Trucking Industry

Trucking Concerns Integrated Into Congestion Pricing Pilot

May 6, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

With some of the highest traffic congestion numbers in the world, Los Angeles is now working on a congestion pilot program and taking into account the needs of drivers and freight haulers, specifically.

This two-year Traffic Reduction Study is in the works within the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and will be conducted in an effort to better handle heavy traffic through additional and more efficient methods of transportation and congestion pricing updates. LA County Metro currently represents about 9.6 million people within its transportation agency.

This agency will determine the best methods of solving the most pertinent issues travelers throughout the county are currently facing, explained the senior director of the Metro’s Office of Extraordinary Innovation, Tham Nguyen, during a recent virtual panel discussion. According to Nguyen, Metro has been taking into account the comments and concerns from the public, including those from ride-share providers, construction crew workers, and delivery drivers.

“We are starting our analysis to better understand the travel patterns,” Nguyen explained. “We are engaging with folks from the freight and trucking industry. We’ll have more information, but first we’re just trying to understand what [the] truck patterns [are]. Where are people going?”

Other members of Metro discussed their desire to fully understand all benefits and difficulties that come with a congestion pricing pilot, but hope travel reliability will be the biggest gain from such a program. The team will work to hear from as many members of the public as possible to better comprehend these issues and create better overall technical analysis of daily commutes. Some of the biggest issues at hand–environmental concerns, road safety, and travel times, Nguyen said.

“The thing that is critical to remember about a congestion pricing scheme is that the benefits go not just to people who are switching to new transit alternatives, but also to people who continue to drive,” noted the chief innovation officer for the Office of Extraordinary Innovation, Joshua Schank. “When you’re driving on the routes that are now priced, you don’t sit in traffic, so you’re moving much faster. [For] folks from outside the area who continue to drive through the area, it’s not like they’re just getting charged and then continuing to have the same miserable experience they have now. They’re paying for real value.”

In 2020, the American Transportation Research Institute listed Los Angeles three times on its top truck bottlenecks report–areas listed were the intersections of interstates 110 and 105 (ranking 65th), the intersection of interstates 710 and 105 (ranking 10th) and the intersection of state routes 60 and 57 (ranking 9th). The city continues to hold the reputation of having some of America’s worst traffic congestion.

During the virtual discussion, four different concept consideration areas being currently studied by Metro were presented. These include the freeways crossing the Santa Monica Mountains between interstate 5 and interstate 504 in central Los Angeles, the area between U.S. Route 101 and interstate 5, the areas bound by interstate 10 and interstate 110, the stretch of U.S. Route 101 in downtown Los Angeles, and the stretch of interstate 10 west of downtown, which would have its own corridor pricing model.

Congestion is expected to increase as the city’s population grows, even though the coronavirus pandemic has indeed decreased overall traffic for the time being, explained Phillip Washington, CEO of Metro.

“If we do not do anything, what we’re looking at is total gridlock,” Washington explained. “We have a dream of this metamorphosis from a car capital of the world to a center for greater mobility, innovation, and equity. We’re moving forward. We’re leaning forward in the foxhole.”

Metro dedicated the month of February to putting a major focus onto holding virtual community discussions in an effort to share the commentary it has received in relation to these efforts. It is also prioritizing efforts to hear from community members about their ideas regarding how best to use this input to make this study as efficient, actionable, and helpful as possible.

Metro’s project team has presented the four concept areas discussed in this virtual event to Metro’s board of directors, and will also present its ideas and recommendations regarding preferred concepts for this study–chosen from the four concept areas already outlined–to the Metro board this summer.

Trucker Violation Numbers Looking Bleak in FMCSA Clearinghouse Data

May 5, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

In the midst of an industry-wide driver shortage, a national database has been tracking truckers’ compliance history and working to prevent truck drivers from leaving the industry due to failed drug tests. During 2020, the number of drug and alcohol violations recorded hit over 56,000.

