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Jun 26, 2017

TRUCKERS' MISTREATMENT * USA: On California's Ports

* California - Investigation uncovers enterprise corruption and mistreatment of hundreds of truckers

(Video from USA TODAY NETWORK, by Scott Hall - An investigation found a predatory scheme that ensnared thousands of immigrant truck drivers at the port)

--- On two major California ports, the network-wide investigation, details the mistreatment of poor, immigrant truckers on the West Coast. Murphy’s work uncovers how hundreds of workers based out of two key ports in California, ports that serve as the entry point for more than half of America’s imports, are indebted to their employers and work up to 20 hours a day for pay that can drop to pennies per hour... And big box retailers such as Amazon, Wal Mart, and Best Buy heavily depend on the performance of these truckers. Retail giants often hired trucking companies that had been accused of labor violations and spent millions to fight lawmakers that tried to pass worker protections... The problem arose a decade ago when a state environmental law designed to clean up dirty ports backfired and trucking companies passed on the cost of new, cleaner rigs to independent truckers themselves... Drivers, many of them immigrants, are now forced into lease-to-own schemes, an arrangement that experts called a modern form of the outdated sharecropping system... While both state and federal officials are fully aware of the situation, they are often either unable to stop it or simply do not bother to try... 
 Los Angeles & Long Beach, California, USA - USA TODAY - 19 June 2017


* California - Port truckers don’t want clean air rules to eat up their paycheck

... The ports were often the last stop for road-wearier vehicles, helmed by penny-pinching owner-operators who needed to cut expenses and squeeze extra years out of their gear to make a living... Sure, short-haul trucks were often older and dirtier, but they got the job done, he recalled... The new, high-tech, cleaner-burning trucks can top a half-million each — not a figure that most freelance drivers keep in the glove box... Unions and trucking companies have grappled for decades, amid bitterness and strikes and lawsuits, over the employment status of today’s trucker. That’s not going to get easier as the skies get clearer... Drivers say some transit companies, which force them to buy or lease their own equipment and pay their own expenses, are robbing them by categorizing them as independent contractors. They say they’re getting boondoggled out of overtime and medical benefits... But company officials say contractors are not employees meriting such benefits because they set their own schedules and choose their own gear — and that many appreciate the freedom this affords them... Truckers say they want clean air — but not at their expense... 
(Photo - Port truck drivers in the Port of Long Beach)  --  Long Beach, CAL, USA - Long Beach Press Telegram, by Rachel Uranga - 17 June 2017

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Apr 23, 2016

MANDATORY MINIMUM CHARGES * Australia: RSRT abolition

* ACT - Victory for owner drivers with RSRT abolition
 -- Owner drivers and small trucking businesses across Australia have secured a great victory, with the Australian Parliament voting to abolish the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT) late on Monday... Drivers from across Australia travelled to Canberra to take part in two days of truck convoys and rallies calling for the abolition of the Tribunal and its devastating payments order... ATA CEO Chris Melham said the decision would save thousands of small businesses... The abolition act commenced on Thursday 21 April...
(Image) -- Canberra, ACT, Australia - ATA Friday Facts - 22 April 2016

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Apr 19, 2016

OWNER-DRIVER * Australia: ROAD SAFETY PAY

* Western Australia - Independent contractors will do have their prices fixed by the government


