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May 11, 2009

TRUCKING INDUSTRY NEWS * USA

* Covey Transport, Alerts Truckers to New U.S. Coast Guard Security Clearance Requirements TWIC Clearance Cards Regulations Enforced

Houston,TX,USA -Marketwire/PR Inside -1 May 2009 -- Houston trucking company: Covey Transport confirms that Transportation Workers Identification Credentials (TWIC) are now mandatory in the state of Texas... TWIC is a common identification credential for all personnel requiring unescorted access to secure areas of MTSA-regulated facilities and vessels, and all mariners holding Coast Guard-issued credentials. Individuals meeting TWIC eligibility requirements will be issued a tamper-resistant credential containing the worker's biometric (fingerprint template) to allow for a positive link between the card and the individual... (Photo: coveytransport)


* Trucking businesses fined for emissions violations - "The companies neglected annual smoke tests on their trucks"

Banning,CAL,USA -My Desert -May 9, 2009: -- Two Banning trucking companies were slapped with fines totaling $7,500 for failing to ensure their fleets met California's emissions standards, state officials announced Friday... Desert Materials Transportation and Terra Trucking Company Inc. were each assessed $2,750 in penalties for not conducting diesel fleet inspections required by the California Air Resources Board... According to ARB spokeswoman, Karen Caesar, the companies neglected annual smoke tests on their trucks to ensure the vehicles are “properly maintained and free from excessive smoke emissions.”... (Photo from farm2.static.flickr)

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Apr 8, 2009

Stowaways * UK - Cost hauliers and drivers £1.5m in fines

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) collected more than £1.5m in fines during 2008 from HGV drivers and hauliers caught carrying stowaways into Britain

London,UK -Road Transport, by Joanna Bourke -3 April 2009: -- Over 1,700 penalties were imposed on those "trying to smuggle illegal immigrants into the UK", the agency has revealed... Fines were only collected in cases where the company did not have an effective system in place and the drivers did not operate a system in line with the UKBA's Prevention of Clandestine Entry: Code of Practice... Agency head Brodie Clark highlights the ports of Calais and Dunkirk and rest stops in Belgium as hotspots for stowaways trying to enter trucks... The maximum combined fine per stowaway is £4,000. UKBA adds that it will pursue all unpaid debts...

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Apr 3, 2009

HIGHEST Traffic Ticket * USA - Overweight truck stuck on Route 378 in Bethlehem for three weeks

Bethlehem,PENN,USA -Le High Valley Live, by JD MALONE -April 02, 2009: -- A truck hauling a 213,000-pound steel cylinder sat idle on Route 378 for almost three weeks -- and earned its driver a whopping fine due to a lack of proper permits, police said... The truck and trailer, bright red and more than 160 feet long, was headed for a grinding and polishing shop in Allentown on March 12 when it tipped while turning right from West Fourth Street onto Route 378, police said... The trailer, a tarp snug over the load, sat on the highway shoulder until Wednesday when, with new permits and a state police exit, the truck completed its trip... But not before police tagged the driver, James Stephenson, 48, of Middletown, Ohio, and owner Guy M. Turner Inc., of Greensboro, N.C., with a $37,554.54 ticket for being overweight... (Photo from cache.daylife.com)

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Jan 15, 2009

MORE FINES * USA - Antelope Valley truckers upset by stepped-up parking enforcement

Residents' complaints about illegal big rig parking are on the rise, but truckers say the decades-old regulations are unfair

Los Angeles,CAL,USA -The Los Angeles Times, by Ann M. Simmons -January 15, 2009: -- For more than 20 years, Tom Fidger has parked his big rig and trailers in the backyard of his home in the rural northern L.A. County town of Littlerock... According to Fidger, there was rarely a complaint... But a recent surge in complaints over illegal truck parking in the southeast Antelope Valley communities of Littlerock and Sun Village has led to increased enforcement of decades-old parking regulations... Many local truckers argue that the regulations are overly restrictive, and they feel they are being unfairly targeted for citations... (Photo by Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times - Trucker Scott Sterner moved to Littlerock, Calif., after encountering problems parking his big rig elsewhere in Los Angeles County. Now, Antelope Valley residents' complaints about illegally parked trucks are increasing, posing problems for truckers who live there)


