeare once asked, What's in a name? For truckers working the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and by extension others across the country, their continued livelihood depends on the answer. Drivers and trucking companies have been locked in a bitter labor dispute, causing the truckers to strike last November in an effort to obtain more equitable working conditions. At issue is the loss of employee status as companies now list them as independent contractors.

Tennessee, ranked second only to Texas by CNBC in state road quality nationwide, is currently faced with the conundrum of growing road needs but declining fuel tax revenues. In an attempt to deal with the situation, the state is wrestling with a number of solutions for handling funding needs according to the Times Free Press. Among them: proposed taxes and fees trucking industry, about 60 percent of which utilizes Tennessee's north-south and east-west corridors, I-75 and I-40.

Everybody loves saving money on gasoline, especially independent truckers. More miles per gallon might just make or break your profit, but the long-term savings come at the cost of the initial investment. Are you ready to buy a new truck just yet? New EPA rules already mandated higher MPG for pickups and semis a few years ago. By the spring of 2015, we'll hear about the next round of standards that will apply to model year 2018 and later.

It's no secret that one of the challenges many truck drivers face is finding a place to park their semis between loads. Even when you're loaded, you have to abide by the strict regulations that are set forth by the DOT, and when it's time to park, you have to park. Breaking the rules or altering your logbook can cause fines for your company, as well as problems for your license.

Last year, legislation supported by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association that required truckers to take two full consecutive nights of rest following 70 hours of time spent driving passed. While people on both sides of the aisle with concerns about truckers' safety supported the bill, a December 2014 spending bill in Congress includes a provision that would reverse the law.

A recent lawsuit may change training requirements for those seeking to embark on a career in the trucking industry. Though auto fatalities have dropped in recent years, fatalities involving large trucks are on the rise, increasing by 4 percent in 2012. Injuries have also increased 18 percent, racking up an astounding 4,000 deaths and over 70,000 injuries.

No group of people is more concerned about highway safety than truckers. They rely on the reliable and safe operation of their trucks to make a living, and their family and loved ones travel the same roads as everyone else. The frustration all truck drivers and trucking company owners have with the current Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) scoring system is not because drivers want to take unsafe shortcuts or cover-up poor practices.

Innovation frequently move faster than government. Whether it is the Federal Aviation Administration blocking commercial use of drones or the Federal Communications Commission's sluggish action on net neutrality, technology is moving at a blistering pace while the government spends more money studying and debating regulations. Regardless of how self-driving trucks may impact jobs and the economy, we can be sure the jobs of lobbyist and politicians are secure.

Despite setbacks in the struggle, truckers continue to fight for better safety regulations. The changes to trucking laws have negatively impacted productivity by at least 3 to 5 percent, according to the American Trucking Association—without promising any real solution for driver fatigue.

Each year, the American Transportation Research Institute issues a list of the most critical issues for truckers. Some indicate a need for change in trucking legislation, while others are demonstrative of how much trucking legislation has improved the industry. Today, we'd like to cover some of the top issues truckers are facing in 2014.

With heavy-duty trucks and buses producing an estimated 20 percent of greenhouse gases in the United States each year, it is understandable that any regulations to reduce America's dependence on fossil fuels and lower the resulting emissions are going to target the efficiency of long-haul tractor-trailers.

Why on earth would politicians in Washington know what's best for truckers? If you ask the feds about why truckers have faced increased regulation and stricter limits on driving times, they'll tell you it's about safety—that more restrictive Hours of Service laws will reduce driver fatigue and crashes.

One in 10 of America's bridges is an accident waiting to happen. According to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, more than 63,000 interstate highway bridges urgently need critical structural repairs to protect the safety of the millions of drivers that travel across them every day. For professional truck drivers, who spend more time crossing these unsafe bridges than most drivers, the risk of being caught on a collapsing bridge is both frightening and potentially fatal.

Commercial truck driving is one of the country's Top 10 most hazardous jobs. When you spend your work day (and night) battling traffic and inattentive drivers on America's highways, safety needs to be Job One if you want to return home safely. As every heavy duty truck driver knows, job safety begins with personal safety.

