Blog Posts Tagged "Safety"

A heart-warming story of a traumatic road accident and the truckers that saved a woman from her crushed vehicle.

Trucking soared to new heights in 2014, and American Trucking Associations has the scoop on all the numbers. Here are some highlights from the latest release of American Trucking Trends.

Hot weather can sometimes be harder on your truck that cold weather and we need to know the tips for keeping our trucks safe for us and other drivers. With temperatures rising, the heat can be bad for our tires. If you add high temperatures to increased friction, high speeds, and turning corners on hot asphalt, this can cause your tire to heat beyond the recommended temperature, potentially causing a blowout. A tire blowout not only affects us, but can affect those around us, too.

Commission, approximately 95,000 people suffered injuries and 3,964 were killed from accidents involving large trucks in 2013. Although some accidents were linked to bad drivers on suspended licenses, mental impairment and other drivers, some of these accidents involved trucks that did not have safe tires.

If you haven't heard about the Lil' Trucker Multi-Tool, perk up your ears. This nifty little gadget has just made it successfully through crowd-funding and is entering production. What is Crowd-funding? In short, crowd-funding is where an idea or a product is listed on a specified funding website from a private person or a manufacturer.

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.

Carrie is the 2015 Spring winner of the $500 Trucking School Scholarship Award from Trucker to Trucker. She'll be attending the Southeastern Illinois College truck driving program http://www.sic.edu/academics/applied-technology/truck-driving starting June 1st.

Being away from your family, dealing with traffic, and getting blamed for the screw-ups of shippers and receivers can easily distract you from the importance of monitoring your tires. In addition to being a major safety issue, under-inflated tires don't last as long, and increase the cost for fuel and other maintenance issues.

It is not enough to say that without truck drivers, America stops moving. America also stops eating in many areas of the country and stops working practically everywhere in the United States. About 70 percent of all raw goods, food, equipment, and product moves by truck. According to the Department of Transportation Statistics, the trucking industry employs over 8.7 million people and moves 9.2 billion tons of freight, valued at $671 billion, with over 5.6 million tractor trailers that are driven by more than 3.5 million men and women.

Do you make it a priority to get a good night's sleep? Even if you do, there's a good chance that you will experience road fatigue at some point. Long hours combined with long stretches of highway can lull you into drowsiness before you know it.

5 Tips to Driving Your Big Rig in Snowy Weather

Truckers: How to Stay Safe Even In Dangerous Winter Weather

Make a Trucker's Snow Emergency Travel Kit

Before you hit the road, try learning from experienced truckers. There will still be plenty to learn after you buy a new truck and start your first job, but the more you know the better. Here's what veteran truckers want newbies to know:

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.

If your future travels take you through Calgary, better make sure you take your checkbook along. The city council is instituting a steep hike in the fine for straying from designated trucking routes. Local regulations are designed to keep trucks and other heavy vehicles on the city's major roads and thoroughfares. The intent is to prevent noise and obstacles from disrupting quieter residential areas.

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.

The Georgia mom of two teenage girls is doing everything she can to make sure other parents never have to live through the tragedy she is currently facing. In May of 2013, Marianne Karth was driving on the highway with her daughters, seventeen-year-old AnnaLeah and thirteen-year-old Mary. Suddenly, her car was slammed from behind by a tractor trailer, which cause the car to spin around and get pinned under another truck's trailer.

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.

Sharing the road with car drivers is a necessary but frustrating evil of being a professional truck driver. Car drivers often seem to be clueless about the vast differences between zipping through traffic on four wheels and maneuvering a heavy-haul 18-wheeler down the highway. Here are a few of the things we wish car drivers wouldn't do:

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.

According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, aggressive driving is a major safety concern for all motorists. Are you contributing to the problem? What constitutes "aggressive"? Any unsafe driving behavior performed without regard for safety such as tailgating, illegal passing, or erratic lane changes, which contribute to up to 56 percent of fatal crashes.

Most of us consume caffeine in some way, shape, or form. As truckers, it is fairly common to partake of caffeinated beverages as a means of alleviating fatigue and staying alert and focused through many a long, rough haul. But how much is too much?

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.

With the goal of improving big rig safety, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently recommended four changes to tractor-trailer design standards and three changes to crash reporting guidelines.

Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT) is calling on America's truckers to be on the lookout for signs of human trafficking as the Super Bowl approaches. While you won't hear sports announcers discussing the issue during pregame festivities, sex trafficking has emerged as a serious problem in the lead up to the Super Bowl.

Many feel increasing stringent federal regulations impacting drivers, especially new driver hours of service regulations and mandatory electronic onboard recorders, will have a dramatic impact on the driver pool.

Diesel and gasoline prices continued to climb the last week in May, with average retail pump prices increasing 2.4 cents and 7 cents per gallon, respectively, across this U.S., according to data tracked by the Energy information Administration (EIA). Historically, with any rise in fuel prices comes an upsurge in diesel fuel theft.

Truck drivers were surveyed by ATRI in the spring of 2011 and then again in the Spring of 2012 to gain perspective on how commercial drivers view CSA in terms of employability issues and carrier operations.