* Indiana to Close Some Rest Areas

IND,USA -The Truck Line Express -124 Jan 2009: -- Indiana Department of Transportation plans to close a handful of rest areas in the state in January and could realize a savings of more than a million dollars a year as a result... Of course, that budget paring initiative is expected to impact truckers who face a limited number of safe and secure places to get a night’s rest... State officials have not made a list of the number of spaces that will be lost. The savings will be used to shore up shrinking state revenues... (Photo by Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times - Tom Fidger is one of many truckers to complain about the stepped-up enforcement of decades-old parking regulations in the Antelope Valley communities of Littlerock and Sun Village)

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FINES * USA - Traffic tickets: protect and serve or protect and profit?

... found was that there was a direct correlation between “hidden taxes” through the use of traffic tickets and times when local budgets are bleeding red ink...

NC,USA -Land Line Magazine , by Clarissa Kell-Holland -January 14, 2009: -- ... Thomas Garrett’s , an assistant vice president at the St. Louis Federal Reserve, and co-author Gary A. Wagner, an economist at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, set out to conduct an empirical study based on financial statistics they found online for local governments in North Carolina over a 14-year period. The economists also had online access to local governments’ traffic ticket statistics during this period... What their study, titled “Red Ink in the Rearview Mirror,” found was that there was a direct correlation between “hidden taxes” through the use of traffic tickets and times when local budgets are bleeding red ink. Garrett said what’s also interesting to note is that the number of traffic tickets doesn’t go back down during good economic times... “When revenues fall off, these municipalities scramble. And writing tickets is one way they can offset those costs,” OOIDA Executive Vice President Todd Spencer said. “Unfortunately, this is just another hidden tax drivers incur”...


* CARB ticketing truckers for violating five-minute idling limit

California truck stop visitors, beware – the California Air Resources Board is aggressively pursuing drivers who idle diesel trucks beyond the state’s five-minute limit

CAL,USA -Land Line Masgazine -January 14, 2009: -- ... Several truck drivers have reported to Land Line Now and Land Line Magazine that CARB enforcement officers have been watching truck stops in Barstow and Ontario, CA.. The enforcement officer is using an unmarked pickup truck to watch trucks idle, OOIDA members Larry “Trucking dad” and Tammy “Nightingale” Moseley of Nineveh, IN, told Land Line... The Moseleys – who make regular runs to California – use an APU to avoid fines... “They weren’t messing with people running APU units,” Tammy Moseley said...


* Cold Takes a Toll on Trucks and Truckers

Green Bay,WI,USA -WBAY, by Adam Aaro -Jan 15, 2009: -- The freezing temperatures can put a real hurt not only on truckers but also on their diesel vehicles. That has many truckers keeping their keys in the ignition... At a truck stop off Highway 172, William Storrow parked his rig for the night... "When it's this cold, I don't want to leave the house, but I had to, you know?" laughed Storrow, a driver from Mansfield, Ohio... No matter what the description, Storrow knows the devastating impact sub-zero temperatures can have on his livelihood... Many of the trucks at the truck stop had their engines running -- and they'll continue running through the night into the cold morning hours. The reason why, unless you have an additive in your diesel fuel, you're taking a chance the truck might not start... Truckers say diesel fuel can gel up when it gets this cold, which puts the brakes on their travel... (SEE VIDEO: Too Cold for Trucks, Truckers)

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Oct 2, 2008

FINES * USA- CARB againsts Bimbo Bakeries, $300,000 for skirting air quality regs

CARB announced last week that Bimbo Bakeries would pay $305,250 in fines for air quality violations

CAL,USA -Land Line Magazine -September 29, 2008: -- California’s air quality agency has put the state’s diesel fleets on notice: CARB isn’t messing around... CARB announced last week that Bimbo Bakeries would pay $305,250 in fines for air quality violations in 2006 and 2007... Officials with CARB said that Bimbo Bakeries – part of the Grupo Bimbo international bakery company – didn’t test its diesel trucks for excess emissions at the company’s 58 fleet facilities in California... All businesses – including large conglomerates – that operate in California must adhere to clean-air laws,” said Mary Nichols, CARB chairwoman. “Businesses stand to lose money, customers and good will if they skirt air quality laws"...

