safe travels

Independent Contractors Can Maintain Status and Still Receive Safety Training and Equipment

April 15, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Truck drivers working as independent contractors can receive safety equipment and technology from motor carriers without creating any conflict in regards to their statuses as independent contractors, according to a new opinion letter released by the U.S. Department of Labor.

This safety equipment can include innovative resources like driver monitor systems, dash cams, and speed limiters. Additionally, the letter stipulates that independent contractor truck drivers must take specific safety training–an act that would allow these drivers to maintain their current statuses deeming them independent from any particular trucking company.

“We conclude that the safety measures do not constitute control for purposes of determining independent contractor status, and that the owner-operators are likely independent contractors,” explained the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division within the letter, which spanned a total of eight pages.

The letter was written in response to a series of different hypothetical but realistic scenarios outlined by the American Trucking Associations and another anonymous transportation and logistics company.

In ATA’s request, the agency inquired about whether or not motor carriers should be able to exert any particular control over tractor-trailer truck drivers in regards to safety measures that the carrier would prefer be implemented, and whether or not this interferes with the drivers’ statuses as independent contractors. ATA asked if carriers could, by law, have this control over their drivers under the Fair Labor Standards Act, depending on their statuses as independent contractors or as employees.

In the second, anonymous request, the questioning party asked if specific owner-operators are properly classified as being independent contractors in a certain, detailed scenario.

“Based on the facts provided in the first request, we conclude that the requirements to comply with certain legal, health, and safety obligations are not a factor in determining whether a driver is an employee or an independent contractor under the FLSA,” the letter explained. “Based on the facts provided in the second request, we conclude that the owner-operators are likely independent contractors.”

Motor carriers can indeed offer or require specific kinds of safety equipment or safety training to truck drivers without interfering with their independent contractor statuses, the letter continued.

“Today’s letter is a victor for highway safety and for the thousands of truck drivers who choose to be independent contractors,” said Chris Spear, President of ATA. “This opinion will make it easier for motor carriers to utilize owner-operators, while maintaining important safety standards, without risking those drivers’ independent contractor status.”

Still, policy makers in individual states will need to heed the opinions expressed in this letter, which, technically, will only be applicable in regards to federal law and regulation, Spear noted.

“This opinion letter applies only to federal law, but many states rely on federal law and letters like this to make policy,” he said. “Going forward, state policymakers and the courts should value this opinion, and in doing so, encourage motor carriers and owner-operators to enhance training and technology, improving highway safety for all Americans while also allowing drivers to maintain their independent status.”

Regarding the ability for independent contractors’ ability to operate as safely as possible, federal regulators and Congress have designated this responsibility to motor carriers alone, the letter explained. Other industries and businesses do not face these kinds of challenges, which seem unique to the trucking industry.

“This translates to a strong incentive for motor carriers to pursue safety measures and improve regulatory compliance with respect to all of their drivers, employees, and independent contractors alike,” the letter noted.

Additionally, the letter made clear that required training should educate drivers thoroughly on their legal obligations to operate their vehicles as safely as possible; that camera-based and sensor-based safety technology should be able to properly monitor the driver, external conditions, and some internal aspects of the vehicle; and that a truck’s speed-limiter can only prevent a truck driver form operating in an illegal manner.

“A contractual obligation to comply with safety requirements requires no particular action except what the law already requires,” the letter said. “Each of these are the types of legal, health, and safety standards that do not suggest control indicative of employee status.”

Daimler and Navistar Both Issue Safety Recalls

September 22, 2020 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Daimler Trucks North America is currently recalling around 183,000 Freightliner Cascadia tractors from the model years between 2017 and 2021 throughout the United States and Canada.

This recall comes after findings of antilock brake component corrosion that causes the truck to pull to one side, which could result in uneven braking on the front axle, a sudden change in vehicle direction, and a potential crash.

The truck-maker said this brake modulator valve, which is supplied by Wabco USA, could often have chemical corrosion which would slow release timing. Because of this, DTNA recently notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of its intent to recall 164,317 of its best-selling models in America and 18,664 in Canada.

