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Nov 19, 2016

UBER's DILEMMA * USA: Trying to close suits, with billions at stake

* Uber close to settling drivers’ suit


--- Uber Technologies Inc. is trying to finalize a settlement with California drivers to resolve potentially billions of dollars in claims stemming from the company’s refusal to give them the protections and benefits of employees... The case centers on allegations that the company failed to pay minimum wage and overtime to hundreds of thousands of drivers... Lawyers didn’t disclose terms of the deal in court filings or during a hearing Wednesday in Los Angeles state court. But they told a judge that the agreement will address penalties sought against Uber under California’s so-called bounty hunter law. The Private Attorneys General Act, or PAGA, gives employees the right to step into the shoes of the state labor secretary to bring enforcement actions... The case is separate from a widely watched class action in San Francisco that also challenges Uber’s business model, which classifies drivers as independent contractors. The drivers in that complaint are seeking reimbursement for expenses and tips as well as PAGA penalties... U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco in August rejected Uber’s proposed $100 million settlement in his court in large part because he said said the deal undervalued potential PAGA claims... 
(Photo: Trucker Cesar Lopez. Uber of trucks' hauls big business in Los Angeles)  --  Los Angeles, CAL, UDA - Bloomberg, by Joel Rosenblatt/Edvard Pettersson - November 16, 2016

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Oct 29, 2016

DRAYAGE TRUCKERS COMPLAINT * USA: Against "Pier Pass" program

* California - Truckers, retailers want authority to oversee PierPass program

--- The National Retail Federation, the California Trucking Association Intermodal Conference and the Harbor Trucking Association, which represents Southern California drayage companies, said they would like to see a "joint powers authority" created as part of a “modernization” of evening and weekend "off-peak" operations at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. PierPass, which is a program created by the 13 container terminals at the two ports through their West Coast Martine Terminal Operators Agreement (WCMTOA), currently funds off-peak operations that allow trucks to move cargo in and out of the terminals at night and on Saturday by collecting a “traffic mitigation fee” from importers and exporters moving containers on and off the docks between 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. ... PierPass said that fee is used to partially offset the cost of the extend hours or "gates.” The groups said that many of the terminals that require truckers to have appointments to pick-up cargo “routinely limit the availability of appointments during the second shift, forcing them to make appointments on the first shift and pay the PierPass fee” ... 
(Photo courtesy of AirPhoto, by Jim Ward: Terminal Island Truck Port) -- Los Angeles, CAL, USA - American Shipper, by CHRIS DUPIN - OCT 26, 2016

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Oct 21, 2016

"Driver-a-Check" MISTAKES * USA: Truckers say disputes are depriving them of jobs

* California -  Driver-Screening firms draw scrutiny. Faulty background checks, difficulties resolving disputes


--- Commercial driver background checks have become a lightning rod in the trucking industry, drawing ire from those who say they have been wrongly barred from jobs due to inaccuracies in these employment-history reports... Records compiled through public filings are a routine part of the application process for many jobs. But truck drivers face an extra layer of scrutiny in the form of “Drive-a-Check” or “DAC” reports, which contain employer-provided work histories, including accidents and alleged unethical behavior, such as abandoning a delivery mid-route... These dossiers, compiled since 2008 by Irvine, Calif.-based HireRight LLC, can be an extra barrier to employment for millions of truck drivers in the U.S. Even a single unfavorable incident in a report can spell the end of a driving career. HireRight has smaller rivals, but it far outpaces similar companies and runs about 2 million background checks on truckers each year, exposing it to more legal challenges... Some drivers say they have been wrongly barred from jobs due to inaccuracies in their DAC reports, and that HireRight and its rivals don’t do enough to verify claims or correct mistakes... TaNia Chapman says she couldn’t find work as a truck driver for years because a background check included an accident that she maintains never happened. She sued HireRight in federal court in 2013 alleging the company failed to remove the information in her report after she informed them of the mistake, and it failed to include her rebuttal statement, which is required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. HireRight, which declined to comment on the lawsuit, settled out of court. Ms. Chapman’s lawyer said terms of the deal prevented her from speaking publicly about it... Ms. Chapman said the alleged accident has since been removed. But she hasn’t driven a truck for so long that she would need additional training, which she said she can’t afford... 
(Photo The WSJ, by THEO STROOMER - Former driver TaNia Chapman at a truck stop in Commerce City, Colo., in September. Ms. Chapman says she lost her job as a trucker over information in a background check and has been unable to get a driving position since) -- Irvine, CAL, USA - The WSJ, by LORETTA CHAO - Oct. 19, 2016

