Throughout 2019, many changes and updates have been made across the trucking industry in the United States. Regulatory reforms, safety and inclusion efforts, and company bankruptcies took over trucking news–let’s reflect on the hottest topics in trucking in 2019.

January 24th–Trucker Arrested for Idaho Hemp Haul

Although Hemp is legal federally, it is still not legal in Idaho.When 36-year-old trucker Denis Palamarchuk hauled a load of hemp for Colorado company Big Sky Scientific, he ended up being arrested. Other similar arrests from the year prior in addition to Palamarchuk’s experience launched a long-awaited court battle with drivers pleading guilty to misdemeanors. Governor Brad Little pushed for an executive order regarding hemp transportation, but the issue still has yet to be fully resolved.

Because hemp and marijuana continue to be illegal in Idaho until the state Legislature decides otherwise, the governor’s order would still make proper transport of hemp extremely difficult, including mandating a stop at Idaho’s port of entry to declare the presence of hemp. 

Failure to comply “may subject the transporter to the laws of prohibiting marijuana,” which can carry both civil and criminal penalties.

February 11th: New England Motor Freight Shuts Down Completely

NEMF, a less-than-truckload carrier in Elizabeth, New Jersey, announced its plans to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy and finally shut down after more than 100 years in operation.

It was the largest LTL carrier to close its doors since CF Motor Freight in 2002.

“NEMF was burdened by several large underperforming contracts, including Amazon.com,” Said Armstrong & Associates president, Evan Armstrong. “It just shows if an account can’t stand on its own, more volume doesn’t help.”

February 21st: FMCSA Ends Driver Diabetes Exemption Program

The agency put a stop to its process of exemption for the medical certification of insulin-dependent truck and bus drivers. FMCSA claimed that the decision would end delays for those drivers to receive their exemptions; however, drivers still need a doctor’s approval to drive.

“FMCSA has determined, therefore, that an exemption program for [treated diabetics] is no longer necessary,” said the agency.

March to August: NTDC’s State and National Trucking Championships

In 2019, NTDC began its first national championships in March, which concluded on August 17th. Scott Woodrome of FedEx Freight became the first competitor in two decades to win two years in a row.

“Two in a row is a rare thing. These drivers out here are the best drivers in the nation,” said Woodrome. “They’re not just the best drivers, but they’re the best people, too. I really just wanted to come back as a competitor.”

There were nine classes of winners: 3-axle, 4-axle, 5-axle, flatbed, tank truck, twins, sleeper berth, straight truck, and step van.

July 11th: LME Shuts Doors

Minnesota-based carrier LME shut down immediately after laying off hundreds of workers without notice. Lakeview Motor Express, a company with the same owners, had shut down in a similar fashion in 2016.

It was unclear until October if LME employees would receive their payments.

“I feel sick to my stomach. How am I going to make my rent?” asked one worker. “My brother, who is dockworker, is owed about $2,400. LME should have learned their lesson after they pulled this…two years ago.”

August 14th: FMCSA’s Changes to Hours-of-Service Rules

A proposal to change the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s hours-of-service rules aimed to increase flexibility regarding drivers’ 30-minute rest breaks and allocated time in sleeper berths.

The proposal also worked to extend potential driver duty time by two hours when inclement weather was present, as well as to expand “short haul” exemptions from 12 to 14 hours on-duty.

However, many of those opposing the proposed regulation changes believe the extended duty time could increase driver fatigue and lead to more trucking accidents, thus doing more harm than good for the industry overall.

October 10th: Ray Martinez Resigns from FMCSA

Agency chief Ray Martinez announced his leave and that he would move from his post in the FMCSA to one overseeing reconstruction of Cambridge’s John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center.

Many considered Martinez a huge factor in various important conversations about hours-of-service rules, among many other issues in trucking.

November 25th: FMCSA Announces Plans to Delay ELDT Rule

The Entry Level Driver Training rule was in the works to take place February 7th; however, FMCSA announced it would be delaying the change for around two more years. 

“There is a Federal Register notice forthcoming,” said a DOT official. “The whole thing is going to be delayed. It’s mostly due to the failure of the states aligning their systems with the federal system.”

December 9th: Celadon Declares Bankruptcy and Shuts Doors

Celadon announced it would be filing for bankruptcy and canceling all operations after years of legal and financial difficulties. The company had been working toward recovery after financial fraud allegations–to no avail.

“We have diligently explored all possible options to restructure Celadon and keep business operations ongoing, however, a number of legacy and market headwinds made this impossible to achieve,” said CEO Paul Svindland.

Bison Transport is now testing new in-cab driver monitoring systems in order to detect distracted driving.

Seeing Machines Limited has earned a contract that will allow it to install its automated monitoring system into the fleet of one of Canada’s largest trucking companies.

Now, Bison Transport will have Seeing Machines’ Guardian technology implemented into 120 of its truck cabs. Bison employs around 2,500 truckers.

“Having Bison Transport as a customer affirms our view that fleets who have a culture of safety truly value Guardian as a way to improve that culture and keep their drivers safe,” said Dr. Mike Lenné, vice president of fleet and human factors for Seeing Machines.

As Bison has a “right to decide” policy for its drivers, the company originally tried equipping 14 of its trucks with the Guardian system in 2017, and is now expanding that testing to 120 trucks.

Garth Pitzel, Bison’s director of safety and driver development, said that in the first six weeks of testing, the fleet ran trucks with the monitoring on, but with vibration alerts and in-cab audio disabled. For the next six weeks, Bison had all the driver alerts activated.

After this period, the company saw a reduction of 67% in fatigued driving incidents, a reduction of 40% in distracted driving incidents, and a whopping 97% reduction in cellphone use (even though the company already has a hands-free cell phone policy in place).

