I am currently looking to get back into DOT Compliance and Safety. I have a wide range of skills and training and looking to help anyone from single owner operators to large transportation service providers whether it be a full or part-time basis.
One particular service that I provide is mileage and fuel tax recording and filing. I offer quarterly rates per truck. I can also provide services on an as-needed basis such as vehicle registration, licensing, UCR filing, drug testing, driver log auditing and mock DOT safety audits and assistance with record keeping.
I also have experience in dispatch and freight brokering.
If you know anyone that may be interested in my services, please feel free to give them my email address. morgan.cathy@centurytel.net
I live in Wisconsin but travel frequently throughout the state and cover a wide area in Minnesota including the Twin Cities.
I would love to speak with anyone interested about how I can help you as an individual or as a company! I look forward to hearing from you!
Cathy
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Pilot Opens New Travel Center
Pilot recently opened a new travel center in Brooklyn, Iowa, off Interstate 80 at exit 201.The 10,350-square-foot facility features five fuel islands and seven diesel islands as well as a restaurant and other convenience items.The travel center includes a Subway restaurant; an ATM; fax and copy services; lottery and lotto games; laundry services; a deli; and an expanded grill area with Oscar Mayer hot dogs. In addition to diesel fuel, professional drivers will have access to such services as a CAT scale and five showers. More info: www.pilottravelcenters.com
Pennsylvania Aggressive Driver Crackdown
The Pennsylvania State Police recently rolled out their Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks (TACT) campaign, a four-week enforcement effort to reduce aggressive driving along a portion of Interstate 81 in Dauphin and Cumberland counties.Nearly 1,500 citations and 730 written warnings were issued as part of TACT, which also included a public awareness and education component, according to State Police Commissioner Frank E. Pawlowski."The purpose of the TACT campaign was to educate car and truck drivers about the dangers of driving aggressively," Pawlowski said. "The citations and warnings make it clear to all drivers that state police are serious about traffic safety."The enforcement portion of the campaign was conducted along a 33-mile stretch of I-81, from the Newville exit to the I-83 split, during October and November, Pawlowski said.During TACT, state police used marked and unmarked patrol vehicles and fixed-wing aircraft as part of the enforcement effort. In addition, state police motor carrier enforcement teams conducted 99 commercial vehicle inspections to look for faulty equipment, overweight vehicles and fatigued drivers. The teams placed 16 drivers and nine vehicles out of service because of violations.TACT was sponsored by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, an organization whose membership includes law enforcement officials, truck and bus companies, industry associations and insurance companies in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Conway Truckload Employees Raise Nearly $62,000 in Holiday Giving Campaign
Con-way Truckload employees raised $61,780 in the company's annual Truckloads of Treasures campaign to support deserving area children and senior citizens during the holidays. Employees purchased gifts including toys, blankets, clothing and food for 200 children and 100 senior citizens in the Joplin area.Nearly 200 employees, along with their friends and families, met at Joplin's Target store Dec. 4 for a Truckloads of Treasures shopping event to buy gifts for this year's recipients. Of the remaining funds, $7,000 will be donated to The Salvation Army for food baskets. Each of the following charitable agencies will receive a donation of $4,540: Agency on Aging, Camp Quality, Joplin Family Y, Boys and Girls Club, Ronald McDonald House, Children's Miracle Network and The Bridge."We thank Con-way Truckload employees for their great generosity and hard work with this program," said Captain Mary Poff, pastor for the Joplin Salvation Army. "The food baskets they are providing our local community will help feed the hungry and provide healthy holiday meals at a time when people are finding it harder and harder to feed their families."Truckloads of Treasures funds are raised through an employee raffle of prizes donated by executive management. This year's items included a day off with pay plus $250 in cash; $400 cash; one week off with pay; two weeks off with pay; and $200 gift cards to local and national businesses. Truckloads of Treasures team members sell tickets at different dollar amounts depending on the raffle prize. For every $20 in tickets purchased, employees received one ticket for a drawing to win a $400 gas gift card.
Oregon Chain Reminder
The Oregon Department of Transportation reminds drivers to be prepared for snowy and icy conditions as they travel through Oregon this week.Severe driving conditions are affecting state highways throughout Oregon. ODOT reminds drivers to use chains or traction devices when necessary and to drive slowly and carefully. State officials report several crashes have occurred because drivers have not been using chains and were driving too fast for conditions.Chains are required in Oregon whenever winter conditions exist and "Snow Zone" signs are posted. ODOT's travel information Web site, www.TripCheck.com, has up-to-date information on road conditions, chain requirements and diagrams on where to place chains on various vehicle combinations.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Merry Christmas Truckers from Volvo
Volvo Trucks salutes drivers with a holiday dinner on Dec. 24
Plenty of drivers end up on the road over the holidays, rather than being with their families.