Independent owner-operators and small trucking businesses just caught a break from the California Air Resources Board (CARB). CARB recently granted small fleets, lightly-used trucks and rural operators an extension of its emissions control compliance deadline, giving some truckers an extra year to meet California's newest anti-pollution standards.

Truckers have found a friend in U.S. Representative Richard Hanna. The New York Republican has been meeting with the trucking community

Two new violations tied to the recent changes to truck driver hours of service regulations have been coded into carrier profiles on the Compliance

New federal rules calling for stopping distance improvements of 30% went into effect Aug. 1 2011 and Aug. 1 2013

A lawsuit brought against Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) could cause problems for many motor carriers

Despite several calls by trucking industry representatives to delay implementation of truck driver hours of service changes

Black boxes, electronic logging devices (ELDs), electronic onboard recorders (EOBRs), whatever you choose to call them, have long been a controversial issue in the trucking industry with most drivers considering having one the equivalent of having Big Brother onboard.

As the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals prepares to issue a final decision in the American Trucking Assns.' (ATA) case against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regarding the restart and rest break changes to the driver hours of service rules, the trucking industry should be preparing for the impacts those changes may have on their operations.

If you're still hanging on the hope the feds will delay implementing new truck driver hours of service regulations or have just procrastinated preparing for the change, it may be time to get a move on. As it stands now, drivers will need to be ready to comply in just a few short weeks.

California Regulations Requirements and Compliance California continues to lead the way when it comes to higher emissions regulations. On December 12, 2008 the California Air Resource Board approved the CARB Compliance, with a goal of reducing particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen emissions from diesel vehicles.

In a time when there is so much unemployment in the United States, the one section that not only is going full blast and actually looking for employees is the trucking industry.

As if the new fuel efficiency and lower emission requirements due this year weren't enough, now the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is proposing a safety standard that requires all commercial trucks and buses be upgraded with electronic stability control (ESC).

One of the newest strategies to comply with new legislative mandates requiring better fuel mileage on big rigs is to add trailer skirts. One example is the new Air Slipper Side Skirts that are not only aerodynamically designed, but sleek and very affordable as well.

As if the price of diesel, repairs, taxes, insurance, and other things a trucker must pay is not high enough, a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives to increase the diesel fuel tax rate 6.3 cents per gallon.

A bill that was recently introduced to congress includes a raising the weight limit for commercial vehicles from 88,000 pounds to 97,000 pounds. This is an increase of 21 percent, which has many civil engineers and lawmakers worried about the impact on current infrastructure.

Hours of service regulations affect everyone involved in the trucking industry, including drivers, shippers and company owners. The U.S. Department of Transportation is constantly looking for ways to increase the safety of highways in the United States, so the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has revised the hours of service requirements to reflect the latest research findings in regards to public safety.

Bill Graves, the CEO and President of the American Trucking Association, told members of the House Natural Resources Committee on March 31, 2011, that in order to allow affordable diesel fuel to the trucking industry, policymakers would have to step up.

In this post we look at the FMCSA's approach to cell phone restriction proposals: Texting is subject to a nationwide ban under federal regulations; however moves are afoot to extend the ban to all use of cell phones within the cab while driving. With cell phones playing an ever increasingly important role in modern trucking operations, the rules are guaranteed to have serious ramifications for how truckers use cell phones within their day-to-day businesses.

Today, Trucker to Trucker puts the spotlight on the efforts of Truckers Against Trafficking and their efforts to combat human trafficking and the sex trade: Truckers Against Trafficking has been established to help raise awareness of the problem of human trafficking within the United States as well as on the international arena. With long, scarcely guarded borders with Canada and even with Mexico, the opportunities for human traffickers to bring people, especially children and vulnerable women into the country is a lucrative and fairly risk-free activity for the criminals behind these schemes.

Today, we're taking a look at Kamala Harris' court filings in support of the California Clean Truck Program: What happens in California tends to happen about ten years before the rest of the country is ready for it, but nevertheless the state of a good forecaster for developments which will get picked up nationally. California has long been known as the state with the harshest emission standards on drivers, both truckers and regular motorists.

