Trucking Industry

Driver Vision Policy Updates Backed by FMCSA Medical Board

September 6, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

A new report has been released by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s medical review board regarding potentially stricter federal standards for commercial driver vision-related qualifications. However, these plans include methods of helping monocular drivers become qualified for vehicle operation much more quickly and easily.

FMCSA published a new proposed rule early this year amending regulations regarding drivers either not meeting field of vision standards, not meeting distant visual acuity standards, or both, in at least one eye. The amendment stated that these drivers could still be physically qualified to drive a commercial truck within interstate commerce.

For truckers not meeting either of these standards, FMCSA has decided to review potential qualification exemptions on a case-by-case basis.

“It is well-recognized in the literature that individuals with vision loss in one eye can and do develop compensatory viewing behavior to mitigate the vision loss,” said the agency at the time of the amendment.

A proposed plan to bring an end to the exemption process has now been approved by FMCSA’s review board; the potential alternative vision standard would bring about a process consisting of two steps to determine physical qualification and to eliminate a decades-long rule requiring monocular drivers to apply for exemption. Seeking this exemption can take months, and can result in drivers being kept off the road for that entire period of time.

Now, the process would require optometrist or ophthalmologist vision evaluations to be submitted along with their specific medical opinions and findings regarding a driver’s vision evaluation report form. Then, an examiner can offer a Medical Examiner’s Certificate to the driver who has been found to meet physical qualifications–a certificate that would be valid for up to one year.

“FMCSA estimates that the proposed rule would reduce barriers to entry for current and future commercial motor vehicle drivers,” said the agency in its initial announcement. “The 2,566 drivers holding vision exemptions would no longer have to apply for an exemption, and potential driver applicants who do not have three years of intrastate driving experience may meet the alternative vision standard and be able to operate a CMV in interstate commerce.”

The agency made a similar move in 2019 when it decided to eliminate the mandate requiring that diabetic drivers dependent on insulin would need to wait up to six months for a physical qualification exemption, and the changes brought about by the amended certification process for drivers with this kind of diabetes has been successful thus far.

Currently, a truck driver must have at least one eye with a distant visual acuity of at least 20/40 as well as an overall 70-degree field of vision, in addition to the ability to properly recognize all traffic signal and device colors. FMCSA’s medical review board has. suggested that this field of vision requirement be updated to instead require a 120-degree vision field, and that a driver should be allowed enough time to be able to adequately make up for or adapt to any reasonable vision deficiency.

As of now, there is not yet enough data to implement a particular waiting period for a driver with any given deficiency in his or her vision, according to the review board.

“We remind readers that the data is either absent or conflicting regarding the safety of monocular drivers,” said FMCSA in response to claims that monocular drivers have not shown any serious issues in regards to their capabilities to operate commercial motor vehicles. “With such a small percentage of drivers having monocular vision, this data will continue to be difficult to obtain in a statistically significant manner.”

The board also stated that whether or not a driver has been able to adequately compensate for a vision change or deficiency in a manner allowing him or her to then meet requirements should be up to an optometrist or an ophthalmologist to decide. The vision evaluation form should also not request severe non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy- or proliferative diabetic retinopathy-related information, as these are to be evaluated only under diabetes standards for insulin-treated drivers.

Upcoming Regulation Updates Discussed by Trucking Industry Experts

September 1, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Motor carrier regulations are expected to see major changes regarding some of the more pressing issues within the industry that the Biden administration has prioritized–but with so many regulation updates in the works, it has been hard to tell when exactly we may see these shifts.

Legal experts discussed this topic at a recent conference hosted by Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson & Feary, P.C. This three-day Transportation Law Seminar took place on August 26th in Indianapolis, and many professionals throughout the trucking industry made sure to attend.

“If you look at the Unified Regulatory Agenda that the administration released in the spring–the official timeline for rule-making–it’s highly aspirational,” explained American Trucking Associations deputy general counsel, Richard Pianka, during one session of the conference. “Very rarely does anything happen on the timeline that the Unified Agenda suggests.”

For example, the Department of Transportation was expected to implement an updated oral fluid drug testing regulation by May of this year. This rule was one item that was highly-discussed during the conference and is one that has been focused upon by many federal trucking regulators, Pianka explained.

“We saw a pretty major development in 2019 when the Department of Health and Human Services updated the federal workplace drug testing program to include oral fluid drug testing,” he said.

For truck driver drug testing to regularly include oral fluid drug tests, the regulation already in place by the Department of Transportation would need to be changed to include the allowance of fluid testing in general, which, according to Pianka, may take place in the “not too distant future.” This kind of testing could be extremely helpful during accident-related drug tests, as oral fluid drug testing can only detect recent drug use in one’s system.

