Trucking

Truckers Must Stay Extra Cautious and Aware This Winter as Storms Worsen

January 18, 2022 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

As winter storms rage on and infrastructure improvement projects face delays, many roads are seeing increases in accidents that ultimately lead to closures. Because of this, transportation experts are urging truckers to stay mindful and cautious at all times and follow all road signage and avoid areas with dangerous weather conditions, regardless of how inconvenient it may be to their trips.

For instance, a large snowstorm caused a high number of roadway incidents after hitting the mid-Atlantic region this month, blocking traffic on Interstate 95 along the 50 mile distance between Washington and Richmond.

During afternoon rush hour, snow levels hit unexpected highs and freezing temperatures caused Virginia interstate roadways to freeze over, bringing about a heavy gridlock for hundreds of drivers and truckers for nearly an entire day. After damaged vehicles were finally cleared from the highway, the interstate reopened the following evening.

Fredericksburg, Virginia-based trucking company Bully Breed Logistics had a trucker stuck in the highway shutdown while attempting to return from a delivery in Wilmington, Delaware.

“We tried to deliver…they said that they couldn’t take it,” said the owner of the company, Jeremy Slovak. “So, we had to drive back with that load.”

Because of this, the Bully Breed driver was forced to sleep in his truck smack in the middle of Interstate-95 around 30 miles north of Fredericksburg. Luckily, he ended up able to take an exit once a slow crawl began on Tuesday; still, the incident made for quite a bit of wasted money–and time–for the tiny carrier.

“I’ve got to pay my driver for that [time],” said Slovak. “I’ve got to pay for the fuel for that. Then, the cold and the ice and the salt…they cause a lot of problems for the trucks–maintenance, wear and tear.”

In fact, for a shipment of rolled paper, the total losses in revenue will likely reach $10,000 for the issues caused by this storm, Slovak noted.

“It hurts real bad,” he lamented. “I’m having to go into my reserves–my little nest egg–for repairs and stuff that I have, just to make sure my guys are paid. If I have the money, I’ll pay my guys, even though they’re staying home. It’s not their fault. They’ve got families to feed.“

Slovak’s driver was lucky enough to be paying close enough attention to take an exit as soon as possible, even after getting stuck in such a long snow-caused backup. Still, some truckers haven’t been quite as lucky after being a bit less diligent in this winter weather.

In Washington state, one truck driver made the mistake of ignoring closed-road signs and ended up stuck on White Pass in the midst severe winter weather. Because of this, the state’s Department of Transportation decided to make an example out of this lack of judgment.

“‘Road closed’ signs apply to everyone,” said WSDOT in a social media post. “This is why. On Thursday evening, this semi went through the road closure on White Pass and got stuck. Our crews had to rescue the occupants, take them to safety, and then later today, guide the truck down behind our blower.”

When negligent drivers cause accidents like this, DOT crews–who are already working long hours to keep roads cleared and people safe during inclement weather–have even more on their plates.

“Our crews have been cautiously moving with blowers down each side of the pass,” WSDOT explained. “It’s slow-going as the snow is deep and slides [have] brought down rocks, logs, and other debris, so [they have to] bring in a loader to move the debris to allow the blower to continue on. [There is] still no estimate for reopening and working on getting info, updates, [or] images from the other passes.”

Now, WSDOT is calling on all drivers–especially truckers–to pay extra-close attention to road signage and to use their best judgment at all times, for the safety of themselves, department workers, and the local community.

“Our crews are working really hard to get things open, and things like this [accident] don’t help,” WSDOT’s post continued. “So, please–if you see a ‘road closed’ sign, don’t ignore it.”

Driver Recruitment Methods Change as Trucker Shortage Worsens Following Pandemic

September 24, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

“The biggest change that we’ve seen–other than the sheer number of companies who are now using our website to advertise their driving jobs–are the types of companies who are doing so,” said CDLjobs.com president, Darin Williams.

These kinds of recruiting effort boosts have seen widespread utilization among motor carriers as the long-term truck driver shortage has been strained even further due to the explosion of e-commerce and other pandemic-related consumer demand increases.

CDLjobs.com is an online service which aims to easily transfer data related to driver job applications to specific carriers (the service has an advertising platform just for truck driver jobs). Pre-pandemic, the website typically catered to major carriers, but things have changed quickly in that regard throughout 2021.