State Trucking Associations serve a vital role in protecting the interests of the trucking industry, drivers, and employers alike. Similarly minded people come together to represent their interests from a knowledgeable stand point to the various environmental and governmental regulatory committees that enact and pass legislation.

The Transportation Workers Identification Credential (TWIC) ID was introduced in 2007 in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The rationale behind the program was to tighten up security around America's ports and other sensitive facilities to which civilian workers needed regular access. Prior to the attack on New York and Pentagon, truckers did not need anything other than standard forms of ID, such as a drivers' license to gain admittance.

Today, we're looking at the CO proposal for banning trucks from I-70 to ease congestion at peak times: Summit County CO – legislators are considering a ban on trucking traffic during peak times on the heavily congested I-70. During the ski season, the roads to and from the Front Range create a traffic nightmare, and legislators, county and state officials fear it will cost billions of dollars to put right.

The Owner Operator Independent Driver Association (OOIDA) vehemently opposes the cross border trucking deal which will now see Mexican operators and trucks on America's highways. President Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon have announced that a cross border trucking deal is now 'imminent'.

Today, we put the spotlight on the Wisconsin dairy fined for a trucker's fatal fall: The US Department of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) ruled that a Wisconsin "willfully ignored" federal safety rules in a trucker's death. George Oberding died in August, 2011 after a fall from the top of his truck's trailer onto a concrete floor while involved in uploading a milk tanker. Oberding, aged 50 years, suffered severe head trauma including several skull fractures.

There is a federal ban for all interstate truckers from driving and texting, however federal rules apply only to interstate commerce. Or truckers driving solely within a state, federal rules do not apply, however states are promulgating their own rules (which we reported on earlier this month).

Federal rules already forbid texting while driving, but now state legislators are also moving to enact their own laws to prohibit driving while distracted. A dozen states are considering laws to forbid texting whilst driving, however these will affect all drivers and not simply truckers, which is as it ought to be.

Today, the premier online site to find trucks for sale, Trucker to Trucker looks at Peter DeFazio's Excess Detention Time Bill: A new bill has been introduced by Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR) which aims to compel the US Department of Transportation to conduct studies into detention practices within the trucking industry. The bill acts as an adjunct to the proposals for the Hours of Service rules which are being promulgated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association (FMCSA).

The Coalition for Transportation Productivity has been lobbying hard for the reintroduction of the Safe & Efficient Transportation Act and they have finally succeeded. We've posted before on the max weight limit pilot scheme in Vermont and Maine, where truck weights are allowed up to 120,000 pounds (from the 80,000 pound, federally imposed limit).

US District Judge Donovan Frank sitting in federal court in Minnesota ruled in favor of a trucker who had been pulled over and classified as "fatigued" by MN State Police. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) announced in a press release that he ruling was "historic" and a "major victory" for truckers and their rights.

The Virginia legislature is working at full pace with a very short legislative session. Road funding has been one of the banes of the Virginia budget though transportation has been a central plank of Governor Bob McDonnell's political platform. Gov. McDonnell announced several additional elements for his transportation agenda which includes outlining the detail for $2 billion spending plans with a further $2 billion to be announced.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is using a two part study from Washington State University as the basis for revisions to the Hours of Service (HOS) rules. The study is behind the 34 hour restart proposals which also recommends two full nights of rest time. The findings are now being strongly questioned by the trucking industry, particularly in respect of night drivers.

US Rep. Bob Filner, a Democrat from California, believes the US is not ready for cross border trucking operations with Mexico. He is the first politician to openly come out and say what many in the trucking industry have been thinking for some time. Finer's position contrasts sharply with Texas politicians who appear to be broadly in favor of a deal whereby Mexican carriers, currently restricted to within 25 miles of the major port destinations along the border, will be allowed to haul throughout the US.

Earlier this week both the House and Senate held hearings, with Ray LaHood, US Transportation Secretary claiming it was his intention to have the bill passed into law by August 2011. This follows on from President Obama's State of the Union address where he made it clear that there is a need for affirmative action in dealing with America's long-term transportation strategy.