“Oral fluid drug testing is something we have been waiting on for a very long time, but has been moving at a very slow pace,” added Pianka.

Congress first brought into effect a mandate for a final federal rule regarding hair drug testing at the end of 2015–a mandate expected to be made final by early 2022. This kind of testing has been explained as an alternative to urinalysis drug testing; however, this potential final rule has received criticism by a variety of motor carriers.

This proposal, which has been deemed to be “highly problematic” by Pianka, would urge medical review officers to not solely utilize hair drug testing and to not immediately report findings showing a positive test result from a hair sample.

“What they do is run an alternative specimen, which would–right now–be urinalysis, and report the results of the alternative specimen,” Pianka explained, noting that this kind of testing would present more challenges than intended.

“What this creates is a false negative problem,” he continued. “This would make hair testing in the trucking industry pretty much useless.”

In addition to driver drug testing methods, industry experts at the conference discussed the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s ability to review the current hours-of-service regulations in place. This discussion comes as the Biden administration has been working to pass a bill requiring FMCSA to analyze the recent changes around this rule and the update’s overall effects on truck drivers and the industry itself.

“The fact that it was in the House bill is an indication that there is a constituency for revisiting the hours-of-service rules,” Pianka said. “It’s certainly a potential issue we’ll see on the horizon.”

Another regulation in the works could urge federal regulators to implement a new rule requiring all new commercial truck models to have automated emergency braking–a rule that would need to be issued within a two-year period.

“This has already been on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s agenda for some time,” said Pianka. “So, we think this has a good chance of becoming law.”

Fleets and independent truckers may see a rise in the minimum insurance requirement, as well, according to Pianka. Additionally, a proposal to remove the current requirement for drivers to immediately report road violations will likely see a final rule in the near future.

“They thought it was redundant that drivers report their motor vehicle records,” explained general counsel for American Trucking associations, Jennifer Hall. “So, you’ll be getting that information from your own queries.”

Screening criteria is also in the works by the National Transportation Safety Board for drivers required to be tested for obstructive sleep apnea, Hall added.

“We anticipate that this could be an issue that we will see coming forward for regulation,” she said.

Tips for Truckers to Stay Hydrated and Healthy During These Heat Waves

August 30, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Temperatures are high across the country, and even potentially dangerous for some truck drivers.

As truckers work to deliver goods throughout the nation, some areas are seeing temperatures as high as 100 degrees during the extreme heat waves taking place this year. Some truckers may not be able to acclimate their bodies to high humidity and temperatures quickly enough during these heat waves, which can be detrimental.

“There’s a fine line drivers must walk between moving freight within the allotted transit times and avoiding heat-related illness during heat waves,” explained Trinity Healthcare owner and medical director, Dr. John Abraham.

Trinity serves as Prime Inc. truckload carrier’s wellness provider, and Prime Inc. works to keep truckers as healthy and safe as possible by educating them on the importance of hydration and urging them to drink plenty of water while they’re on the road.

“When temperatures spike, the primary concern is about the amount of fluid and water that’s in the driver’s system,” said Abraham. “Heat exhaustion and dehydration can cause organ failure and can even lead to death if allowed to go too far.”

Additionally, drivers should focus on the heat index in the area in which they’re driving for a more accurate understanding of weather conditions, as the heat index considers humidity and temperature alike, Abraham added.

“The higher the heat index, the hotter the weather feels,” he said. “That’s because, with the higher humidity, the higher moisture content in the air doesn’t allow sweat to evaporate and cool the skin.”

According to Abraham, as a driver acclimates to hot temperatures, his or her body will become more tolerant and sweat around two to three more liters every hour to expel heat. If the body is unable to properly rid itself of excessive heat, the driver may experience heat exhaustion.

The key, of course, is to stay hydrated with water, as opposed to energy drinks that often contain high amounts of caffeine or sugar, added president of Rolling Strong, Stephen Kane. A hydrating beverage should provide the minerals a driver’s body might lose when sweating in high temperatures.

“Because once you start to become dehydrated, it’s really tough to get back [to being hydrated],” Kane noted.

One’s body temperature also rises quickly when metabolizing large or unhealthy meals, so truckers should do their best to avoid fast food and instead bring lighter meals on the road that are rich in vitamins and minerals. Additionally, sufficient rest is especially helpful for a driver’s body to be able to handle high heat levels, so Kane recommends that drivers understand how much sleep they need for their bodies to perform at their best while on the road.

