REGULATIONS * USA - FMCSA Introduces New Rating System for Carriers and Commercial Drivers

Driver Violations Now Divided Into Seven Categories

Lexington, KY,USA -MFR Tech, by Melissa Hinshaw, Safety Manager Rush Transportation -16 May 2011: -- Last Nov., a new rating system for commercial trucking companies and truck drivers was introduced by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to provide a more accurate picture about the safety record of transportation companies and their drivers... The new system, called Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA), replaces the former rating system. Its intent is to reduce the number of crashes, fatalities and injuries on public roads and also enable the FMCSA to identify and monitor drivers and carriers who are not in compliance with safety regulations... The Seven Categories Include:

* Unsafe Driving: This category reflects moving violations, such as speeding, improper lane change or driving too close to a vehicle.

* Fatigue Driving: This BASIC addresses drivers exceeding drive time beyond the maximum hours of service allowed. Truckers are permitted 11 hours of drive time within a 14-hour day. They must have a 10-hour break before driving again.

* Driver Fitness: This category involves violations found during roadside inspections based on the driver’s qualifications, license, endorsements and training as related to the type of vehicle the driver is operating and loads being carried. For example, drivers may only transport a hazardous material load if they have received training from their carrier.

* Drugs and Alcohol: This area pertains to drivers and carriers who violate the controlled substances and/or alcohol regulations. Not only will they be ticketed, but also their CDL could be revoked. Employers can also be cited during a compliance review for not have a testing program. All drivers must participate in a drug- and alcohol-testing program. During an audit, the FMSCA can cite the carrier and assign the company an unsatisfactory score if it hasn’t performed the legally required number of drug tests over the course of a year.

* Vehicle Maintenance: This BASIC is violated most frequently. There are many items on a truck or trailer that must be maintained. Drivers are required to inspect their vehicle each day and report repairs that need to be made to their employer. The driver must not drive the vehicle until all repairs are completed. Drivers and the carrier are both held responsible for this type of violation. While most violations are issued during roadside inspections, carriers can also receive violations during a compliance review for failure to have a maintenance program or record keeping system.

* Cargo-Related: Violations is this category relate to cargo that’s not properly secured. Unsecured freight can become dangerous projectiles in an accident.

* Crashes: This BASIC compiles data from recordable crashes, which must involve any of the following: a fatality, an injury requiring treatment away from the scene or a vehicle that must be towed due to disabling damage. Under the current system, there is an entry made into this BASIC and held against the company and the driver regardless if the truck driver was at fault. Even if somebody rear-ends a tractor, it can be considered a DOT recordable crash.

Safety vs. Weight * USA - Automakers Want More Discussion on

Obama administration says fuel economy targets can be met without hurting safety. NHTSA study shows reducing heavy truck weight does help with safety... 

Detroit,MICH,USA -Automotive News, by Neil Roland -May 12, 2011:    ...  Automakers asking government officials to reconsider matter... Say they're already introducing safety features that add vehicle weight. And adding weight likely to affect fuel economy. Weight not only means to improve fuel economy... Officials say vehicles can be safer and get better fuel economy. NHTSA obligated to consider safety implications of new fuel economy standards. That's due to fewer deaths among occupants in light vehicles during accident... The government plans to update its 2010 safety study by September and has commissioned new research to be completed before final CAFE rules are issued in the summer of 2012, a NHTSA spokeswoman said... A number of outside studies support NHTSA's findings on weight cuts in heavier vehicles... A 2009 study by JP Research in Mountain View, Calif., found reducing light trucks by 100 pounds would result in a 2.1 percent decrease in deaths in truck-to-car crashes... Conversely, the study, performed for the Detroit 3, also found a 3.4 percent increase in fatalities when passenger cars were reduced by 100 pounds... Data compiled by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, funded by auto insurers, also support NHTSA's approach, said Adrian Lund, the institute's president... (Image from truckinjurylawyerblog: Pileup truck and cars)

RULES * USA - NADA and Chamber Lose Court Ruling

Washington,D.C.,USA -The Car Connection -3 May 2011: -- A U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that the state of California can continue to pass air pollution standards that are stricter than federal law. The court blocked a legal challenge to California's ability to manage air pollution standards when it ruled that the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce did not have legal standing in the case... California is able to request waivers of federal standards in order to enact its own, stricter laws under the 1970 Clean Air Act. This is a right granted to California because it had its own pollution laws before the federal government enacted theirs... California is now negotiating with the EPA and NHTSA on new standards through 2025. Some environmental groups are attempting to raise the average fuel economy on new vehicles to 60 miles per gallon, while cutting carbon pollution by an additional 40 percent... (Photo by Photo David McNew/Getty Images from static.howstuffworks: Los Angeles' heavy traffic is a significant contributor to its infamous air pollution)

