Cold Chain Shipments Face Major Obstacles During Pandemic

May 19, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

“I’ve been inundated with packaging providers and other manufacturers coming forward with innovative ideas about how to help manage the temperature regimen,” said Larry St. Onge, Life Sciences and Health Care President for DHL, regarding the changes brought to cold chain shipments by the pandemic. “The big focus at the moment has really been on the vaccines.”

Cold chains have had the task of adapting to innovative new methods of shipping medical supplies deemed essential throughout the coronavirus pandemic, with shipping containers undergoing redesign strategies and temperature conditions needing boosted monitoring methods. DHL Group, in particular, has been collaborating with partners like pharmaceutical manufacturers to determine the best ways to avoid any monitoring or packaging mistakes.

For the vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech, conditions must be regulated at 94 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, which will require thermal sensors that are enabled by GPS and that have a location- and temperature-tracking control tower to closely monitor every single shipment of vaccines.

“An example of innovation that we’ve seen come forward is the ability to be able to utilize passive containers where you can easily replace the dry ice and essentially have an effective temporary storage unit,” explained St. Onge. “Certainly, we’re considering the context of the solutions we’re bringing to bear for customers as we go forward.”

Condition tracking, especially when it comes to temperature monitoring, has been extraordinarily important for trucking companies transporting the vaccine, even among companies that are well-accustomed to shipping vaccines, like Boyle Transportation.

“It would often be performed at the truckload level, but not necessarily at the individual package level,” said co-president of Boyle Transportation and vice chairman at American Trucking Associations, Andrew Boyle, in regards to strategy updates surrounding temperature tracking.

Many cold chain shipment companies find no surprise in these vaccine-distributing challenges, and some say that COVID-19 has only brought increased focus to the difficulties that often arise with these efforts.

“The pandemic has drawn incredible scrutiny on the cold chain because of the exact temperature requirements of these vaccines,” said Joe Battoe, CEO of Varcode.

In October, Sensitech and Carrier, subsidiaries of Carrier Global Corp, were met with monitoring and packaging challenges when the Carrier Pods system was announced. Carrier Pods was developed in order to help vaccine distribution efforts with capabilities including product visibility, data analytics, deep-freeze cooling, and real-time telematics.

Another issue that arose with the desperation brought about in the difficult circumstances of the pandemic–vaccine, medicine, and medical equipment theft occurring on big rigs.

“Many concerned with theft and diversion are adding additional layers of risk mitigation,” said a spokesperson for Sensitech. “Others are more concerned with keeping a closer eye on temperature changes for their vaccine shipments and want an early warning signal if the temperature is trending in the wrong direction.”

Varcode, in particular, had already developed a specific bar code that can change via chemicals to display certain information to a viewer, including whether or not a particular package has reached temperatures outside of what was intended. The company began collaborating with PL Developments in January for the purpose of boosting not only the capabilities, but the overall availability of this monitoring method.

“COVID itself, not just the vaccine, has brought all these issues into focus and brought new challenges,” said Varcode’s Battoe. “There are wildly different temperature requirements at a scale that’s just absolutely unprecedented. That is driving innovation.”

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, biopharma typically loses around $35 billion each year due to temperature-controlling failures, according to the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science. The International Air Transport Association determined that nearly 25% of all vaccines have become degraded upon arrival, as well.

Because of major distribution and monitoring challenges like these, a huge boost in innovations for cold chains focusing on temperature control and real-time visibility has been a long-term top priority for the industry, said Andrew Stevens, an analyst for Gartner Research.

“The cold chain is very much multilayered, in that there are approaches that you can take both in terms of protecting the inherent temperature of the product across all of its logistics and transportation phases,” Stevens said.

More Trucking Companies Focusing on Transparent Risk Management Strategies

May 18, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Risk management strategies are coming to the forefront of trucking company upgrades in this current era of technology, especially while fleets are seeing more and more of a need to protect their employees while simultaneously protecting themselves from liability–and the high costs that are involved when a truck is found to be at fault in an accident.