According to Dr. Greg Forbes, severe weather expert for the Weather Channel, there is some debate about the best course of action if you're in a vehicle when a tornado strikes. Forbes says the American Red Cross (ARC) has changed its tornado safety rules and they now run counter to those advocated by the National Weather Service (NWS).

Although the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Compliance Safety and Accountability Program known throughout the industry as CSA was launched on December 12, 2010 there is still confusion among many drivers about their role under the new system and how it impacts their careers.

While there has been much media attention focused on the potential safety hazards of using inappropriate navigation systems in big rigs, up until now most of the information available was purely anecdotal.

Even the most well-trained, safety-conscious professional truck driver is at risk of engaging in driving behaviors that could lead to a crash on today's crowded highways. Weather conditions or road conditions change and suddenly driving too fast for conditions becomes a risk factor.

America's Road Team is a national public outreach program led by a small group of professional truck drivers who share superior driving skills, remarkable safety records and a strong desire to spread the word about safety on the highway.

Improving truck safety is a priority for everyone. And efforts to reduce truck crashes have been highly successful. Truck accident statistics have shown dramatic improvements over the years and truck crash rates continue to go down even as truck miles increase.

Limiting trucks to a predetermined set speed limit has long been a controversial topic, especially among truck drivers. And while many of the nation's largest carriers already have speed limiters installed on all their rigs, many drivers still refuse to work for fleets that limit the speed on their vehicles.

Driver distraction is a big issue that is getting increased attention from safety experts, the government and the media. But until now, no one has defined the distracted driving rate among commercial truck drivers.

The lack of adequate, safe truck parking is a growing problem. States have been closing public rest areas to save money and truck stop parking is limited, leaving truckers to pull over on entrance and exit ramps and seek other alternatives when parking isn't available. According to research by the American Trucking Assns.

Every year the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) holds a 72-hour truck inspection blitz throughout the U.S. from Canada to Mexico where they inspect approximately 14 trucks a minute or more than 4,440 vehicles an hour over the course of three days.

Highway "alligators," those strips of tread strewn along our nation's highw, ays, give trucking an undeserved black eye with the motoring public and also represent a huge loss to the trucking business, in terms of increased costs.

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.

State transportation departments throughout the country are gearing up for warm weather months when highway construction projects ramp up and more motorists hit the highways and are issuing announcements in conjunction with National Work Zone Awareness Week (April 15-21) to get the word out to drivers of the dangers of negotiating work zones.

With truck driver hours of service rules back in the courts you've most likely noticed an uptick in negative news reports about trucking in the general media stories warning of the dangers of killer truckers sharing the highways with hapless four-wheelers and putting everyone's lives at risk.

Perhaps the most horrific traffic accidents in recent history were attributed to poor visibility due to fog, smoke, or a mixture of the two.

While any traffic fatality is a tragedy, the focus on under-ride guards is picking at nits when compared to the volume of other causes of highway deaths.

When people attempt to perform two cognitively complex tasks such as driving and talking on a phone, the brain shifts its focus and people develop "inattention blindness" where important information falls out of view and is not processed by the brain, NSC says.

Over a year ago, FMCSA shelved plans to make determinations on crash accountability in favor of further study.

While navigation systems are becoming increasingly commonplace in the nation's commercial vehicles, the impact that these devices have on driver behavior, decision-making and safety is not fully understood, according to the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI).

A new survey launched by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) explores the possibility of commercial drivers using navigation systems. The brief online survey, which seeks the input of both the motor carrier and the commercial driver, will collect information on the perspectives of both groups towards the use of navigation systems, including the perceived rewards and risks.

At least one in seven vehicles chosen for inspection during the recently held Brake Safety Week had brake-related out-of-service (OOS) violations. The inspections were conducted by commercial vehicle inspections who participated in the week-long annual program.

Everyone knows that it takes certain special skills and knowledge in order to properly drive certain types of commercial motor vehicles (CMV). However, before the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) implemented its Commercial Driver's License (CDL) Program, if you held a driver's license (for cars), you could legally operate any type of tractor-trailer or buses in many states, as well as in the District of Columbia.

The American Truck Dealers (ATD) has announced the names of nine commercial trucks that have been nominated for the 2013 ATD Commercial Truck of the Year. This is a prestigious national award that recognizes the best truck entries in the heavy-duty and medium-duty categories across the country.

One of the most important issues in the trucking industry is safety. From roadside truck checks to patrolling the highway, the state patrol is always on the alert for any truck that may be having safety problems. The trucking companies continually have safety classes and ways of checking vehicles to make sure they are in tip-top condition.

One of the greatest competitions worldwide is called the Tough Mudder Competition that has been designed by British Special Forces. This competition has not only raised over $3 million dollars for the Wounded Warriors Project, but has also promoted health and wellness in the trucking industry throughout the world.

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).

On July 7, 2011, a North American Free Trade Agreement was signed, with little public notice, to allow Mexican trucking companies to haul products on U.S. soil. This agreement is for a period of three years and is related to a proposal presented in 2009.

