.: 7/13/08 - 7/20/08

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Senate Report Slams FMCSA

By Justin Carretta, online news editorJul 18, 2008 12:56 PM

The Senate Appropriations Committee’s Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill for 2009 contains a lengthy report that severely criticizes the performance of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

“The agency is responsible for developing, implementing and enforcing regulations designed to ensure that only qualified drivers and safe vehicles are operating on the Nation’s highways,” the report stated. “Unfortunately, FMCSA has shown a pattern of undermining its safety mission by proposing weak regulations and failing to provide adequate oversight and enforcement of existing regulations. FMCSA’s performance has been criticized not only by the Committee, but by the DOT Inspector General [IG], the Government Accountability Office [GAO], the National Transportation Safety Board [NTSB], as well as the Courts.”
The Committee recommended $541,000,000 in funding for FMCSA, which was equal to the president’s budget request, and approximately $11.3 million more than the fiscal year 2008 enacted level.
The report accuses FMCSA of not moving quickly enough to adopt the Committee’s past recommendations, stating “the agency’s weak regulatory and enforcement efforts undermine its ability to promote safety.”
“The rules that FMCSA has proposed fail to achieve maximum safety benefits, and in some instances may undermine safety,” the report stated. “Appropriate hours-of-service standards are important to addressing a major factor identified in many crashes--fatigue. In addition, clear and consistent regulations are critical to the industry, so that they can manage operations in a compliant way; FMCSA has not provided that consistency.”
According to the report, GAO visited 24 drug test collection sites, finding 22 not to be in full compliance with protocols covering sample collection, and drivers testing positive for drugs with one carrier have often moved to another without the positive test being identified.
In addition, a 2001 NTSB recommendation to FMCSA that it take action to prevent medically unqualified drivers from operating commercial vehicles has not been satisfied, and it remains classified as “open-unacceptable” by NTSB.
The Committee also gave poor marks to FMCSA on its ability to conduct compliance reviews of potentially high-risk carriers and for its enforcement of DOT’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
“The Committee is again voicing is immense frustration at the FMCSA’s unwillingness to enforce the Department of Transportation’s own Americans with Disabilities Act regulations for over-the-road curbside operators,” the report continued. “FMCSA is the sole agency responsible for granting or revoking operating authority to curbside operators. Yet FMCSA continues to insist that it lacks the authority to revoke or deny operating authority based on an operator’s inability or unwillingness to meet DOT’s ADA regulations.”
The Committee’s report on the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) was not as negative as its FMCSA report, although it criticized FHA for its handling of the Highway Trust Fund. The Committee recommended a total budget of $41,199,970,178 for FHA, $1,801,241,952 more than the budget request and $983,918,819 more than the fiscal year 2008 enacted level.
“The Committee has been disappointed by the tepid leadership provided by the administration in finding a solution for the Highway Trust Fund,” the report stated. “After more than a year of raising the alarm about the trust fund without bringing forth any concrete solutions, the Department requested special authority to bolster the balances of the highway account by transferring balances from the transit account. The Department offered assurances that those balances would be repaid to the transit account, but provided no detail on how or when it would make this repayment. In fact, according to analysis provided by the Congressional Budget Office, the budget request submitted by the administration would never allow balances to accumulate in the highway account so that the transit account could be repaid.”
“Because the Committee is unwilling to put the Federal highway program at risk, the bill includes a provision that would transfer $8,017,355,427 in balances to the Highway Trust Fund,” the report continued. “This transfer corresponds to the amount of balances that were taken out of the Highway Trust Fund after fiscal year 1998, a time when the pervading wisdom was that the Highway Trust Fund had ‘too many’ balances and would not be able to spend them all.”
The Committee also provided an additional $1,000,000,000 for bridge replacement and repair, following last year’s collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

In August of 2007, I became a member of Women In Trucking. This is a rapidly growing organization whose mission statement is as follows:

"Women In Trucking was established to encourage the employment of women in the trucking industry, promote their accomplishments and minimize obstacles faced by women in trucking. The organization is an active group that finds opportunities to promote the accomplishments of women in the industry."