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Aug 31, 2008

PENALTIES * UK - Hauliers' appeals cut stowaway penalties

London,UK -Motor Transport/The Road Transport, by Chris Tindall -27 August 2008: -- Operators are successfully defending stowaway fines after Home Office figures obtained by MT through the Freedom of Information Act show that the average penalty notice is well below the £4,000 maximum... The most up-to-date figures show that during 2007/08, 2,085 penalty notices were served on hauliers and lorry drivers found transporting clandestine entrants into the UK. However, the revenue raised was £1.6m, which equates to an average fine of just £790. The Home Office can charge a maximum of £4,000 per stowaway found: £2000 for the operator and £2,000 for the driver... The figures were even worse in 2006/07, where an average £614 fine was raised for the 2,026 penalty notices issued. It has prompted the Road Haulage Association (RHA) to question why the government's system is such that hauliers can defend fines and have them reduced to around 80% of their original value... Peter Cullum, the RHA's head of international affairs, says the figures suggest that security procedures, or rather the lack of them outside the Channel ports, are allowing hauliers to mount credible defences against Home Office fines. He is now calling for changes in the law to take account of haulier experiences in the real world...

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Jul 15, 2008

HEAVY FINES * USA - $10k fines for, at NY bridges, tunnels

New York,NY,USA -Newsday (Long Island,NY) -July 14, 2008: -- Truck drivers carrying overweight loads are risking heavy fines if they try to cross New York City's bridges and tunnels.. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Bridges and Tunnels division says truck drivers carrying more than 80,000 pounds can be fined as much as $10,000 each for crossing MTA facilities... Overweight vehicles stress roadway pavements and decks. The extra weight accelerates wear and tear, making repairs more costly and frequent. The Bridges and Tunnels division says it recently has issued more than 100 summonses per month to overweight trucks, some as heavy as 200,000 pounds.

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Feb 19, 2008

Traffic Fines * Canada - No more dodging in Saskatchewan

Regina,Sask,CAN -Truck News, by James Menzies -14 Feb 2008: -- The province of Saskatchewan has reached a deal with Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to withhold income tax refunds and GST rebates from drivers who have unpaid traffic fines in the province... The partnership takes effect this tax season and applies to all fines laid under provincial statutes that are payable to the province. CRA will garnish the returns for any outstanding fines under the deal, the province has announced... Saskatchewan has also established a new Fine Collection branch to get tough on drivers who don't pay their traffic fines...

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Nov 28, 2007

Diesel Truck Emissions * USA - Waste Management pays CARB $1 million for

The California Air Resources Board continues to collect fines related to diesel truck emissions

Sacramento,CAL,USA -Land Line Magazine, by Charlie Morasch -November 26, 2007: -- ... CARB recently collected more than $1 million from Waste Management Inc. for failing to inspect its diesel truck fleet... According to Waste Management Inc.’s Web site, the company claims to have the largest fleet of heavy-duty trucks in the waste movement industry... California’s Periodic Smoke Inspection Program requires annual smoke opacity tests for California-based truck fleets... According to the agency’s Web site, CARB collected $1 million in fines from trucking companies in all of 2006, and had levied more than $1 million during the first six months of this year alone...

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Aug 13, 2007

* USA - N.H. fines less punitive for overweight trucks

Concord,NH,USA -boston.com -August 12, 2007: -- New Hampshire officials say the state's low fines for overweight trucks do little to curtail heavy loads, which cause long-term damage to bridges and highways... New Hampshire also fines overweight truckers less than other New England states, they say... The state's fine for exceeding the weight limit -- no matter by how much -- is $100 plus a $20 court fee...

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