... The modern danger to workers in Australia is the increasing pattern of collusion between big business and big unions, which sell out workers' interests so as to boost union membership. The Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption revealed, this is the preferred business model of Australia's alternative prime minister, Bill Shorten... As head of the Australian Workers Union (AWU), Shorten signed off on a deal which bargained away wages and conditions of employees at a company called Cleanevent. The deal undercut the award rates of pay by $10 per hour per person, costing an estimated 5000 employees a total of about $400 million in lost wages. In return it represented a significant saving for the management of Cleanevent... The creation of the RSRT in 2012 – under Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten – was an amplification and codification of this approach... Under the terms of the Road Safety Remuneration Act 2012, the RSRT has the power to set the prices which long-haul and interstate owner-driver truckies must charge. After almost four years the RSRT has just issued its first determination in relation to payments for owner-drivers. Its decision will massively increase 'safe rates' that must be paid to owner-drivers to such an extent it threatens the viability of up to 80 per cent of the nation's estimated 35,000 owner-drivers... The real kicker is that the increased rates apply only to owner-drivers. Curiously, large trucking companies with employee drivers are not required to pay the massively inflated 'safe rates'... Put simply, those who own and operate their trucking businesses as independent contractors are having their prices fixed by the government... In a staggering coincidence, the workforce of large trucking companies is where much of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) membership can be found. Unless the RSRT is abolished, those wishing to work as truckies will be forced to do so as employees of the big trucking companies, and probably also as members of the TWU. Of course, this was Bill Shorten's desire – a ménage a trois of big business, big unions and big government... The impact of Bill Shorten's TWU membership drive extends beyond Australia's owner-drivers to the kitchen table of every Australian by forcing up the prices of household goods and groceries... 
(Photo by Arsineh Houspian - Truck drivers will be forced into union membership by RSRT pay decision)   --  Perth, W.A., Australia - Financial Review, by Dean Smith - Apr 18 2016

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Apr 18, 2016

* AUSSIE TRUCKERS PROTEST

* ACT - Truck drivers take to Canberra roads in protest over pay rates
(Photo ABC News, by Alexandra Beec h- Trucks honk their horns on their way to Parliament House this morning)

  -- A convoy of more than 200 trucks has travelled through Canberra to protest against new minimum pay rates mandated by the Road Safety Renumeration Tribunal (RSRT)... The Federal Government is pushing to axe the RSRT when Parliament resumes on Monday, following the independent body's attempt to introduce new pay rates for truck drivers... Some crossbenchers have urged the Government to give it priority over its bid to get the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) Bill through the Upper House... Employees who drive for big fleets like Lindsay Fox and Toll are already covered under an award rate system, and the Transport Workers' Union says contractors need the new rate to compete and stay safe on the roads... 
(Photo ABC News, by Alexandra Beech - Truck drivers say the changes will send them bankrupt within months)

... But so-called owner truck drivers argue the obligation to charge clients to cover the increased pay rates will force thousands of them out of business... Truck driver Gordon Mackinlay said the new rates would send small operators broke within months... The group made its way through the outskirts of the ACT and arrived at Parliament House on Sunday morning... Government plans to abolish tribunal...
Canberra, ACT, Australia - ABC Net News - 17 April 2016

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Apr 16, 2016

MANDATORY MINIMUM CHARGES * Australia: Aussie trucking complaints

* Truck off! Scrapping Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal endangers us all 

* Tribunal puts truck drivers and the public at serious risk... 

Isle of Capri, Qld, Australia - The Independent Australia, by David Donovan - 13 April 2016 - (Image via @TWUNSW) 


 
* South A. - Wellington truck drivers want a better deal



-- The truckie turf wars are claiming victim after victim and it’s tearing families apart says a Wellington owner operator... The federal government, is backing the battler and promising to abandon to much maligned Safety Remuneration Tribunal. Lyn Hough says the ‘little man’ is getting done over and her husband’s blood sweat and tears can sometimes amount to nothing. Minimum pay rates and pages of red tape have taken them almost ‘to the end of the road’... There are warnings some truck drivers may try and take the life, trucking organizations are not taking the calls lightly. Their trucks are highly mortgaged and Mrs Hough says even employing an extra family member and not following the right rules can cost large sums of money in fines... Federal Mp for Parkes Mark Coulton says its a devastating time for truckies... ATA Chief Executive Christopher Melham said the RSRT and its minimum payments order were causing dire outcomes for owner drivers and small businesses... 
(Photo: Wellington's truck drivers: Russell Hough, Lauchlan Stiff and Jamie Sattler) -- Wellington, SA, Australia - The Wellington Times - 15 April 2016