With a solid risk management strategy, a fleet should be able to easily mitigate all possible risks and safety breaches, including any potential crashes or unsafe circumstances where a driver would be at fault. Of course, avoiding any unsafe situations is the top priority for any fleet.

Still, driver performance perfection is impossible, as is complete prevention of any obstacles throughout an entire trucking operation. Therefore, a fully-developed and efficient risk management strategy is vital for any business in the transportation sector.

“Without a risk management program, when an event happens, you have no guidelines of what you asked the driver to do or not to do,” explained Halvor Lines’ chief risk officer, Adam Lang. “Having a risk management program sets the baseline of expectations.”

It’s much easier for a company not to lose huge amounts of money in a nuclear verdict if fleets are able to keep efficient records and safety data easily accessible and up-to-date, and these records clearly show that drivers are adequately trained and vetted, Lang noted.

Additionally, a trucking company’s risk management strategies should clearly outline all processes for proper driver on-boarding, coaching, and consequences if rules are broken. These policies should also include any road accident reports, data analysis, and comprehensive investigation information. Risk management strategies should be made transparent and explained thoroughly to all employees, and these policies should be regularly re-evaluated. According to Lang, all employees in a fleet, including management and truck drivers, should be held individually responsible for safety policy adherence.

Lang explained that Halvor has implemented heavily-structured hiring guidelines to bring on new truckers, which includes accident and safety history reports, drug and alcohol testing, and reference checks.

“We also require drivers to do a very large amount of pre-employment training,” he noted. “They need to check a lot of boxes before showing up to orientation.”

Like many aspects of driver on-boarding, risk management strategies are becoming heavily digitized within the trucking world. Now, many truck companies are able to receive real-time driver performance information using comprehensive digital driver management platforms. The data accumulated in these programs is then used to find the areas in which truck driver coaching may be necessary.

“The best risk program is preventing accidents from happening in the first place,” said Idelic CEO, Hayden Cardiff.

Idelic is a driver management software development company that allows users to implement methods of compliance, operations, safety, driver retention and driver training within one program.

With artificial intelligence programming, Idelic’s Safety Suite is able to help fleets “understand driver behavior to assign risk proactively and predictively, giving fleets understanding of why that driver is at risk, how much each event contributes to risk scores, and allows them to assign corrective action and coaching over subsequent weeks,” said Cardiff.

Driveri, a fleet safety platform from Netradyne, offers road object monitoring through artificial intelligence and on-board cameras to give insight into how a particular driver navigates various safety threats. According to Netradyne’s commercial fleet team president, Adam Kahn, safety managers can utilize this kind of technology to address risks as they take place.

For example, if a trucker is seen on his mobile phone in real time, he or she may be given helpful coaching through an audio message, Kahn explained–but positive behaviors can also be addressed, of course.

“If you’re going to coach your workforce, we take the stance of, maybe you don’t always point the finger, but you can give them a thumbs-up,” he said. “That is a really powerful thing. It is hard to replace drivers. The goal shouldn’t be ‘How do I get my worst drivers out?’ but [rather], ‘How [do I] get my fleet to act like my best drivers?”

For Lang’s company, unsafe driving behavior and violations have significantly declined since implementing these kind of technologies.

“We’ve seen a decrease in DOT recordable collisions,” he said. “We’ve seen a decrease in rear-end collisions, though part of that is implementing more collision mitigation [technology] in our trucks.”

The live driver monitoring has also helped the company “change the approach with how [we] deal with the other party [in an incident],” he added.

Levinson, Stefani, Terleckyj Recognized By Illinois Super Lawyers

May 18, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters rating service branch, recognizes particularly outstanding lawyers “from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement,” and has recognized Levinson and Stefani’s Ken Levinson and Jay Stefani as Super Lawyers, Dan Terleckyj as a Rising Star, and Levinson also as a Top 100 Super Lawyer for the 2021 year.

Levinson has been named a Super Lawyer each year since 2010, and a Top 100 Illinois Super Lawyer in 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2021. This year, Levinson, Stefani, and Terleckyj were chosen out of around 95,000 Illinois attorneys for their recognition.

