Truck Parking Availability Issue Worsens Amid E-Commerce Boom, Lack of Funding

February 24, 2022 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

“There isn’t a day that goes by that a parking issue doesn’t come up, whether it is a driver that can’t find a place to park, or a customer won’t let them park,” said vice president of safety for Cargo Transporters, Shawn Brown.

Truck parking has remained a major issue for the entire trucking industry, an issue that has been significantly worsened by the coronavirus-induced boost in nationwide e-commerce. Additionally, a lack of parking funding in city areas, as well as various municipal mandates, have made the problem as severe as ever.

Hopefully, shipper solutions, technology-based methods, and private and public investments will help to ease the issue, some industry experts say.

“It is one of these issues that is going to be right there in our [faces] until we make a truly concerted effort to do something,” said senior vice president of the American Transportation Research Institute, Dan Murray. “There are no short-term solutions to fix it.”

Parking concerns worsen the closer a trucker is to a densely-populated, urban region, noted president of C.R. England, Brandon Harrison, as these areas see the most freight traffic.

“Late afternoon and evening hours continue to be some of the most challenging times for drivers to find parking availability,” he said.

The steep incline in e-commerce is pushing demand towards larger cities, which has exacerbated parking capacity issues–as has land costs and zoning restrictions, said ATRI research associate, Alexandra Shirk. States have continued to end up “on the other side of the fence when it comes to fighting or enhancing the truck parking opportunities,” added Murray.

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s director of enforcement programs, William Elovirta, also chimed in, noting that urban planning development has begun focusing on parking space reduction in recent years.

“I don’t think we’re seeing a huge effort on the local and state [levels] for an organized push for truck parking in the same sense of the other priorities,” he explained.

Many industry members have been lamenting the idea that even though both the public and the government see the need to improve the nation’s bridges and roads, truck parking is often overlooked. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act initially allocated $1 billion toward parking funding, but the funding was ultimately dropped from the measure. Once the legislation officially passed, truck parking funding was not included.

“There is discretionary funding available that can be put toward trucking parking solutions,” added Shirk, who notes that it now seems parking funding is in competition with that of bridge and road projects.

The state of Minnesota expects around a 30% increase in federal funding from the infrastructure bill, and the Minnesota Trucking Association is currently advocating for funds to finally be allocated to truck parking capability, said the association’s president, John Hausladen.

“We’re hopeful that at least there is a pool to work with, but the fact that truck parking was not designated in any of those funds means it continues to battle with every other need,” he explained.

Additionally, cities like Minneapolis have been banning parking in residential streets, which can make matters even worse than they already are, Hasladen added.

“As a highly populated urban center, there isn’t a lot of available land to just create truck parking without some sort of incentives or government support that move it forward,” he said.

The trucking industry has actually begun looking toward private and public parking options alike, noted ATRI’s Murray.

“In a perfect world, we’d have perfect collaboration where the public sector helps the private sector expand capacity and manage capacity,” he noted.

Individual states should also start looking into methods of lowering private sector costs in regards to expanding or building designated truck parking areas–this may include land acquisition, maintenance assistance, or specific tax incentives, according to Tiffany Wlazlowski Neuman, the vice president of public affairs at truck and travel stop industry-representing trade association, Natso.

Natso also recommends that regulators begin actively exploring the potential effects of any new legislation on truck parking, such as the ELD mandate, which brought major changes to when truckers drive and when they park, as well as to the overall utilization of available truck parking.

Truckers Receive Live Traffic Alerts Through New Software in New Jersey, North Carolina

February 23, 2022 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Through a collaboration between Intelligent Imaging Systems, its subsidiary Drivewyze Inc., and INRIX transportation and data analytics firm, New Jersey is now offering a new method of warning truck drivers about any possible safety issues along a 600-mile highway stretch across the state.

“We’ve partnered with Drivewyze and INRIX to develop a real-time traffic alert system for commercial vehicle drivers,” said the New Jersey Department of Transportation in a tweet. “This program is designed to help reduce commercial vehicle crashes on New Jersey state highways.”

