Trucking Concerns Integrated Into Congestion Pricing Pilot

May 6, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

With some of the highest traffic congestion numbers in the world, Los Angeles is now working on a congestion pilot program and taking into account the needs of drivers and freight haulers, specifically.

This two-year Traffic Reduction Study is in the works within the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and will be conducted in an effort to better handle heavy traffic through additional and more efficient methods of transportation and congestion pricing updates. LA County Metro currently represents about 9.6 million people within its transportation agency.

This agency will determine the best methods of solving the most pertinent issues travelers throughout the county are currently facing, explained the senior director of the Metro’s Office of Extraordinary Innovation, Tham Nguyen, during a recent virtual panel discussion. According to Nguyen, Metro has been taking into account the comments and concerns from the public, including those from ride-share providers, construction crew workers, and delivery drivers.

“We are starting our analysis to better understand the travel patterns,” Nguyen explained. “We are engaging with folks from the freight and trucking industry. We’ll have more information, but first we’re just trying to understand what [the] truck patterns [are]. Where are people going?”

Other members of Metro discussed their desire to fully understand all benefits and difficulties that come with a congestion pricing pilot, but hope travel reliability will be the biggest gain from such a program. The team will work to hear from as many members of the public as possible to better comprehend these issues and create better overall technical analysis of daily commutes. Some of the biggest issues at hand–environmental concerns, road safety, and travel times, Nguyen said.

“The thing that is critical to remember about a congestion pricing scheme is that the benefits go not just to people who are switching to new transit alternatives, but also to people who continue to drive,” noted the chief innovation officer for the Office of Extraordinary Innovation, Joshua Schank. “When you’re driving on the routes that are now priced, you don’t sit in traffic, so you’re moving much faster. [For] folks from outside the area who continue to drive through the area, it’s not like they’re just getting charged and then continuing to have the same miserable experience they have now. They’re paying for real value.”

In 2020, the American Transportation Research Institute listed Los Angeles three times on its top truck bottlenecks report–areas listed were the intersections of interstates 110 and 105 (ranking 65th), the intersection of interstates 710 and 105 (ranking 10th) and the intersection of state routes 60 and 57 (ranking 9th). The city continues to hold the reputation of having some of America’s worst traffic congestion.

During the virtual discussion, four different concept consideration areas being currently studied by Metro were presented. These include the freeways crossing the Santa Monica Mountains between interstate 5 and interstate 504 in central Los Angeles, the area between U.S. Route 101 and interstate 5, the areas bound by interstate 10 and interstate 110, the stretch of U.S. Route 101 in downtown Los Angeles, and the stretch of interstate 10 west of downtown, which would have its own corridor pricing model.

Congestion is expected to increase as the city’s population grows, even though the coronavirus pandemic has indeed decreased overall traffic for the time being, explained Phillip Washington, CEO of Metro.

“If we do not do anything, what we’re looking at is total gridlock,” Washington explained. “We have a dream of this metamorphosis from a car capital of the world to a center for greater mobility, innovation, and equity. We’re moving forward. We’re leaning forward in the foxhole.”

Metro dedicated the month of February to putting a major focus onto holding virtual community discussions in an effort to share the commentary it has received in relation to these efforts. It is also prioritizing efforts to hear from community members about their ideas regarding how best to use this input to make this study as efficient, actionable, and helpful as possible.

Metro’s project team has presented the four concept areas discussed in this virtual event to Metro’s board of directors, and will also present its ideas and recommendations regarding preferred concepts for this study–chosen from the four concept areas already outlined–to the Metro board this summer.

Trucker Violation Numbers Looking Bleak in FMCSA Clearinghouse Data

May 5, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

In the midst of an industry-wide driver shortage, a national database has been tracking truckers’ compliance history and working to prevent truck drivers from leaving the industry due to failed drug tests. During 2020, the number of drug and alcohol violations recorded hit over 56,000.

This number was around 10,000 higher in the last two months of the year as compared to the 10 months prior. 2020 was the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouses’ first full calendar year of operation, and the year saw 1,203 alcohol-related driver violations, as shown in its latest summary report. Out of those violations, the majority were drivers testing with a blood alcohol concentration of at least 0.04.

Around 45,000 drivers lost their jobs after these violations were recorded, and only 11,000 of those have undergone the return-to-work program. Because of this, many industry experts are worried that the remaining drivers will not be returning to the industry at all.

A large number of violations also included many drivers either declining a drug test, testing positive for drug use, or being suspected of cheating on a drug test.