Super Lawyers uses peer nominations, peer evaluations, and independent research to select its recognized lawyers through a patented selection process. Top Illinois Lawyers receive the highest point totals; these lawyers are then recognized within the Top Illinois Super Lawyer lists.

Super Lawyer candidates are considered through either a peer nomination, third party feedback, a managing partner survey, or Super Lawyer Research Team identification. Then, a candidate’s professional achievement and recognition are evaluated on factors such as experience, awards, pro bono and community service, transactions, and scholarly lectures.

Only 5% of a representative number of attorneys from small, medium, and large firms chosen for final selections are recognized as Super Lawyers and are considered to be the “best of the best.”

High-scoring candidates then serve on the Blue Ribbon Panel to evaluate their peers within their own specific areas of practice.

“It’s always nice to receive recognition for what you do, but I’m most proud to be recognized by other great lawyers,” said Stefani. “It means a lot knowing they see and appreciate how hard I work for clients.”

Still, Stefani notes that his own recognition comes from the firm’s powerful teamwork.

“Having each of the lawyers at our firm recognized by Super Lawyers is a testament to our team approach to fight for our clients,” he said.

Terleckyj agreed, noting the distinction is due to the firm’s motivation to do the best it can for the people it serves.

“It’s an honor to get this distinction and I am thrilled to share the spotlight with the firm’s partners,” he said. “I think it is a testament to our dedication to clients and getting results that all the lawyers in our firm were recognized.”

Bill for Safer Street Design Introduced by Policymakers

May 15, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Transportation lawmakers have introduced the Complete Streets Act, a proposal aiming to implement a country-wide program with boosted features for safer overall street design.

“Year after year of increasing pedestrian and bicyclist deaths demand that we take bold action to ensure the safety of all road users,” said Senator and Commerce Committee member, Ed Markey, in a recent tweet. “That’s why [Representative Steve Cohen] and I are reintroducing our Complete Streets Act.”

The program would work to bring about safer road features in areas like intersections and specific corridors to keep drivers and pedestrians as safe as possible. State agencies would be required to allocate some of their funding to “complete streets projects,” the majority of which would likely take place in more urban areas where enhanced safety is of particularly high priority.

These boosted safety efforts would be seen along bike lanes, crosswalks, bus stops, and sidewalks in order to improve vehicle access and convenience in these areas as well as make way for safer accommodation for everyone who shares the road–whether on a bike, in a car, or on foot.

According to Markey, these “increasing fatalities demand that we make significant investments to ensure safety for all users of the road. At the same time, these investments present an enormous opportunity to lead the world into a new era of more accessible and climate-friendly transportation.”

Markey also added that prioritizing these values will lead to enhanced community wellbeing in a variety of ways.

“By fostering ‘complete’ streets, we will foster complete communities–ones with less reliance on gas-guzzling cars, greater safety, and more equity in everyone’s ability to access work, school, and other critical services.”

The legislation, co-sponsored in the Senate and the House by Markey and Representative Cohen, was referred to committees of jurisdiction and also sponsored by Senators Richard Blumenthal and Brian Schatz, along with Representatives Adriano Espaillat and Ruben Gallego. It would mandate that 5% of federal highway funds be dedicated specifically to “complete streets” projects and would require “complete streets” policy adoption that would focus heavily on these kinds of projects.

Metropolitan Planning Organizations, along with state agencies, would need to determine whether or not specific policies meet the minimum requirements, and agencies would also need to find ways of implementing user-accommodating and safety-boosting project design regulations.

“The United States is facing a national safety crisis,” explained Cohen. “In recent years, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of pedestrians killed by vehicles. We need streets that can accommodate all means of transportation, from foot traffic and strollers to bicycles, cars, light trucks, and 18-wheelers.”

The measure is also being backed by various stakeholders, especially by safety advocates across all areas of the transportation industry.

