EOBR mandate included in US highway bill; needs House approval

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ARLINGTON, Va. — The American Trucking Associations President is applauding the US Senate for passing an historic, long-term highway bill, and is urging the House to quickly follow suit.
 
“The highway bill passed by the Senate is an example of how things should work in Washington,” said ATA CEO Bill Graves. “This bill advances the cause of highway safety and takes a number of important steps toward reforming our transportation system.”
 
According to a statement by Graves, the bill includes $2 billion a year in funding for highway freight-specific projects; reforms and consolidates redundant programs; speeds up project approval; and avoids use of tolls on existing Interstates.

“In particular, we’d like to thank Sen. Bingaman for his work to ensure that public-private partnerships protect the public interest, and that states do not get extra credit for selling off their transportation assets to the highest bidder.  We also appreciate Sen. Hutchison’s efforts to prevent the spread of tolls,” Graves said.
 
Graves also lauded the bill’s attempts to make strides with highway safety. According to Graves, the bill “orders the creation of a clearinghouse for commercial drivers’ drug and alcohol test results, directs the federal government to create a notification system so employers can be told of drivers’ traffic infractions, moves [the industry] in the direction of establishing crashworthiness standards for large trucks, raises the bar new companies and drivers must clear before coming into the trucking industry; and orders the mandating of electronic logs for all commercial drivers,” Graves said.
 
“Now that the Senate has completed its work, I urge the House to pass its own bill and then quickly work with the Senate to send a bipartisan reform bill to the President, one which sets a new course based on the principles of promoting targeted, effective safety programs, and funding the most cost-beneficial transportation projects,” Graves added.

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  • THE END OF MAKING ANY DECENT MONEY IN THE USA BASED UPON GETTING PAID BY THE MILE. HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO MAKE ANY MONEY ( getting paid by the mile ) IF WE CAN’T CHEAT?? Time to quit this ( even more now ) lousy industry that pays diddly-squat to the driver for his time and aggravation. How many times in the last couple years have I been re-directed to the x-ray scanner at Port Huron, Michigan for secondary inspection only to wait 30 to 90 minutes ( unpaid to boot ) for the border patrol goons to arrive? Have fun Canadian Trucking Industry finding any suckers to drive in the USA for less peanuts than you pay us now.

  • Looks like the government and that idiot president of the ATA BillGaves are at this again. The EOBR rule was already shot down by a judge. I guess the only way to fix this is charging 5 dollars a mile plus 50% fuel sur charge to make up for all the time sitting because of the EOBR telling me I cant move. Eventually it will hit all of us who buy anything, It always does. Its a sad time in America ppl. How many more regulations do we need? We are driving a truck, not sending supply to the international space station. IDIOTS.

  • So if the various levels of government are so gung ho about regulating this industry so much then how about mandatory pay by the hour with overtime? Bet that won’t happen anytime soon and even they did they would still find a way pay peanuts. Apologies if this sounds so negative but this industry is doing itself no favours by not paying for waiting time , pre trips, border crossings, inspections… the list goes on. These are the things legislators and industry bigwig should be looking at instead of their own navels. David Bradley…are you listening? Do you care?

  • If you have to cheat on your logs to make any money you are working for the wrong company.I have been on e-logs for almost a year and make as much money now as i did before and I didn’t need to cheat before e-logs either.With e-logs the onus is on operations to plan better.what e-logs will stop is drivers who drive none stop from Thunder bay to Medicine Hat or do Toronto to California in 2 days.