User-agent: Mediapartners-Google* Disallow: Trucks World News
Google
 
Loading

Oct 31, 2016

UBER's DRIVERS * UK: WITH WORKERS' RIGHTS

* England - Uber drivers entitled to workers’ rights, U.K. Tribunal rules

--- Drivers for Uber Technologies Inc. are entitled to workers’ rights including paid holidays and the minimum wage, the Central London Employment Tribunal ruled Friday. This it's a potential setback for the ride-hailing service that could further jeopardize its highflying business model... The ruling could affect around 30,000 Uber drivers in London and significantly raise the company’s costs there. Uber, which argues it is a technology platform that matches riders with drivers, has relied on a contractor workforce of motorists who take on their own expenses like insurance, fuel and car upkeep... Uber is waging similar fights in the U.S. It offered $100 million to settle a class-action suit by drivers in California and Massachusetts who sought to be treated like regular employees, but the settlement was rejected by a judge in August... The battles over employment status add to Uber’s regulatory headaches around the world, as lawmakers from Austin, Texas, to Buenos Aires to New Delhi question whether ride-hailing apps threaten passenger safety and should be regulated like taxi companies... Contractor status is crucial for Uber and other so-called on-demand companies that rely on a pool of freelance workers to drive taxis, clean houses, fetch food or perform other menial tasks. Those firms say they would likely have to raise prices and couldn’t depend on workers who may be willing to work just a few hours a week... Uber, which was valued this year at $68 billion by its investors, has maintained it is a technology company, not a taxi company, and its drivers are self-employed workers who are free to work as little or as often as they like. Consequently, it has said its drivers aren’t entitled to the most basic of workers’ rights... Law firm Leigh Day, acting on behalf of the drivers, argued that the drivers were deserving of worker status as the company had “considerable control” over their drivers’ activities... 
(PHOTO: REUTERS - The ruling could affect around 30,000 Uber drivers in London and significantly raise the company’s costs there)  --  London, EN, UK - The WSJ, by WILLIAM LOUCH and GREG BENSINGER - Oct. 28, 2016

Labels: , ,

posted by Unknown @ 3:56 PM  0 comments

Apr 23, 2016

TRUCKING INDUSTRY * Australia: New Laws, chain of responsibility

* ACT - Stronger COR laws to hold industry customers to account

 (Video from AustralianTrucking - Apr 19, 2016: Owner Drivers from across Australia took part in the Convoy to Canberra circling Parliament House before finishing with a rally to call for the abolition of the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal) 

-- Strong new chain of responsibility laws will enable action to be taken against trucking industry customers who currently deny they are covered by the laws at all, the ATA Council heard this week at a briefing by NHVR Chief Executive Sal Petroccitto... ATA CEO Chris Melham said the ATA and its members expressed continued support for the NHVR and its actions in improving road safety, and welcomed the forthcoming reforms to the chain of responsibility laws... Chris welcomed the NHVR’s advice that new guidelines for industry codes of practice would be available from 1 July 2016... The ATA Council also agreed to develop a new Technical Advisory Procedure (TAP) covering tyres and tyre operations. The ATA’s TAPs set out industry best practice on a range of key technical issues, including wheel security and heavy vehicle wiring. The TAP will be released in 2017... 
Canberra, ACT, Australia - ATA Friday Facts - 22 April 2016

Labels: ,

posted by Unknown @ 6:07 AM  0 comments

Jul 9, 2015

NOT SO FAST * USA: New Laws for passing trash trucks, mail carriers, etc

* Virginia's new batch of state laws includes new rules of the road, particularly when passing stopped vehicles.
-- The message heard often coming from worried moms and cranky neighbors is a consistent theme among new Virginia laws for motorists... Here’s the new rules of the road, according to the DMV: 

  * Drivers passing a trash or recycling truck on a neighborhood or two-lane road has to decrease their speed to 10 mph below the speed limit and pass at least two feet to the left of the truck. If the truck is working on the side of a four-lane road, the driver must get in the left lane to pass. 