“The good news is that the system is working in capturing violations by drivers and allowing employers and enforcement personnel to verify a driver’s status prior to permitting him or her [to drive],” said FMCSA spokesman, Duane DeBruyne. “Any violation reported is a bad thing; blocking prohibited drivers from endangering themselves and the lives of the motoring public is a good thing.”

The Clearinghouse–which is used by law enforcement, state driver licensing agencies, and carriers alike to monitor driver violations–has made it trickier for drivers to illegally skip a return-to-duty process once they’ve been prohibited from re-entering the industry. This helps bar them from returning to commercial motor vehicle operation and endangering “themselves and the lives of everyone traveling our nation’s roadways,” DeBruyne explained.

Vice president of safety policy for American Trucking Associations, Dan Horvath, agreed. “I believe the 56,000 drivers with violations reiterates the importance of this Clearinghouse, and shines a spotlight on a rather large loophole in the drug and alcohol testing process that has existed for many years,” he said.

This issue has seen little change over those years, Scopelitis Transportation Consulting President, Dave Osiecki, explained. He also noted that FMCSA’s final Clearinghouse rule, which was released in 2016, used historical data to create an estimate of yearly violations.

“FMCSA’s estimate was 53,500 drug and alcohol violations annually,” he said. “Their estimate was remarkably close.”

Even the number of those who do decide to return to the industry after undergoing the proper treatment and testing is not enough to fill the gap made by those leaving trucking for good, he continued.

“It’s concerning, and it bears watching and tracking. The percentage of drivers with violations who are getting evaluated, and completing the treatment process, has risen slowly over the past several months. This is a good sign, but it’s also clear that many drivers are not entering treatment, which suggests they’ve left the industry.”

The report, which showed data from violations beginning on January 6th, 2020 (when the Clearinghouse went into effect), reported 29,500 drug test failures for marijuana, specifically, 7,940 for cocaine, and 4,953 for amphetamines. An additional 1,120 tests were marked as having reasonable suspicion regarding efforts to cheat on a drug test.

The Clearinghouse saw around 1.6 million drivers registered in 2020, along with 197,000 industry employers, 67,000 of which are self-identified as owner-operators.

“According to our interpretation of Motor Carrier Management Information System data, there are 5,174,170 truck drivers under the authority of FMCSA,” explained Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association spokeswoman, Nortia Taylor. “Fifty-six thousand drivers represents 1.1% of the available driver pool.”

Employers must check the database annually to see if any employees or potential employees have had any drug violations. In 2020, Clearinghouse saw 2.7 million limited queries, 1.4 million pre-employment queries, and 136,806 full queries.

“It’s important to note that having a drug or alcohol testing violation is not an automatic end to a driver’s career,” Horvath said. “While there is a significant number of drivers who have not yet completed the return-to-duty testing process, that number continues to grow.”

Horvath hopes that boosted transparency in regards to this program will help more drivers be able to return to work more easily, or, better yet, avoid any reason for violation.

“With continued education about the drug and alcohol testing program, and consequences for noncompliance, we hope to see violations decrease and the number of drivers who have completed the return-to-duty process increase.”

Tire Maintenance Revamped Due to New Technologies and Designs

May 4, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Tire monitoring is changing–fast. New technologies and tire designs are boosting maintenance operations for fleets, although the overall tire-changing process has remained relatively unchanged over the last few decades.

“The tires have changed, very much so,” said Tire Industry Association’s senior vice president of training, Kevin Rohlwing. “But that doesn’t change the way we service them. The mounting and demounting of tires hasn’t really changed since I first did it in 1982.”

Although new tire designs are constantly released by tire manufacturers, fleets say that both modern and legacy models are still maintained with the usual techniques.

“Overall, there hasn’t been a whole lot of change [that] we’ve seen from a maintenance standpoint, except probably [that there are] faster wear cycles with some of the new tire compounds,” said Dart Transits’ vice president of maintenance, Paul Pettit.

Jack Legler, technical director for American Trucking Association’s Technology and Maintenance Council, said that the agency is often upgrading current recommended maintenance practices and is constantly finding ways to create new ones in collaboration with new tire designs and technological advances as they come about. Technicians can find better ways to spec with these RPs, and can also integrate enhanced methods of troubleshooting and maintenance.

“Wheels evolve in parallel with tires and include aerodynamic devices, along with tire pressure and condition sensors, monitoring, and management,” Legler said.

The largest group of RPs in TMC consists within the S.2 Tire and Wheel Study Group and task forces. This includes the Future Truck Committee’s Tire Durability and Reliability Task Force, which helps manufacturers and fleets work together to find and solve tire durability limitations, and create ways to lower overall tire operating costs.