“Typically, the dealer is reimbursed [for replacing the component] and maintains the paper trail necessary for regulatory compliance,” said American Trucking Associations’ Technology & Maintenance Council technical director, Jack Legler.

In 2019, NHTSA administered 900 safety recalls that affected more than 39 million vehicles. As truck manufacturers more closely adhere to agency guidelines and focus on the agency’s efforts in safety improvements, more voluntary safety recalls occur.

This current recall is expected to begin on August 30th. Initial safety recall reports were released on July 2nd, with the NHTSA recall number listed as 20V-390 and Transport Canada’s as 2020305.

“A slow release of the brake on one side during an active brake request (automatic braking event) could lead to a brake pull resulting in a sudden change in vehicle direction due to uneven braking on the front axle, increasing the risk of a motor vehicle crash,” said DTNA.

The company also cited automatic emergency braking, forward collision avoidance, and electronic stability control as aspects of the truck that could be affected by the defect. Dealers will be able to perform free repairs for owners of the affected models, and repairs will take place at DTNA-authorized service facilities.

Still, DTNA says this recall comes from “an abundance of caution” after eight different failure claims in the field since May of 2019. Additionally valves have been under review since early July, and DTNA said the issue “appeared to be” systemic.

These trucks were produced from March 9th, 2016 to June 25th, 2020, and DTNA first learned of the issue in May of 2019. Since then, it has been working with Wabco to find the cause–which was settled on being inlet solenoid blockage caused by magnesium chloride corrosion deforming the O-ring. After analysis of 34 valves, the companies found failed valves on the right side.

No crashes or injuries have been reported due to the defect, and DTNA estimates that only 1% of vehicles included in the recall will have any effects from the issue.

Additionally, Navistar initiated a safety recall on July 8th regarding worries that the engine-connecting rod’s wrist pin bushing could fail in some International LT trucks from between 2018 and 2020 and in some International RH trucks with A26 engines.

On September 13th of last year, Navistar was alerted of a report on some issues in the field with fleets noticing five different A26 engine-connecting rod failures over the course of two months. During an internal investigation, connecting rod failure was found to potentially lead to engine shutdown and dangerous crashes. Navistar reported to NHTSA that the number of possible affected trucks is 4,499.

“[The repair involves] programming the ECM [engine control model],” said Navistar. “This new engine calibration will provide an electronic detection system that will alert the driver if the engine is starting to have a connecting rod failure. The driver will be alerted by the illumination of the red stop lamp in the cluster and a fault code will be displayed.”

Navistar’s vice president of product marketing, Steve Gilligan, says that solving this issue as efficiently as possible is the company’s priority.

“For the fleets, they just want to avoid having the downtime,” he explained. “So, they want to know when we pull them off the road, especially if it is not a mission-disabling failure, that they will get in and out really quick.”

The recall began in early July and remedies are still in development. Navistar’s recall number for this issue is 20504.

COVID-19 Brings Big Changes to Travel Safety and Tourism in America

August 10, 2020 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Traffic and safety numbers and trends have seen many changes due to shelter-in-place orders since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak.

According to Road Ecology Center at the University of California-Davis’ co-director, Fraser Shilling, traffic volumes have seen a sharp decline since stay-at-home mandates were implemented. Traffic has decreased nearly 80% since March. In California, numbers are only now starting to move back toward any normalcy.

Other counties throughout the country have seen varying effects. In San Francisco, miles traveled per day declined quickly when the Bay Area issued its shelter-in-place order in March–those numbers are still notably low. In Kern county and Siskiyou county, miles traveled also decreased significantly but have since begun to slowly return to normal levels.

Throughout the rest of California, locals saw fewer crashes and highly-improved air quality. Sacramento regional hospitals had a 38% reduction in vehicle-related injuries as well as a 46% reduction in pedestrian and cyclist-related injuries.

