Public Policy

Trucking Experts Answer Common HOS Questions in Midst of Regulation Changes

March 17, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration representatives are working to get all public questions answered regarding the newest hours-of-service regulations, which have now offically been in effect for a few months.

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic and the toll it took on the nation’s truck drivers, the Trump Administration worked to relax trucking regulations. During this time, an hours-of-service regulation flexibility proposal was implemented, allowing drivers to: extend their potential driving time by two hours during challenging driving conditions, divide their 10-hour mandatory rest times into 5-5 or 6-4 hour splits (giving them more control over their rest breaks and whether or not they are actually resting during that time), and lengthen their maximum on-duty time from a 12-hour period to a 14-hour period.

Because this final rule change has only been active for a short amount of time, FMCSA reps addressed public concerns during a virtual question-and-answer session in December. The final rule took effect at the end of September.

Among some of the topics given the most attention was that of efficient record-keeping, with emphasis on a motor carrier’s need to properly record a driver’s time in, time out, and exact number of hours worked each day. Joe DeLorenzo, FMCSA’s Director of Enforcement and Compliance, noted that these records need to be kept on file for at least six months.

In regards to short haul exceptions, the final regulation change made the exception available to particular drivers by not only lengthening their maximum on-duty periods, but also the distance limit a driver can operate from 100 total air miles to 150.

Drivers do not need to fill out a graph grid log or electronic logging device record–they are permitted to instead use a time record while operating under the new short haul exception.

“You do have to have some sort of account of your time,” DeLorenzo reiterated. “Managing that and thinking through that up front is pretty important.”

DeLorenzo made clear that if a driver travels farther than the allowed 150 air miles or cannot report back in time, or otherwise does not meet the exception, they must fill out a manual log for that day. If a driver has to complete eight or fewer log days within a month, that driver may use a paper log with a graph grid. On the other hand, a driver must use an electronic logging device if he or she has to complete a log more than eight days within the span of a month.

Additionally, DeLorenzo notes that drivers should record driving conditions for the day if they are challenging or adverse, and this record should be taken at the time of the obstacle–not at the end of the day, when the driver may have exceeded the hour limit.

“That will help you to establish, when anybody asks,” he said. “That’s always helpful when somebody questions your log down the road.”

Adverse driving conditions considered in this modification include snow, ice, fog, sleet, or other conditions in traffic or weather that are unexpected by a driver immediately before embarking on his or her operations for the day.

Trucker-involved road incidents will not qualify as an adverse driving condition for that particular trucker, and rush-hour traffic is also not included, explained FMCSA Driver and Carrier Operations Division transportation specialist, Rich Clemente.

“[Applicable circumstances] are unforeseen events, such as a highway that may get closed because of an accident,” he said.

The representatives also spoke about the new regulations in regards to sleeper berth rules–with exceptions now in place for the mandatory 30-minute rest break. Now, these breaks have boosted flexibility by requiring break only after every eight consecutive hours of driving. The break can be satisfied now by a driver using an “on-duty, not driving” status in lieu of an “off-duty” status. The break requirement can also be met by a driver using a “sleeper berth” status.

Clemente explained that the necessary 30 minutes must be consecutive and can consist of a combination of qualifying statuses during that period. Yard moves are not permitted on public roadways, but can count toward a 30-minute break requirement, as can roadside inspections. This time period can also consist of the time a driver fuels his or her truck or gets a snack or meal.

To continue helping carriers and drivers better understand the updated hours-of-service rules, FMCSA recently released an online tool: the Educational Tool for Hours of Service. This resource allows users to log their duty status and can show them what potential violations may have occurred.

COVID-19’s Impact on Trucking in 2020–A Look Back

March 15, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Throughout the one-of-a-kind year that 2020 turned out to be, truckers received much more attention and praise than ever before thanks to their efforts throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

“American truckers are the foot soldiers who are really carrying us to victory,” said Donald Trump at a White House ceremony early on the pandemic. “They’ve done an incredible job.”

Truck drivers played a key role in ensuring individuals, hospitals, and supermarkets received all of the vital items they needed during the country’s shelter-in-place mandates, and American citizens often made sure to thank drivers for their boosted efforts in whatever way they could.

“We obviously have an industry filled with some of the hardest-working, patriotic people in the U.S.,” said Chris Spear, American Trucking Associations president, during the ceremony at the White House. “Those drivers are moms, dads; they’re husbands, wives. They’re involved in their communities. They’re very charitable. They are the essence of the American spirit and to see it recognized like this in a time of crisis–I have to say–I think that is really an extraordinarily important thing for the leader of our country to do.”