Volvo Trucks North America is teaming up with Michelin and Flying J to salute these drivers, showing appreciation by providing truckers a free holiday dinner on Christmas Eve.
All a driver needs to do is to stop at any of 163 participating Flying J travel plazas in the U.S. and Canada between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Dec. 24. They will receive a free turkey buffet dinner and beverage simply by showing their commercial driver’s license.
“Truck drivers deserve our thanks,” said Scott Kress, Volvo Trucks senior vice president of sales and marketing. “They really are unsung heroes, and they are also our customers. So in this holiday season, with economic hardship affecting so many, Volvo Trucks wants to recognize truckers working on Christmas Eve. With our partners, Michelin and Flying J, we are giving away a hot turkey dinner to any driver on the job at a time when most of us are lucky enough to be with our families.”
A list of participating locations can be found at www.volvotruckscommunity.com.
Volvo Trucks North America is a member of the Volvo Group and is a sponsor of OOIDA’s Safe Driving Program.
Plenty of drivers end up on the road over the holidays, rather than being with their families.
Volvo Trucks North America is teaming up with Michelin and Flying J to salute these drivers, showing appreciation by providing truckers a free holiday dinner on Christmas Eve.
All a driver needs to do is to stop at any of 163 participating Flying J travel plazas in the U.S. and Canada between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Dec. 24. They will receive a free turkey buffet dinner and beverage simply by showing their commercial driver’s license.
“Truck drivers deserve our thanks,” said Scott Kress, Volvo Trucks senior vice president of sales and marketing. “They really are unsung heroes, and they are also our customers. So in this holiday season, with economic hardship affecting so many, Volvo Trucks wants to recognize truckers working on Christmas Eve. With our partners, Michelin and Flying J, we are giving away a hot turkey dinner to any driver on the job at a time when most of us are lucky enough to be with our families.”
A list of participating locations can be found at www.volvotruckscommunity.com.
Volvo Trucks North America is a member of the Volvo Group and is a sponsor of OOIDA’s Safe Driving Program.
Trucker Featured On NBC's Today Show Dies in Crash
A woman featured on NBC’s “Today Show” – in a segment about the nation’s most dangerous jobs – was killed Wednesday, Dec. 10, when her tractor-trailer crashed on Interstate 275 in Knoxville, TN.
Police say they don’t know why Georgia trucker Daren Baird’s truck ran off the highway and smashed through a concrete barrier before going down an embankment. But the Knoxville News Sentinel quotes other drivers as saying the weather was bad in the area, and some drivers were weaving in and out of traffic or passing on the shoulder. Baird was driving a mail truck for McCormick Trucking. At the time of crash, she was pulling an empty trailer.
The 61-year-old Baird gave “Today Show” host Meredith Vieira a ride in her truck this past May. In her interview, Baird told Vieira she drove safely, but could be killed in a wreck.
Vieira paid a tribute to Baird Thursday morning on the show.
“She was a great trucker and a great lady,” Vieira said. “And she said the one thing that sort of got her angry as a truck driver was when there were truck accidents. People said, ‘Well, a truck jackknifed,’ but you never knew the name of the truck driver.
“Well, this one had a name. They all do.”
Baird was a member of Women in Trucking.
She wrote a popular column for the trucking online publication layover.com.
Police say they don’t know why Georgia trucker Daren Baird’s truck ran off the highway and smashed through a concrete barrier before going down an embankment. But the Knoxville News Sentinel quotes other drivers as saying the weather was bad in the area, and some drivers were weaving in and out of traffic or passing on the shoulder. Baird was driving a mail truck for McCormick Trucking. At the time of crash, she was pulling an empty trailer.
The 61-year-old Baird gave “Today Show” host Meredith Vieira a ride in her truck this past May. In her interview, Baird told Vieira she drove safely, but could be killed in a wreck.
Vieira paid a tribute to Baird Thursday morning on the show.
“She was a great trucker and a great lady,” Vieira said. “And she said the one thing that sort of got her angry as a truck driver was when there were truck accidents. People said, ‘Well, a truck jackknifed,’ but you never knew the name of the truck driver.
“Well, this one had a name. They all do.”
Baird was a member of Women in Trucking.
She wrote a popular column for the trucking online publication layover.com.
HOS: The Rules Remain the Same
Nov 19, 2008 2:54 PM, By Justin Carretta, online news editor
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has published a final rule in the Federal Register on hours-of-service regulations that will maintain the 11th hour of driving and 34-hour restart provisions already in place. The final rule will be effective January 19, 2009.
The final rule will go into effect the day before the Obama administration comes into office. It is unknown whether the new President will want to keep hours of service as they are or re-address the regulations early on in his term.
FMCSA said that it has adequately addressed the concerns about the regulations raised since the interim final rule was published on December 17, 2007 and subsequently struck down by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The agency stated that further research has indicated that they do not need to make any changes to the interim rule.
