Public Health

Trucking Industry Requests Liability Protections Due to Increased Responsibilities During COVID Crisis

March 3, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Motor carriers working on the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic are requesting guaranteed liability protection from Congress, as federal lawmakers work to bring further emergency funding to the trucking industry through new legislation.

A particular group of House members and senators have been working to help stakeholders throughout coronavirus relief efforts and are currently pushing forward a $45 billion relief bill for transportation operations during this time.

According to the measure, which would bring $746 billion in relief funds overall, emergency aid would be given to public transit, bus system, airports, airlines, and Amtrak operations. This aid would also help supply chain operators working within distribution efforts for COVID-19 vaccines as well as certain small businesses.

An additional bill aiming to give $160 billion in state and municipality relief efforts has been moved forward by a bipartisan group of lawmakers. This separate bill would help bring liability protections for COVID-19 relief responders and affiliated stakeholders, and these protections would help with injury claims dating back to December 2019.

In a letter to congressional leaders, American Trucking Associations requested specific liability-protection measures. The letter was addressed to leaders in the congressional minority, as well as Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“Motor carriers and commercial drivers are crucial to ensuring that American communities have the essential goods they need–food, medicine, personal protective equipment, and other critical items–to weather the ongoing public health crisis,” said ATA President Chris Spear in the letter. “Carriers and drivers are in large part the reason why our nation’s grocery stores remain stocked, our gas stations are refueled, and our hospitals and medical professionals stay supplied. As vaccines arrive to protect Americans from this pandemic, they will arrive on a truck.”

“Without these reasonable protections, we fear an onslaught of costly litigation spurred more by an opportunistic trial bar than by those seeking appropriate remedies in response to the actions of a few bad actors,” the letter continued. “ATA’s motor carriers remain committed to what’s been asked of us while asking for little in return, but our industry faces an uncertain future if frivolous lawsuits continue to be filed unabated.”

The letter ended by calling for the House and Senate to “find common ground” in regards to an additional COVID-19 relief bill, reiterating that liability protections are key to making sure motor carriers can continue handling supply chain needs during the current economic crisis.

“Congress should provide that motor carriers are not held liable if, despite reasonable efforts and absent willful/gross misconduct, they are alleged to have exposed customers or employees to the coronavirus in the course of serving the nation’s supply needs during the crisis,” said Spear. “The trucking industry is proud to play an outsized role in COVID-19 response and recovery efforts, and we ask that you consider the essential liability protections in any future legislation.”

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers pushed for the $748 billion relief legislation as transportation stakeholders urged Congress to help avoid transportation service disruptions by approving additional pandemic relief packages.

“Failure to pass this legislative package will mean that small- and medium-sized equipment manufacturers will continue to struggle to keep the lights on and workers on the job, result in continued financial hardship for millions of Americans, and create unnecessary delays in combating the COVID-19 pandemic,” lamented Kip Eideberg, Senior Vice President of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers.

Co-sponsors of the proposal include Senators Susan Collins, Mark Warner, Bill Cassidy, Joe Manchin, and Mitt Romney, who states, “We were able to reach agreement on a two-part relief package that includes emergency relief for small businesses, unemployment insurance, funding for vaccines and health care providers, as well as state and local assistance and a national liability shield for COVID-[19]-related lawsuits.”

A new round of coronavirus relief legislation has yet to be determined by congressional leaders.

Senators have proposed offering $300.8 million to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s safety operations and programs account, and Senate appropriators suggested $391.1 million for FMCSA safety grants. In addition, this summer also saw House funding leaders’ transportation measure passed.

COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Efforts See First Holdups

March 2, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

The United States has experienced its first obstacles in delivering COVID-19 vaccines–the recent distribution effort to deliver nearly 4,000 vaccinations to two states saw a concerning holdup. Additionally, Pfizer Inc. had to announce that it would be distributing a million fewer doses than were intended to ship that particular week.

In mid-December, Alabama and California had four Pfizer-BioNTech SE vaccine delivery trays removed from delivery. These doses were returned back to Pfizer, as they had arrived at a colder temperature than was necessary, explained Operation Warp Speed’s chief operations officer, Gustave Perna.

Pfizer indicated that its vaccines must be stored at exactly 70 degrees below zero Celsius, or 94 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. These four trays were much colder than this required temperature, Perna explained, which ended up becoming quite a loss. Each of these trays would have held enough doses to vaccinate 975 people.