Ban Trucks * USA - In NJ, older than the 2007 model year

Not born to run: No truck idling in NJ after May 1

Trenton,NJ,USA -Land Line Magazine, by Charlie Morasch -April 12, 2011:  --  One of the East Coast’s most important trucking states is preparing to ban trucks older than the 2007 model year from idling altogether beginning on May Day. New Jersey: Trucks with engines that meet or exceed 2007 model year engine specifications may still idle, as well as trucks that power mechanical operations such as lift gate pumps and cargo temperature; vehicles being serviced or repaired; motionless vehicles slowed by traffic congestion; and vehicles that have been stopped for three or more hours when temperatures are below 25 degrees, during which they’re allowed to idle for 15 minutes...  Gail Toth, executive director of the New Jersey Motor Truck Association, told she is asking members of her organization and all truck drivers to write letters to New Jersey Lieutenant Governor, Kim Guadagno, and state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner ,Bob Martin, to ask for an extension of the idling exemption for rest periods...  (Photo from collectiondx: Peterbilt truck 2007 model)

REGULATIONS * Australia - New trucking laws about to be finalised

Perth,WA,Australia -ABC Rural -5 April 2011: -- The trucking industry says it's looking forward to new draft national regulations, which are being finalised this week... Driving a heavy vehicle is a dangerous occupation; 258 people died in truck and bus crashes last year... Part of the problem is driver fatigue, which is exacerbated by differing laws in states and territories... Andrew Higginson, of the Livestock and Bulk Handlers Association, says the system can't go on as it is... (Photo from roadtransport: Australia's livestock haulier truck)

* Australia - Livestock transporter wants brakes put on taxes

Warwick,QLD,Australia -ABC News, by Sam Burgess -Apr 7, 2011: -- A livestock transporter says the Federal Government should delay increasing taxes on the trucking industry while it recovers from the floods... From July 1, the trucking industry's fuel tax and registration will go up 2.4 per cent... Warwick transporter Ross Fraser says it could not come at a worse time for the livestock industry... He says the rises may have to be passed on to livestock producers, who are still paying off the cost of January's deluge...

RULES & REGULATIONS * UK - Fleets face six-figure tax bills on mileage claims

Tax crackdown on mileage claims

London,EN,UK -Fleet News -3 March 2011: -- Businesses are being warned of a tax crackdown on mileage claims after a series of investigations into fuel and mileage payments...   Mileage audit firm TMC says it has identified five companies in the past month that are being investigated by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC)...  A bill for more than £700,000 in back taxes could be at stake for one of the businesses involved...  He believes that more fleets could find their records being scrutinised by HMRC as it hardens its line on incomplete or inaccurate mileage records...  Drivers were therefore able to overstate their business mileage and in effect received tax-free AMAP or Advisory Fuel Rate (AFR) expense payments for business miles they didn’t cover...  One tax inspector spent three weeks using an online route planner to check hundreds of mileage claims made by just eight drivers...  In practice, HMRC normally would look at the past six years, but in this case it examined the company’s records over the past four years, revealing some serious inaccuracies...

RULES & REGULATIONS Opinion * USA - CSA — Problem or Solution?

Mount Pleasant,S.C.,USA -Transport Topics, by James Scapellato -Feb. 28, 2011: -- Some trucking industry executives predicted the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program was going to be a “game changer” for the industry. They were right... The U.S. Department of Transportation’s premature public release of questionable CSA/Safety Measurement System data has caused some of America’s most respected and safe carriers irreparable damage to reputation and productivity — with little recourse... Furthermore, an interstate carrier has no real-time means of challenging and overturning alleged compliance review and roadside violations because they are immediately uploaded into FMCSA’s Motor Carrier Management Information System and released to the public under CSA on a monthly basis. As a result, the affected carrier is deemed guilty with neither adequate notice nor due process. That’s not the American way... The industry has waited 15 years for a supporting documents final rule, despite a specific congressional mandate and a writ of mandamus from the U.S. Court of Appeals compelling it to be done... To kick off the discussion/debate, I suggest the following to the DOT:

• Appoint impartial third-party hearing examiners or arbitrators under federal contract to fast-track resolution of CSA/SMS/ intervention challenges within 30 to 45 days from the date of filing. Require examiners/arbitrators to rule in writing as soon as possible but no later than 45 days from receipt of the record.