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) released what it refers to as a "barebones concept document" to act as a starting point for a cross border trucking agreement. Manufacturers and importers already praise the agreement proposals, which come two years after the Obama administration axed a pilot project established by the Bush administration.

OOIDA (Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association) in partnership with the Port Drivers Federation 18 and the New Jersey Motor Truck Association, have petitioned the Department of Transport (DOT) for the removal of compulsory drayage truck registries.

The showpiece of the new CSA program is the SMA, or Safety Measurement System. SMS analyzes inspections, law enforcement reports and crash data to assess a carrier's road performance. From these multiple data sources, the SMS will extract the carrier's safety record, especially focusing on safety violations. Using this information, the FMSCA enforcement units will be able to respond proactively to violators, or to provide advice on remedial action for carriers who are borderline cases, before the situation deteriorates.

Once upon a time CSA stood for Confederate States of America, but the Union won and the federal government uses the acronym for its Compliance Safety Accountability Program. A new CSA version was launched a couple of weeks before Christmas in time for carriers to use their holiday home time to brush up on the latest initiative.

The Federal Motor Safety Carrier Administration (FMSCA) introduced a new Electronic OnBoard Recorders (EOBR) ruling in April 2010. The EOBR rule comes into effect on June 4, 2012 and for the first time it mandates EOBR use for nominated groups of carriers. The bottom line is that FMSCA will be able to say who must install EOBR to ensure Hours of Service (HOS) compliance.

The Federal Motor Safety Carrier Administration (FMSCA) introduced a new Electronic OnBoard Recorders (EOBR) ruling in April.

The Obama administration has made trucking efficiency one of the government's priorities. A pilot program adopted in Maine and Vermont allowed for weight limits to be increased from 80,000 to 100,000 pounds for interstate commerce. The bad news is that the legislation allowing for this to happen is set to end on December 18th unless the Senate votes to extend the scheme.

The White House is the final stage for new American legislation as it waits for the President's signature, and a major new law on Hours of Service (HOS) is expected shortly. While there has been no official statement yet, at least one major trucking organization is expecting major rule changes which include:

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A custom license plate holder made by Weather Tech is made of clear acrylic and guaranteed to fit snugly and install with ease.

Exhaust Gas Recirculation vs Selective Catalytic Reduction, understanding the basics and Making sense of it all.

College degrees online are allowing career changes for many, without leaving the comfort of your home or your truck.

The global fuel crisis is sparking protests and rioting worldwide in the footsteps of US trucker strike.

Reportedly, the country is in a recession. Whether it is or not is really only a technical issue for economists.

Jevic Transportation Inc. is being sued by their former employees according to a press release.

The American Trucking Association (ATA) just lost government funding for the “Highway Watch” program. They were getting about $10 million a year.

It can be quickly downloaded and kept in the cab for a quick reference.

Senator Snowe has also proposed a six cent reduction in the diesel fuel tax which will make it the same as the federal tax on gasoline.

Truckers feel like they're caught between a rock and a hard place. There's talk about a shutdown to protest fuel costs, but problems in the trucking industry go much deeper.

Trucker to Trucker wants to know how truckers feel about private equity firms muscling in on the trucking industry.

Private equity firms now provide the bulk of financing in the trucking industry. Is their drive for profits hurting or helping the industry?

Trucker to Trucker offers helpful tips for financing your next truck or trailer.

Trucker to Trucker offers tips on what you can and can’t deduct on your taxes.

Truck weight regulations subject of state and federal legislation.

Excellent how to on becoming a truck driver, if your thinking about driving truck for a career, read up.

Trucker to Trucker provides helpful tips on financing your truck or trailer purchase.

The Boss has 10 things he wishes would change about trucking. Give us your opinion too!

trucker news, truck routes, Corridors of the Future, Missouri DOT, DOT, I-70, I-95, I-5, I-10, I-15, I-69, interstate routes, federal transportation, interstate travel, traffic congestion

The Teamsters Union went to court to keep Mexican trucks from entering the U.S. as part of the NAFTA cross-border trucking program.

Tips on keeping an accurate log book.

Logs books protect truckers from working long hours.