“We were taking no chances,” said Perna, noting that there is still research being done by federal health agencies alongside Pfizer to understand whether or not a dose can still be safely and effectively used after reaching lower-than-intended temperatures.

In addition to this unexpected loss of vaccines, Pfizer was only able to allocate around 2 million doses throughout the United States, down from the nearly 3 million that were allocated the week prior during the initial shipments of the vaccinations.

These are not the first distribution or production difficulties seen by Pfizer in regards to COVID-19 vaccine doses, explained Department of Health and Human Services secretary, Alex Azar.

“As you know, they ended up coming [up] short by half of what they thought they’d be able to produce and what they’d announced they’d be able to produce,” during 2020, he said. “They’re, right now, producing at their maximum capacity to deliver on the 100 million that is in the first tranche of the contract with us, and we’re providing manufacturing support.”

Recently, Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida, noted that his state hadn’t yet received the hundreds of thousands of vaccines that had been promised because of a “production issue with Pfizer.”

However, in response to DeSantis’ statement, a Pfizer company spokeswoman said that Pfizer “has not had any production issues with our COVID-19 vaccine, and no shipments containing the vaccine are on hold or delayed. We are continuing to dispatch our orders to the locations specified by the U.S. government.”

Interestingly, Pfizer refused any development or research money from Operation Warp Speed when developing the vaccine, although other vaccine developers did. Therefore, U.S. government officials have not had nearly as much oversight or knowledge in regards to Pfizer’s vaccine production as they may have preferred.

“The relationship that Pfizer wanted with Operation Warp Speed was the guaranteed purchase of a vaccine if approved by the FDA,” said Azar. “To date, we have had less visibility into their manufacturing processes, their manufacturing capacities, their locations, supplies, raw material issues, supply chain management, than we do with [other companies],” such as AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Moderna Inc.

However, Azar assures that the Department of Health and Human Services has made it a priority to boost its insight and involvement with Pfizer’s efforts, as well as with the obstacles Pfizer may encounter during both the production and distribution processes.

“Part of our ongoing discussions is to remediate that and get better visibility into what they’re doing [and] what challenges they’re facing, because they’ve made significant commitments to us and others in their manufacturing,” Azar explained.

Pfizer was the first vaccine manufacturer to gain emergency approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, allowing for immunizations to begin taking place in early December.

Operation Warp Speed gained 100 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccination in December–each dose consists of two separate shots for each patient. Operation Warp Speed has also noted that it planned to acquire enough vaccines to provide to 20 million Americans in December and many more in January from the doses it contracted between both Pfizer and Moderna Inc.

For more information regarding Operation Warp Speed and the availability of COVID-19 vaccinations, click here.

Trucking Companies Get to Work to Ensure Speedy Transport of First Vaccine Deliveries

February 18, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

“We have dedicated and hardworking people around the world who have been trained to store, handle, transport, and deliver vaccines,” said Carol Tomé, CEO of UPS Inc. “We’re pleased to support our health care partners with smart, efficient logistics for those vaccines that will protect communities and save lives.”

Trucking industry professionals working within COVID-19 vaccination distribution are ensuring that the primary vaccine doses are ready to ship, as rollout plans are secured and prepared for at least 50 million doses. These vaccines are set for timely and efficient delivery though the end of January 2021.

Operation Warp Speed, the initial vaccine distribution plan beginning in a Pfizer plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is the collaboration between the federal government and private industry groups to develop and distribute a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine as soon as possible. The vaccine was co-developed by both Pfizer and BioNTech SE and has already been transported to 636 locations throughout the United States by air and ground travel through distribution hubs at UPS and FedEx.

UPS in particular has initiated a 24/7 command center in Louisville, Kentucky within its Worldport aviation hub.

“Vaccine distribution is a key part of moving our world forward by delivering what matters,” explained Tomé.

Also taking part in key distribution efforts is Boyle Transportation out of Massachusetts, who sent trucks to Pfizer’s facility location at the start of COVID-19 vaccine distribution efforts taking place in mid-December. Boyle, as a company, focuses specifically on medical supply and equipment transportation, and is working with UPS in vaccine transportation as a subcontractor.

Boyle is especially happy to be playing a role in these efforts within Operation Warp Speed, according to the company’s co-president, Andrew Boyle.

“There have been heroic efforts by the drug developers, the clinical trial participants, and the regulators to get this far, but the execution will rely in large part on blue-collar transportation and logistics professionals,” Boyle said. “These are people at the loading docks, the professional truck drivers, the air freight handlers, the package sorters, the delivery drivers.”