“Post-pandemic, we are representing carriers who never had to advertise,” Williams explained. “Private carriers, union carriers, [and] ‘mom-and-pop’ carriers.” In 2020, CDLjobs.com represented 86 carriers; that number jumped to 135 in August of 2021, bringing a 53% sales increase for the company by the end of last year and a 110% overall sales increase by July of 2021.

Additionally, around 52% of professionals in the transportation industry are aiming to boost job advertisement spending throughout 2021, according to an August U.S. Transportation Spotlight Report released by background screening and workplace solution provider, HireRight. The report also showed that 86% of industry workers who participated in the survey deemed the difficulties in finding properly-qualified candidates for job openings a primary concern.

“In the past, carriers typically worked individually with multiple service providers and media partners to generate [leads on drivers],” said Conversion Interactive Agency’s vice president of marketing and training, Priscilla Peters. “It involved lots of time, lots of phone calls, and lots of unconnected data and analytics.”

These kinds of efforts have been proven obsolete in the currently highly-competitive marketplace, especially with more and more carriers across the industry looking to obtain better methods of boosting their overall brands and their knowledge regarding the most effective strategies for recruitment.

“This year, we’ve found ourselves in conference rooms on Zoom calls digging in deep with more and more carriers to identify what their driver persona is, and how we can create a marketing plan that includes multiple media partners but has one strategic message and goal,” said Peters. “Carriers of all sizes are committed to building a brand preference with drivers more than ever.”

Throughout the pandemic’s trucker shortage, The Alabama Media Group–a digital marketing agency–has doubled the amount of trucking companies for which it advertises from 50 in 2020 to more than 100 this year.

“We’ve seen a big increase in trucking firms of all sizes,” said Alabama Media Group vice president of marketing, Bart Thau, “but especially in the small-to-mediums, [and] the sort of 50- to 1,000-truck range firms. What they’re trying to do right now is differentiate themselves and try to get the recruiting funnel directly connected to them.

In fact, fleets are looking to reach job seekers who may not even be searching for roles in the trucking or transportation sector at all, Thau explained.

“We’re developing marketing strategies that help trucking companies brand themselves in the workplace for potential recruits,” he noted. Some of these outreach efforts focus upon making the trucking world appear as appealing as possible, especially through social media. This involves portraying workplace atmosphere, lifestyle, benefits, and pay as being highly lucrative and irresistible.

“The majority of the inquiries that we’re getting now are from smaller fleets that really never had to advertise,” added Pat Hightower, CEO of Hightower Agency. “They could always find drivers, through referrals, or through word-of-mouth, and they could do a little advertising internally. Companies with, say, 150 trucks or less [could do this].”

Nearly 1.1 million new truck drivers will need to enter into the industry over the next ten years to keep up with increasing demands and worker retirements, the American Trucking Associations has predicted. This comes out to almost 110,000 new truckers needed each year.

UCR Plan-Violating Carriers Subject to Large Fees, Officials Getting Ready to Collect

August 25, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

A strict three-tiered plan to help officials identify and contact unregistered motor carriers has been approved by the Unified Carrier Registration Plan’s Board of Directors. The 44,000 motor carriers that have still yet to register with this new plan have either been issued penalties for previous violations or have failed to pay outstanding fees.

The UCR Plan was implemented by Congress in 2005, which includes 41 participating states that have agreed to be part of the plan collecting fees from leasing companies, private carriers of property, motor carriers, freight forwarders, and brokers. For these participating states, the agreement also allows for the allocation of more than $100 million in safety enforcement program funds each year.

“Our motor carrier registration percentages from non-participating states historically lag well behind those of participating states for various reasons,” explained the UCR Plan’s executive director, Avelino Gutierrez. “First, since non-participating states do not register their own UCR-eligible motor carriers for UCR, the non-participating motor carrier will not be actively solicited to register for UCR by anyone in their state. Second, few non-participating states enforce UCR roadside, which is certainly another effective method of getting motor carriers to register on their own.”