In support of Markey’s proposal, executive director of the League of American Cyclists, Bill Nesper, said that all Americans, “whether they bike, walk, drive, or take transit, should be able to use our roads safely.” He added: “The League of American Bicyclists applauds Senator Markey and Representative Cohen for reintroducing the Complete Streets Act, and we are proud to support the bill, because we believe that when more people choose to ride bikes, communities are stronger and our nation is healthier.”

The overall concept and motivation behind “complete street” strategies are meant to benefit everyone, in every corner of the country, the U.S. Department of Transportation assured.

“The concept of ‘complete streets’ encompasses many approaches to planning, designing, and operating roadways and rights of way with all users in mind to make the transportation network safer and more efficient,” the department explained. “Complete Street’ policies are set at the state, regional, and local levels and are frequently supported by roadway design guidelines.”

This bill is also a sign that the country’s mindset regarding road safety is finally changing, noted Transportation for America policy director, Scott Goldstein.

“The Complete Streets Act is huge step toward reversing these perverse incentives by reallocating existing funding and empowering cities and towns to design streets that keep everybody safe.” he said. “We are pleased to support this important legislation again this year.”

Safety Policymakers Aim to Pass Highway Bill for Safer Mobility Grid

May 14, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Highway safety policies are coming to the forefront as Congress has assured that it will be prioritizing comprehensive highway legislation throughout 2021.

The latest research regarding roadway fatalities is concerning, according to Peter DeFazio, House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman. DeFazio has made clear his commitment to the upgrading of overall passenger corridor and freight safety and has promised to pursue programs working to find these methods of improvement.

The reason–in 2019, the United States saw 36,096 fatalities in motor vehicle traffic crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s data. Although this number has indeed been on the decline, it hasn’t been declining nearly enough, DeFazio explained.

“Some may point to the fact that the rate of traffic fatalities per vehicle miles traveled has decreased during our lifetime and say we’ve done our job,” DeFazio said. “I say that’s unacceptable. To put it in context for you: In 1994, we lost 40,716 lives on our roadways; in 2019, we lost 36,096. I’d say we have a lot more work to do.”

The most frustrating fact, DeFazio noted, is that the majority of deaths occurring in these accidents should be perfectly avoidable.

“We still lose an average of 100 lives per day due to motor vehicle crashes,” he continued. “What’s worse, the majority of these crashes are entirely preventable. Year after year, the leading cause of car crashes is human behavior: excessive speed, drunk driving, and distraction.”

In order to boost road safety in as widespread a way as possible, many additional tools will need to come into play, added Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who currently serves on the Highways and Transit Subcommittee as its chairwoman.

“Targeting resources is necessary to ensure that we actually move the needle on traffic safety,” she explained.

Pete Buttigieg, the new U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary, has made it clear that the Biden administration will be focusing heavily on improving the safety of America’s roadways. Buttigieg has explained his intention to bring enhanced safety to both transportation workers and travelers alike.

“We must ensure all of our transportation systems–from aviation to public transit, to our railways, roads, ports, waterways, and pipelines–are managed sagely during this critical period, as we work to defeat the virus,” said Buttigieg in a recent statement to senators.

Additionally, a multi-year highway policy measure is expected to be discussed by the transportation panel during the first half of 2021. All methods of transit and the strategies pertaining to increasing their safety are likely to be a main focus for policymakers, who have also expressed their intention to bring about a “complete street” proposal, which would consist of enhancement strategies regarding pedestrian and cyclist safety. Leaders within Congress have also indicated their expectation for the approval of a highway law update to be implemented before the current law expires later in the year.

American Trucking Associations has expressed its support for safety-boosting regulations and updates, especially those that would directly help the trucking industry as a whole through training and resource investments–particularly regarding equipment and technology. A prioritization ATA hopes to see among lawmakers would be that of funding distributed to programs dedicated to helping alleviate the plethora of challenges the trucking industry has seen regarding parking ease and availability. When parking is scarce, truckers can often end up leaving their vehicles in risky areas or decide to continue driving, even when they may be overtired, ATA explained.

“ATA looks forward to working with the committee to develop a long-term, well-funded surface transportation reauthorization bill that addresses highway safety, maintenance, and mobility needs,” said the agency.