RPs allow TMC to help fleets manage and protect their large tire inventory investments, Legler explained. Innovative trucking technology has helped tire inventory tracking become one of the most-changed trucking industry aspects over the last ten years.

A fleet’s tire details can be stored easily within inventory software databases, which allow employees to more easily find the necessary tire on-site as well as determine the needs for tire replacement and emergency changes while on the road. Tires can also be equipped with chips or RFID tags that can be implemented into these database systems for easier transfer of information, and many systems can now manage tire conditions in real time.

These softwares can also be used in conjunction with newer tire pressure technology, which involve monitoring systems and automatic tire inflation capabilities that have been significantly impactful for many fleets across the country.

Fleets see the benefits of these technology boosts in the decrease of tread wear, improvement of rolling resistance, and the ability to more easily address maintenance issues while their tires sustain consistent tire pressure. The use of automatic inflation systems can also allow for “tremendous advantages” in regards to the increase of labor efficiency, safety, and earnings, according to Rohlwing.

Additionally, fleets are able to alter their tire PSIs through certain monitoring systems, which allows each position on a truck to experience the best performance possible.

“That’s new for us…but fuel economy always is a big deal with tires, and we watch that closely when making purchases,” said Dot Foods’ director of fleet maintenance, Kevin Buss. Dot has been altering some PSIs at different tire positions in collaboration with tire manufacturers, and is now able to focus on performance instead of the benchmarks which previously determined operation efficiency. “Many folks that are not really familiar with tire programs would say they just need a tire that wears the best. But that doesn’t mean it will give you good fuel economy,” Buss said.

Because fuel is one of the biggest costs for fleets, fuel-efficient tires are able to help them see huge savings throughout a tire’s lifetime, although such tires may be an initial investment.

“If you’re running low-rolling-resistance tires or LRR retreads, you’re probably seeing an improvement in your fuel milage, and any kind of gain you get in fuel mileage is going straight to the bottom line,” said Rohlwing.

LRR tires can also be mounted with the same techniques used with standard tubeless tires. Technicians should thoroughly inspect the tire and wheel to check for damage or rust before securing a tire bead seating. Finally, bead lubricants can help avoid any damage and reduce tire bead-rim flange friction.

FMCSA’s COVID-19 Regulatory Relief Extended Once Again

April 29, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

The emergency declaration announced by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which aims to provide regulatory relief to all trucking industry workers operating within assistance efforts related to the coronavirus pandemic, has once again been extended.

“FMCSA is continuing the exemption and associated regulatory relief…because the presidentially-declared emergency remains in place and because a continued exemption is needed to support direct emergency assistance for some supply chains,” said the agency in its notice.

All commercial motor vehicle drivers working in direct assistance to COVID-19 emergency efforts will be covered under this renewed declaration, which has now been extended through the month of May, and may end up being extended even further.

“Extension of the Expanded Modified Emergency Declaration Number 2020-002, in accordance with 49 CFR § 390.25, effective February 17th, 2021, and shall remain in effect until May 31st, 2021, or until the revocation of the declaration of national emergency,” FMCSA announced in a tweet, along with a link leading to its “FMCSA Coronavirus Response Action Update.”

The declaration will, as was previously iterated, be applicable to all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Hours of service exemptions, longer combination vehicles regulation exemptions, and exemptions regarding the parts and accessories needed for safe operation within Parts 390-399 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations are continued in this extension.

“This extension of the expanded modified emergency declaration addresses national emergency conditions that create a need for immediate transportation of essential supplies and provides necessary relief from the [Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations] for motor carriers and drivers,” explained FMCSA in its announcement.

Commercial drivers will be granted regulatory relief and exemptions in regards to the transportation of essential items needed for the health, wellbeing, and economy of the country and its citizens, including COVID-19 testing, treatment, and diagnosing-related medical supplies; vaccines, vaccine administration kits, and vaccine-related equipment and medical supplies; masks, gloves, soap, disinfectants, and hand sanitizer, as well as other supplies and resources needed for overall sanitation, safety, and prevention of COVID-19 transmission among community members; livestock and livestock feed; and food, groceries, and paper products needed for the restocking of stores and distribution centers.

This emergency declaration and regulatory relief extension will not make any drivers exempt from safety regulations and laws such as speed limits, FMCSA assured. Additionally, truckers will not receive any regulatory relief in relation to size and weight requirements, hazardous materials regulations, drugs and alcohol regulations, and commercial driver license requirements.

