regulations

A CSA Fix is in the Wind

There's hope these days that one of the worst examples of safety legislation ever devised in the U.S. will get a makeover in the next year or so. That may be optimistic, but with a multi-year highway bill now almost through the Washington meat grinder, the Compliance, Safety and Accountability (CSA) program looks bound to change. One of the bill's many aims is one that would require the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to rework its mighty flawed reporting regime. Common sense, that oh-so-rare feature of regulatory reality, may yet prevail. And that would be a boon to the thousands of Canadian carriers, drivers, and owner-operators who use American highways. Like their south-of-the-border counterparts, they might just see an end to what can frequently be wildly unfair safety assessments based on flawed principles and weird math. If you don't want to wait, and I sure wouldn't, there's help at hand. It comes from Vigillo LLC, a data-mining company that offers fleet subscribers a rather sophisticated CSA analytics service. It's designed to aggregate, organize, and deliver complex carrier safety data in a scorecard format. More particularly, the help comes from a new and additional service called JUST, which will properly examine an accident submitted for review by subscriber carriers.

P.E.I. Ending Truck Disinfection Program at Year’s End

CHARLOTTETOWN, PE -- Truckers hauling potatoes on Prince Edward Island will have one less matter to contend with following a recent decision by officials in the province to close the truck disinfection station in the town of Borden-Carleton and remove mobile units by Dec. 31. According to CBC News, under the program, trucks carrying potatoes are sprayed to help prevent bacterial ring rot. However, in an interview with www.todaystrucking.com an official with the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association (APTA) says the program is no longer needed because potatoes aren't at risk of disease anymore, only the seed loads are potentially at risk.

Alberta Recognizes Military Licences for Trucking

EDMONTON, AB -- Alberta's Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation announced his government will now begin to recognize the DND 404 military driver's permit. This allows for the awarding of the civilian equivalent commercial licence to serving and recently retired vets who had a valid DND 404 within the qualifying timeframe. Until now, such military driving qualifications were not transferable into a commercial licence despite the fact that many serving and retired veterans have already acquired the needed driver training, qualifications and experience in the Canadian Armed Forces to drive heavy military vehicles on Canadian roads and abroad.

Alberta Trucking Group Meets Provincial Transportation Officials

ROCKY VIEW, AB - Members of the Alberta Motor Transport Association (AMTA) Executive Committee recently met with province's Infrastructure and Transportation Minister, Brian Mason and Deputy Minister Greg Bass. This was the first formal meeting the group has had with the ministers. For the bus and trucking industry to effectively meet the transportation needs of Albertans, AMTA said it has identified two key priorities for action.

Number 1 Trucking Issue, Survey Says is…

PHILADELPHIA, PA --The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) on Sunday unveiled its list of the top ten critical issues facing the North American trucking industry and the top one was a familar one. For the third year in a row, this research arm of the American Trucking Associations (ATA) found U.S. hours-of-service (HOS) rules as the top industry concern. For the past two years, major HOS impacts on supply chains were the impetus behind the first place ranking, according to ATRI. In this year's survey, carriers and drivers voiced their concern over the uncertain future of the current suspension of the rules. The complete results of the annual survey of over 4,000 industry stakeholders were released at the ATA's Management Conference and Exhibition in Philadelphia, PA, the nation's largest gathering of motor carrier executives.

Operation Safe Driver Running Now Through Saturday

GREENBELT, MD --- A period of heightened truck safety enforcement and education is going on now through Oct 24. The annual Operation Safe Driver is going on throughout North America as law enforcement is cracking down on both commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers and car drivers in this event organized by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) in conjunction with provincial, state, and local law enforcement, along with trucking industry partners. During Operation Safe Driver Week, activities will be held across Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, with the goal of increasing commercial vehicle and non-commercial vehicle traffic enforcement, safety belt enforcement, driver roadside inspections and driver regulatory compliance.

U.S. Trucking Regulators Defend Controversial Safety System

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Federal trucking regulators in the U.S. are defending a key safety system used to identify trucking companies that have a high risk of being in crashes. A new report from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has to do with the agency's Safety Measurement System (SMS), rolled out four years ago as part of the Comprehensive Safety Analysis (CSA) program, designed to improve trucking industry safety. According to the agency, the report found that SMS effectively identifies trucking companies involved in 90 percent of the more than 100,000 crashes that occur each year in the U.S., and those that are identified as high-risk carriers continue to have crash rates that are twice the national average. SMS, as well as, CSA, have come under fire by some groups in trucking as well as by certain U.S. lawmakers, claiming the measures often make safe trucking operaitons look bad.

Carrier Transicold Moves Toward ‘Natural’ Cooling Technology

ATHENS, GA - The trailer refrigeration system manufacturer Carrier Transicold is looking ahead toward natural refrigerant technology. The move it said surpasses current alternatives in terms of reducing environmental impact while voluntarily aligning with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) latest and more stringent refrigerant change listing for other commercial, non-transport refrigeration systems.