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Mar 30, 2016

TRUCKIES ON THE ROAD TO RUIN * Australia - Through a government decision

* South Australia - The Remuneration Tribunal wants to stop owner drivers


-- About 35,000 people, mostly men, drive their own long-haul trucks. They have borrowed about $15 billion from Australian banks and other financiers to fund their vehicles. Most of the loans are also secured on the family home... A government body — the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal — has made decisions that are set not only to destroy the livelihood of most of them but force them to sell the family home... Tens of thousands of farmers around Australia rely on these efficient and safe road operators to get their produce to market and supply them with farming needs. These farmers are going to be forced to pay two and four times the present rate for transport as a result of arbitrary decisions by the same government body. It will wreck many farmers... Overall, Australian transport costs are set to rise by between 30 per cent and 40 per cent, which will boost inflation and make the Reserve Bank look differently at interest rate adjustments... The big winners are the large transport companies and the Transport Workers Union. A grateful TWU will pay a proportion of its windfall gains to the ALP, which will gain funding capacity not matched by any other political part ... The tribunal decided the best way to stop owner drivers from driving too long and taking drugs was to make them charge more for their services. But no such charging instructions were given companies using TWU employees, so they can undercut owner drivers... Grace Collier in The Weekend Australian blew the whistle on what was happening in her commentary “TWU can bring nation to its knees with ‘safe’ truckies rates”. She explained how “farmer Keith” now pays $175 for an owner driver to pick up a few head of cattle. After April 4, that owner driver is forced to charge $784 — and if he doesn’t charge $784, he can be prosecuted by the Fair Work Ombudsman and be fined up to $54,000... But if the farmer uses a company with employed drivers, then that operator has no such restrictions and can charge $175. That means Toll and its TWU drivers can pick up as much business as they want... My guess is large transport operators will use their entitlement to undercut small groups until they are driven out of business. Then prices will be increased to the levels allowed by the tribunal. Unless agriculture prices are booming farmers will not be able economically to transport their product to market once the full rates are charged... This elimination of owner drivers will be fairly quick — and as they are forced to sell their trucks the prices of vehicles will slump, so they will be bankrupted... The actual capital of many owner driver businesses is domestic homes, so they will be sold to cover the debt to the banks because of the fall in value of trucks. As the large operators begin to control the business owner drivers will be sent to the wall along with the small transport companies that co-ordinate them. Many of those are in South Australia... 
(Picture: Matthew Sullivan - The tribunal wants to stop owner drivers from driving too long by making them charge more for their services)  --  Adelaida, South Australia, Australia - THE AUSTRALIAN, by Robert Gottliebsen - MARCH 29, 2016