This number was around 10,000 higher in the last two months of the year as compared to the 10 months prior. 2020 was the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouses’ first full calendar year of operation, and the year saw 1,203 alcohol-related driver violations, as shown in its latest summary report. Out of those violations, the majority were drivers testing with a blood alcohol concentration of at least 0.04.

Around 45,000 drivers lost their jobs after these violations were recorded, and only 11,000 of those have undergone the return-to-work program. Because of this, many industry experts are worried that the remaining drivers will not be returning to the industry at all.

A large number of violations also included many drivers either declining a drug test, testing positive for drug use, or being suspected of cheating on a drug test.

“The good news is that the system is working in capturing violations by drivers and allowing employers and enforcement personnel to verify a driver’s status prior to permitting him or her [to drive],” said FMCSA spokesman, Duane DeBruyne. “Any violation reported is a bad thing; blocking prohibited drivers from endangering themselves and the lives of the motoring public is a good thing.”

The Clearinghouse–which is used by law enforcement, state driver licensing agencies, and carriers alike to monitor driver violations–has made it trickier for drivers to illegally skip a return-to-duty process once they’ve been prohibited from re-entering the industry. This helps bar them from returning to commercial motor vehicle operation and endangering “themselves and the lives of everyone traveling our nation’s roadways,” DeBruyne explained.

Vice president of safety policy for American Trucking Associations, Dan Horvath, agreed. “I believe the 56,000 drivers with violations reiterates the importance of this Clearinghouse, and shines a spotlight on a rather large loophole in the drug and alcohol testing process that has existed for many years,” he said.

This issue has seen little change over those years, Scopelitis Transportation Consulting President, Dave Osiecki, explained. He also noted that FMCSA’s final Clearinghouse rule, which was released in 2016, used historical data to create an estimate of yearly violations.

“FMCSA’s estimate was 53,500 drug and alcohol violations annually,” he said. “Their estimate was remarkably close.”

Even the number of those who do decide to return to the industry after undergoing the proper treatment and testing is not enough to fill the gap made by those leaving trucking for good, he continued.

“It’s concerning, and it bears watching and tracking. The percentage of drivers with violations who are getting evaluated, and completing the treatment process, has risen slowly over the past several months. This is a good sign, but it’s also clear that many drivers are not entering treatment, which suggests they’ve left the industry.”

The report, which showed data from violations beginning on January 6th, 2020 (when the Clearinghouse went into effect), reported 29,500 drug test failures for marijuana, specifically, 7,940 for cocaine, and 4,953 for amphetamines. An additional 1,120 tests were marked as having reasonable suspicion regarding efforts to cheat on a drug test.

The Clearinghouse saw around 1.6 million drivers registered in 2020, along with 197,000 industry employers, 67,000 of which are self-identified as owner-operators.

“According to our interpretation of Motor Carrier Management Information System data, there are 5,174,170 truck drivers under the authority of FMCSA,” explained Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association spokeswoman, Nortia Taylor. “Fifty-six thousand drivers represents 1.1% of the available driver pool.”

Employers must check the database annually to see if any employees or potential employees have had any drug violations. In 2020, Clearinghouse saw 2.7 million limited queries, 1.4 million pre-employment queries, and 136,806 full queries.

“It’s important to note that having a drug or alcohol testing violation is not an automatic end to a driver’s career,” Horvath said. “While there is a significant number of drivers who have not yet completed the return-to-duty testing process, that number continues to grow.”

Horvath hopes that boosted transparency in regards to this program will help more drivers be able to return to work more easily, or, better yet, avoid any reason for violation.

“With continued education about the drug and alcohol testing program, and consequences for noncompliance, we hope to see violations decrease and the number of drivers who have completed the return-to-duty process increase.”