Within the nation’s government, officials worked to help the COVID-19 response. Regulators and legislators moved to pass emergency aid bills and regulatory relief packages in order to help the transportation industry’s efforts be as impactful and efficient as possible.

In fact, a huge multi-trillion dollar aid measure was passed in Congress after policymakers had already approved multi-billion dollar packages; the $2 trillion bill was approved in the spring and included $4 billion for cargo airlines and $25 billion for passenger airlines. Congress was later pressured for further transportation industry emergency aid, especially by Amtrak, port officials, state highway agencies, and transit operators who requested the approval billions of dollars for relief programs within new legislation.

Following these efforts, ATA urged congressional leaders to safeguard motor carriers from particular liability risks affiliated with the COVID-19 virus.

“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 nature of the trucking industry as you consider the inclusion of reasonable liability protections in any future legislation,” said ATA’s Spear while Congress worked on new relief packages in December.

Now, President Biden’s “Build Back Better” infrastructure proposal aims to improve commercial corridor access–a topic Trump also showed passion towards. Now, Biden enters office while infrastructure funding policy is discussed within the congressional and executive branches and while America’s highway law reauthorization efforts continue to be negotiated. The majority of those within the transportation industry have pushed policymakers to create further investments throughout mobility grids, and these discussions are continuing into the new year.

During 2020, new exemptions, regulation changes, and waivers came to the forefront of transportation industry discussion as industry regulators made many changes in response to the pandemic.

The most controversial, perhaps, is the update on hours-of-service regulation, which were announced by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and former Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration acting administrator Jim Mullen in May.

This final rule decision came after more than a year of agency debate and public comment, and was based on a proposed rulemaking announcement that was made public in August of 2019.

This updated regulation brings much more flexibility to truckers, especially in regards to 30-minute rest break rules, sleeper berth time requirements, and extended on-duty driving time limits. Many safety advocates have proceeded with legal action and continue to object to the increased flexibility, claiming that truckers will be expected to work for longer hours with less rest, making roads much more dangerous.

Also in August, FMCSA released an announcement stating that Mullen would be leaving his post as acting administrator, and that Wiley Deck, former DOT Office of the Secretary senior policy adviser, would take over as deputy administrator for the agency. The following month, TuSimple, an automated technology developer, announced Mullen would be working as the company’s chief legal and risk officer.

Additionally, it was announced that crashes involving not-at-fault drivers could be permitted from FMCSA’s safety profile through its crash preventability program. FMCSA also launched its Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse database with more than 46,000 drug violations logged within the base’s first year of operation. Additionally, the agency started its military pilot program focusing on younger drivers. Finally, FMCSA officials also announced their intention to begin a Large Truck Crash Causal Factors Study, which would be the first update regarding this kind of data in 17 years.

Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety Plans and Updates Required in Final FRA Rule

March 4, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

A final rule mandating states update or develop highway-rail grade crossing action plans has been issued by the Federal Railroad Administration.

The FRA recently released data showing that 94% of fatalities related to rail transit take place at railroad crossings and/or are results of trespassing. A highway-rail grade crossing is the point where railroad tracks intersect with a roadway on the same grade or level. There are more than 250,000 of these crossings across the country, and more than 400 related deaths occur each year in these areas due to trespassing.

The Federal Register released its final ruling in mid-December requesting highway-rail grade crossing action steps to be planned out by 40 different states and the District of Columbia. The remaining 10 states, which already have plans in place, must also update these plans while indicating exactly what they have done thus far to take action on them.

These outlined plans are required to identify all crossings that have seen safety issues and incidents, and specific strategies must be indicated for improving the overall safety of these crossings. According to the Federal Register announcement, these strategies could include grade separations or closures, and each state must identify one official manager to ensure that the indicated action plan comes to fruition.

“The actions states must take to develop action plans and, more specifically, to develop specific strategies for improving grade crossing safety can, if done properly, significantly improve safety and complement other efforts by states to improve transportations safety generally,” said the document.

The FRA was urged to implement regulations requiring highway-rail grade crossing action plans by 2015’s Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, from which this most recent rule is derived. The provision in FRA’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking detailing said action plans was initially published near the end of 2019.

Prior to those regulations, 2008’s Rail Safety Improvement Act pushed a number of states to make such safety plans, which led to 10 particular states with the largest number of highway-rail grade crossing incidents between 2006 and 2008 to be identified by the Secretary of Transportation at that time. Those states were then required to create specific action plans aiming to lead toward major safety improvements. The states required to make such plans after analysis of agency data regarding crossing collisions were Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Ohio, and Texas.

