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Sep 19, 2013

TRUCKING INDUSTRY NEWS * USA & Canada

* Ontario - It’s an increasingly digital world for drivers



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Oakville,ONT,Canada -Fleet Owner/Trucks at Work, by Sean Kilcarr -Sep. 18, 2013: -- An interesting factoid gleaned from this year’s “King of the Road” survey, compiled by Atlas Van Lines, pretty much confirms what most in the trucking business already know: the truck driving job is in many ways increasingly becoming a digital one... By that I mean the paper-laden processes that used to consume a goodly portion of the driver’s day – filling out logbooks, collecting fuel receipts, organizing freight bills and using dog-eared map books to plan out daily routes – are increasingly going by the wayside... Heck, it even seems the venerable citizen’s band (CB) radio, long a staple of the trucker’s way of life, is becoming something of a relic... That’s where the “King of the Road” findings come into play, as Atlas Van Lines found that 66% of its drivers polled in this survey use smart phones, a 6% increase from 2012, with the iPhone outpacing Android phones (58% to 38%) as the model of choice... More broadly, the survey Atlas conducted found that drivers are continuing to use technology to stay more connected while on the road, with across-the-board increases in email and Internet usage as more than three-fourths of the drivers polled check email daily, with 84% accessing the Internet on a daily basis and 56% checking social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter every day...


* Washington - Staying compliant in an uneven CSA world

Tulalip,WASH,USA -Fleet Owner, by Deborah Whistler -Sep. 18, 2013: -- If your rig gets inspected in Texas, you are more likely to get a light or lamp violation. And trucks traveling through Indiana are more likely to get speeding violations. In Oregon, truckers get more hours-of-service (HOS) violations and in Louisiana it’s more likely you will get cited for not buckling up... These are a few of the tales circulating among truckers since the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration began its Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program almost three years ago. The complaints about disparity in CSA enforcement throughout the various states has gone on, but until now, much of this scuttlebutt was purely anecdotal. Now Vigillo’s IQ Lab has created comparative analysis of inspections, violations and crashes for the 48 contiguous United States, drilled down to the county level and normalized by the number of commercial vehicle miles traveled to offer fleets unprecedented detail on CSA violations in various areas of the country...


* California - Safety efforts get mixed reaction from governor

Sacramento,CAL,USA -Land Line, by Keith Goble -17 Sept 2013: -- Two bills in California that would benefit road safety received different responses from the governor... Gov. Jerry Brown signed one bill into law allowing counties throughout the state to double a local fee on cars and trucks for vehicle-theft prevention... California law already authorizes Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Diego counties to charge more to fight vehicle theft... The new law authorizes fees throughout the state to increase from $1 to $2 for personal vehicles and from $2 to $4 for commercial vehicles... Critics said that although vehicle-theft prevention is important to public safety, they don’t want a tax disguised as a fee that’s intended to cover the costs of vehicle registration... A separate bill vetoed by the Governor called for boosting the fine for violating the state’s “move over” rule... State law requires vehicles approaching a stopped emergency vehicle with flashing lights to move into a lane away from the vehicle. If unable to change lanes, the driver is required to reduce speed... Gov. Brown said that he believes the higher fine is more punitive than deterrent...


* Missouri - OOIDA takes issue with 'toll the interstates' study

Grain Valley,MO,USA -Land Line, by David Tanner -17 Sept 2013: -- OOIDA takes serious issue with a Reason Foundation study that suggests all interstate highways should become toll roads in the future. The average toll for a truck, as suggested by the D.C.-based think tank, would be 14 cents a mile... Reason Foundation Director Robert Poole authored the interstate study, which urges Congress to open the door to interstate tolls in the next highway bill... Current law prohibits interstate highways from being tolled except for those that apply for a pilot program that allows up to three facilities to be tolled. Even though the pilot program has been around for 20 years, no state has successfully converted toll-free lanes to tolled lanes... Truckers butting up against an hours-of-service clock and making “just in time” deliveries to shippers and receivers do not always get to choose when they enter an urban or congested area. A higher toll rate for them would amount to an extra tax for doing their jobs... OOIDA Director of Government Affairs Ryan Bowley points out, that a tolled interstate system will also lead to more traffic, including heavy trucks, on state and local roadways as America’s truckers work to make ends meet...

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