* Victoria - Dump a damaging truck regulator

-- The likely fate of the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal – established in 2012 and set for abolition by a recalled federal parliament next week – is a lesson in industrial relations overreach... The purpose of the tribunal has been to consolidate the hold of the Transport Workers Union over the supply of truck driver labour...  The big trucking companies, which for decades have done their own sweetheart deals with the TWU, supported a tribunal that would make it harder for them to be undercut by independent owner-driver operators. And the apparent trump card was using driver safety as the ruse to suppress wage and price competition in the trucking industry... 
(Photo by Casual CAS - Owner-operator trucks are threatened by the pay decision)  --  Melbourne, VIC, Australia - The Australian Financial Review - 15 April 2016

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Dec 15, 2014

THE MAFIA * Canada: Many Indo-Canadian truckers up in arms about new changes say port acting like

* British Columbia - Vancouver Port trying to kill smaller trucking companies by imposing $35,000-$45,000 yearly fee -

  Vancouver,BC,CAN –The Link Paper, by R. Paul Dhillon -December 13th, 2014: -- Vancouver Port is trying to weed out the smaller trucking companies, many owned by Indo-Canadians, with massive yearly fees that the drivers say favour the bigger companies over the smaller ones by creating an unfair playing field. In an email to trucking companies this week, the Port Metro Vancouver said it will introduce a two-tiered Annual Agreement charge of between $35,000 and $45,000, including additional charges per extra trucks as well as a proposed bond of $250,000 per trucking company (15 or 20 trucks) plus $125,000 for each increment of 10 trucks... A number of Indo-Canadian truckers told the LINK that the new charges will be a death knell for their business as they will not be able to compete with the bigger companies by paying such hefty fees and on top putting up unnecessary bonds when they already have insurance for their vehicles... Some of the key agreed upon resolutions in the 14-point Joint Action Plan includes: 
• Round trip moves paid in full for both On Dock and Off Dock moves; 
• Establishment of an hourly rate for company drivers; 
• A benchmark minimum rate set across the sector; 
• Paid wait-time after 90 minutes at the ports; and 
• A 12% increase in trip rates over 2006 established rates along with a 16% fuel surcharge.

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posted by Unknown @ 11:49 AM  0 comments

Nov 24, 2014

TRUCKERS' COMPLAIN * USA: NY / NJ tariff charges

* New Jersey - NY / NJ truckers complain about tariff change

(Photo: NY/NJ Aerial View)
Newark,NJ,USA -JOC, by Joseph Bonney -Nov 21, 2014: -- Truckers are complaining about a tariff change that restricts their ability to collect detention payments for excessive wait times and subjects them to $50 fees for avoidable trouble-window visits at most Port of New York and New Jersey container terminals... Jeff Bader, president of Golden Carriers and of the Association of Bi-State Motor Carriers, said he has asked the Federal Maritime Commission to look into recent revisions to the New York Terminal Conference tariff. The revised tariff adds delayed ship arrivals and chassis shortages beyond terminals’ control to the list of reasons terminals may refuse to pay truckers’ claims for detention penalties... John Lair, assistant to the president of the terminal conference noted, that terminals incur heavy costs from off-schedule ship arrivals, and that charges for unnecessary trouble tickets have been discussed for years. He noted that terminals now provide information technology that allows motor carriers to use to pre-check and pre-clear shipments and minimize trouble tickets, which have long been identified as a leading contributor to congestion at marine terminals...

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Sep 9, 2014

TRUCKERS' COMPLAINTS * USA: California

* California - Teamsters, LA trucker clash over alleged firings

(Photo: Cargo arrives at a seaport by truck to be loaded onto outbound ships) 
Port of Los Angeles,CAL,USA -JOC, by Bill Mongelluzzo -Sep 05, 2014: -- A Teamsters-affiliated organization accused a Southern California drayage company of firing at least 33 drivers who filed wage and hour claims against the carrier, an accusation the company said is not truthful... Justice for Port Drivers, which is affiliated with the Teamsters, said Total Transportation Services Inc. fired the drivers on Thursday because they “refused to acquiesce to the company’s illegal demand to withdraw their claims for wage theft as misclassified ‘independent contractors” ... “Nobody was fired or terminated,” said Alex Cherin, executive director of the Harbor Trucking Association of Southern California. TTSI is an HTA member... In Southern California, as in other ports, most of the drivers are owner-operators, or independent contractors, which by law are extremely difficult to organize. The Teamsters’ strategy of late has been to support claims against individual companies, attempting to demonstrate that the motor carriers exert enough control over the drivers to constitute an employer-employee relationship...