  * Drivers passing a stationary mail vehicle displaying a flashing, blinking or alternating amber light must proceed with due caution and maintain a safe speed for road conditions... 
Fredericksburg, VA, USA - Patch, by GREG HAMBRICK July 7, 2015

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 8:01 AM  0 comments

Jun 13, 2015

* USA: House Representatives passes bill with controversial trucking riders

* DC - The House of R. passes bill with section on restart provision

-- The battle over longer trucks on U.S. highways and shorter work hours for truck drivers shifts to the Senate, after the House of Representatives narrowly passed an appropriations bill with riders affecting both driver hours of service and truck lengths... The House of Representatives by a narrow margin has passed and sent to the Senate the controversial FY2016 Department of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill that President Barack Obama said he would veto if it reached his desk without major changes, including three involving the trucking industry... While Obama cited numerous sections of the bill he opposed, there were three sections directly tied to the trucking industry... One section would prohibit the use of federal funds to reinstate the July 1, 2013, restart rule unless the Secretary of Transportation and the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation reviewed the results of the current restart study and are satisfied that the study establishes that commercial motor vehicle drivers who operated under the restart provisions in effect between July 1, 2013, and the day before the date of enactment of such Public Law demonstrated statistically significant improvement in all outcomes related to safety, operator fatigue, driver health and longevity, and work schedules, in comparison to commercial motor vehicle drivers who operated under the restart provisions in effect on June 30, 2013... The other two sections allow for 33-foot combination vehicles as opposed to the current 28-foot limit, and prohibits the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration from using federal funds to issue a rulemaking on increasing liability insurance minimums... 
 Washington, DC, USA - The Trucker - 10 June 2015 


* DC - NHTSA tells Congress not to increase trucking limitations
 -- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) advised Congress on Friday not to change current size and weight laws for the trucking industry after completing an inconclusive study on increasing the current limitations... At the heart of the study is the question of allowing double 33-foot trailers with six axles to carry bigger, heavier loads on Interstates throughout the U.S... The double trailers are already in operation in some states, and trucking-industry advocates said allowing them throughout the country would increase trucking productivity and efficiency, at little cost to safety and highway maintenance... The NHTSA told Congress that there isn’t enough data to make determinations on whether increasing truck size and weight would be safe... Crash data on the larger trucks did not give Department of Transportation (DOT) researchers an indication as to whether the crashed trucks had been fully loaded or overweight, or whether the cargo was equally distributed... The DOT also lacks models to predict bridge deterioration from the heavier trucks, rendering it impossible to determine any long-term costs from maintenance... 
DC, USA - The Times News Daily, by Josh Aden - Jun 10, 2015 


* Virginia - American Trucking Associations applauded the House action
 -- The advice to table any changes in the law has drawn the ire of trucking-industry advocates, such as American Trucking Association President and CEO Bill Graves, who is firmly in favor of larger twin trailers... “By including language requiring a more robust study of the Hours of Service restart restrictions originally imposed in July 2013, and a modest increase in the length of some truck combinations, the House has taken an important step in improving the safety of our highways, first and foremost, but also the efficiency of our highway system and the industry that moves nearly 70 percent of the nation’s goods,” said Graves, "the longer combination vehicles allowed by the bill would improve capacity and safety, without increasing truck weight limits. This modest change will reduce the number of truck trips needed to move the nation’s freight, cut emissions and reduce trucking’s exposure to crashes"... The ATA has taken a neutral position on the possible increase in liability minimums... 
Arlington, VIR, USA - The Trucker - 10 June 2015


* Michigan - Hoffa: Overworking truckers is dangerous
 -- Highways across Michigan and the U.S. have become increasingly dangerous for motorists. And that will only get worse if Congress approves a transportation spending bill that effectively keeps the suspension of rules in place that allow truck drivers to work longer hours, that permits larger double-trailers and that prevents the U.S. Department of Transportation from raising minimum insurance standards that have been frozen in place for the last three decades... 
Detroit, MICH, USA - The Detroit News, by Teamsters President James Hoffa - June 10, 2015 

* "There are many miles to go, however, before either rider becomes law, if they do. That depends on when and whether the Obama administration and Congress can strike a budget deal"  said William B. Cassidy, J.O.C. Senior Editor - Jun 10, 2015