Most importantly, Boyle explained, is that these distribution efforts, even within a sole company, are a team effort.

“All the people we work with and represent will play a vital role, and they’re patriots, and they’re proud to help,” he said, also noting that his company will continue working alongside many other manufacturers.

FedEx Corp. agreed, saying these efforts are some of the most impactful its employees have ever seen. FedEx’s distribution within the initial Warp Speed phase takes place among Western states, and that of UPS is within states on the east side of the country.

“This is among the most important work in the history of our company, and we’re honored to be a part of the effort to help end this pandemic,” said Raj Subramaniam, CEO of FedEx Corp. “I am immensely proud of our dedicated team members who continue to go above and beyond to help ensure the safe movement of these critical COVID-19 vaccines. This is who we are and what we do at FedEx.”

Following the approval of Pfizer and BioNTech SE’s vaccines, which were authorized by the Food and Drug Administration on December 11th, Moderna’s vaccine is next to join the ranks, and has been deemed 94% effective by the FDA.

“The next step is the Moderna vaccine, and we know we will ship just a little bit short of 6 million doses to the American people,” said Operation Warp Speed’s chief operations officer, Gen. Gustave Perna. “We’re shipping it to 3,285 locations across the country. It will be a very similar cadence to what we executed this week with Pfizer.”

Experts are staying generally optimistic in regards to the success of these distribution efforts overall.

“I expect that this rollout will work reasonably well,” said Stephen Burks, trucking expert and University of Minnesota-Morris economist. “I absolutely believe there will be glitches, but it’s looking pretty promising. This has been in the planning stages for a long time, and the distribution strategy is sensible.”

Diabetes Issues Must Finally Be Taken More Seriously by Truck Drivers

February 15, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Experts are saying diabetes is affecting a quickly-growing number of American truck drivers who are either ignoring common signs of the disease or have no idea that they even have Type 2 diabetes–the most common form.

Diabetes impacts the body’s ability to respond to or produce insulin, which allows for abnormal carbohydrate metabolism and higher-than-usual levels of glucose in the blood. Typically, a diabetic can test this impact by pricking a finger and using a test strip and glucose monitor.

Still, many truckers who have been diagnosed with the disease fail to eat correctly, exercise, or watch their weight adequately, experts say.

“Early on, you’ll feel fine, until one day, boom–your body is going to crash,” explained TrueLifeCare senior vice president, Kay Pfeiffer. TrueLifeCare specifically helps employers and their workers handle diabetes and its effects.

“Medications are a temporary solution,” Pfeiffer continued. “[If] diabetes [is] not managed, sooner or later, something is going to happen.”

One of the potential side effects of untreated diabetes? Blindness.

“If blood sugar is too high for too long, you run the risk of having damage to the eyes, the kidneys, and the heart,” said medical doctor and truck driver health expert, Natalie Hartenbaum. “Those that can’t control their blood sugar will generally end up on insulin.”

When a truck driver is healthy and passes his or her medical exam given by a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration examiner, he or she will be granted a two-year medical card. If a driver has a diagnosis like diabetes, that driver will receive a certification of one year or less.

According to chiropractor David Thorpe, who trains FMCSA-certified medical examiners, around 43% of truckers currently possess a medical card for one year or less.

“It’s a stressful job, a lot of time away from home, poor eating habits…drivers are notoriously overweight, and in poor health in general,” said Thorpe in regards to diabetes’ prominence among truck drivers. “Plus, [truckers are] an aging population.”

Still, there is not currently any cure for Type 2 diabetes, so the disease must be managed by one’s dedication to eating and exercising healthily.

“You have to get in front of diabetes,” Pfeiffer said. “You have to have the will to manage diabetes.”

Truckers can often handle their diabetes without drugs, but they’ll commonly utilize some kind of oral medication.

“Oftentimes [oral medications] work very well, other times they don’t,” said Thorpe. Even with drugs, Type 2 diabetes needs to be monitored closely.

“Really, we don’t know that much about Type 2 diabetes,” said Pfieffer.

Those with Type 1 diabetes must rely on insulin to stay healthy and risks can be fatal if insulin isn’t taken regularly.

According to a 2014 survey by FMCSA, long-haul drivers self-reported higher diabetes rates than national averages. These drivers showed that 14.1% of them were diabetics, as opposed to the 7 to 10% of the U.S. population with the disease. TrueLifeCare estimates that 25% of truckers over the age of 54 have diabetes.

