* DC - FMCSA reform, and freight in road Bill
-- The highway bill a House panel is scheduled to consider Oct. 22 will include provisions intended to boost freight connectivity and enhance accountability at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Rep. Bill Shuster, the Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in an exclusive interview with Transport Topics... Several told TT the highway bill would look to streamline the permitting process and enhance funding opportunities for states and municipalities seeking to advance infrastructure projects. The bill will take aim at FMCSA’s regulatory and enforcement programs, which Shuster said do not keep up with advances in business practices and technological innovations... Since current federal highway funding authority expires Oct. 29, Shuster and other transportation leaders are expected to advance a short-term funding fix this month. Since 2009, Congress has approved 34 such funding extensions...
Washington, DC, USA - Transport Topics - Oct. 19, 2015
** DC - The two major trucking associations are divided on to 33-foot trailers
-- Three senators — two Democrats and one Republican — say they will hold a news conference in front of the Capitol Wednesday to discuss their bipartisan opposition to a federal mandate that would allow large trucks to pull double 33-foot trailers on the nation’s highways... The American Trucking Associations favors 33-foot trailers; theTruckload Carriers Association opposes them. A tractor-trailer with two 33-foot trailers measures approximately 91 feet in total length, and this equipment will be available for viewing, the senators said. Critics of the proposed longer trailers point to the length as a safety issue... Earlier this year, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved an amendment to the transportation funding bill requiring states to allow trucks with two 33-foot trailers on their highways. Current federal law permits double 28-foot trailers... The DOT recommended that no changes to truck size be considered at this time, the senators said...
(Photo from Reuters, by Stephane Mahe: Hit the road, semi truck) -- Washington, DC, USA - The Trucker, by LYNDON FINNEY - 19 Oct 2015
*** California - Alliance: Exemptions for the state-required diesel particulate filters, don’t exist
-- After hearing a state attorney say professional truck drivers can look out for their safety, a business organization suing the California Air Resources Board decided to check out “an exemption” for the state-required diesel particulate filters... Bud Caldwell, president of Alliance for California Business, told this newspaper that when a state attorney declared last month that truck drivers didn’t need to be in danger, his group decided to investigate the “exemption” mentioned by the attorney... “There is no such thing as an exemption,” Caldwell said, adding that a couple of truckers he knew called CARB to find out there were no exemptions, as well as work by the attorney representing the alliance... Safety has been a concern for the alliance, which maintains that the CARB-required diesel particulate filters have not been proven safe. Determining trucker safety, as well as the public’s safety, was among the lawsuit’s goals... The alliance hoped that CARB would agree to a determination by an independent laboratory to test the filters’ safety... The alliance has also maintained that the filters cause mechanical problems in trucks, and CARB regulations are putting small truckers out of business because they can’t afford to buy new engines... The alliance believes more than 30 commercial truck fires in California, some which have caused injury, are linked to the filters...
(Photo:
Fuel Filter pump) -- Chico, CAL, USA - The Chico Enterprise-Record, by Laura Urseny - 18 Oct 2015Labels: longer trucks, rules and regulations, trucking industry news USA
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