Wellness and health programs dedicated to truck drivers, like Rolling Strong, have a lot of tips for drivers to stay hydrated and cool while working. Rolling Stone suggests drivers keep coolers in their cabs filled with water bottles and other health drinks, as well as with fruit, cucumber, or other healthy, hydrating snacks to munch on while they drive or take a break.

“Having been dehydrated when I served in the military…[I] had to be taken to the hospital and have an IV put in my arm and two liters of saline solution pumped into me because I got dehydrated,” said Sage Truck Driving School instructor and trucker, Scott Douglas. “I know from experience just how fast [dehydration] can hit you and how bad the results can be when it finally hits you,” he said.

Some signs of heat exhaustion or dehydration can include headaches, nausea, dry mouth, dizziness, or confusion, and drivers should immediately stop operating their vehicles when experiencing any of these symptoms and reach out to their dispatchers, Trinity Healthcare’s Abraham noted. Drivers who tend to drink caffeinated beverages like coffee or soda to stay awake and alert while on the road should counterbalance those drinks with their equivalent amount in water. This amount of water intake should also be in addition to the recommended intake of 90 ounces of water per day for women and 125 ounces of water per day for men.

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.

780,000 Driver Exam Results Requested by FMCSA

August 24, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

“FMCSA is aware that while many medical examiners have submitted results of examinations conducted while the National Registry was offline, others still have not done so,” said the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in its pre-publication notice released in the Federal Register. “FMCSA estimates that approximately 14,000 medical examiners still have examinations results to upload.”

This statement comes as federal regulators are requesting around 14,000 medical examiners to submit missing truck driver exam results, an issue arising half a year after an inspector general audit was conducted by the Department of Transportation.

These results were said to be missing following a National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners system outage which occurred after a cyberattack effort. Now, The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has formally requested this missing information, noting that it is now clear that a “significant number” of medical examiners have yet to submit their exam results from examinations taking place between December 2017 and August 2018, when the registry was down.

FMCSA has requested that examiners upload their missing information by the end of September of this year.

“FMCSA seeks up to 780,000 driver exams from [the] 2017 National Registry shutdown,” announced FMCSA in a recent tweet.

In the inspector general audit from January 15th, it was made clear that a myriad of data accuracy- and efficiency-related weaknesses were able to “limit the effectiveness of FMCSA’s oversight.” These holes in the monitoring methods of medical examiner qualifications by federal regulators showed that these efforts were not able to accurately determine whether or not a trucker’s physical and safety qualifications were up to standards.

Additionally, the entire registry system was removed from its online platform following a potential registry hack occurring in December of 2017.

“Unfortunately, during the outage, medical examiners were not able to access their National Registry accounts to upload results of examinations conducted,” explained FMCSA in its announcement. “Medical examiners were encouraged to continue conducting physical qualification examinations and issuing medical examiner’s certificates to qualified commercial motor vehicle drivers.”

The National Registry includes a list of all certified medical examiners, including more than 50,000 physicians that have been deemed qualified to conduct physicals on commercial vehicle drivers by the FMCSA. Additionally, all qualified medical examiners must be licensed within the state in which they conduct all of their examinations. They must also pass a mandatory test and meet all necessary requirements relative to training.

In FMCSA’s updated registry mandate, all medical examiners must now report each individual commercial driver’s physical exam results from June of 2018 on. These results must also include those regarding exams in which a driver was deemed not sufficiently qualified to operate a commercial motor vehicle safely.

At the time of FMCSA’s announcement, the agency also explained that it was made clear to all examiners that they would need to efficiently prepare and submit all examinations conducted throughout the outage separately, and that once the system was finally operating properly once again, these missing exam results would need to be uploaded as soon as possible.

A physical exam conducted by a qualified medical practitioner is valid through the Department of Transportation for up to two years. Additionally, the examiner is able to issue an exam certificate that would be valid for a shorter period of time if a particular condition in a driver requires regular monitoring. Typically, exam results must be submitted to the National Registry system by midnight of the day following the examination itself.

Because technology issues have apparently been an issue for FMCSA in the past, the agency has proposed delaying the redesign of its National Registry for four years, although the system is currently operating adequately. The National Registry website platform was first implemented by FMCSA in April of 2021, and medical examiners have since been required to upload a commercial motor vehicle Driver Medical Examinations Results Form (MCSA-5850) for every physical exam conducted throughout the entirety of the previous month. This is applicable for any examination of any driver required to undergo examinations by an examiner listed on the registry itself.

In 2015, this mandate was amended to require examiners to report their results by the next calendar day, including results in which a driver was not deemed qualified.

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.