Additionally, obesity rates are more than doubled when compared to national averages, with 69% of long-haul drivers being obese and 17% being morbidly obese, and the national numbers being 31% for obesity and 7% for morbid obesity.

“It’s almost an epidemic,” said retired medical doctor Larry Wolfe, who was a Vanderbilt University Diabetes Center staff doctor for a decade. “Truck drivers tend to be obese, don’t exercise, they eat wrong–so their diabetes is a real problem to manage, even under the best of circumstances. The major fear always was that they would experience hypoglycemia and lose consciousness while they are driving.”

Type 2 diabetes symptoms can include blurry vision, shaky hands, profuse sweating, irritability, and a lack of coordination. Ignoring these signs can lead to foot or leg ulcers that could end up causing the limb to need an amputation.

Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s Center for Truck and Bus Safety initiated a “Commercial Driver Safety Risk Factors” study this June and used data collected from more than 21,000 truck drivers. Although the study found that diabetic truckers who are being treated are not at any larger risk of accidents, those drivers are 38% more likely to have a moving violation when compared to drivers who do not have diabetes.

“Diabetes goes along with the epidemic of obesity,” said Wolfe. “And unfortunately, we won’t be able to get a good handle on the treatment of Type 2 diabetes until we get a handle on how to treat obesity. That’s the real problem–that we don’t know how to get people to lose weight. If we could, there would be a whole lot less Type 2 diabetes.”

To better regulate and combat obesity and diabetes, experts say that FMCSA must not rely so heavily on a trucker’s physician and examiners to make sure said trucker is taking the necessary insulin or medication. Currently, there is an overall lack of federal guidance in this area.

“FMCSA doesn’t monitor medical conditions,” said Hartenbaum. “They don’t monitor sleep apnea, they don’t monitor blood pressure, they don’t monitor heart disease. They have medical standards and medical guidelines. But it’s up to the medical examiner to evaluate whether the individual is at risk of sudden or gradual incapacitation due to a medical condition, and whether a study is needed to evaluate that.”

Pandemic-Related Supply Chain Challenges Anticipated by Food Transportation Experts

February 14, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Food transportation industry leaders are collaborating in efforts to learn from their experiences during the era of the coronavirus pandemic and its effects on the sector and the country as a whole.

Now, these groups have formed their own formal working group aiming to address food supply chain difficulties that have arisen during this time. The group members discuss issues and potential solutions that will prevent any further disruptions of this kind.

“What I found during the different conversations with each sector was they were all doing something, but it was segmented within their own sector,” said Agricultural and Food Transporters Conference executive director, Jon Samson. “There weren’t a lot of conversations, and there were gaps within that food supply chain. The goal of the group was to share information.”

The Conference is part of the American Trucking Associations and was the source of the beginning of the working group.

At the start of the pandemic and the stay-at-home orders that came with it, food waste became a major focus of the working group as many food and beverages, like milk and beans, were being dumped.

“I reached out to a handful of folks within the supply chain, like the dairy side and livestock side, then also food production, food manufacturing, and food shipping,” Samson continued. “That smaller group turned into a larger group pretty quickly.”

The working group “started as a response to the perishables problem, when there was a visible oversupply of certain commodities bound for food service,” said FMI senior director of supply chain and sustainability, Marjorie DePuy.

She also explained that the Food Industry Association had begun working on forming links between retail groups and food service distributors in order to make communication easier and solve any supply shortages. This helped to create member forums for participants to further discuss solutions.

“It was helpful to share information with others on the calls so we could be aware of the situation in various sectors of the industry and learn about resources where they existed,” said DePuy.

When the working group was able to connect producers, trucking industry members, the government, and food-distributing charities, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Federal Emergency Management Agency began to find ways to get involved and help food be hauled to areas in which it was needed most.

“We worked with the USDA on their Farmers to Families Food Box program to get them linked up with people and get them started,” explained Samson. “We worked with FEMA, [which] was working on getting food assistance to needy families.”

Then, many other groups found interest in the working group’s efforts after noticing federal government involvement.

“We participated in the working group calls to get a better understanding of partnership opportunities across the supply chain,” said vice president of packaging and sustainability for the Consumer Brands Association, Meghan Stasz. “Collaboration and information sharing was critical in the early stages of the pandemic, as different organizations and stakeholders worked to find quick solutions to immediate supply chain challenges.”

Soon, the Consumer Brands Association was able to involve blockchain organization Connecting Food, a group that provides supply chain anomaly identification through its digital auditing capabilities. CBA also brought in members of its Food Waste Reduction Alliance to collaborate with the working group.