When Virginia’s state of emergency was announced in March, traffic volumes decreased rapidly, as well. According to data and system analysis manager for The Virginia Department of Transportation, Sanhita Lahiri, traffic numbers dropped steeply in the northern region of the state, but did not decline nearly as much in Lynchburg–an area where numbers began to increase again much sooner than most of the state.

However, Lahiri said she sees commercial motor vehicle traffic staying the most consistent of any vehicles on the road.

“After [the emergency declaration], the decline kept on happening until it reached a trough around mid-April and then gently started ticking up,” said Lahiri. “The trucks kept continuing because of all the deliveries happening around the state. Truck traffic took some time to go down, and then it didn’t go [down as much] as the rest of the vehicles. It’s creeping back up.”

North Carolina also experienced a major decrease in crashes. The state saw a sharp decline in multi-vehicle crashes–70%, to be exact–between March and April. The state also had a 30% decrease in single-vehicle crashes throughout the same time period., according to North Carolina Department of Transportation’s traffic safety project engineer, Daniel Carter.

“For North Carolina, that has been a significant impact for NDOT across the board,” explained Carter. “That has been a very serious hit to our revenue. The drop-off in miles traveled and the drop-off in the fuel tax revenue is hitting us pretty hard.”

Another serious revenue hit? Tourism.

Overall travel spending throughout the country has been predicted to drop by 45% by the end of 2020. Domestic travel is expected to decrease by 40%–from $972 billion in 2019 to $583 billion in 2020. For international inbound spending, numbers are predicted to drop by 75%–from $155 billion to just $39 billion.

U.S. Travel is calling this The Great Travel Depression. With an economy in recession, the travel industry as a whole is experiencing its own depression. Travel industry unemployment is up by 51%, which is double the unemployment rate of the heaviest-hit year during the Great Depression.

Although the travel economy throughout the United States saw progressive expansion in mid-June, it is still 55% below levels of the same time period in 2019. Overall, the COVID-19 crisis has brought $250 billion in cumulative losses thus far.

States without large metropolitan centers, like Alabama and Mississippi, saw travel economy improvements in late June, but other states saw further decline, like New York. Hawaii, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia, which had overall declines of more than 70%.

Additionally, the extremely low level of travel spending has cost $32 billion in federal, state, and local tax revenue losses.

Destinations Analysts has found that a major factor in the continuation of travel decline is rooted in Americans’ perceptions of travel activity safety, which has worsened over the end of June. Many business and leisure travelers have completely changed their readiness to travel–which had started to rise just a few weeks prior.

Many are also not ready for tourists to enter their towns–57% of survey respondents said they did not want local visitors in their communities due to a lack of pandemic-related etiquette. Those not wanting any new visitors generally stated that they were less satisfied with the behavior of businesses and residents in their areas while the economy has begun to reopen.

Trucking Industry Partners Find New Ways to Show Support

June 11, 2020 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

As trucking companies work to stay safe and efficient during the outbreak of COVID-19, they are receiving more and more support from their business partners in the process. These partners are working to offer free and discounted services to trucking carriers and manufacturers and to help employees across the trucking industry stay easily informed on all safety-related information available regarding the pandemic.

For example, TruckStop.com is currently offering trucking companies and freight brokerages free and premium services through its digital freight marketplace. The website also plans to give many of its partners free and discounted resources that will total over $10 million in value.

“Like everyone else, we’ve seen and felt that this is an unprecedented time in our life and certainly in the industry,” said Bill Vitti, TruckStop.com Chief Commercial Officer. “We also felt compelled to do something because we know that the owner-operators and drivers are putting themselves in harm’s way, and they’re literally driving to the front line.”

TruckStop.com is also providing a month of free premium service to the first 10,000 non-customer carriers and brokers who sign up. Additionally, those who are already customers will get a free month of subscription to FreightWaves SONAR, a freight market analytics tool.

“Same with FTR Transportation Intelligence,” said Vitti. “They offered two months free of their subscription, which looks at the pulse of the industry–both rates and forecasting. ATBS [an owner-operator tax and accounting firm] has offered payroll protection and loan-application services for small businesses. You can think about the demand for that today from a broker and carrier perspective.”

