* North Dakota - Officers on the lookout for tired truckers
Bismarck,ND,USA -KFYR TV, by Michelle San Miguel -14 Nov 2012: -- Northwestern North Dakota is swamped by truck traffic and being a truck driver is not for the feint of heart. You have to put in long hours, and you need to be on the lookout for thousands of other drivers. This fall, more than 700 trucking companies have requested to start working in the state... The roads in oil country are filled with impatient and tired drivers... Truck drivers aren`t allowed to drive after working more than 14 hours. But some who work in the oil industry say that rule isn`t always followed. If they`ve surpassed the 14 hour limit, an officer can put them out of service, which means they have to wait 10 hours before getting back behind the wheel... Between October 2011 to September 2012, officers put 575 drivers out of service. Most of the time it was because they had driven more than the allotted time... Lt. Jody Skogen with the North Dakota Highway Patrol says, it`s hard to prove whether some trucking companies are encouraging drivers to break the 14 hour rule or whether drivers are motivated to work more to earn more... If a company does have drivers surpass the 14 hour rule, it risks being fined and can even lose authorization to operate in North Dakota...
* Oklahoma - Changes to trucking regulations frustrate drivers
Oklahoma City,OKL,USA -KOSU, by Ben Allen -November 14, 2012: -- Mentioning regulation often sends the mind to thoughts of government blocking business. In the case of the trucking industry, that would require actually throwing up roadblocks. Not exactly the case here. But as we’ve outlined all week, government regulations do have an impact, both good and bad, on the industry… The regulations come from the US Department of Transportation and just went into effect earlier this year. The Department says they’re trying to keep drivers safe by giving them enough time to rest... All of this presents a problem, according to trucker Ike Glass. The number of trucking firms escaping regulation is dwindling, as the feds have made an effort to get them following the law... So to Ike, regulations aren’t a terrible thing. But he does wish there was more leeway. One of his drivers blew out a tire on the highway, and continued driving to get to a safe spot and get help... The regulations will always exist, and in many cases, Ike admits to a point, they help keep drivers safe. But he wishes his drivers could have a little more freedom, and weren’t expected to be exactly perfect, all the time...
* Ontario / CAN - CSA a fundamental game changer for US trucking: TCA's Heller tells Driving for Profit
Mississauga,ONT,USA -Truck News -Nov 14, 2012: -- It hasn’t changed a single US law, yet the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program is proving to be a “fundamental game changer” for truck transportation, according to Dave Heller and Chris Burruss from the Truckload Carriers Association, in a Driving for Profit seminar... In a spirited morning address yesterday, Heller pointed to several current flaws within CSA, including inequities in the way the 50 different US states handle data and enforce the legislation... Heller’s remarks echoed industry concerns in recent months that while CSA is a step in the right direction towards reducing commercial vehicle crashes, injuries and fatalities, it requires further work...
* DC / USA - Postal Service Loses Record $15.9 Billion
Washington,D.C.,USA -Transport Topics -15 Nov 2012: -- The U.S. Postal Service ended its 2012 fiscal year with a record loss of $15.9 billion, compared with a loss of $5.1 billion for the same period a year earlier... The loss for the year ended Sept. 30 included expenses of $11.1 billion related to two payments to pre-fund retiree health benefits... The Postal Service, which is required by law to prefund these obligations, was forced to default on these payments... USPS said Thursday eliminating the prefunding requirement, which made up 70% of the loss, and providing more operational flexibility are among legislative changes needed for the postal service to achieve financial stability...Labels: trucking industry USA
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