Labels: ,

posted by Unknown @ 5:52 AM  0 comments

Oct 25, 2008

Legislation * USA - Forces US military cargo from the air

The legislation is unlikely to trigger a wholesale shift of military shipments from air to road

Washington,DC,USA -Air Cargo News.net (Ashford,England,UK) -24 Oct 2008: -- The US president has signed a law that drags the nation’s air force into the 21st Century. The 2009 Defense Authorisation Act, calls on the US Department of Defense to use a mode-neutral approach instead of insisting on airfreight for transportation within the contiguous 48 states... The legislation is the result of a bitter dispute over conflicting regulations governing the transportation of military cargo. On one side, the ‘Defense Transportation Regulations’ requires best practices based on a mode-neutral approach. This is at odds with the stance adopted by the USAF Air Mobility Command, which issued its own set of rules a few years ago called ‘AMC FreightRules Publication Number 5’ (AFTRP 5). The latter state that shipments tendered to air carriers for service must move all or in part via air – unless extreme conditions like a storm, warrant the use of surface transportation instead... Brandon Fried, executive director of the Airforwarders Association, called the legislation “common sense at last” and “a victory for taxpayers as well as the forwarding industry”. In many cases transportation by truck is not only more economical but sometimes also faster, he added. “Many military bases are in remote locations and it’s faster to truck from there than to get the cargo to the nearest airport and fly it,” he said...

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 5:11 AM  0 comments

Aug 26, 2008

Houston Medical Testing Company * USA - Helping Texas Tow Truck Operators Comply with New Law

Houston,TX,USA -PRWEB -August 25, 2008: -- Houston Medical Testing and Services, Inc. (HMTS), a Houston based substance abuse program management company, is approved by the state of Texas to assist members of the tow truck and vehicle storage industries comply with a new law that goes into effect September 1, 2008 requiring drug testing for all tow truck operators and vehicle storage employees... Texas tow truck drivers, towing companies and storage facilities around the state are scrambling to comply with a new law that goes into effect September 1st. The Texas Towing Act will require all wrecker drivers and employees at vehicle storage facilities to obtain a license, undergo criminal background checks and undergo random drug testing. To assist towing companies comply with the act, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation has approved Houston Medical Testing and Services, Inc. to provide a consortium of drug testing services to companies located anywhere in the state of Texas...

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 4:30 AM  1 comments

Jun 10, 2008

RULES * Australia - Government committed to ending regulation overlaps

ACT,Australia -Supply Chain Review - June 9, 2008: -- The Rudd Government is committed to ending regulatory overlaps constraining the trucking industry, according to Minister for Finance and Deregulation Lindsay Tanner... He says the Business Regulation and Competition Working Group which is part of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) shows the Government is serious about working with the states to boost productivity by streamlining regulations... To highlight the regulatory inconsistencies the industry faces, Tanner pointed to an instance where an operator took over two years to move a custom-designed trailer with an "unusually shaped" load from Victoria to Queensland because of "stupid regulation"... According to Tanner, the trailer met Australian Design Rules as well as performance based standards but ran into trouble when the operator had to deal with Victorian and Queensland bureaucracies... "This regulation seems stupid because it is not fit-for-purpose. It may be ineffective, overly burdensome, outdated or duplicate other regulation." he said...


* ‘Very dark clouds’ hovering over trucking industry

ACT,Australia -Supply Chain Review - June 9, 2008: -- Opposition spokesman on transport Warren Truss has hit out at the Rudd Government’s approach to the trucking industry, arguing it will have adverse consequences... Speaking during the Australian Trucking Convention, Truss defended the Coalition’s decision to block bills in the Senate that would result in an increase in the fuel excise and higher registration charges in the Australian Capital Territory... While he says the Coalition believes the industry needs to pay its way, he says the registration charges will punish higher-productivity vehicles and will push up inflation... Truss also criticised a provision in the registration and fuel excise proposals which may restrict the Federal Government’s ability to dissent from decision made by the Australian Transport Council (ATC)...

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 4:37 AM  0 comments