“The initial step last spring was to just stop the bleeding,” sais Samson. “Longer term, there has been a fair amount of academic and private work that is being done.”

When academic consultant Dan Holladay joined the group’s efforts, he was collaborating on an agriculture industry technology roadmap with the University of California. He is now helping to find methods of lasting supply chain improvements.

“COVID hit, so I backed up and said, ‘We probably need to reorganize this and focus on the biggest crisis area right now,’ and that was the food supply chain disruptions,” Holladay explained. “That’s when I shifted it over to that.”

Now, Holladay is working to gather the information that has been discussed and deemed beneficial for future efficiency efforts.

“It started evolving to where we want to hold a formal workshop,” he said. “The goal is to make it very formal. In fact, we want to make it into a document that U.S. industries and ecosystems are aligned with.”

COVID Vaccine Nears Readiness, DOTs Prepare for Transport

February 13, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

The emergency order allowing hours-of-service regulation relief to truckers during the time of high demand brought on by the pandemic has been extended by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The expansion of the declaration is an effort to loosen rules and allow for easier transport of long-awaited COVID-19 vaccines.

This extension will last until February 28th, 2021 for truckers participating in direct support of coronavirus emergency efforts–especially those working to transport these vaccines.

“FMCSA is helping lead the way to allow for an efficient and effective distribution of the first COVID-19 vaccines,” said Wiley Deck, FMCSA Deputy Administrator. “The agency is continuing to provide additional regulatory relief to our nation’s truckers to get critically important medical supplies, food, and household goods to Americans in need.”

The original hours-of-service changes, announced in May by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and former acting Administrator Jim Mullen, consisted of four major revisions–including the relaxation of rules regarding sleeper berth time splits, 30-minute rest break requirements, adverse driving condition regulations, and maximum on-duty driving times.

The expansion declaration applies to all 50 states and the District of Columbia and extends the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations exemption from Parts 390 to 399. These Parts cover hours of service, longer combination vehicles, and parts and accessories necessary for safe vehicle operation.

Regulation relief mandates are extended for commercial drivers hauling: medical supplies, equipment, vaccines, and vaccine administration kits; testing-related medical supplies, such as those diagnosing COVID-19; COVID-related sanitation, community safety, and community transmission prevention supplies like masks, gloves, soap, hand sanitizer, and disinfectants; livestock and livestock feed; and food, groceries, and paper products meant for restocking stores and distribution centers.

The hours-of-service change extension will not be offered to those hauling routine commercial deliveries and mixed loads “with a nominal quantity of qualifying emergency relief added to obtain the benefits of the emergency declaration, according to FMCSA.

These efforts follow the December 1st announcement of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s measures being taken “for the safe, rapid transportation of the coronavirus disease 2019 vaccine by land and air,” as stated by the DOT. “With the unprecedented pace of vaccine development through Operation Warp Speed, the Department has made preparations to enable the immediate mass shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine.”

Operation Warp Speed officials have worked with the private companies transporting the vaccines from manufacturers to distribution centers. Necessary safety regulations have been put in place regarding any potential difficulties and hazards that could arise from vaccine transport, which include dry ice and lithium battery standards.

“The Department has laid the groundwork for the safe transportation of the COVID-19 vaccine and is proud to support this historic endeavor,” said Chao.

The first vaccine supplies are set to become available during December, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that as supply becomes more available, all American adults are likely to be able to receive the vaccination in 2021.

“Since the onset of the COVID-19 public health emergency, the Department has played an active role in supporting the Administration’s efforts to contain and mitigate the spread of the virus, and ensure continuation of critical infrastructure support and relief for the American people,” the DOT explained. “Response measures implemented by the Department to date have included direct stakeholder outreach and guidance, expanded Federal assistance, and expedited regulatory relief.”

Still, the hours-of-service changes have been a source of concern for many safety advocates, as the new regulations allowing for longer on-duty hours and less-strict rest time regulations will allow more fatigued drivers on the roads for longer periods of time and for more hours in adverse driving conditions.

Driver fatigue has been a top concern for safety advocates across the country, with the National Transportation Safety Board focusing heavily on the issue and naming the reduction of fatigue-related trucking accidents on its ‘Most Wanted List’ of 2019-2020 safety improvements.

“These [hours-of-service changes] are opportunities for drivers to be pushed to their limits further, to drive without resting,” said the Trucking Safety Coalition’s executive director, Harry Adler, when the rule revisions were first announced. “It’s more opportunity for a driver to operate while fatigued, which is really detrimental.”