• Grant examiners/arbitrators the authority to render binding decisions based on the record and evidence submitted by the parties.

• Where appropriate, grant examiners/arbitrators the authority to enjoin the upload and/or continued disclosure of CSA/SMS calculations and conclusions to the public.

• Allow decisions by examiners or arbitrators to be “final agency action,” which entitles either party (government or carrier) to appeal the decision to the appropriate federal court.

• Require as a prerequisite that enforcement officials submit to the carrier all data, calculations, methodology and rationales to justify the upload of alleged violations into CSA/SMS at least 10 days before disclosure.

• Grant carriers the opportunity to exhaust other administrative challenges on issues such as unreasonable administrative searches, discriminatory enforcement treatment, improper safety rating downgrades, compliance review and Notice of Claims alleged violation and penalties, roadside dataQ issues (short for https://dataqs.fmcsa.dot.gov/login.asp, the website where carriers can contest points on their BASICs) and others before upload and disclosure to the public.  (Photo: On to regulations nightmare)

New Driver Rules * USA - Trucking Recovery Faces Roadblock From

The sector could stall out from forced cuts to drivers' on-road time

(Video from YouTube, by aaronnflanders -30 Jan 2011: Hit a little snow storm on the way to RI. It was 18+ inches by the time I got back to CT)

Lancaster,PA,USA -Investor Place, by Susan J. Aluise -Feb. 18, 2011: -- Just as the trucking industry labors to drive away from a deep recession and defray runaway diesel fuel prices, there’s another potential roadblock to recovery: the possibility of new federal rules on how and when drivers work and sleep... While the extra margin of safety proposed is a noble goal, there are significant costs in time and money that likely will eat into the margins of trucking companies as they ease back onto the road to profitability... The Department of Transportation’s “Hours of Service” rules were put in place decades ago to curb accidents caused by driver fatigue. By limiting the number of daily driving hours, requiring minimum daily rest periods and keeping drivers on a 21-24-hour schedule, the rules aim to reduce cumulative fatigue by maintaining the natural sleep/wake cycle, or “circadian rhythm”... The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) wants to cut a driver’s maximum daily driving time to 10 hours from 11 hours and reduce the on-duty “workday” to 13 hours from 14 hours. Regulators also want to eliminate the so-called “34-hour restart,” which allows drivers to work more weekly hours if they take 34 consecutive hours off. Comments on the plan — and there are more than 7,600 so far — are due to FMCSA by March 4...   If FMCSA passes the rule as is, additional costs and delayed shipments could put the brakes on the fragile recovery and inhibit the rebound in share prices...

Safety Strategy * USA - FMCSA's Ferro Defines One

Sum of related programs, rulemakings is seismic shift for trucking

Washington,DC,USA -The Journal of Commerce Online, by William B. Cassidy -Feb 22, 2011: -- The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is pursuing a three-pronged strategy to truck safety as it tries to drive truck accident fatalities lower...  The three parts of that strategy are the Compliance, Safety and Accountability or CSA program, truck driver hours of service reform, and electronic logging...  Together, they add up to the biggest change in the truck safety arena in decades...  CSA, the proposed HOS rule and a proposal that would require truckers to use electronic onboard recorders are the interlocking pieces of FMCSA's overall safety strategy, which focuses squarely on driver behavior, she said...  The HOS rules, however many hours they finally include, will be a yardstick, while the EOBR mandate and CSA will monitor, substantiate and enforce compliance...  Although fatalities in crashes involving large trucks dropped 36 percent from 2005 to 2009, the FMCSA's mandate is to reduce those fatalities even further, she said...

REGULATION * USA - Mica Eyes Rail to Get More Trucks, Cars Off Roadways

Goal would be to reduce roadway damage, trust fund spending on pavement repair

Washington,DC,USA -The Journal of Commerce Online, by John D. Boyd -Jan 13, 2011: -- The new chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, signaling domestic transport goals similar to those of the Obama administration, says he wants to advance several initiatives that shift commercial truck loads and automobiles off the nation's stressed highways...  My goal would be to get more trucks off of the highway, and more cars off of the highway," Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., told... Mica told The JOC he will pursue various efforts to get better use out of the existing highway footprint rather than just building new roads...  He also wants to take private the Amtrak Auto Train service that runs from central Florida nearly to Washington, D.C., in which drivers load their automobiles on the train and ride inside train cars for the 855-mile trip. Mica said that could be sharply expanded and perhaps broadened to include commercial trucks, as in Europe...  Such efforts, he said, save energy and "save the infrastructure, because four out of every five dollars for transportation now goes just for maintaining infrastructure...

