The Owner Operators Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) announced Friday the addition of Ben Siegrist as the Assistant Director of Legislative Affairs in the Washington, DC, office, joining Laura O’Neil as some of the highest paid and most ineffectual employees in the OOIDA hierarchy. Siegrist worked on Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, working with both the presidential
A broadcast career spanning more than 50 years came to an end today with the death of Bruce Dale Sommers known to fans as “The Trucking Bozo”. Sommers’ radio career began in 1959 at Cincinnati’s WAEF-FM where he aired music of the big bands nightly from 7 till Midnight. He then jumped over to Country
New Mexico Motor Transportation Officer Robert Potter,suffered a heart attack while responding to a commercial vehicle accident Wednesday, later passed away at a local area hospital. Potter, 41, suffered a heart attack after he responded to an accident involving two semi-truck trailers on Interstate 10 at the Vado exit, that left watermelons and chile peppers
Victor Galindo Moreno, Neuvo Laredo Director of Federal Auto Transport Mexico (SCT), said in an interview Tuesday that drivers to haul cross border freight (conductores transfronterizos or “transfer drivers) as well as truckers to haul freight throughout Mexico are in high demand by Mexican carriers at this time. And it is not only a demand
by Mark Soloman - DC Velocity UPS Inc. said today it has launched an integrated ground shipping and brokerage service for heavy freight shipments between the United States and Mexico that offers faster door-to-door transit times than currently provided by less-than-truckload (LTL) operations. The bi-directional service, called “UPS CrossBorder Connect,” will utilize the trucking network
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
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
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
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,
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
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
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
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.
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
Joan Claybrook, longtime safety and consumer advocate, and pain in the ass for the US trucking industry, announced last week she is stepping down as president of special interest group, Public Citizen, on Jan. 31, 2009. In her 27-year tenure, Claybrook said in a statement, among other things, the expansion of dangerous triple-trailer trucks was
The Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration issued a final rule that changes the way states must verify the medical certification for truckers either renewing or applying for a CDL. Phased in compliance deadlines for states, motor carriers and truckers start kicking in on Jan. 30, 2012. Once everything is up and running on the state
Jimmy Hoffa must be needing a double helping of prunes this morning as word is emerging that Yellow Roadway Corporation is seeking economic relief from the National Master Freight Agreement. In a mailer sent out yesterday to rank and file members, The Teamsters said; YRC Worldwide Inc. management has been seeking economic relief in the
Under the usual mantra of maximum pay for minimal work, Teamster’s Union President Jimmy boy Hoffa came out swinging today against the Hour of Service rules published by FMCSA. Hoffa said the Bush administration is undermining highway safety with its “last-minute regulation” that lets truckers drive longer hours. Where’s Hoffa been the past 5
It was the kind of employer that every metropolitan government in the country covets: a respected, long-time manufacturer that employed hundreds of local workers and paid them a living wage, with benefits. But Freightliner’s headquarters are in Germany and its primary markets are on the American East Coast and, as a consequence, Portland’s wishes didn’t
In this era of escalating fuel prices, unheard of numbers of truck repossession and a stagnant freight base, some people just don’t get it. From the AP and The Trucker comes the headline story of Teamsters picket Washington-based trucking company AUBURN, Wash. — Picketers are carrying Teamsters strike signs outside Oak Harbor Freight operations in
45-year-old Chi Kong Chow is being held in the Hamilton County Jail after causing a crash on Fort Washington Way that injured two sisters and killed another on Wednesday night. Police say Chow may have been speeding when he lost control of his truck and it tipped over onto the SUV, containing 52-year-old Rhonda Gandy,
We all know the controversial Mexican Cross Border Program was extended for two more years on August 8, under Federal guidelines concerning Pilot Programs, and as we reported, Jimmy Hoffa immediately showed his no class ignorance by continuing his boring mantra about those unsafe, dangerous and illegal Mexican trucks, a notion we have continually disproved