According to NJDOT, a fully loaded tractor-trailer needs about 66% more time to stop at an average speed than a passenger car, and rear-end crashes involving a vehicle stopped in line behind one initial crash tend to be common in secondary interstate incidents.

“The ability to alert commercial vehicle drivers to unexpected traffic conditions will improve safety for everyone driving on New Jersey’s highways,” said commissioner of NJDOT, Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti. “By warning drivers of congestion that is miles ahead, drivers of large commercial vehicles will have the extra time needed to safely slow down.”

Truck drivers will be able to receive alerts two to three miles ahead of an accident or slow down in traffic through Drivewyze’s app or in-cab alert technology. This kind of warning system will help truckers more easily avoid secondary crashes by giving them enough time to prepare to stop.

These drivers will be sent necessary notifications as they operate vehicles throughout New Jersey, including in areas such as the New Jersey Turnpike, the Atlantic City Expressway, Garden State Parkway, and other various highways. The notifications will include warnings for runaway ramps and mountain corridor steep grades, upcoming slow downs–especially when dangerous curves are involved, and signals when approaching a low bridge.

IIHS noted that both North Carolina and New Jersey’s Departments of Transportation utilized participation in the Eastern Transportation Coalition’s Traffic Data Marketplace to be able to implement Drivewyze’s systems into their state’s commercial motor vehicles.

“The New Jersey Motor Truck Association applauds the efforts to provide advance safety alerts to commercial truck drivers via Drivewyze,” said Gail Toth, executive director. “These efforts will help to keep our workplace–the highways–safer for all.”

The alert software has been successful, according to NCDOT’s public relations officer, Andrew Barksdale, who noted that more than 42,000 sudden slow down and congestion notifications have been sent to North Carolina Drivewyze users over the last four months. The states’ DOT is working to analyze the system’s overall safety benefits, as well.

Additionally, over the last few months, Drivewyze underwent a beta test by IIS to monitor safety alerts sent to the system’s users. In New Jersey, 104,000 alerts were released for 14,000 incidents, and 38,000 alerts were released in North Carolina for 7,000 incidents.

“Incidents in this case are either based on congestion (sustained traffic on a road segment for at least three minutes) or sudden slowdowns (temporary queue backups),” said Drivewyze spiderman, Doug Siefkes. “The queue backups could be for any reason: accidents, lane closures in work zones, [or] weather conditions.”

These alerts have an ability to bring significant safety boosts to North Carolina, New Jersey, and any other state which utilizes the software, said director of global communications for INRIX, Mark Burfeind.

Additionally, a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation crash-detection study used live traffic data from INRIX and Waze to crowdsource data from Waze’s connected users; the study found early on that this data outperformed data collected by Traffic Management Center employees, finding 86.7% of all reportable crashes in the state’s roadway network.

The study also found that work-zone and secondary crashes in heavy traffic congestion typically brought about more motorist injuries than other reportable crashes, and 46% of secondary crashes took place at least an hour after the initial crash.

The report explained: “The location of these crashes was of particular interest, with 32% of work-zone crashes and 49% of secondary crashes occurring more than two miles back from the origin point of congestion.”

Tesla’s Autopilot at Center of Fatal Crash, What Does This Mean for Driver Assist Tech?

February 22, 2022 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

We recently reported on two influential groups changing the way vehicles are rated by focusing on the safety of those with partially automated driver-assist systems. Now, these scores will incorporate these updates for all new vehicle models, starting in 2022, that utilize such technology. These changes come as prosecutors in California file two counts of vehicular manslaughter against a driver who ran a red light and killed two people while operating a Tesla on Autopilot in 2019.

The charges, which were initially filed in October, seem to be the first involving a felony against a driver using any partially automated driving technology in the United States. The 27-year-old driver, Kevin George Aziz Riad, pleaded not guilty.

Tesla’s autopilot system helps control speed, braking, and steering, and its misuse has been the underlying cause of various crashes and investigations. Although other criminal charges regarding automated driving systems have taken place, this case marks the first charge involving a commonly-used driver assist system.

In the U.S., there are currently 765,000 Tesla vehicles with the Autopilot system implemented onboard–a stark contrast from the tech involved in the charge of negligent homicide in 2020 involving an Uber driver who had been helping to test fully autonomous vehicles on public roads.