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Sep 5, 2014

TRUCKERS' TURN TIMES * USA: Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports

* California - Trucker turn times measurement is flawed, consultant says
(Photo: Pier T Hoot Gate)
Santa Barbara,CAL,USA -JOC, by Bill Mongelluzzo -Sep 03, 2014: -- Truckers in Los Angeles-Long Beach have complained for years that turn times are lousy — oftentimes two hours or longer. Marine terminal operators are adamant that the average turn time is less than one hour. Transportation consultant Val Noronha says both claims are accurate; it’s the measurement that’s flawed... “There’s a problem with this,” said Noronha, who is president of Digital Geographic Research in Santa Barbara, California. “Average’ is not the appropriate statistic,” he said... Noronha has studied turn times in Los Angeles-Long Beach for the past five years. His studies confirm what terminal operators have been saying. The majority of truck visits, in fact, last an hour or less... However, the average turn time in the harbor means nothing to the growing number of truckers who spend two hours or longer to complete their transactions. Noronha’s GPS data for May 2014 show that 22 percent of all the truck visits in Los Angeles-Long Beach took two hours or longer. That is 50 percent higher than four years ago, he said... Although suggested changes such as staggered lunch breaks and an earlier start to the night shift will not solve all of these problems, they would prove to be beneficial for cargo interests, truckers and terminal operators if they significantly reduce the 22 percent of truck visits that take two hours or longer, Noronha said...

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Aug 5, 2014

TRUCKERS COMPLAINS * Canada

* BC - Frustrated Port of Metro Vancouver truckers want government to push companies to comply

Vancouver,BC,CAN -The Canadian Press - 22 July 2014: -- Drivers servicing the country’s largest port urged government on Monday to take swift action against trucking companies, which they say aren’t living up to a deal hammered out last spring to end a strike... More than 1,600 union and non-unionized truckers for Port Metro Vancouver went back to work in late March after negotiating an action plan that promised to improve job conditions... Three months later they’re still not getting paid what’s owed, say representatives who met with two levels of government to request an order-in-council making rates legal and binding for workers across the sector... The truckers say other issues that have yet to be resolved include an oversupply of trucks in the industry, truck licensing problems and a concern the auditing system is not independent from the port... But they also say some improvements have been made, including the payment of more than $1 million in waiting fees and the outfitting of fleets with GPS systems...

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Jul 7, 2014

TRUCKERS´ COMPLAINS * USA: Lawsuit in CAL & Short Drivers in WIS

* California - Southern Cal. port truck drivers loading up on wage-theft cases


(Photo by Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times - Trucks wait in line to take cargo to a pier in the Port of Long Beach)
Los Angeles,CAL,USA -The Los Angeles Times, by Ricardo Lopez -4 July 2014: -- After years of complaining about working conditions, truck drivers who move goods at Southern California's sprawling ports appear to be making headway... Drivers have filed lawsuits and have flooded the state with hundreds of claims alleging that they were improperly classified as independent contractors rather than employees by trucking companies. As contractors, the drivers don't get the kind of overtime, workers' compensation coverage and other guarantees that employees receive... The state labor commissioner's office is examining more than 300 claims for wage theft related to misclassification, a dramatic rise from 2011 when drivers filed only two such complaints. In all, more than 500 complaints were filed in 2012 and 2013... In cases involving 17 trucking companies, the state Department of Industrial Relations has ruled in recent months that nearly 40 drivers were improperly designated as contractors, which denied them significant workplace protections. So far, $4.3 million in back pay and penalties has been awarded to drivers...
* Wisconsin - Short truckers voice their displeasure
(Photo by Rick Romell/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MCT - Lindy Hartsfield-Vasquez makes an adjustment to her truck during a recent stop. As a 5-foot-2-inch woman, she faces challenges when she hits the road) 
Milwaukee,WIS,USA -Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/Philly, by Rick Romell -July 5, 2014: -- Lindy Hartsfield-Vasquez likes trucking... She started in January and likes the independence, the money and the opportunity to crisscross the country with her husband and driving partner, Jose, and their cat, Houdini... She even has a new tractor, a 2014 Freightliner with "all the bells and whistles" ...  But as a 5-foot-2-inch woman, she faces challenges when she hits the road... Turning the crank that lowers or raises the landing legs - the things that support the front end of a trailer when it's standing on its own - can be tough. Same for disengaging the "fifth wheel" that hooks the tractor to the trailer... Linda Caffee is on the Women in Trucking board, and like Hartsfield-Vasquez, she's short. But the two female truckers offered much different perspectives on their rigs... Asked about Hartsfield-Vasquez's account of having trouble seeing over the dash when she lowered her seat enough to comfortably reach the pedals, Aufdemberg said, "That's something that we'll continue to make sure that we're considering each time we make improvements to our trucks" ...