Additionally, fleet-representing insurance brokers at Hub International Ltd. have been working to bring truckers the critical information they need to stay safe during this time.

“We have been providing education to our clients,” said Hub International’s vice president of fleet risk services, Steve Bojan. “We have created a COVID-19 resource center for all of our clients. We’ve had a couple of webinars on the subject. We have put out materials that included a risk bulletin on driver safety.”

Trucking companies have been implementing these materials by distributing them efficiently to drivers and other staff through emails and bulletins. According to Bojan, many companies are working to find easier and more consistent communication with drivers during this time as well.

“The biggest thing is this creation of awareness at the tactical level so that drivers have a better idea of what do do,” said Bojan. “They’re kind of isolated, and one of the other things we’re beginning to talk about right now is “How do we stay in better contact with drivers?’”

Transportation intelligence platform and video-centric safety program, SmartDrive Systems Inc., also began recognizing truck drivers on the front lines of COVID-19 by launching its Everyday Heroes in Transportation program in order to recognize hard-working drivers, fleet managers, and dispatchers.

“During these trying and unprecedented times, professionals across industries are stepping up,” said Steve Mitgang, SmartDrive CEO. “As a small token of our continued appreciation for truck drivers, SmartDrive is recognizing the valiant efforts and sacrifices made through our Everyday Heroes in Transportation program.”

Fleets can nominate employees meeting the program criteria by telling the story of that worker to SmartDrive, which will choose weekly winners and offer them $100 gift cards.

“It’s great to read each of [the stories] and see that the commonality between all [of them] was drivers’ selflessness and attitude toward getting the job done,” said Mitgang. “Even with deliveries outside their normal routes to COVID-19 hotspots or potential exposure to the virus, we are seeing–and reading–about how drivers are taking every extra precaution to stay healthy while delivering these vital goods.”

While these comapnies are offering recognition, education, and free services to workers throughout the trucking industry, even more trucking partners are offering their support in other ways.

The American Trucking Associations recently reached out to law enforcement organizations across the country to reiterate truck drivers’ status as a critical workforce, the large role they play regarding the nation’s economy and wellbeing, and the importance this status holds for both the industry and law enforcement across America.

In response, the national Fraternal Order of Police, an organization representing 350,000 police officers throughout the country, sent a letter to President Trump reinforcing that “truck drivers, truck stop and rest area workers, maintenance and repair technicians, dispatchers, towing/recovery and roadside assistance workers, warehouse workers, and intermodal transportation personnel [should] be considered essential critical infrastructure workers for the duration of the Coronavirus 2019 [COVID-19] pandemic.”

Hidden Dangers of Construction Zones

October 28, 2019 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

The holidays are approaching. If you’ve spent any time in the Woodfield Mall area recently, you would know that there is a lot of road construction going on, making an already heavy-traffic area even more congested, especially on the weekends when the shopping faithful are out in full force. If that isn’t frustrating enough, you may have also heard about the driver who crashed his car into the mall and drove around a bit before being taken into custody by police. It just goes to show that there are some things in life that you can’t control, like the actions of others. When it comes to traffic safety there are things you can look out for that will hopefully make your next trip to the mall safer and more bearable.

Avoid Road Rage

Everyone has seen people lose their cool while driving. Maybe you’re guilty of it yourself. Remember, even if people can see your hand signals, they likely can’t hear what words you are screaming at them. If you have kids in the car, they will certainly hear them. Sometimes hand gestures are appropriate while driving, like waiving thank you to another motorist who lets you merge in front of them, or letting someone else know you are waiting to let them through. However, expressing your disdain for someone probably won’t help them learn any kind of lesson and will only cause your own blood pressure to rise. The best bet is to try and stay calm. Focusing your attention on one guy you think might be a jerk can leave you at risk of getting distracted and might make you miss other hazards. It’s much better to keep your cool and keep your attention focused on avoiding collisions.