Bison has been named North America’s safest fleet by the American Trucking Associations and the Truckload Carriers Association.

Seeing Machines’ driver monitor assesses a driver’s visual attention, their degree of drowsiness, and the possibility for risk with computer vision algorithms. To process a driver’s level of distraction or fatigue in real time, the monitor uses in-cabin sensors to track factors like eye movement and notify drivers with audio and vibration alerts.

If the in-cabin sensors detect any fatigue- or distraction-related event, analysts at the 24/7 Guardian monitoring center receive a video file. The footage is reviewed and analysts can immediately alert a fleet manager if one of these safety risks is confirmed.

Additionally, fleet managers can view flagged video clips at any time through the Guardian Live portal, but the system will only record video if it detects an issue.

Lenné and his team at Seeing Machines are hoping for more opportunities to further the company’s position throughout the continent.

“North America represents a massive opportunity for the Guardian technology, and the deal with Bison validates our revised approach with hardware pricing and service provision,” he said. “I look forward to seeing our team on this success as we rejuvenate our North American business and start to convert current conversations and interactions into Guardian contracts across this region.”

The Driveri system from technology supplier Netradyne detects distracted driving with object-detection methodology. The system analyzes a driver’s head movements in relation to body position, and when it measures what appears to be distracted driving, it notifies both the driver and fleet manager.

Adam Kahn, president of Netradyne’s fleet business, said Driveri analyzes everything from yawning to eye movement and gaze patterns in order to detect fatigue. Then, that information is processed in real-time on the device to allow for immediate communication with the driver.

Driveri also has a mobile app to let fleets easily address distracted driving with the driver.

Netradyne can also quickly identify both positive and risky behavior by using artificial intelligence, machine vision, and edge computing–a method that improves response time by bringing computation capacity closer to the location at which it is needed.

“Rather than selecting portions of the day and trying to determine the driver profile through happenstance, Driveri captures and analyzes every driving minute,” said Kahn.

However, the co-founder of Pronto.ai, a technology startup with similar monitoring technology, said these systems aren’t the overall solution to improving trucking safety.

“We cannot achieve the goal of safer roads by simply relying on driver monitoring technology alone to improve the effectiveness of existing technologies,” he said. “Instead, driver monitoring technology should be one part of a much broader culture of safety within a commercial fleet’s operations that involves rigorous coaching, training, and oversight by fleets of their drivers.”

New legislation, introduced by U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), will require the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to explain why its proposed regulations regarding mandatory hair testing for drugs in the transportation industry have yet to be determined.

Wicker introduced the Preventing Opioid and Drug Impairment in Transportation Act on December 4th, a bill which would require the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to submit a report to the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives detailing the reasons why HHS hasn’t yet submitted technical guidelines for testing hair to OMB. 

The guidelines are more than two years overdue, and are required in a timely manner under the 2015 Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act highway law.

On December 11th, a U.S. Senate panel advanced the legislation seeking to improve drug testing for transportation workers.

The bill’s provisions will cover truck drivers, Amtrak conductors, and pipeline operators with an effort of reducing impairment on the job within freight and commuter corridors.

“Drug and alcohol use can impair drivers’ and transportation employees’ abilities to do their jobs safely,” said Wicker. “My legislation would help protect the public from these risks by requiring the Department of Transportation to strengthen drug and alcohol testing, research, and programs for drivers and those in safety-sensitive jobs.”

The bill requires both agencies to provide an estimated date on which the guidelines will be put into place within 60 days of enactment.

According to the bill, the report would have to detail “considerations related to eliminating positive test results caused solely by the drug use of others and not caused by the drug use of the individual being tested; and estimate the date by which such guidelines will be completed.”

The proposed federal regulation allowing motor carriers to conduct drug tests for their drivers and potential employees by hair sample is under review at OMB.

“I’d like to believe, if passed, that this language would be effective,” said Dave Osiecki, president and CEO of Scopelitis Transportation Consulting. “However, past congressional pressure on HHS has not resulted in accelerated action on the guidelines, and this language is likely to meet the same fate. A more effective approach might be for Congress to withhold some funding if HHS does not act expeditiously.”

Also under the bill, the U.S. Department of Transportation would need to determine whether it will require Amtrak engineers and conductors to report drug and alcohol-related arrests immediately. It would make Amtrak implement tracking and monitoring procedures, as well as report to Congress details of an electronic record database for drug tests.

The bill would also require the Department of Transportation to amend its auditing system and report to Congress regarding how pipeline companies may require international safety-sensitive personnel to undergo drug and alcohol testing, while still operating domestic infrastructure.

The Department of Transportation would need to report to Congress its methods of reducing impaired driving, including that under the influence of marijuana or opioids. DOT would have to continue researching while determining the usefulness of onsite oral fluid screening and creating guidelines for law enforcement on the use of this screening and drug recognition protocols.

The bill would also require the Government Accountability Office to report on an “assessment of whether the process used by the Department of Health and Human Services by adding and removing categories of drugs to and from the federal workplace drug testing requirements sufficiently addresses the needs of the transportation industry for drug and alcohol testing to prevent drug and alcohol-related incidents.”

Finally, the bill requires that within the first month of its enactment, the HHS secretary must submit to Congress a report determining whether or not to add fentanyl to DOT’s drug testing panel.

The trucking industry has been closely monitor the proposal–a survey by the Alliance for Driver Safety and Security recently found that more than 300,000 current truck drivers would either fail or refuse a hair analysis, a fact which would be enormously detrimental for the industry.

The panel reported this legislation to the Senate with bipartisan backing, but the chamber’s managers have not yet scheduled a date for its consideration.