Revised Hours of Services rules released. Lawsuits almost certain to follow

Dec 232011
 
 23/12/2011  Posted by PMC at 07:49 on 23/12/2011 No Responses »
Revised Hours of Services rules released. Lawsuits almost certain to follow

The long anticipated release of the revised hours of service regulations were finally released by FMCSA yesterday, and at first read, they are not as bad as anticipated. The 11 hour driving time has been retained, despite heavy pressure from the Teamsters and various bogus safety groups to reduce it to 10 hours or less per day. The 34 hour restart provision is also retained but with added restrictions. Under the new rules, the 34 hour restart provision can be used only once in a 7 day (168 hour) period and must contain two periods of rest between 0100-0500 in ….Read More

A major win for OOIDA and Truckers as US 7th Court of Appeals tosses EOBR mandate

Aug 262011
 
 26/08/2011  Posted by PMC at 22:55 on 26/08/2011 Comments Off
A major win for OOIDA and Truckers as US 7th Court of Appeals tosses EOBR mandate

An opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in response to a lawsuit filed by the Owner Operators Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) against the mandate for Electronic Onboard Recorders (EOBR’s) has effectively vacated the regulation for now based on the argument of “driver harassment” and sent it back to the FMCSA for reconsideration and a possible rewrite. This is a major victory for US truckers who have fought against the implementation of this regulation. However, the fight continues as two Senators, Lamar Alexander and David Prior have a bill pending before Congress which would make this ….Read More

Did you survive ROADCHECK 2011?

Jun 102011
 
 10/06/2011  Posted by PMC at 06:09 on 10/06/2011 1 Response »
Did you survive ROADCHECK 2011?

Roadcheck 2011 is one for the books for the most part. So, did everyone survive? From Canada to Mexico, there was supposed to be scores of Federal, State and local truck inspectors working round the clock in the annual CVSA 72 hour blitz known as “Roadcheck”, or to some of us, “Vacation Time”. I fall into the former category for the 25th year in a row. I learned my lesson early on. Stay the hell off the roads during this revenue enhancement effort. It helps that my birthday always falls in the middle of the “blitz”. Time to go back ….Read More

Union Propaganda machine goes full tilt, but, statistics don’t lie. The opposition does

Jan 102011
 
 10/01/2011  Posted by PMC at 13:19 on 10/01/2011 5 Responses »
Union Propaganda machine goes full tilt, but, statistics don't lie. The opposition does

We’ve had a weekend since Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood released the “Concept Document” enabling the United States to finally uphold their obligations under the NAFTA agreement. Reaction has been overwhelmingly positive to the release of the plan with opposition coming from the usual irrelevant sources, as predicted. Immediately, the opposition chimed in citing job losses, unsafe trucks, and a variety of other baseless assumptions. Baseless because in the 15 years of opposition to allowing Mexican carriers to operate in this country, OOIDA and the TEAMSTERS have offered no concrete evidence to back up their claims. Why? Because none exists. There ….Read More

Senators file bill to require EOBR’s in all interstate trucks

Sep 302010
 
 30/09/2010  Posted by PMC at 00:22 on 30/09/2010 Comments Off
Senators file bill to require EOBR's in all interstate trucks

In what can only be described as political pandering in an election year, and with the backing of a coalition of mega trucking companies, Senator Mark Pryor (D-Ar) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tn) filed a bill known as The Commercial Driver Compliance Improvement Act (S. 3884) The bill, if passed, would require universal installation of electronic on-board recording devices for commercial motor vehicles. It would force the Department of Transportation to issue regulations within 18 months of the bill’s enactment, as well as setting design and performance standards for the devices. The regulations would take effect three years after the bill becomes ….Read More

If DOT Inspectors find booze in your truck, that’s racial profiling?

May 202009
 
 20/05/2009  Posted by PMC at 22:23 on 20/05/2009 Comments Off
If DOT Inspectors find booze in your truck, that's racial profiling?

Not surprising, and the sad thing is, he’ll probably win. OOIDA reportsl OOIDA member sues New Mexico troopers for racial profiling Looking around the port of entry office, Curtis Blackwell noticed something common among the drivers waiting to talk to officers at the Port of Entry in Lordsburg, NM. Like him, most of the other drivers were black. Blackwell had been placed out of service for 24 hours after police found unopened beer and liquor in his truck’s tool box accessible from outside the truck. The officer accused him of being on drugs, and made him go through a series ….Read More

Obama Decides to violate Smoot Hawley and we will pay

Mar 102009
 
 10/03/2009  Posted by PMC at 17:46 on 10/03/2009 3 Responses »
Obama Decides to violate Smoot Hawley and we will pay

I’ve written before about a dangerous provision of the Omnibus appropriations legislation now under consideration in the Senate. The bill violates the U.S. commitment under NAFTA to allow Mexican trucking companies to operate in the U.S., so long as they meet all the standards to which U.S. companies and trucks are held. If Obama signs this measure into law, Mexico will have the right to retaliate against the U.S. – presumably by restricting exports from the U.S. to Mexico. Barack Obama opposed the Mexico truck pilot program when he was in the Senate, but you might expect him to rethink ….Read More

After months of denials, Swift Transportation IS third party tester.

Feb 142009
 
 14/02/2009  Posted by PMC at 00:08 on 14/02/2009 4 Responses »
After months of denials, Swift Transportation IS third party tester.

Almost a year to the day after Swift Transportations Memphis training facility was raided by multiple Federal, State and local law enforcement agencies, the mystery of who the target was has been solved. After almost a year of denying they were involved in the CDL scandal, Swift has been identified as the third party tester. According to a news release by Landlinenow: After months of questions and two Freedom of Information requests the Tennessee Department of Safety finally coughed up the name of a third party CDL tester whose practices have put thousands of CDLs in jeopardy. The state of ….Read More

CHP blames “speeding” truck with bad brakes as cause of I-5 tunnel crash

Feb 082009
 
 08/02/2009  Posted by PMC at 23:37 on 08/02/2009 Comments Off
CHP blames "speeding" truck with bad brakes as cause of I-5 tunnel crash

LOS ANGELES — A truck driver speeding on a rain-slicked interstate in 2007 lost control and crashed into a median barrier, setting off chain-reaction collisions that turned a tunnel into an inferno and left three dead, investigators concluded Friday. A report by the California Highway Patrol provides the most detailed picture yet of what led to a fiery tangle of more than two dozen vehicles on Interstate 5 — the major West Coast route between Mexico and Canada. The collisions closed the busy highway for two days and cost $17 million to clean up and repair. The report concluded that ….Read More

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