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posted by Unknown @ 5:24 AM  0 comments

Jan 24, 2013

TRUCKING INDUSTRY * WORLDWIDE

* Bahrain / UAE - Causeway truck crisis worsens

(Photo: Gulf Daily News) 
Manama,Bahrain -Trade Arabia -24 Jan 2013: -- Truck chaos near the King Fahad Causeway in Bahrain worsened yesterday as scores of frustrated drivers seeking entry into Saudi Arabia argued with Customs staff at the border, a report said... Some drivers were quoted by the Gulf Daily News, as saying that they have been waiting to be cleared by Bahrain Customs since last week... "We have no place to sit, eat or even go to the toilet as many drivers are literally living on the road," said one driver... He said that Customs staff, who were allegedly rude to drivers, cleared just 10 trucks a day to enter Saudi Arabia - resulting in a backlog of commercial vehicles near the causeway and in nearby Janabiya...

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Mar 25, 2011

TRUCKERS' COMPLAIN * Canada - Trucking firms, drivers debate flying rock dangers

Trucking companies:  Rocks flying off the backs of trucks and striking car windshields don't add up


Ottawa,CAN -CBC News -Mar 24, 2011: ...   Nearly a week after an Ottawa woman's terrifying near-miss on a west-end road, in which a rock smashed her windshield and showered her with shards of glass, truckers are saying their loads can rarely be faulted in such incidents...  The more likely scenario, companies said, is that a chunk of asphalt or roadside rubble can get lodged between a truck's dual tires and later get flung backwards...  But dozens of motorists who have had their windows struck by rocks beg to differ...  Kyla Helpin was driving north on Carp Road near McGee Side Road last Friday when she said a "baseball-sized" rock fell from a passing dump truck and shattered the windshield in front of her face...  Jason Birch, a father of two, was killed in an eerily similar incident last October...  Tracy Braun was unequivocal about what happened to her when she was working as a first-aid attendant for a construction company...   "It literally came straight at me," she said. "Definitely, it came off the truck. There was no doubt about it. I saw it coming right at me" ...    (Photo by Kyla Helpin - A rock shattered the top of the windshield of Kyla Helpin's car last Friday)

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Feb 26, 2011

TRUCKERS' COMPLAIN * USA - CARB Dumps On Dump Truck Industry

"It’s hard to read or write anything about CARB without becoming angry"

Sacramento,CAL,USA -Calwatchdog -Feb 23, 2011: -- For Lee Brown, who’s run a dump truck company in Upland for the last 20 years, business is as bad as it has ever been. The construction industry in California is half of what it was three years ago, and credit is tight for those small companies still hanging on... The $650 million agency (CARB) is a behemoth, responsible for all the state’s pollution and global warming regulations, which it enforces with all the subtlety and kindness of a barroom brawler. Even the revelation that one of its own pollution researchers had falsified his credentials didn’t phase the agency, which received no official sanction... In any case, the new CARB regulation in question imposes tough new pollution standards on all diesel vehicles in the state. It also levies the same steep fines on anyone found out of compliance that CARB observers have come to know and love... According to Brown, who is also executive director the 70-year-old California Dump Truck Owners Association (CDTOA), membership three years ago stood at 1,700 companies. Today it’s about 900, 60 percent of which are small, independent owner-operators. If the rule goes into effect, Brown said it could destroy virtually all of the small business operators... Brown says a truck manufacturer recently told him that the price of a new truck has already gone up $18,000 to take into account the mandatory new pollution equipment. And that’s a year before the rule actually goes into effect. All of this adds up to considerably higher prices charged by dump truck operators. It’s a grim picture of an already grim industry... (Photo from inetgiant.com: A Peterbilt dump truck)