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Mar 18, 2016

TRUCKERS' TROUBLES * Australia: Minimum freight rates

* NSW - Pay ruling may drive Central Coast truckies to the wall

-- Hundreds of Central Coast long-haul owner-driver truckies could be driven to the wall if tough new conditions set down by the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal come into effect on April 4. New minimum rates for owner-drivers set by the road safety watchdog have been condemned by truckies and Coalition MPs, including Dobell federal Liberal MP Karen McNamara, as an attempt by the Transport Workers Union (TWU) to increase its membership. The minimum rates order would prevent owner-drivers like Don Robb, of Mardi, and his son Jason, giving upfront quotes to potential customers. It would force them to charge customers a new minimum rate which cannot be determined until a job has been completed, imposing a cost risk for potential hirers and requiring the use of an online calculator. The minimum rates will depend on distance travelled, time taken and the type of vehicle used with the onus on customers to determine the rate. But Mr Robb said it was an attempt by the TWU to force owner-drivers to close their businesses and work as employee-drivers for their larger competitors... 
(Picture by Peter Clark - Don and Colleen Robb, with Ruthie Smith at Mardi, are concerned that long-haul truck drivers who run their own business, may be forced to close down and work for larger competitors, under a pay regime being introduced by the independent road safety watchdog)   --   Sydney, NSW, Australia - The Daily Telegraph, by Therese Murray - March 16, 2016

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Feb 11, 2016

TRUCKERS COMPLAINTS * USA: More than 75 percent of truckers will avoid operating in Rhode Island

* Rhode Island's Fact Sheet: RhodeWorks

(The vehicles shaded in blue in the above image show the vehicles that would be exempt from tolling under the current RhodeWorks proposal) 

 -- RhodeWorks is the road-improvement funding plan proposed by Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, which calls for the repair of the state’s deteriorating bridges. The proposal would fund the additional projects in two ways: 

 ° Borrowing $300 million against future federal highway funding and refinancing old borrowing to yield an additional $120 million; 
° Imposing a new toll on large commercial trucks, expected to bring in $45 million a year when it’s up and running. 

 The Senate Fiscal Office estimates the two initiatives would generate a net total of $543 million in new revenue for the R.I. Department of Transportation (RIDOT) between 2016 and 2020... The Rhode Island Department of Transportation said Rhode Island is one of the only states in the northeast that does not charge user fees to large commercial trucks... However, the toll proposal set off a firestorm of criticism from the trucking industry, as well as some local businesses and limited-government advocates...


(Photo: Scott Del Sole / WPRI 12 - Protesters rallied against a plan to use tolls to pay for bridge repairs in Rhode Island)

...  Representatives of the American Trucking Association and its Rhode Island counterpart say if the toll bill passes as expected, lawsuits will likely be filed challenging its constitutionality... 
AND...  Where Are the Gantries?: 
Instead of toll plazas, the state would assess the truck toll at 14 gantry locations throughout the state. The gantries are large metal structures that would span the highway. Equipment attached to the gantry would scan vehicles as they pass, and bills would be sent the appropriate parties... The concern over the proposal is that out-of-state truckers would bypass Rhode Island altogether, leaving the burden completely on local trucking companies. A survey by a group representing truck drivers shows more than 75 percent of truckers will avoid operating in Rhode Island if Gov. Gina Raimondo’s toll proposal is adopted...

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Feb 8, 2016

* USA - Limiting complaints by California truckers

* DC - House Republicans revive measure on trucker Class-Action suits

-- Some members of Congress are trying to revive legislation aimed at keeping truck drivers from bringing class-action suits against their employers... The proposal, which was stripped from the federal highway funding plan that became law late last year, was included this week in a sweeping plan introduced by House Republicans to reauthorize the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and to effectively privatize the air traffic control system... The original plan, sponsored by Rep. Jeff Denham (R., Calif.), would have barred states from applying rules that go beyond federal standards for driver pay and mandated rest breaks. Thousands of California drivers have sued their employers for back pay, claiming that time spent loading, refueling, and eating meals should be considered on-the-clock time... Most truck-drivers are paid by the mile, and they aren't compensated when they stop to load shipments, fill the gas tank or rest. State labor regulators, especially in California, have argued that truckers, including interstate freight haulers, must abide by laws on the books in at least 20 states that require employers to pay workers for down time... Drivers have sued some of the largest trucking companies in the country, including J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Swift Transportation Co., under state labor laws addressing compensation and rest time, in at least 50 different suits...
(Photo, by ROB HART/WSJ: A key Democrat says including the limitation on legal actions by truckers in the aviation bill is “absurd”) -- Washington, DC, USA - The WSJ, by ROBBIE WHELAN - Feb. 5, 2016

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Sep 22, 2015

TRUCKING MINIMUM RATES * Australia: "The draft order is clearly unworkable on every level and should not be issued."