The recent Tesla crash involves much more widely-used technology, which is a major concern for transportation safety advocates. In the incident, a Tesla Model S was driving quickly when it exited a freeway, ran a red light in Los Angeles, and hit a Honda Civic at an intersection in Gardena. The driver and passenger in the Civic died immediately, while Riad and his passenger were hospitalized due to their injuries.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had sent investigators to the crash, and in January 2022, confirmed the use of Tesla’s Autopilot system as being utilized at the time of the incident. Riad’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for tomorrow.

Drivers’ overconfidence in driver assist systems has been at the center of many crashes–including deadly ones. Because of this, the National Transportation Safety Board, along with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, have been reviewing Autopilot’s misuse and consider it to be “automation complacency.”

“I think we are a lot further away from self-driving cars than tech companies and commercials would like us to believe,” said Levinson and Stefani’s Jay Stefani. “That said, there is a lot of great safety technology out there to assist drivers. Lane drift alarms, blind spot detectors, active forward collision avoidance systems, and back-up cameras and alarms are all examples of technology that has saved lives.”

According to Consumer Reports and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, studies have shown drivers often rely too heavily on their automated systems and pay little attention to alerts. Advertising for vehicles with these programs on board typically overexaggerate the systems’ abilities, as well.

Tesla’s autopilot system was launched in 2015, and in 2018, a Tesla driver died in a collision with a freeway barrier in Mountain View, California. According to the NTSB, the driver was allowing the system to operate while he or she played a mobile game.

“Keeping drivers focused on the road and the vehicle is critical for the safe use of partially automated driving systems,” said the president of IIHS, David Harkey.

Drivers often equate partially automated systems with self-driving vehicles, although no self-driving vehicles are available to consumers. When a driver ignores the monitor systems of a vehicle, their driving may be more dangerous than if they had been operating a vehicle without a partially automated system, Harkey noted.

“There are studies that go back probably 80 years that show humans are pretty bad about just watching automation happen,” said Jake Fisher, senior director of Consumer Reports’ Auto Test Center. “It’s just too easy to get bored and let your attention wander.”

Tesla has responded to these issues by working to update its automated driving software to be able to more easily deter misuse, as well as to improve its Autopilot’s capacity to detect emergency vehicles.

FMCSA Relaxes Vision Regulations for Monocular Truckers

February 18, 2022 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

New vision standards will relax previous requirements mandating that truckers with inadequate vision in one eye must seek an exemption from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

The agency announced the new rule late last month, which will now allow commercial drivers “who do not satisfy, with the worse eye, either the existing distant visual acuity standard with corrective lenses or the field of vision standard, or both, to be physically qualified to operate a commercial motor vehicle in interstate commerce under specific conditions.”

The updated regulation now “enhances employment opportunities while remaining consistent with FMCSA’s safety mission,” the agency added. The new rule will be fully implemented on March 22nd.

“With limited exceptions, individuals physically qualified under the alternative standard for the first time must satisfactorily complete a road test administered by the employing motor carrier before operating a CMV in interstate commerce,” said FMCSA in a federal register post. “This rule eliminates the need for the current federal vision exemption program, as well as the grandfather provision for drivers operating under the previously-administered vision waiver study program.”

The updated standard–which has been changed for the first time since 1998–will bring about a more “collaborative process” to allow a driver to obtain verification; a driver must have a complete optometrist- or ophthalmologist-conducted vision evaluation before he or she can become medically certified under the new standard. Additionally, the doctor must record the evaluation results and offer professional opinions regarding an agency Vision Evaluation Report. Currently, nearly 2,000 truck drivers hold vision exemptions under the previous standards.

The ophthalmologist or optometrist recording these report findings may then offer a driver up to 12 months of a certification period if the driver is found to meet FMCSA’s physical qualification standards and the new vision standard. The driver will need to be evaluated again each subsequent year for renewed qualification.

To make these determinations, examiners are required to take into account the entire Vision Evaluation Report and apply four particular standards using his or her own medical judgment. These standards include that the driver has a stable vision deficiency; has had enough time since the deficiency became stable to adapt to the vision changes; can recognize traffic signal and device colors and see the differences between red, green, and amber; and have a distant visual acuity of at least 20/40 in his or her stronger eye, with or without corrective lenses, as well as a field of vision that is of at least 70 degrees in the horizontal meridian.