* Sen. Boxer: Working with Rep. Mica, on a long-term transportation bill

Washington,DC,USA -DC Street Blog -6 Jan 2011: -- Senator Barbara Boxer told reporters that she had an "excellent," "wonderful" meeting with Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., the new chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. She confirmed that they're working on a "longer-term" transportation bill and have come up with many points of agreement...

TRUCKS REGULATIONS * Canada & USA

* Canada - Phase 4 of VW&D reform details in the books

Toronto,ONT,CAN -Today's Trucking -14 Dec 2010: -- Simplification of weight tables, significant grandfathering for existing vehicles and flexibility for carriers to spec wide single tires all included in the latest phase of Ontario's weights and dimensions reforms, says the Ontario Trucking Association...  The first three phases of the amendments between 2001 and 2006 covered tri-axle trailers, dump semi trailers and multi axle units and b-trains...  Phase 4 comes into effect in 2011 and covers all other trailers. Including flat deck straight trucks with fork lifts attached, cement mixers, and dump trucks pulling trailers...  Meanwhile, a reminder that grandfathering of phase 2, non-SPIF dump semi-trailers ends on Dec. 31, 2010...   As of January 1, 4,500 kg will be subtracted from GVW of a single end dump semi-trailer or open-top hopper for non-SPIF equipment...  Complete details of the changes outlined in phase 4, the official amending regulation 457/10, can be found by clicking here...  (Photo from dgraytrucking: heavy loaded truck in Canada)

* USA - Brake makers welcome copper-cutting laws

Elyria,OH,USA -Today's Trucking -15 Dec 2010:  --  State laws in California and Washington requiring a reduction of the amount of copper allowed in brake friction materials beginning in 2021 is being applauded by truck component manufacturers...  Bendix Spicer Foundation Brake says the laws protect waterways from the runoff of toxic copper brake dust... The California law mandates that brakes contain no more than 5 percent copper beginning in 2021. By 2025, the limit will be reduced to 0.5 percent. Washington’s law is similar, with a 5 percent limit by 2021, and the establishment of an advisory committee to assess the feasibility of lowering the limit to 0.5 percent in subsequent years... Bendix says it is working to reduce the copper content in the small percentage of its disc brake solutions that would not be compliant to the future 2021 regulation. Disc brakes are semi-metallic and pose a greater compliance challenge for all manufacturers, the company says... (Photo from crossley-regis.org: The Layout of Shoes and Springs in the Regis Bendix brakes)

REGULATIONS * USA - Obama Transportation Emission Control Initiatives

FL,USA -The Examiner, by Jon Anderson -November 26, 2010:    ...  The President Obama has authorized development of Tier 3 Tailpipe Out Transportation Emission Standards for automobile and truck makers under 12,500 pounds loaded weight... The popular press covered the new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ) fleet wide miles per gallon accord between President Obama and the auto industry. The fleet wide standard will increase from 25 to 35 miles per gallon beginning in 2016. In addition the tailpipe Carbon Dioxide emissions will decrease from approximately 500 grams per mile to 250 grams per mile... The popular press also covered President Obama’s tightening of the 8 hour Ground Level Ozone Standard down to 0,08 parts per million (ppm). While this story got coverage most of the reporters missed out the fact now the 8 hour Ground Level Ozone Standard will require dozens of more rural counties in the South, Midwest and West to adopt some modest air quality control programs. This is because most these suburbanized rural counties are very close to non-attainment anyway... (Photo: AP/EPA -  EPA map of counties affected by air pollution)

* USA - FMCSA to keep CSA cargo scores private

Washington,DC,USA -Fleet Owner, bby Sean Kilcarr -Nov 18, 2010: -- The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) said it will not publish scores for the cargo-related behavior analysis and safety improvement category (BASIC) of the new Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 (CSA 2010) safety program, withholding them from public view on the agency’s website until it can craft a more accurate methodology for reporting them... This is good news for the trucking industry on several fronts, according to Rob Abbott, vp-safety policy for the American Trucking Associations (ATA)... The cargo-related BASIC measures a motor carrier’s compliance with load securement procedures, as well as a host of hazardous materials requirements. ATA said it identified the cargo-related BASIC as a component of the FMCSA’s CSA 2010 program that needed additional work and recently met with FMCSA to present evidence demonstrating that the scores in this category do not accurately reflect carrier safety performance... (Photo from advantagewaste: hazardous waste removal vacuum truck)