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posted by Unknown @ 12:42 PM  0 comments

Jan 8, 2011

TRUCKING COSTS * USA - LA Harbor Commission Closes Clean-Truck Loopholes

Port bans tricks by some motor carriers that circumvent regulations

Los Angeles,CAL,USA -The Journal of Commerce Online, by Bill Mongelluzzo -Dec 16, 2010: -- The Los Angeles Harbor Commission Thursday voted to prohibit two practices some motor carriers deploy to circumvent the port's clean-truck regulations... Class 7 trucks will now be governed by the same clean-air rules that apply to the larger Class 8 trucks... Also, the commission modified its tariff so that switching containers from compliant trucks to banned trucks is banned anywhere in the harbor district. This practice is known as dray-off... The California Air Resources Board, whose regulations apply throughout the state, is scheduled on Dec. 16 to consider amending its Drayage Truck Rule to include regulation of Class 7 trucks and to address the dray-off issue... (Photo from wantai.net: Class 7 Fuso truck)


* California - Truckers say L.A.'s 'green' port costs them money. The dispute over who should pay for leasing and maintaining 'clean' rigs could go to the Supreme Court

Los Angeles,CAL,USA - The Los Angeles Times, by Patrick J. McDonnell -December 7, 2010: -- Alex Mejia said he often sleeps in his truck, grabbing some fitful rest before a new dawn breaks and he is once again hauling cargo at the Port of Los Angeles. The routine marks another working day that, he says, could last 18 hours, much of it spent waiting — for a job order, a load, an operational trailer chassis — before getting back on the road... He is among about 10,000 drivers who provide a lifeline at the nation's busiest port complex, hauling containers from the seaport to far-flung warehouses and distribution centers for clients ranging from small firms to giants such as Wal-Mart, Costco and Rite Aid. Many say they have long endured extended hours, high stress and relatively low pay, even in the days when business boomed with galloping multibillion-dollar commerce with Asia... Life was supposed to get better for them with the coming of the city's much-ballyhooed Clean Truck Program, which is widely credited with helping to upgrade air quality... The concept — to replace smog-spawning clunkers with newer and cleaner rigs — promised to slash emissions and offer a new deal for beleaguered port truckers, many of them immigrants from Mexico and Central America... "Things were ba enough when we owned our trucks, but I would say the situation is desperate now," said Mejia, who ditched his 1995 Freightliner and now leases a "clean" 2008 International. "We're all happy that the air is cleaner. We live here too. But it is our sweat, our work, that is helping to improve the environment" ... "This program has been a great deception to us," said Jose Mauricio Guzman, 54, who has more than 20 years of port trucking experience. "We no longer have hope to be in the middle class. We are all poor now"...

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posted by Unknown @ 8:18 AM  0 comments

Nov 29, 2010

TRUCKER CLAIMS * USA - He was fired for refusing to break downtime laws

Gaston man says he lost his job when he refused to break those rules

Gaston,SC,USA -10WISTV, by Jack Kuenzie -Nov 18, 2010: -- The trucking industry is a critical component of the American economy.  But drivers of the big rigs have to follow rules set by the government, and a Gaston man says he lost his job when he refused to break those rules... Victor Harris took a few minutes Thursday afternoon to play with a new addition to his family, but he has more time on his hands than he'd prefer. Until he lost his job this summer, Harris had spent seven years developing the considerable skills of a long haul trucker... Harris says it's not easy to make a living driving big rigs.  It was even harder for him pressure from his employer to deliver cargo long distances on schedule and still comply with federal regulations that require all drivers to rest after being on the road for a certain number of hours... Harris says a few months ago, the Columbia-based company he was driving for gave him an assignment that was impossible without violating the law. When he insisted on taking the legally required downtime, he was in effect laid off... Harris is planning a lawsuit against his former employer. His attorney said some of the practices her client describes are "rampant" in the trucking industry...