"This rule was designed to continue the downward trend in truck fatalities and maintain motor carrier operational efficiencies," said FMCSA Administrator John Hill. "Our science is meticulous and our analysis exhaustive so that we can deliver definitive results: more alert and efficient drivers, safer roads, and even fewer fatalities."
According to Hill, the number of large truck fatalities declined for the third straight year in 2007 with 4,808 fatalities, down 9% from 2005. He added that there was only one fatigue-related fatality that occurred during a truck driver’s eleventh hour of driving between 2004 and 2006.
Hill also spoke of the financial implications of the hours-of-service regulations, noting that FCMSA’s data projects that eliminating the eleventh driving hour would result in a $2.4 billion business loss with only $214 million in safety benefits.
According to FMCSA, drivers and carriers are using the eleventh driving hour more often than they did in 2005, but 69% of drivers still drove less than 10 hours during a typical daily shift. FMCSA also quoted an American Trucking Assns. (ATA) study last year that found just 46% of drivers reported using the eleventh driving hour on only 13% of their daily trips.
FMCSA noted that most of the more than 90 carriers and carrier associations that responded during the public comment period reported reductions in crashes and in injuries, quoting Schneider National as noting they found “significant improvements in safety under the current HOS regulations. Safety is a multi-variant challenge, and while we cannot attribute all of the improvement to the HOS rules, it is reasonable to conclude that the current HOS regulations have not had a negative impact on safety (as some have suggested).”
“The American Trucking Assns. welcomes the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s reaffirmation of the Hours of Service rules that have been in place since January 2004,” ATA said. “The HOS rules are safety rules and the trucking industry’s safety performance facts are ones that the public, the media and the Congress will never hear from some so-called safety advocacy groups. Some of these special interest groups continue to mislead the public, the media and Congress by mischaracterizing court rulings and much of the scientific research, and denying that safety in the industry has improved.”
However, there is still strong opposition to the hours-of-service regulation from safety advocate groups and some driver associations. “FMCSA’s rule, which ignores mountains of safety research, authorizes the exact same 11 hours of driving and 34-hour restart provisions of rules past – rules that the court deemed were inadequate,” said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. “This rule will continue to force truck drivers to continue enduring sweatshop-like working conditions. This puts the health and safety of drivers at risk, along with the public who must share the road with tired truckers.
“The Obama administration and the next Congress should add the hours-of-service rule to its list of wrong-headed Bush administration policies that should be rescinded,” Claybrook added. “The courts, the truckers’ unions and consumer and safety advocates have pushed for a sensible rule to no avail. For real change, it’s time to put the safety of truckers and the motoring public first.”
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has published a final rule in the Federal Register on hours-of-service regulations that will maintain the 11th hour of driving and 34-hour restart provisions already in place. The final rule will be effective January 19, 2009.
The final rule will go into effect the day before the Obama administration comes into office. It is unknown whether the new President will want to keep hours of service as they are or re-address the regulations early on in his term.
FMCSA said that it has adequately addressed the concerns about the regulations raised since the interim final rule was published on December 17, 2007 and subsequently struck down by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The agency stated that further research has indicated that they do not need to make any changes to the interim rule.
"This rule was designed to continue the downward trend in truck fatalities and maintain motor carrier operational efficiencies," said FMCSA Administrator John Hill. "Our science is meticulous and our analysis exhaustive so that we can deliver definitive results: more alert and efficient drivers, safer roads, and even fewer fatalities."
According to Hill, the number of large truck fatalities declined for the third straight year in 2007 with 4,808 fatalities, down 9% from 2005. He added that there was only one fatigue-related fatality that occurred during a truck driver’s eleventh hour of driving between 2004 and 2006.
Hill also spoke of the financial implications of the hours-of-service regulations, noting that FCMSA’s data projects that eliminating the eleventh driving hour would result in a $2.4 billion business loss with only $214 million in safety benefits.
According to FMCSA, drivers and carriers are using the eleventh driving hour more often than they did in 2005, but 69% of drivers still drove less than 10 hours during a typical daily shift. FMCSA also quoted an American Trucking Assns. (ATA) study last year that found just 46% of drivers reported using the eleventh driving hour on only 13% of their daily trips.
FMCSA noted that most of the more than 90 carriers and carrier associations that responded during the public comment period reported reductions in crashes and in injuries, quoting Schneider National as noting they found “significant improvements in safety under the current HOS regulations. Safety is a multi-variant challenge, and while we cannot attribute all of the improvement to the HOS rules, it is reasonable to conclude that the current HOS regulations have not had a negative impact on safety (as some have suggested).”