Fatigued drivers will also not be able to be forced to operate a truck by any motor carrier, and if a particular driver tells his or her carrier or employer that he or she is in need of immediate rest, that driver must, under regulation requirements, still be given at least 10 consecutive hours of rest time before driving again.

Direct assistance related to exemption qualifications does not include any routine commercial deliveries and will not include any drivers transporting mixed loads “with a nominal quantity of qualifying emergency relief added to obtain the benefits of the emergency declaration,” FMCSA stated in its notice.

A series of notices regarding these emergency relief declarations have been released intermittently since March 13th, 2020, and this is the latest notice–but likely not the last–since FMCSA released its initial emergency declaration. Still, the agency does indeed intend to finally “wind down” regulatory exemptions, according to FMCSA acting Administrator Meera Joshi, who explained such intention within the notice.

This will hopefully become possible, and fewer exemptions will hopefully be needed, as more vaccines become available to the general public and coronavirus numbers decline exponentially.

Joshi’s appointment to this role was announced by the U.S. Department of Transportation immediately following the inauguration of President Joe Biden. Previously, Joshi worked as the commissioner of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, the agency responsible for regulating and licensing New York City’s paratransit vehicles, medallion taxicabs, for-hire vehicles, and commuter vans.

“In the interest of ensuring continued commercial motor vehicle safety, it is FMCSA’s intention to wind down the exemptions granted under this emergency declaration and related COVID-19 regulatory relief measures to the extent possible,” said the agency in its latest announcement.

Fleets Work to Avoid Truck Corrosion from Road Salts

April 24, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

As the winter months continue on, fleets continue the fight against corrosion and its risk to their equipment that is often caused by road de-icing products.

Although it’s important to clear roadways of snow and ice to keep drivers safe, the de-icing products used by cities across the country are typically full of chlorides, which cause dangerous and costly corrosion on trucks. Fleets are now working hard to inspect their vehicles regularly and wash salt and chemicals off of equipment as thoroughly as possible.

“Between sand, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, and road salt, you could develop quite a paste, which is hard to remove and helps to keep the moisture in and cause corrosion more rapidly,” said Kenan Advantage Group’s executive vice president of fleet services, Kirk Altrichter. He noted that keeping equipment clear of de-icing chemicals is a constant maintenance issue for his company during the winter months.

Staying up-to-date on the changing methods of clearing roads of snow and ice is also vital, explained American Trucking Associations’ Technology and Maintenance Council technical director, Jack Legler, who said that corrosion-reducing materials can often react in different ways to these chemicals.

“The ice-melting formulations might not change significantly, but the stuff on the truck is changing,” Legler said. “You need to be aware of the impact of what is going on there.”

The “hot zone from corrosion activity” on a truck or trailer is around 4 feet above the ground, said Atro Engineering Systems’ area sales manager, Brian Herrington. “Anything metal is going to rust, and anything rubber is going to look like it is dry rotting.”

The most susceptible areas for corrosion are places where dirt and other materials stay wet–especially within metal folds or joints, threaded screws, painted surface breaks, and areas not properly adhered beneath coatings.

“These underbody components commonly experience pitting, crevice, galvanic, and cosmetic corrosion,” said Thomas Peters, the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s maintenance research and training engineer.

What can be done? Finding the right materials and equipment that will lower possibilities of corrosion–regardless of initial investment–is key, explained Herrington.

“You’re going to pay the piper at the back end or the front end,” he said. “It is a lot more expensive to pay the piper at the back end.”

Dupré Logistics out of Lafayette, Louisiana sprays all undercarriage and rails in military-grade paint.

“We put that on bumpers; [we] spray under the cab and on the frame rails,” said Allen. “That helps fight the corrosion. Any moisture can be a killer.”

Kenny Junkin, TMC’s committee on corrosion’s chairman, works for a fleet that invests in trucks that are already blasted, primed, and painted in advance to reduce corrosion.

Additionally, certain materials are on their way to becoming much more cost-effective for fleets than initially expected, Herrington explained. Polyurethane is usable wherever a vehicle has any rubber, including fifth wheels, hood rollers, engine mounts, radiator mounts, and hood latches.

“Years ago, polyurethane was too expensive to consider, but now the price has come so far down [that] the price is basically the same,” he explained.

Grand Island Express specs its trailers with a coating that aids in self-healing on the suspension, explained the company’s director of operations, Deen Albert. Albert noted that running gears, frameworks and suspensions can all rot away particularly quickly if not cared for in advance.

Kenan Advantage Group also specs its equipment, using either stainless, aluminum, or galvanized components to help its vehicles avoid corrosion that often occurs on pieces made of carbon steel. The fleet will also replace items on its vehicles that did not initially come with those kinds of components.