* Welcome worn out for obscure fatigue ‘statistic’

Grain Valley,MO,USA -Land Line Magazine, by Joe Rajkovacz (OOIDA director of regulatory affairs) -24 Nov 2010: ...   The notion that “31 percent of all heavy truck accidents [are] caused by driver fatigue” has any validity is a form of urban myth or, more suitably, a road rumor that took on a life of its own as it has been continually repeated... The 31 percent number comes from an obscure NTSB Safety Study conducted back in 1988... Suffice it to say that study was not a scientifically based, statistically valid examination of general fatigue among truckers, but it’s been artfully elevated to that level. The bogus 31 percent number from that study is repeated by many who want to mandate expensive on-board safety technologies (or worse) under the guise that fatigued driving is an epidemic... Just how significant is fatigue amongst truck drivers? There are reliable statistics that accurately report on the prevalence of fatigue in fatal crashes among truck drivers. They come from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System. Those numbers were publicly communicated on Sept. 30, 2010, in a webinar hosted by FMCSA titled: 2009 – Historic Truck Crash Declines. The number is 1.4 percent... There is a big difference between 1.4 percent and 31 percent. Excuse my cynicism, but why do supposedly responsible organizations like to rely on false or bad statistics to support hammering away at truckers?... Follow the money. Beating up unfairly on truckers is big business. Perpetuating the “big bad trucker” stereotype is being used to justify more onerous and costly mandates and regulations, more roadside enforcement and – of course – grabbing more taxpayer money...

* DC - HOS remains under review at Office of Management and Budget

Washington,DC,USA -Land Line Magazine, by Jami Jones -29 Nov 2010: -- The proposed hours-of-service regulations remain at the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, but it should not affect the agency’s ability to have a final rule completed by mid-2011... The plan was for the White House to finish review of the regulation on Friday, Nov. 26. However, that was just the plan, and it’s not uncommon for reviews to miss their targeted completion date. The continuing review does not mean the journey toward new HOS regs has been derailed...

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posted by Unknown @ 6:28 PM  0 comments

Sep 25, 2010

TRUCKERS' STORIES * USA - National Truck Driver Appreciation Week

* Virginia - ATA Recognizes Professional Truck Drivers

Arlington,VA,USA -Earth Times -Sept. 20, 2010: -- The American Trucking Associations is taking this week to honor the 3.4 million professional truck drivers that deliver America's freight safely and securely everyday... "Professional truck drivers deliver our nation's essential freight safely everyday," said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves. "As a result of this commitment, our nation's highways are the safest they have ever been, and our grocery shelves are stocked. We as a nation owe a great deal to the truck drivers out on our nation's roads everyday" ... During this National Truck Driver Appreciation Week Sept. 19-25, ATA and its state affiliates will mark the celebration by holding events across the nation...


* Wiscosin - Trucker forced to leave dock for questioning company’s bathroom policy. “Nobody wants us around, but they want us to haul their freight” he said

Owen,WI,USA -Land Line Magazine, by Clarissa Kell-Holland -September 24, 2010: -- A simple request to use the bathroom at a food packaging plant recently led to one trucker being asked to drop his trailer at the dock – and leave the premises... Erwin Page of Owen, WI, told Land Line that he arrived around 4 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 16, at the Ring Container Technologies food packaging facility in St. Joseph, MO... He backed into the dock and went to bed for a few hours. Around 8:30 a.m., he said he went inside the facility and asked an office employee if he could use the bathroom... “I was told that drivers weren’t allowed inside to use the facilities, but I explained that there weren’t any Port-a-Potties or anything outside for drivers to use either,” he said. “I was told to just go back outside and pee behind my trailer by the dock, like everybody else does” ... Eventually, Page said he was allowed to use the restroom in the office after he asked to speak to the higher-ups about the company’s policy. However, not long after the incident, and after he contacted his dispatcher about what happened, Page received a phone call from his dispatcher that the facility had called and said he was “no longer welcome” at Ring’s facility... Another driver had to pick up Page’s trailer and deliver it to him at a nearby truck stop... For Page, he said it was an ordeal he won’t soon forget... “Nobody wants us around, but they want us to haul their freight,” he said. “It’s like drivers being treated like dogs” ... (Photo Ring Containers Technologies Little Rock Plant - One Industrial Park Rd. -Oakland,TN,USA)