Because the necessary safety action plans proved to be costly, many members of the public urged the FRA to allocate funding to these specified states–especially as Delaware’s Department of Transportation explained that its needed costs were going to make or break the state’s ability to make important–and potentially life-saving–safety upgrades.

“DelDOT noted that the state of Delaware currently experiences an extremely low number of train-related crashes and asserted that developing an action plan would draw resources away from other ongoing efforts to make a positive safety impact on the state and its communities,” said the Federal Register document. “Accordingly, DelDOT recommended that FRA establish guidelines that, if met, would exempt a state from the requirement to develop an action plan.”

Currently, states are able to utilize the Federal Highway Administration’s Railway-Highway Crossings Program funding to develop needed action plans, although the final rule’s mandate has yet to provide any provision allocating specific federal funds for said plans.

Once plans are formed, the FRA must, as stated in the FAST Act, review and, upon approval, publish the state’s plan publicly on an official website. If a submitted plan is determined to be inadequate, the agency must notify the state of deficiencies and allow the state 60 days to correct or add what may be missing.

If the two-month deadline is missed, the FRA must then publish online that the state in question has not completed a proper action plan. As states continue to work on their action plans and updates, DRA representatives and inspectors are available to help those with questions. DRA will also provide highway-rail grade crossing incident data to states when requested.

This final ruling is officially in place as of January 13th, and states are required to submit their plans or updates to the FRA by at least 14 months after the publication date of the final rule.

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.

New Program Launched Urging Truckers to Join Fight Against Human Trafficking

February 2, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

A new campaign out of Florida will help truckers become involved in efforts to fight human trafficking throughout the country.

The Highway Heroes campaign, launched in late October by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles along with Attorney General Ashley Moody, has a goal of recruiting at least 500,000 truck drivers for this initiative.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Advisory Committee on Human Trafficking, around 25 million people are forced into commercial sex acts or other forms of labor each year. Ways to identify victims of human trafficking include a person’s particularly anxious behavior, appearance of malnourishment, or lack of control in regards to money and legal identification documents.

“Truck drivers play an important role in our fight to end human trafficking,” Moody said. “By spending so much time on the road, visiting truck stops, and communicating with each other regularly, these drivers create a powerful network that can be called upon to spot and report suspected human trafficking.” Moody is currently serving as the chair of the Statewide Council on Human Trafficking.

Because there are more than 500,000 licensed commercial truck drivers in the state of Florida, around 500,000 letters detailing the program and explaining human trafficking have been sent out to truckers. The letters also direct readers to training resources on the Highway Heroes website. The campaign itself has been dedicated to providing outreach materials to truckers as well as creating a brand new webpage with resources regarding ways to identify human trafficking and how to report potential crimes.

The training resources listed on the Highway Heroes website is provided by Truckers Against Trafficking, a national organization that works to help trucking industry members learn about how best to fight human trafficking. Every Florida CDL holder is able to become a TAT-trained driver through the campaign.

“We are receiving requests for more materials from Florida’s professional drivers and an outpouring of positive comments about their being a part of the solution to this heinous crime,”said Kylla Lanier, Deputy Director for TAT. Lanier hopes that the efforts made in Florida will inspire other states to pursue similar endeavors in order to help end human trafficking across the country.

A digital media campaign for Highway Heroes has also been launched across Florida and will serve messages to commercial truck drivers throughout the state about the realities of human trafficking and how they can make a difference. This digital effort will continue through the month of January, which is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

These actions are especially important in Florida, which currently ranks third in the United States in number of calls to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, according to the Statewide Council on Human Trafficking. The letter mailed to truckers for the Highway Heroes campaign emphasizes the fact that because there are 12,000 highway miles in the state of Florida, truckers have a vital role to play in these efforts.

“Truck drivers serve as the eyes and ears on our roads–ensuring everyone stays safe,” said Ken Armstrong, President of the Florida Trucking Association. “The members of FTA have made it a priority to train their professional drivers to spot and report human trafficking, with almost 1 million drivers having already received the training nationally. We encourage all Florida commercial truck drivers to become a certified Trucker Against Trafficking.”

Last year, a final rule was passed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration permanently banning commercial truck drivers who have been convicted of human trafficking from working in the industry–especially truckers who used a truck to commit a trafficking-involved crime.