Look for Construction Vehicles

There are all kinds of dump trucks, backhoes, pickup trucks, and other heavy machinery roaming around construction areas. Sometimes they leave the coned-off sections of the road and meander through traffic. If you’re not looking, suddenly a bulldozer can jump out in front of you. It’s worth it to scan the portions of the road that are blocked off to normal traffic as you look forward in anticipation of other vehicles maneuvering in front of you. Often times, workers will signal to drivers to let them know when a work vehicle is attempting to cross or enter the road. It would be a mistake to always rely on that. You can’t expect everyone else to always do safe and reasonable things, but you can take steps to help ensure your own safety. This is one of them.

Take Your Time

Eventually, we all get where we’re going. It’s best to plan for the worst and take your time. This is especially true for shopping trips. The value of your life and limbs far exceeds any stuff you can buy. If you put things into perspective, parking spots are not worth fighting over. Merging ahead of that one guy who has been irritating you since the last stop sign isn’t worth it. Plus, (parents will get this one), if you are less stressed out from your perilous journey to the mall, you are less likely to lose it when your child inevitably begs you to buy another worthless piece of plastic they will forget about five minutes after returning home. You may show up a little later, but you’ll glide through the mall, sipping your latte, skillfully deflecting your kids’ outright obnoxious demands to get them more stuff they don’t need. Take solace in knowing that even if you have to sit in the car longer you can always drop a few quarters into one of those mall massage chairs and let those automated rollers knead the frustration away.

App Essentials For a Safe Winter Travel Season

February 11, 2015 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Winter in Chicago. From Flickr user inthe-arena

With the winter season comes sloppy road banks, black ice, freezing rain and any number of treacherous scenarios that can cause trouble on the road (providing you can shovel your car out from under all the snow!). Now that we’re in the midst of the most travel-intensive part of the year, it’s nearly guaranteed that one of us will find ourselves in a precarious situation due to inclement weather. Even the most cautious drivers can can’t avoid the unpredictability of Mother Nature.

Of the average 5,870,000 vehicle crashes each year, 23% of crashes are weather-related, according to the Federal Highway Administration. And in 2013, USA Today reported the United States alone suffered nearly 7,000 fatal collisions as a result of weather-related wrecks.

Below are five apps to keep you safe and help out in a pinch.

Road Trip Weather
For $1.99, iPhone users can purchase this sleek app developed by Garafa, LLC, a small-scale meteorological weather center that helps travelers plan accordingly using real-time weather data to predict where and when a potential storm may turn ugly. Simply plug in your travel departure time and anticipated travel route, and Road Trip Weather gives a snapshot of what’s in store on the roads. Tweak your travel plans accordingly and find the safest routes possible.

Weathermob
Think of it like your own Facebook or Twitter dedicated solely to the weather. Like searching your newsfeed, this handy weather app gives you a quick glimpse of what others are experiencing outside, i.e. pictures of snow-buried cars, golf ball-size hail, or the unenviable task of digging a car out of a ditch. Say you’re considering a trip through Lincoln, Nebraska, only to find out that the clouds are pitch black, ominous, and generally uninviting, thanks to a quick selfie on behalf of another Nebraska-bound driver.

Winter Survival Kit
Of all the apps available for download, this may be the most useful of them all, complete with customized alerts and several key options to help you through the worst of times: Alert friends and family to your whereabouts with a push of a button; guesstimate how long you can keep your car running to stay warm; and anticipate how much energy you have before it’s time to abandon ship.

AAA Mobile
This dedicated app is especially handy for AAA members, providing roadside assistance with only a press of a button, but there’s lots to enjoy for the average app user. Get maps of the area and locate the nearest cell phone charging stations, gas stations, and the nearest hotels. There’s also an option to join AAA right then and there, in case the situation proves more dire than expected.

Tow Truck Finder
For just $0.99, you can download this app from by Exact Magic Software, LLC, which tracks your location and displays the nearest tow truck and service stations on Google Maps. You’ll instantaneously be able to find addresses, phone numbers and other info for local tows, potentially saving you some wait time in frigid temperatures.

Have any other life-saving winter apps we should know about? Let us know in the comments or on Facebook!