FMCSA is seeking public comment on this final rule by February 22nd, and received 69 comments on the proposed rulemaking notice in 2021. These comments came from drivers, motor carriers, private citizens, healthcare providers, and trade associations. 45 of these comments showed support for the potential regulation change.

“Common reasons cited for supporting the proposal include the following: The evidence shows monocular drivers are safe and have no adverse impact on safety; the rule would remove barriers to entry, create job opportunities, encourage more individuals to enter the workforce, keep experienced drivers and reduce the driver shortage,” said the agency.

Should any safety concern arise from the new rule, FMCSA has claimed that its most prominent counter-argument is that monocular drivers have had no major issues in recent years.

“This could lead one to conclude drivers with monocular vision are as safe as other drivers,” the agency noted. “We remind readers that the data is either absent or conflicting regarding the safety of monocular drivers. With such a small percentage of drivers having monocular vision, this data will continue to be difficult to obtain in a statistically-significant manner.”

FMCSA’s medical review board approved the rule update last year, although it recommended that the policy’s field of vision standard require commercial drivers to have a field of vision of at least 120 degrees.

Roadway Deaths On Incline, DOT Announces New Plan to Make Necessary Changes

February 17, 2022 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

The ‘National Roadway Safety Strategy,’ released last month by the U.S. Department of Transportation, is a new multibillion-dollar plan that will focus on industry priorities such as safer roads, safer vehicles, safer speeds, post-crash care, and overall safer people. This comes as the department is pushing for boosted efforts during “a national crisis in roadway fatalities and serious injuries.”

“We cannot tolerate the continuing crisis of roadway deaths in America,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “These deaths are preventable, and that’s why we’re launching the National Roadway Safety Strategy.”

The Biden Administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will provide funding for this program, Buttigieg noted, explaining that the entire transportation industry, along with the government, will be working together to bring this program to fruition “because every driver, passenger, and pedestrian should be certain that they’re going to arrive at their destination safely, every time.”

Along with the 38-page program strategy, Buttigieg included a letter estimating that around 38,680 Americans died in motor vehicle crashes in 2020, and 20,160 more died in the first half of 2021–an 18.4% increase as compared to the same period in 2020. Additionally, the rural roadway death rate is twice as high than that of urban roads, the program’s strategy outline added.

The major aspects of the program will include methods of leveraging technological advancements as a manner of improving American roadway motor vehicle safety, which will involve automatic emergency braking and pedestrian automatic emergency braking regulations, along with New Car Assessment Program updates; ways to collaborate with both local and state road owners to best maintain and rebuild safer roads through speed limit setting, Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices updates, and manners of providing technical assistance to all communities through a Complete Streets Initiative; and infrastructure bill-funded road safety investments such as the $4 billion Highway Safety Improvement Program funding and the $6 billion Safe Streets and Roads for All program, as well as further funding for behavioral interventions and research.

What safety concern would Levinson and Stefani’s Jay Stefani prefer to see funding for? Side under-ride guards on commercial motor vehicles.

“‘Safety First’ should continue to be the focus of any changes,” he said. “Side under-ride guards would make a difference not only in highway crashes, but also in more urban settings with pedestrian and cyclist crashes. Nearly 90% of truck crashes are due to driver error–and nearly one out of five involve a rear-end collision–so forward-facing collision avoidance systems should be among the first steps.”

The plan will work to bring about strong collaboration from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Federal Highway Administration, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to DOT. $4 billion for the plan’s strategy will be allocated toward improvements in vehicle, behavior, and truck safety programs as well as boosts in crash data.

“People have physical limits for tolerating crash forces before death or serious injury occurs,” said the document outlining the strategy. “Therefore, it is critical to design and operate a transportation system that is human-centric and accommodates physical human vulnerabilities.”

DOT acknowledged that both human vulnerability and mistakes come into play in regards to overall roadway safety, and notes that the plan will work to create a “redundant system” to keep drivers and passengers as safe as possible.