* South Australia - Concerns for financial survival of owner driver businesses

-- The National Road Transport Association has expressed grave concern for the financial survival of all owner driver transport businesses if the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT) draft minimum rates order is mandated from January 1, 2016 as proposed... NatRoad President Allan Thornley said that the draft minimum rates are only mandatory for contractor drivers known in the industry as owner drivers that are essentially family businesses that own and operate their own vehicles... Mr Thornley said it was extremely concerning that a minimum rate mechanism which is intended to ensure adequate minimum rates are paid to owner drivers will have the effect of forcing them out of the industry because the minimum rates are not mandatory for all carriers... Mr Thornley said operator viability and safety would be more effectively enhanced by reducing payment terms from 90-120 days back to 7 days, introducing greater flexibility in time slot booking arrangements and mandating paid waiting time at loading and unloading centres when onsite delays are beyond operator control...
Adelaida, SA, Australia - Big Rigs - 14 Sep 2015

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Sep 18, 2015

TRUCKERS COMPLAINTS * Canada: Speed limits will drop from 40 km/h to 30 km/h. In other words, you might as well walk

* Ontario - Toronto trucking could get even more frustrating

-- If trucking through parts of Toronto gets you frustrated--especially the Gardiner or Don Valley Parking Lot-- then stop reading this story, because conditions are only going to be slower and possibly more expensive... City officials are exploring the idea of collecting tolls on the Gardiner and DVP. The money would be used to pay for road maintenance, with any left over going to transit... Fees for trucks would range from $2.50 to $6.50 per trip, according to media sources... The Gardiner now carries, on average, a total of 228,000 vehicles east of Highway 427 while some 110,000 drivers use the DVP north of the Bayview Ave./Bloor St. interchange each weekday... In the meantime, expect to see traffic movements in some Toronto neighborhoods come to an even slower crawl, if that's possible, starting this week... The reason is speed limits will drop from 40 km/h to 30 km/h. In other words, you might as well walk... 
(Photo: Company trucks on highway | street sweeping Toronto) -- Toronto, ONT, CAN - Today's Trucking - Sep 15, 2015

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Sep 12, 2015

HARBOR TRUCKERS COMPLAINT * USA: Long delays at the ports, inside the terminals

* California - Delays for LA-LB truckers worst inside terminal, not at gates
-- Harbor truckers in Los Angeles-Long Beach continue to experience long delays at the ports, but statistics released Wednesday by the Harbor Trucking Association show that the worst delays are not spent waiting in long lines at the terminal gates... The 13 container terminals at the largest U.S.A. port complex have significantly improved their ability to move trucks into their facilities upon arrival. But once the truck enters a terminal, it takes more than an hour for the terminal operator to deliver a container from the stack, locate a suitable chassis, load the container on to the chassis and process the trucker out the gate... The average truck visit in Los Angeles-Long Beach in August, from the time the driver arrived at the queue outside the gate until the transaction was completed and the driver pulled out of the terminal, was 89 minutes, from the 60-minute visits that were common before the ports began to experience severe congestion in mid-2014... The PMA and ILWU say the mandatory eight-point roadability inspection that is performed before the driver is allowed to pull the chassis and container from the terminal should take no more than one minute. Truckers say that is often the case, but when terminals and longshoremen are involved in disputes, even minor spats, delays are common and the truckers are caught in the middle... When the total marine terminal environment today is considered, including big ships, large cargo surges from the vessels, containers stacked higher and wider in terminals generating multiple touches by longshoremen, the new chassis regime and the complexities involved in servicing carrier alliances, the days of the 60-minute total visit time may be a thing of the past, said Dan Smith, a partner at the Tioga Group, which has studied truck turn times at ports across the country. “I’m not sure turn times can come down”...
Los Angeles, AL, USA - JOC, by Bill Mongelluzzo - Sep 09, 2015