Tire Maintenance Revamped Due to New Technologies and Designs

May 4, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Tire monitoring is changing–fast. New technologies and tire designs are boosting maintenance operations for fleets, although the overall tire-changing process has remained relatively unchanged over the last few decades.

“The tires have changed, very much so,” said Tire Industry Association’s senior vice president of training, Kevin Rohlwing. “But that doesn’t change the way we service them. The mounting and demounting of tires hasn’t really changed since I first did it in 1982.”

Although new tire designs are constantly released by tire manufacturers, fleets say that both modern and legacy models are still maintained with the usual techniques.

“Overall, there hasn’t been a whole lot of change [that] we’ve seen from a maintenance standpoint, except probably [that there are] faster wear cycles with some of the new tire compounds,” said Dart Transits’ vice president of maintenance, Paul Pettit.

Jack Legler, technical director for American Trucking Association’s Technology and Maintenance Council, said that the agency is often upgrading current recommended maintenance practices and is constantly finding ways to create new ones in collaboration with new tire designs and technological advances as they come about. Technicians can find better ways to spec with these RPs, and can also integrate enhanced methods of troubleshooting and maintenance.

“Wheels evolve in parallel with tires and include aerodynamic devices, along with tire pressure and condition sensors, monitoring, and management,” Legler said.

The largest group of RPs in TMC consists within the S.2 Tire and Wheel Study Group and task forces. This includes the Future Truck Committee’s Tire Durability and Reliability Task Force, which helps manufacturers and fleets work together to find and solve tire durability limitations, and create ways to lower overall tire operating costs.

RPs allow TMC to help fleets manage and protect their large tire inventory investments, Legler explained. Innovative trucking technology has helped tire inventory tracking become one of the most-changed trucking industry aspects over the last ten years.

A fleet’s tire details can be stored easily within inventory software databases, which allow employees to more easily find the necessary tire on-site as well as determine the needs for tire replacement and emergency changes while on the road. Tires can also be equipped with chips or RFID tags that can be implemented into these database systems for easier transfer of information, and many systems can now manage tire conditions in real time.

These softwares can also be used in conjunction with newer tire pressure technology, which involve monitoring systems and automatic tire inflation capabilities that have been significantly impactful for many fleets across the country.

Fleets see the benefits of these technology boosts in the decrease of tread wear, improvement of rolling resistance, and the ability to more easily address maintenance issues while their tires sustain consistent tire pressure. The use of automatic inflation systems can also allow for “tremendous advantages” in regards to the increase of labor efficiency, safety, and earnings, according to Rohlwing.

Additionally, fleets are able to alter their tire PSIs through certain monitoring systems, which allows each position on a truck to experience the best performance possible.

“That’s new for us…but fuel economy always is a big deal with tires, and we watch that closely when making purchases,” said Dot Foods’ director of fleet maintenance, Kevin Buss. Dot has been altering some PSIs at different tire positions in collaboration with tire manufacturers, and is now able to focus on performance instead of the benchmarks which previously determined operation efficiency. “Many folks that are not really familiar with tire programs would say they just need a tire that wears the best. But that doesn’t mean it will give you good fuel economy,” Buss said.

Because fuel is one of the biggest costs for fleets, fuel-efficient tires are able to help them see huge savings throughout a tire’s lifetime, although such tires may be an initial investment.

“If you’re running low-rolling-resistance tires or LRR retreads, you’re probably seeing an improvement in your fuel milage, and any kind of gain you get in fuel mileage is going straight to the bottom line,” said Rohlwing.

LRR tires can also be mounted with the same techniques used with standard tubeless tires. Technicians should thoroughly inspect the tire and wheel to check for damage or rust before securing a tire bead seating. Finally, bead lubricants can help avoid any damage and reduce tire bead-rim flange friction.