Additionally, if non-participating states have domiciled motor carriers that have Department of Transportation numbers, those carriers must still register and pay the related fees. According to Gutierrez, the nine non-participating states have around 35,000 unregistered carriers themselves. The categories of carriers required to pay UCR fees do not include private carriers of passengers, although Mexico- and Canada-based carriers operating within the United States are in fact otherwise subject to the UCR plan agreement.

The current nine states not participating in the UCR program are: Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia.

Commercial Motor Vehicle Alliance roadside inspectors have been checking the UCR registrations of carriers within participating states since 2013. Registration fees also align with the number of trucks within a carrier’s fleet–carriers with a fleet of over 1,000 need to pay $56,977 in annual fees, whereas carriers with only two trucks must pay $59 each year.

“We agree that great headway can be made if we contact those carriers in this pilot and attempt to register them,” Gutierrez explained. “So, the plan is to have one contractor full-time equivalent contact the motor carriers–about 50 a day–starting with those with the highest number of power units and moving to those with lower numbers of power units, to be more efficient in our return.”

A pilot project is in the works that would aim to help officials more easily contact motor carriers reporting a number of power units that is in contradiction with the number that is declared in their Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration form (MCS-150), which mandates brokers or carriers accurately define all aspects of their operations. However, three other pilots are the main focus of the UCR plan at this time, and none of these pilots would be geared toward freight forwarders or brokers.

All of these potential pilots will likely “be the first step of the board in taking action on the enforcement side of the registration equation,” Gutierrez added.

According to Gutierrez, the first pilot will focus upon raising nearly $450,000 in collections from just 20% of carriers that will be contacted–a violation that will likely cost around $85,000 for each contractor.

The next pilot estimates that more than 5,600 new carriers entering the industry in non-participating states have failed to register, although many of them may not yet understand that this kind of registration is indeed necessary. Collections from these failures to register will likely bring in around $383,000, Gutierrez estimates.

Thirdly, the next pilot will focus upon other motor carriers who have already been cited for failing to register. With 1,800 of these kinds of violations having already been issued in 2021, the UCR Plan estimates that around 3,500 total motor carriers may be in violation of registering by December.

Freight Movement Faces Challenges as NYC Expressway Undergoes Improvements

August 23, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

In an effort to reduce overall truck traffic on the corridor route between New York City and Interstate 278, and to increase the lifespan of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway cantilever, officials in New York City have released a new infrastructure-boosting plan.

The four-part plan was unveiled by Bill de Blasio, the Mayor of New York City, and Henry Gutman, the Commissioner for the New York City Department of Transportation. Because the expressway route, nicknamed the BQE, also includes a triple cantilever carrying three levels of city traffic, the officials have stated that these four parts will mainly consist of developing a community-focused plan for the corridor itself, preserving the structure of the cantilever, boosting overall enforcement and monitoring efforts, and implementing both short- and long-term maintenance improvements.

Through these efforts, the New York City Police Department will increase its enforcement and monitoring throughout the corridor, deploying smaller units for a few days at a time that will be working to steadily increase traffic management efforts in this area.

Additionally, weigh-in-motion technology will be installed by New York City to be able to fine overweight trucks automatically, as part of the plan’s comprehensive monitoring and traffic management methods outlined in the announcement.

“A critical piece of prolonging the life of the roadway is taking the enforcement of overweight trucks seriously,” explained Jo Anne Simon of Brooklyn, a New York State Assembly member.

Right now, the largest two focuses for state officials are boosting truck regulation enforcement efforts and reducing the number of highly-congested corridor lanes currently present– a wholly unnecessary and potentially detrimental course of action, as explained by Kendra Hems, President of the Trucking Association of New York.

“At a time when we’re trying to focus on addressing emissions and [the] reduction of greenhouse gas, it just doesn’t make sense that we would increase congestion instead of reduce it,” Hems said. “To drop that [corridor segment] down to two lanes is just going to make that situation much worse and put a lot of pressure on the trucking industry in terms of hours-of-service constraints.”

Specifically, according to the plan, a portion of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway will see lane markings being shifted in order to decrease the number of lanes from three lanes in each direction to two in each direction. This alignment change will occur in the segment of the expressway located between Atlantic Avenue and the Brooklyn Bridge, and will provide a shoulder as well as two wider lanes as opposed to the currently-in-place three narrow lanes. According to the plan, this shift will work to help reduce the overall weight present at any given time along this segment of the BQE, as well as reduce the number breakdowns and collisions, which often cause major delays.

