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Bits & Pieces

Volume 13, Edition 10

I attended the National Cargo Theft Summit in Washington D.C. It was good to see a number of insurers attending the summit as the number of cargo thefts continue to grow. Ultimately it is the insurers who pay for these losses.

We’ve almost completed picking out the finalist entries for our contest. Check back on our website over the next week or two for a chance to vote on the name for our new Carrier Research and Analysis system.

This month we also report:

LOG BOOKS – The ATA won a victory this month against the FMCSA.   A Federal Appeals court has advised the FMCSA that they have until Dec. 30 to advise what documents trucking fleets need to retain to verify their drivers’ hours-of-service logbooks.  The rule was mandated by a 1994 statute and the FMCSA had never issued its required rulemaking.

FREIGHT FORWARDER PRICE FIXING – Six international freight forwarders admitted that they were guilty in fixing prices from 2002 through 2007. They have agreed to pay $50.3 million in fines. The Department of Justice has indicated that this is an ongoing investigation into price fixing in the freight forwarding industry. The six forwarders are EGL Inc., Houston; Kuhne & Nagel International, Schindellegi, Switzerland; Geologistics International Management, Hamilton, Bermuda; Panalpina World Transport, Basel, Switzerland; Schenker AG, Essen, Germany; and BAX Global, Toledo, Ohio.

EOBR – The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has filed a petition for review of the recently implemented on-board recorder rule.  The organization contends that the rule, which targets motor carriers who are found to be in violation of log and service requirements, is invalid and should be redrafted. The government has until early November to respond to the petition.  At the end of September, the Commercial Drive Compliance Act was introduced in the senate which would require EOBR’s on all trucks.

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Volume 13, Edition 9

With a few glitches, which is to be expected, the new search engine is up and running. Thank you for all of the positive feedback.  We have had so many calls for training so that everyone in a company is aware of the power now at your fingertips. We Love It!

We are also still getting submissions on our request to help us out with finding an acronym for the site. We are going to leave it open again for another month and then give you all of the choices to vote on.

This month we report the following interesting Bits and Pieces:

INCREASED BRAKE VIOLATIONS –
For those of you who subscribe to our premium service and receive reports on your carrier’s violations, do not be surprised if you see an upturn in brake violations this month.  The CVSA held a brake safety week this month, from Sept. 12 through Sept. 18. The program is designed to increase awareness of brakes and brake issues by educating drivers, mechanics and others. With more inspectors focusing on the brakes we anticipate greater number of violations.

DISTRACTED DRIVING RULES –
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood held the 2010 national Distracted Driving Summit this month. He introduced the new anti-distracted driving regulations for drivers transporting hazardous materials, commercial truck and bus drivers, and rail operators. The new rulemaking prohibits commercial truck drivers from texting while transporting hazardous materials. The final rules banning commercial bus and truck drivers from texting were also issued. In 2009, nearly 5,500 people died and half a million were injured in crashes involving a distracted driver. A copy of the new rules can be viewed here.

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