“The American Trucking Assns. welcomes the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s reaffirmation of the Hours of Service rules that have been in place since January 2004,” ATA said. “The HOS rules are safety rules and the trucking industry’s safety performance facts are ones that the public, the media and the Congress will never hear from some so-called safety advocacy groups. Some of these special interest groups continue to mislead the public, the media and Congress by mischaracterizing court rulings and much of the scientific research, and denying that safety in the industry has improved.”
However, there is still strong opposition to the hours-of-service regulation from safety advocate groups and some driver associations. “FMCSA’s rule, which ignores mountains of safety research, authorizes the exact same 11 hours of driving and 34-hour restart provisions of rules past – rules that the court deemed were inadequate,” said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. “This rule will continue to force truck drivers to continue enduring sweatshop-like working conditions. This puts the health and safety of drivers at risk, along with the public who must share the road with tired truckers.
“The Obama administration and the next Congress should add the hours-of-service rule to its list of wrong-headed Bush administration policies that should be rescinded,” Claybrook added. “The courts, the truckers’ unions and consumer and safety advocates have pushed for a sensible rule to no avail. For real change, it’s time to put the safety of truckers and the motoring public first.”
Truck Weight Increase Gaining Ground
Dec 11, 2008 11:47 AM, By Sean Kilcarr, senior editor
Video: Truck Weight Reform Part 1
Video: Truck Weight Reform Part 2
Congress seems to be warming up to proposals for increasing truck weight limits nationwide, though by how much remains to be seen. Rep. Michael Michaud (D-ME), for one, believes the broad, multi-industry effort seeking to raise commercial truck weight limits from 80,000 lbs to 97,000 lbs is not falling on deaf ears.
“The truck weight issue is getting a hearing because Congress is very much aware that it’s not only a jobs issue, it also saves fuel, reduces the impact on infrastructure, and most importantly saves lives,” he said at a news conference in Washington D.C. yesterday hosted by the Agricultural Transportation Efficiency Coalition (AGTEC).
“In my state, the main roads from Canada allow higher weights, so trucks coming from there cannot use the highways and must be diverted to secondary roads,” Michaud added. “That’s a safety issue. It’s also an economic competiveness issue when the countries we trade with can load their trucks to 100,000 lbs, while we are limited to 80,000 lbs. That’s why I’m encouraged by the willingness of Congress to be open about this issue.”
Mike Branch, AGTEC’s chairman, said his group –made up of 61 associations and businesses – is working with other organizations to obtain this reform through the 2009 Highway Reauthorization Bill. “The consolidation of cargo will greatly conserve our fossil fuels, as well as not only reducing the number of trucks on the road, but it will allow truckers to use shorter, more practical routes,” he said. “Because it will conserve fuel, it will also reduce total emissions, including carbon … so this reform will improve the environment for all of us.”
Branch also stressed that AGTEC would not be advocating this reform if it would not enhance safety. “An increase in load limits on federal highways will draw heavy traffic away from state and county roads and away from intersections in population centers where the chance of a collision with a car or pedestrian is much greater,” he said.
“Also, consolidating loads means fewer total trucks on all of the roads and highways,” Branch said. “Adding fully equipped axles to trucks and corresponding to the extra weight will hold down braking distances and keep the ground pressure on federal highways the same.”
John Runyan, senior manager of federal government relations for International Paper and co-chair of the Coalitions for Transportation Productivity, added that higher truck weights and improved highway safety are not mutually exclusive goals.
“When Great Britain implemented a similar proposal in 2001, their tons of goods shipped moved steadily up while their truck-related accident rate moved steadily down,” he said. Both truck-involved fatal accidents and accident rates declined substantially in 2002 after weight limits increased from 41 tons (90,000 lbs) to 44 tons (97,000 lbs), according to Runyan “This is exactly the outcome we seek in the U.S.”The payoff for truckers and shippers, of course, is higher productivity with lower costs, noted Richard Lewis, president of the Forest Resources Association. He said one of its major pulp and paper manufacturers researched and calculated the benefits of increasing truck GVW from 80,000 to 97,000 lbs for inbound trucking only to 18 of its U.S. mills.
Extrapolating from that study, Lewis said inbound pulpwood transport costs alone, a tiny fraction of the overall trucking market, would drop significantly from this weight limit increase:
Total decline in diesel use: 13.9 million gallons per year
Reduction in total U.S. truckloads: 1.3 million per year
Reduction in total annual miles driven: 69.5 million
Reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions: 242.3 million lbs per year
Potential savings to U.S. pulpwood supply chain per year: $168.5 million
“This is a solution that improves productivity without massive infrastructure investments, and trucking is willing to pay for it,” noted Jake Jacoby, executive director at Americans for Safe and Efficient Transportation (ASET). “We’re reducing fuel consumption, reducing emissions, and reducing the impact on infrastructure by adding a sixth braking axle to the vehicle, without putting safety at risk. Paying higher fees to gain higher weight limits also makes this a net income benefit to the federal government. It’s a win-win for everyone.”
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