The Trucking Association of New York will often back many sensible methods of transportation when necessary, but trucks do indeed need to be able to make their final deliveries in an efficient and timely manner, of course, and trucking traffic heavily relies on the Interstate-278 corridor when leaving the Port of New York and New Jersey, Hems noted. It has also been made clear throughout the pandemic era that the trucking industry is vital for the wellbeing of our economy and for the wellbeing of the nation as a whole. Giving fewer trucks access to that section of the expressway at any given time will hinder a trucker’s ability to reach his or her destination on time, resulting in late deliveries or hours-of-service regulation violations, she added.

“I think what’s frustrating here is this continued rhetoric about eliminating trucks from New York City and shifting freight to other modes,” Hems explained. “They’re tying that into this whole plan, which I think is irresponsible, because trucks aren’t going away.”

Additionally, the plan has outlined intentions to analyze the structure’s joints and drainage capabilities as a method of stopping water infiltration within the structure in order to better preserve it.

A variety of rail- and water-related solutions has been proposed by Representative Nydia Velazquez of New York for the trucking industry to be able to alleviate some of the current infrastructural and environmental impacts in place. Other city officials have noted their goals to work with members of the trucking industry, as well as with other businesspeople and community members, throughout the coming months in an effort to develop the most efficient long-term plan for the corridor and its foreseeable future.

Truck Driver Notification Efforts During Disruptive Events Need Major Improvements

July 30, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Now more than ever, as the trucking industry has made clear its prominent role in the American economy, truckers need to be in the loop regarding everything being done to help them out during a disruption event, explained Truck Specialized Parking Services trucking expert Scott Grenerth. Truck Specialized Parking Services offers drivers easily accessible truck parking availability information.

Grenerth spoke at a Federal Highway Administration-hosted webinar last week as part of the Talking Freight seminar series by FHWA, and has worked as both a company driver and owner-operator himself.

The importance of adequately communicating with drivers on the road was made especially clear when these truckers stepped up to the front lines in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Grenerth explained. When travel centers, rest stops, and stores themselves all shut down during stay-at-home orders, many truck drivers couldn’t find a place to park, rest, or even find food.

FHWA announced at the start of the pandemic that it would allow for food trucks to come to federally-funded interstate highway rest areas in an effort to help boost snack and meal options for truck drivers during that time. Many states quickly took advantage of this flexibility; however, a majority of over-the-road truck drivers, when surveyed, said that they had been unaware about the presence of these food trucks soon enough for them to take the necessary exit, even though FHWA had issued a notice to state departments of transportation about this new allowance.

Because of issues like this–which directly affect a truck driver’s wellbeing while on the road–Grenerth suggested that the FHWA find ways of improving methods of alerting drivers to what is available to them during challenging circumstances. This raised awareness could come through methods like signage hauled behind trucks on the freeway or overhead variable message signs, he said.

Additionally, not only would this kind of improved communication help drivers become quickly alerted to the resources and conveniences readily available, but they could also help alert truck drivers to the help they can get during severe flooding, wildfires, hurricanes, or other emergencies.

“We definitely just need to make sure that whatever comes up, like this kind of response, truckers know where they can get the help that they’re going to be seeking,” said Grenerth. “We just need to make sure they know about that.”

Many trucking companies have used the difficulties brought about the pandemic as motivation to boost in-company communication capabilities, with many fleets initiating regular town hall meetings amongst employees to keep everyone up-to-date on changes and updates within the industry and the company itself, others beginning to send out informative newsletters with helpful resources for employees, and others implementing mobile app platforms that allow drivers and fleet managers to stay regularly connected while truckers are on the road.

Additionally, many changes brought to the trucking industry during the pandemic era have lasted to today, according to Michigan State University associate professor of supply chain management, Jason Miller. These aspects include effects on truck stops, travel centers, and retail truck tonnage–which has reached higher levels this year in regards to freight movement than in 2018 or 2019.

“It ties into the challenges of [upsetting] the apple cart, and then we start to have a different mixture of freight taking place,” said Miller. “We have a mixture that is [made of] less manufacturing and substantially more retail. That creates a lot of disruptions.”