Below is a list of Corporate Sponsors:

Trucking & Logistic Companies:

Arrow Trucking Co. • Baylor Trucking• Bolt Express • Celadon Trucking Services, Inc. • Cobalt Transport • Con-way, Inc.• Covered Logistics & Transportation, LLC • CRST Van Expedited • Dart Transit Company
• Diversified Transfer & Storage • Fairway Transit, Inc. • Fikes Truck Line
• Frasier Transport, Inc. • Freight Systems, Inc. • Frito Lay • Gilco Trucking Co., Inc.• Greatwide Logistics Services • HA Logistics, Inc., Southeastern Region • Hopefield Trucking • JackJones Trucking, Inc. • Kee Management Solutions, Inc. • Knight Transportation Services, Inc. • Lester R.Summers, Inc. • Megatrux, Inc. • Midwest Specialized Transportation, Inc.• National Truck League • Northstar Foodservice • O&S Trucking, Inc. • Penske Logistics• Pepsi Bottling Group • Pitt Ohio Express • Pottle’s Transportation • Roadway • Ruan Transportation• SCG The Select Carrier Group LP • Schneider National, Inc. • Scott Logistics Corp.• Service First Distribution • Smith Transport • Sunbury Transport • The Rosedale Group • TheTransVantage Group • TST Truckload Express • U.S. Xpress, Inc. • Universe Truck Lines • VantageLogistics, Inc. • Wal-Mart Transportation • WEL Companies, Inc. • Your Advantage Staffing

Truck Driving Schools:

Adanac Truck Driver Training Ltd. • All-State Career School• American Institute of Technology, Inc. • Arkansas State University - Newport
• Central Tech Transportation & Safety Education • Dependable Source Corp. of MS• International Trucking School, Inc. • John Wood Community College • KRTSTransportation Specialists Inc. • National Tractor Trailer School, Inc.
• Northern Academy of Transportation Training • Ontario Truck Training Academy• Smith & Solomon Training Solutions • Southern State Community College TruckDriving Academy • United Truck Driving School • Western Pacific Truck School

Industry Related Companies:
• American Trucking Associations, Inc. • Avalon Risk Management, Inc.
• C.I.S./Progressive Insurance • Canadian Trucking Human Resources Council
• Daimler Trucks North America • DOTAuthority.com, Inc. • Driver’s First Choice• Great West Casualty Company • HNI Risk Services, Inc. • International Trucks• Internet Truckstop • iPee • J.J. Keller & Associates, Inc. • Lancer Insurance Company• Layover.com • Marcello & Kivisto, LLC • Mobile Awareness, LLC • NAL Insurance Inc.• NAPFTDS • Newport Communications • Ohio Trucking Association • Over The Road-Canada Patriot Lift Company LLC • Precision Pulmonary Diagnostics • Prelipp & Mechler • RAIR Technologies
• Randall-Reilly Publishing Co., LLC • Rawle & Henderson, LLC • Roadranger - Eaton & Dana •Roadside Medical Clinics • Roady’s Truck Stops • S&E Productions, LLC • SAF-Holland, Inc. • Sentry Insurance • Society of Recruiting and Retention Professionals • Specialty Risk, Inc.• Star Scientific, Inc. • Sterling Western Star Trucks Alberta Ltd. • The Penray Companies, Inc.• The WHITING Group of Canada • TransCore, Inc. • TransportFitness.com • TripPak Services
• Truck Training Schools Association of Ontario • TruckDriver.com • TruckMatch.com • TrueNorth Companies LLC • Turbo 3000D • USI Insurance Services •Wyoming Trucking Association, Inc.• XM Satellite Radio

To become a member of WIT or to become a corporate sponsor, visit the link below and click on JOIN WIT.

http://www.womenintrucking.org/index.cfm