Regular washing is most important, though, explained Matt Bruning, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Transportation. Bruning explained that ODOT washes its trucks frequently with a soap and water solution to minimize the effects of corrosion.

“We’ve tested a variety of anti-corrosion products, and honestly, soap and water is just as effective as anything,” he said.

“That has extended the life cycle of our trailers by about three years,” said Grand Island Express’ Albert of regular washing. Grand Island Express uses an auto-grade detergent solution for its vehicles, which go through the company’s wash bay every week.

Severe Weather Forces DOTs to Clear Roads in New Ways

April 23, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

“Corrosion from road de-icers is a multi-billion-dollar issue for fleets…once it starts, it starts eating everything alive,” said Atro Engineering Systems area sales manager, Brian Herrington.

The de-icing methods involving road salts, sand, calcium chloride, and magnesium chloride have been a go-to for areas experiencing the often-dangerous effects of winter weather on roads. Still, it’s well-known that these methods can cause huge corrosion issues for fleets, and now, many states across the country are aiming to solve this issue.

Corrosion inhibitors and brine technology are now making their way into the de-icing game, so that states can lessen the amount of product and chemicals needed to keep roads clear and safe.

The amount of salt utilized to clear roads has been on the incline over the last few years as more states develop more bare-road policies and as more drivers expect clear pavement–and are unable to drive otherwise. This increase in salt use has also been creating more problems for equipment and the environment as a whole, explained Phill Sexton, the CEO of WIT Advisers. WIT works with winter management and landscaping companies throughout the continent.

“We’re finding out salt is a pollutant in a major way to fresh-water resources,” Sexton explained, noting that chlorides are not biodegradable and cannot be diluted. “It is killing off aquatic ecosystems and becoming a drinking water hazard.”

To salt or not to salt is one of the trickiest decisions for Fairbanks maintenance district superintendent for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Dan Schacher, because he understands the real effects of these environmental hazards.

“It impacts people,” he said. “It impacts my budget, but there is a societal cost to a crash, and there is a really big societal cost to a fatality. If I can show we’re reducing accidents and fatalities, then I am comfortable making that decision. If you wash your equipment or use these salt-away products we use on our equipment, it will be fine.”

Road-Weather Technology, which uses automated vehicle-location equipment and mobile data decision support, has been extremely useful to the Minnesota Department of Transportation, which has been utilizing this tech to be able to monitor and apply an appropriate amount of material to roads depending on current weather conditions, explained MnDOT’s maintenance research and training engineer, Thomas Peters.

Other DOTs have been focusing on updating equipment in more efficient ways to reduce the amount of salt they use, which Montana State University’s Western Transportation Institute research scientist, Laura Fay, said is the case in her state. Fay is also a program manager for cold climate operations and systems and infrastructure longevity and sustainability at the school.

“A big part of this has been motivated by reduced and shrinking budgets over time,” Fay explained. “They can’t just keep buying salt because they can’t afford it, or it is [a] heavy winter and they cannot get more salt in time.”

WIT Adviser’s Sexton explained that Brine technology has been particularly helpful in lowering the amount of product needed for road clearing, as rock salt doesn’t tend to become effective for de-icing until it converts to a brine.

According to Fay, salt brine is a solution of 23.3% salt, as opposed to 100% salt, which is much more corrosive. By using liquids, only 40 gallons of salt brine are needed to de-ice one lane mile as compared to the 250 pounds of rock salt that would be needed for the same stretch of road.

Additionally, the anti-icer liquid can be laid out onto a road well in advance, which can be much more convenient for city workers, Fay noted.

“If they know a big storm is coming in, they can go out 12 hours in advance. They can treat the roads when they’re on shift and not on overtime,” she said.

Brine can also be applied where desired without any material loss, and, once activated, the brine will prevent snow or ice from bonding to pavement.

“When you go and plow, it makes plowing much easier,” added Fay.

“Why wouldn’t you do that?” asked Sexton, who noted that the amount of salt needed for his roads was reduced by at least 70% when switching to a brine method. “There are economic and environmental benefits to doing this.”

“You’re putting much less product onto the road and into the environment,” Fay agreed, also saying that long-term cost savings are more than worth the initial investment that brine-making equipment may require.

“Brine has the advantage of being cheaper and ensures the material sticks directly to the road surface,” said Ohio Department of Transportation spokesman, Matt Bruning. “Salt offers a little traction and extends the ice melting process by taking more time to go into solution.” Brine also only costs pennies per gallon to create, Bruning added.