Something that truckers are finding very convenient for their big rigs are back-up cameras. Once a complicated arrangement that was not very practical, there is now a wide range of types that work very well.

When you work as an oilfield trucker you transport both hazardous and non-hazardous materials like sand, water, fuel, and cement to the oil fields and move equipment and supplies around the area to where they need it.

You don't often think about it, but all those big rig trucks in the movies have stunt drivers that make sure they do what their supposed to yet walk away each time unscathed. Just like with cars, many of these specialized drivers have preferences when they get behind the wheel.

Many of the new and used big Semi-tractors now have devices available that can be distracting to the driver. There has been some talk of limiting what gadgets are allowed.

I've been given the privilege to talk about Cruiser Customizing, a website launched in 2001 as a product review based community. It was a place where bikers could research aftermarket motorcycle parts and accessories for their metric cruisers and coordinate already-owned accessories with wish-list functionality; quickly growing into a business for metric cruisers, Goldwing's and Harley Davidson's alike.

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.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's, FMCSA, "Drivers of CMVs: Restricting the Use of [Handheld] Cellular Phones" ruling will be put into effect starting January 3, 2012.

Tractor-trailers, semi-trucks, and other big rigs make many drivers nervous. Likewise, car drivers that don't understand how to share the highway with big rigs are dangerous to truckers.

Often, the public accepts opinions about truckers that are myths supported by four common falsehoods. False beliefs are stated or hinted at by media reporters.

A common goal among safety advocates in the trucking world is to properly regulate big rig brakes power and maintenance. Due to their weight, trucks require more space to stop than cars, and when the space isn't available an accident can easily occur.

A car shipping company provides car transportation services and allows you to move your car from one place to the other without any hassle. Today, there are a large number of companies that are offering auto transportation services

Hauling a dump trailer can be a rather arduous process for even an experienced operator. The varying center of gravity that you run into while dumping can cause problems if it is not correctly accounted for in a safe fashion. The following tips are culled from industry resources and experienced dump trailer operators to keep you safe and on the road.

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Just what does RoadWorthy mean? It probably means many different things to many different people. Here is what it means to me.

It is once again time to crack the window open for a peek into our world by other professionals. Trucker to Trucker was recently contacted by a Ms. Elyria Kemp, PhD of Texas State University to invite our readers to participate in a survey.

Individuals browsing for Des Moines trucks will be interested in a new addition to the Dealer Network of Trucker to Trucker; McKenna Truck Center. McKenna Truck Center offers a variety of products featuring commodities such as trailers, new, and used trucks. Services provided include Midwest Radiator Services and McKenna Collision Center, both home to experienced professionals in their respective fields. That is in addition to several standard services manned by experienced staff members.

What makes you Roadworthy? We feel like we can help with some insight here. Donn Koonce from Commercial Truck Insurance specialists Lupke Rice Roadworthy Truck Insurance provides insight. When we asked Donn to consider how to provide better value to our customers, one of the first thoughts was to "know what the trucker deals with". To follow through on this Donn Koonce became a trucker! He spent a few months time learning the business from behind the wheel by going to class and getting his CDL license.

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.

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 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).

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 Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is busy implementing the Compliance Safety Accountability (CSA) program, however the software developer behind it is critical of the failure to provide drivers access to their information. A core platform of the CSA program is that it will allow the exchange of information to flow easily across federal and state agencies, through to fleet managers and intermediate users, such as shipping brokers.

We're staying with the sleep issue for two days on the run here - yesterday we dealt with the FMCSA's proposed HOS rule changes and the listening session coming up on February 17th in Arlington, Virginia. Today, we'll deal with a lesser known, but troubling issue of the FMCSA's sleep apnea study.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has announced a listening session for comments from the trucking industry on the proposed Hours of Service (HOS) changes. The listening session will be broadcast over the Internet and will be held in ArlingtonVa. on February 17th.

Volvo's Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCT) technology is now equipping a Volvo VN780 being used by America's Road Team in its ongoing campaign for truck safety and emission control. Volvo's SCT has rapidly established itself and has been selected as the EPA's preferred emission solution in 2010 and will continue into 2011. Click the link for more information on Volvo trucks for sale.

Winter driving conditions force all of use to change our way of driving – this applies to hardened veterans as well as newbie rookies suffering from white line fever. The recent spate of bad weather which has hit the North East is not the last we are going to be seeing, but the brutal tally of road deaths and injuries caused by the latest snow and ice storm should ram it home to everyone – driving in winter is dangerous and you need to gear up.

Technology has affected our lives in so many different ways that we probably would smile with nostalgia if confronted with a rig from 20 years ago. Developments have been fast and furious, and while trucking is not considered a glam, sexy industry for technology, it has been at the forefront of some ground-breaking developments.

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 US Department of Transportation is now proposing a complete cell phone ban in commercial vehicles, including semi trailers and buses. This follows the current ban on texting while driving and affects 4 million drivers.

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:

USA Drive Safe has all of the types of locks a trucker could need to keep his truck, trailer and cargo safe from thieves.