“Reducing risks requires that all parts of the transportation system be strengthened, so that if one part fails, the other parts still protect people,” said the department.

The strategy’s ‘safe system approach’ will aim to bring roadway design that will help to circumvent common human mistakes, and will expand features working to prevent crashes and their impacts.

“We are pleased to see DOT moving forward with a comprehensive national strategy to address highway safety that focuses on all roadway users, given that a high majority of fatal crashes involving trucks are caused by passenger vehicles,” said Dan Horvath, vice president of safety policy for American Trucking Associations. “We look forward to the implementation of many safety provisions included in the bipartisan infrastructure bill that pertain to trucking, including working with FMCSA and other stakeholders to further study the causes of truck-involved crashes and determine the best approach to reducing them.”

CDL Testing Processes Becoming Less Restricted in Effort to Ease Driver Shortage

February 16, 2022 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

A variety of actions are in the works to speed up the commercial driver licensing process by streamlining credentialing steps for new truckers.

Regulators have been updating guidelines as two bills are introduced in Congress; the Licensing Individual Commercial Exam-takers Efficiently (LICENSE) Act, for example, will allow state driver licensing agencies to utilize third-party test administrators to conduct both a CDL skills test and knowledge test. This comes as the act would make two Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration-issued waivers permanent.

Through this legislation, states would be able to conduct driver skills tests for any applicant, regardless of what state the driver is from or where the driver underwent training. Additionally, under the act, commercial learner’s permit holders who have already passed their CDL skills test but haven’t obtained credentials would be able to drive with a veteran trucker in the truck.

“With a shortage of roughly 80,000 drivers, we should be making the process of becoming a professional truck driver as user-friendly as possible,” said Chris Spear, President of American Trucking Associations. “By making common-sense changes to the CDL testing process and eliminating redundant background checks, we can cut red tape so these hard-working men and women can get on the road navigating our nation’s highways instead of navigating its bureaucracies.”

The act was first introduced into the House by Representatives Troy Balderson of Ohio, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Josh Harder of California, and Darin LaHood of Illinois. In the Senate, the act was introduced by Senators Mark Kelly of Arizona and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming.

The LICENSE Act also aims to bring boosted support to regulatory FMCSA guidance revisions that will bring to light the regulations and guidelines that won’t hinder any third-party testing administrators from conducting CDL learner permit knowledge tests, as well.

The second bill introduced in Congress is the Transportation Security Administration Security Threat Assessment Application Modernization Act, which calls on TSA to make the application and renewal processes easier for those working toward multiple credentials at a time, as well as to lower overall fees for applicants. This act was introduced in the House by representatives John Katko of New York and Adam Smith of Washington.

The bills are a no-brainer to Commercial Vehicle Training Association president Bailey Wood, who noted that permitting third-party administrators to conduct knowledge tests would ultimately “allow states to address the driver testing backlog” and help ease the ongoing driver shortage. Although state licensing agencies can use third-party administrators for skills tests, only a couple of states currently allow for the usage of knowledge test results conducted by a third-party tester.

“According to my research and discussions with members, only Texas and Virginia permit third-party knowledge testing,” explained Wood. “Almost all states in some shape or form use third-party testing for skills tests, but skills testing is a completely different beast.”

Making the testing process as streamlined as possible should be everyone’s priority, Wood noted.

“We’re going to be encouraging states to adopt third-party knowledge test administration,” he said. “The new guidance allows one-stop shopping for students, letting them get knowledge and skills testing at the same location. Anything that expands the number of testing opportunities is a good thing.”

FMCSA has claimed, up until 2019, that third-party testing should only occur within the skills section of a CDL test, “unless an employee of the state who is authorized to supervise knowledge testing is present during the testing.” Now, FMCSA has announced in a Federal Register post that it has “reconsidered its earlier guidance” and come to the decision that none of its present guidelines block states from allowing third-party CDL knowledge tests.

This is due to the agency’s understanding that third-party testing may still be overseen by federal and state regulators to check for federal requirement compliance, and that test administrators may also need to undergo background checks, as third-party testing would allow any public and private entity to conduct a skills test on the respective state’s behalf.