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Aug 8, 2015

TRUCKERS' COMPLAINT * Canada: Union ask Judge to force payment back wages

* British Columbia - Port Metro Vancouver truckers return to Court over back pay

-- One labor union is asking a British Columbia judge to force Container Trucking Commissioner Andy Smith to order the payment of back wages it claims are owed by port trucking companies to container truckers at Port Metro Vancouver... In documents filed with the court on Tuesday, Unifor (Canadian labour union) is alleging that Smith is in a clear conflict of interest because he is employed as both the commissioner and the lead lobbyist of the BC Maritime Employers' Association, an organization representing many commercial interests connected to Port Metro Vancouver... According the Journal of Commerce, Unifor, which is Canada’s largest private sector-union, represents about 400 of the port's 1,450 drayage drivers... The provincial government appointed Smith several months ago at a rate of $800 a day while working as the commissioner to enforce the Container Trucking Act, according to Unifor... 
(Photo: Trucks at Port Metro Vancouver)  --  Vancouver, BC, CAN - Today's Trucking - Aug 7, 2015

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Feb 6, 2015

* Canada: Truckers stuck in neutral in salt plant lineup

* Quebec - Another winter, another salt problem in Pugwash

(Photo: A trucker attends to his rig while he waits to pick up salt in Pugwash on December 30, 2013. Trucks were lined up again this week waiting to load at the Canadian Salt Co. mine at Pugwash)
-- “I was stuck there again,” said Jeffrey LeBlanc, who makes the 18-wheeler, round-trip run from Cheticamp to Pugwash for a load of salt several times each week. “We’re going to call it Camp Pugwash now” ... LeBlanc, who was en route from his home in northern Cape Breton to the Cumberland County salt mine again by late Wednesday afternoon, said he arrived at Pugwash at 3 p.m. Monday and didn’t get loaded and back on the road until past midnight... LeBlanc suggested that there were nearly 100 trucks waiting in the queue to be waved into the Canadian Salt Co. Ltd. loading area. Some 90 trucks from across the Maritimes waited in line at that time. This time around, a head-company spokeswoman did not report any equipment failure... Reached at home Wednesday afternoon, Alphonse LeBlanc was trying to catch some sleep after a slow and cautious trip over slippery roads from Pugwash on what would normally have been a five-hour-plus drive... Pointe-Claire,Quebec,CAN -The Herald News, by FRANCIS CAMPBELL -February 4, 2015

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HOS DEBATE * USA & Canada: Controversial truck driver rules put spotlight on safety

* Calgary - The died of a trucking passionate

(Photo: Remembering Ron Singer)
-- Devastating trucking accidents put trucking safety issues front and center recently. The number of hours truckers are allowed to drive in a day and per week is especially controversial. Tensions are high in the trucking community concerning the “hours of service” rule, which was re-instated in December, overturning 2013 regulations that required... Ron Singer, longtime industry advocate and owner of Ron Singer Truck Lines, died suddenly Dec. 22 while prepping his trailer for a load. Ron built a successful business in Calgary, Alta. managing a fleet of gravel trucks that served destinations across Western Canada. However, he was a proud trucker first and foremost and was always ready and willing to put in a full day behind the wheel...Singer was as passionate about trucking as they come. He was involved in many industry associations over his career, including the Alberta Trucking Association and later the Alberta Motor Transport Association, the Alberta Construction Truckers Association, the Owner-Operators’ Business Association of Canada and the North American Truckers Guild... Alberta, Calgary, Canada -Full Time Whistle, by David Jackman -3 February 2015

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