Additionally, earlier this year, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao boosted the need to combat human trafficking at the federal level when she challenged trucking industry members to make a commitment to take actions that would help fight trafficking–asking for 100 pledges within 100 days, which was far exceeded by industry representatives in that time frame.

To view the letter sent out to Florida truckers, or to find more information regarding Truckers Against Trafficking and the Highway Heroes campaign, click here.

Many Fleets Moving Quickly to Hire Furloughed Drivers During Pandemic

September 28, 2020 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

“We felt this was a great opportunity to add experienced, top talent to our fleet,” said U.S. Xpress recruiting director, Kendra Patton, of this time of pandemic.

U.S. Xpress was able to bring on more previously-furloughed drivers throughout the time of COVID-19, and is still continuing to do so–especially within the divisions of over-the-road drivers. This comes as an effort to meet high demand for grocery, retail, and consumer goods.

Many such carriers have been on-boarding the drivers furloughed by many other fleets, as the pandemic has brought about unprecedented employment efforts and recruitment methods.

“There was a smaller pool of companies actually continuing to hire, and yes, with the furloughs that took place, there was a slightly larger pool of applicants looking for their next opportunity,” said Grand Island Express vice president of operations, Deen Albert.

The larger potential selection of drivers seeking jobs is also filled with experienced commercial vehicle operators, giving fleets needing more truckers an opportunity to be pickier than usual in regards to their new employees.

DriverReach CEO, Jeremy Reymer, says this hiring situation is not unlike that of 2008’s recession.

“In many cases, there were a lot of really good drivers available as a result of that [recession],” he explained. “Through no fault of their own, they were out of work.”

For nearly a month-long period, highly talented and safe drivers were widely available, said Penske Logistics senior vice president of operations for dedicated contract carriage, Jeff Jackson.

Penske did indeed take advantage of this opportunity, although the company also laid off some of its drivers in areas with decreased demand, and even moved drivers to other sectors in need. Overall demand increase spiked much more quickly than was expected, Jackson said.

“Where we felt we had a surplus of drivers, it flipped to having to hire a lot of drivers again over the course of a couple of weeks,” he said.

Although many experienced drivers have been available for hire, fleets have been especially careful about who they bring onboard, said WorkHound CEO, Max Farrell.

“During this time, it isn’t just who can fill the truck. It is who is the right culture fit,” he said.

Still, a fleet’s main focus is safety, and bringing in veteran drivers helps boost that focus and get new employees on the road more quickly.

“Entry-level drivers, those with less than one year experience operating a [commercial motor vehicle] requiring a CDL, are subject to additional training requirements, and carriers often take special care to ensure they are as safe as possible,” explained CEO of Scopelitis Transportation Consulting, Dave Osiecki. “This training and on-boarding process adds time for new or less-experienced drivers.”

Grand Island Express’ Albert agreed, saying experienced truckers make on-boarding a much simpler process across the board.

“From a safety standpoint, we have some idea of the type of driver that they are,” he said. “From an efficiency standpoint, we know that they’ve been exposed to some of the technology used in the industry today. From a longevity standpoint, we know that experienced drivers understand the lifestyle of an OTR driver.”

Additionally, because COVID-19 has brought such a negative change in regards to job security, many trucking companies have also noticed higher overall driver retention rates.

“The broad job market is a little scary right now,” said Osiecki. “If you have a good driving job right now, you’re pretty happy, and most drivers are staying put.

Unemployment rates throughout the country increased to 14.7% in April, but fell back slightly to 11.1% in June. Staying put longer in a job is a natural effect of an uncertain job market, Osiecki explained.

“The grass may not be greener on the other side,” added Farrell, who explained that drivers are not likely to jump to another carrier, even if they had been considering it pre-pandemic.

Turnover rates have also dropped for both Penske and U.S. Express.

“Especially during the earlier days of COVID-19, uncertainty was greater, and more drivers decided to stay put in their current positions,” said Patton.

Jackson agreed, saying Penske’s turnover rate has decreased by 7%. “In 2019, our driver turnover was 29%. This year we’re trending at 23% through May.”

Additionally, trucking companies are often working to keep drivers at ease during these times by increasing communication efforts and staying mutually updated throughout the work day.

Penske, for example, implemented a communications strategy that utilizes both a COVID hotline and website for easier communication and question-asking.

“Drivers were not only concerned with COVID, but also with personal schedules that were in flux,” said Jackson. “From a [personal protective equipment] standpoint, we were ahead of pretty much every mandate with securing PPE. We also implemented temperature checks prior to the mandate. The drivers felt really good that we were putting this energy into it.”