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posted by Unknown @ 3:41 PM  0 comments

Jul 24, 2010

DRIVER FATIGUES * USA - Weary truckers pose a highway threat

"My fixed cost doesn't allow me to run legal ... I sleep four hours a night. It isn't out of choice. It's finances"...

Minneapolis,MINN,USA -The Star Tribune, by JIM SPENCER -July 22, 2010: -- Before he crashed his semitrailer truck in a midday accident that killed two people, Jason Styrbicky had been driving all night... The I-35 accident and others in Minnesota recently are renewing questions about truck driver inattention and distraction, as well as the role fatigue plays in each. But when the vehicle is an 80,000-pound semitrailer, losing focus becomes especially deadly... Since 2005, when the U.S. Department of Transportation reduced driving time and increased hours off between shifts, the number of people killed in big truck crashes nationwide shrank steadily, from 5,240 in 2005 to 4,229 in 2008... Fatigue drives regulatory debates, including whether to impose driving restrictions. Experts differ on whether pay based on miles or deliveries tempts truckers to drive dangerously or stay behind the wheel longer than rules allow...
At the Big Steer, a truck owner-operator begged to differ. "I don't get paid while I'm sitting waiting to load and unload," said the man, who asked that his name not be printed. "Drivers put themselves at risk driving fast to make stops" ... (Photo by Renee Jones Schneider/The Star Tribune: Big Steer truck stop)

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posted by Unknown @ 10:18 AM  0 comments

Dec 20, 2009

TRUCKERS' CLAIM * USA - Tolls will hurt truckers and, thus, consumers in the Bay Area

MTC wants to increase the toll on trucks by 200 percent to 300 percent

Oakland,CAL,USA -The Contra Costa Times, by John Yandell (owner of Yandell Trucking in Oakland) -19 Dec 2009: ... Trucks are only 2 percent of the traffic on the bridges, so does that increase to our industry not seem out of line in today's economic climate? The trucking industry is already laden with devastating regulations from the California Air Resources Board on emissions. Everyone in the industry supports clean air and minimizing their carbon footprint, but the issue we have is the timing to comply is to stringent... At the end of the day, who is going to pay for these dramatic increase on the bridges? The consumers of course... I went to all four public hearings on this issue, and the attendance by the public was very poor. So if they are going to rally before the vote in January, they better get going... (Photo from wikipedia: San Francisco's bridge at night)

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posted by Unknown @ 6:50 AM  0 comments

Dec 3, 2009

TRUCKERS' CLAIMS * USA - Trucking Industry and Politics

USA -Ask the Trucker, by Aubrey Allen Smith -27 Nov 2009: ... Many veteran drivers have written me and they often begin in the same way: “The trucking industry is the most corrupt industry”... I hear all the time that nothing will change in the over the road trucking industry, yet I am already seeing change of a positive note. Companies are “cleaning up” their terminals and buildings to present a more professional look . . . several companies are taking a closer and harder look at their driver trainer programs and more and more newcomers to the industry are learning about the scams of the DAC Report, CDL Schools and trucking companies committing fraud with the U.S. Government subsidy programs. More drivers are coming together and are no longer just talking about these things among themselves . . . it is being brought forth through other websites, blogs, article directories and trucking talk radio shows, even being heard on various satellite radio stations. For the first time that I can recall . . . these issues within the OTR trucking industry are being openly discussed and being noticed and taken seriously... But we still have a long way to go... (Image courtesy of Daly Road Graphics & Ray Smith)

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posted by Unknown @ 11:29 AM  0 comments