Additionally, stakeholders are in agreement with the desire for a heavy focus on roadway safety–including the National Safety Council, which mentioned the Road to Zero Coalition’s efforts to collaborate with other industry members and safety advocates to urge both Buttigieg and President Biden to push forward new policies that would aim to reach zero roadway fatalities–complete elimination–by 2050.

“We can no longer stand by while 100 people die every day on our roadways,” said CEO and president of the National Safety Council, Lorraine Martin, in a message to lawmakers.

Newest Threat to Trucking Industry–Fake Movers

May 13, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Fraudulent movers have become a well-known adversary throughout the industry of household goods moving, with employees in the business referring to these criminals as “rogue operators.” These fake movers target customers by creating fraudulent moving websites touting inexplicably low overall moving rates.

After customers fall prey to these cheaper-than-normal costs, the “moving van” will tell them that they will be holding their belongings hostage until the customers pay a high fee–often as high as thousands of dollars more than they ever agreed to.

“Rogue operators are the largest threat to the legitimate household goods industry and one of our top issues that we are working on with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Capitol Hill,” explained the director of American Trucking Associations’ Moving and Storage Conference, Katie McMichael.

The biggest strategy of these thieves is to find vulnerable people who are looking to save a quick buck in their moving expenses, which makes them easy targets for these kinds of website scams. “Through deceptive practices, these illegal entities force customers into positions and extort large sums of money to be reunited with their belongings,” she said. “The moving community strongly condemns these bad actors and we are working to address this growing problem.”

Additionally, many of these victims may not be aware of the federal regulations currently in place which prohibit any carrier from raising the costs that were already agreed upon in advance by both the carrier and the customer. Unless both parties are willing to negotiate on a new price for moving costs, the previously agreed-upon charge, which would have been decided and put into writing before any work began, would be legally binding.

“The reason this has come to the forefront in recent years is because consumers use the internet for anything now,” said McMichael.

Regardless of legalities, these scams take place quite often–and on a massive scale. A Florida-based fraudulent operation has been one of the biggest of these scams to take place in recent years, in which the fake movers stole around $3.5 million total from 1,800 customers between the years of 2013 and 2018. According to a report made by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of the Inspector General, the rogue operators would charge customers for moving household goods over a larger distance of cubic feet than they actually traveled, and many items would not even be delivered at all.

The scam’s two leaders, Andrey Shuklin and Seth Nezat have pleaded guilty for conspiring within a “racketeering enterprise” that aimed to defraud as many American individuals as it could, and more than a dozen other individuals who helped in these crimes have also pleaded guilty or been charged.

A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Ohio concluded in its indictment that these scammers had created at least 10 different fake moving companies over the last five years, and many individuals who participated in these crimes did so under various fake names.

Some of those who pleaded guilty have, according to the indictment,
“coordinated and directed lower-level employees, members, and [associates] of the affiliated companies,” and many also were said to have threatened to “injure another person who interfered with the moving enterprises’s purposes.”

Sometimes, these kinds of fake companies will use company names associated with legitimate moving companies, causing customers to end up accusing the real businesses of these crimes when they’ll likely have no knowledge of what has transpired.

“To the legitimate moving industry, the impact is when people have a bad move [and] they sometimes will talk to news outlets,” said McMichael. “It just puts a stain on the moving industry overall because people don’t know how to separate a rogue operator from a legitimate operator.”

Typically, though, customers will just opt to pay the unjust additional charges to avoid any issues, and the scam isn’t ever reported to any authorities. Of course, this is what scammers hope for, but they’ve also become diligent about circumventing the consequences of suspicion.

According to McMichael, these most recent scammers worked throughout the states of Florida, New York, and New Jersey, and would usually shut down their websites immediately as soon as any knowledge of their criminal activity was suspected.

“This cycle continues,” she said. “You can see how long they will do this–and get away with it–because it’s hard to catch them. There needs to be a lot of cooperation between federal, state, and local authorities [to solve this issue].”