The pandemic has made addressing these disruptions vitally important, as the industry has already lost far too many truck drivers–74,000 more workers were employed in some capacity by the trucking industry in 2019 than in 2020.

“We’ve had demand rebound to near-record levels, but our number of long-distance drivers is down substantially from where we were even three years ago during that same time period of essentially record-high demand,” said Miller.

In fact, the local general freight sector has grown by 16,500 workers in May of 2021 as compared to May of 2018, although the number of folks working in the long-distance truckload sector and the long-distance less-than-truckload sector has dropped significantly.

1,273 CMVs Taken Off the Road After Unannounced Brake Safety Inspection Day

July 29, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Horizontal shot of a blue semi climbing a hill on an interstate highway in heavy traffic.

More than 1,200 commercial motor vehicles with critical brake violations were removed from American roadways by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s inspectors during a surprise one-day brake safety enforcement initiative.

10,091 inspections were unexpectedly inspected throughout the United States, Mexico, and Canada near the end of May. This unannounced inspection event led to 1,273 vehicles being placed out-of-service.

“CVSA released its May 26th Brake Safety Day results,” said CVSA last week in a tweet. “Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. reported a total of 1,725 brake hoses [or] tubing violations–this year’s focus area–from the one-day, unannounced brake safety initiative.”

All data from this Brake Safety Day was thoroughly tracked and reported by inspectors and sent to the CVSA. This Brake Safety Day has been implemented as part of CVSA’s enforcement and inspection initiative for boosted road safety.

“We are sharing the results to call attention to the importance of commercial motor vehicle brake safety,” explained President of CVSA and Delaware State Police sergeant, John Samis.

Although the the transportation industry–and the trucking industry in particular–is well aware of the necessity for brakes to be up to standard at all times, vehicle out-of-service conditions are still mostly comprised of brake-related violations. Because of this, brake issues are continuing to be the most prevalent among commercial motor vehicles, according to the CVSA. Additionally, during 2020’s three-day International Roadcheck driver and vehicle enforcement safety event, brake system violations were the most common vehicle out-of-service category.

The safety operation was conducted by 42 U.S. jurisdictions, six Canada jurisdictions, and Mexico’s National Guard and Ministry of Communications. 8,658 inspections were conducted throughout the United States, 946 were conducted throughout Canada, and 487 were conducted throughout Mexico. The overall out-of-service brake-related violation rate throughout the continent of North America was 12.6%–With 13.3% of violations being brake-related in the United States, and in Canada and Mexico–11.4% and 2.9%, respectively. The United States, of course, had the most overall violations, with 1,151 vehicles taken off the country’s roadways after these inspections.

In addition to these issues, inspectors collected data in relation to brake hoses and tubing, a category requested to be inspected specifically by the CVSA in regards to a variety of brake hose and tubing chafing violations, but not out-of-service violations. North America saw 1,725 brake hose and tubing violations during the inspection initiative, with the United States reporting 1,288, Canada reporting 251, and Mexico reporting 186.

“Brake hoses and tubing are essential brake system components and must be properly attached, undamaged, without leaks, and flexible,” explained Samis. “We chose to focus on brake hoses and tubing this year in an effort to reduce deaths and injuries as a result of commercial motor vehicle brake system failures from pressure or vacuum loss due to brake hosing and tubing deficiencies.”

The data submitted on brake hose and tubing chafing violations included four distinct categories. Category 1 saw 664 commercial motor vehicles having brake hose and tubing wear reaching the brakes’ outer protective material; Category 2 saw 509 commercial motor vehicles that had chafing which extended through the brake hose or tubing’s outer protective material and into the outer rubber cover; Category 3 saw 275 commercial motor vehicles with brake hose or tubing wear with reinforcement ply visible, although the ply may have still been intact; and Category 4 saw 169 commercial motor vehicles with visible reinforcement ply that was severed, frayed, or completely cut through.

Although Brake Safety Day is a unannounced, surprise brake safety initiative implemented by the CVSA, Brake Safety Week is held annually and the alliance does indeed announce the dates for those inspections in advance.

“This year’s Brake Safety Week is scheduled for August [22nd through the 28th],” said the CVSA in a recent tweet. “Throughout the week, inspectors will conduct North American Standard Inspections of commercial motor vehicles, focusing on the vehicles’ brake systems and components.”