Truck Driver Vision Standards May Be Amended

April 22, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Under standards that have been in place since 1971, a driver is physically and legally qualified to operate a commercial motor vehicle if he or she has distant visual acuity of at least 20/40 in each eye without corrective lenses or visual acuity of 20/40 or better with corrective lenses. Additionally, he or she has had to have a field of vision of at least 70 degrees in each eye and be able to recognize the different colors in traffic signals, signs, and other safety devices. Now–that vision standard is being amended.

The new regulation would allow truckers not able to meet these federal vision standards of either field of vision, distant visual acuity, or both (in at least one eye) to be physically qualified to legally operate a commercial vehicle within interstate commerce.

“Currently, such individuals are prohibited from driving CMVs in interstate commerce unless they obtain an exemption from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration,” said a recent Federal Register post. “The agency proposes an alternative vision standard for physical qualification that, if adopted, would replace the current vision exemption program as a basis for establishing the physical qualification determination for these individuals.”

Until now, a driver would have to request an exemption from FMCSA if he or she did not meet the vision standards. This process would often take months and require extensive paperwork–these drivers would have to be able to present evidence to FMCSA that they had driven a commercial motor vehicle in intrastate commerce safely, despite their vision deficiency, for the last three years.

Analysis of this recent driving performance is most important in determining future driving safety, as explained by various research studies that analyze past and future driving performance. According to the agency, 2,566 truck drivers currently hold a vision requirement exemption.

If approved and finalized, the new proposed policy change would require that any driver who cannot meet the field of vision or acuity standards must undergo an ophthalmologist or optometrist examination. This exam report would be forwarded to a truck driver medical examiner, who would then have the authority to make the final decision regarding whether or not this driver is fit to safely operate a commercial vehicle. Then, if approved, that driver can legally operate a CMV under a 12-month medical card.

This policy has been called a “performance-based approach.”

“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 FMCSA.

Under this proposal–which comes at a time in which the trucking industry has been grappling with a large truck driver shortage, especially with the increase in demand that arose during the pandemic–a truck driver that does not meet either the field of vision standard to distant visual acuity standard in at least one eye could be physically qualified to operate a commercial motor vehicle without having to be given an exemption.

“FMCSA estimates that the proposed rule would reduce barriers to entry for current and future CMV drivers,” said FMCSA. “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.”

Drivers would need to complete and pass a road test before operating a CMV if they are now physically qualified for the alternative standard in their states under the new proposed regulation, with some limited exceptions.

Many safety advocates have been fighting against regulatory changes such as these, which tend to prioritize easier entrance into the trucking industry over actual road safety. This includes rules such as the updates made within hours-of-service regulations, which recently permitted truck drivers to operate at longer hours and choose how they spend and split up their rest breaks, allowing for drivers to become much more fatigued while operating their trucks.

The vision requirement proposal has indeed been officially published in the Federal Register, but could still be withdrawn by the Biden administration during a later regulatory review, as announced by the White House in its regulatory freeze memorandum.

FMCSA will be accepting public comments in regards to this new proposal until March 15th, 2021.

COVID-19 Drives Trucking Industry to Focus on Risk Management and Efficiency

April 21, 2021 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

“The health risk wasn’t as high up on the list pre-pandemic as it is now,” said Brad Jacobs, CEO of XPO Logistics in a panel discussion at the SMC3 Jump Start 2021 conference. “There was no emphasis on wipes, and on washing hands, and not breathing on each other, [or on] distancing [or] paying attention to one’s health. If anybody in the organization is feeling sick or has any symptoms, please stay home. These are all new. These are mainly new in the industry. That’s not going to go back. That’s going to stay.”

The discussion among industry leaders at the panel conversation focused on trucking industry efficiency in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, especially in regards to new technology implementation and enhanced methods of risk management.

Ramona Hood had just gotten comfortable in her new position as CEO of Custom Critical for FedEx right at the start of the pandemic. She had to quickly learn the best ways to make fast and efficient decisions, handle incoming data, and leverage business strategies during the most tumultuous time the industry has ever seen.

“The last year, for all of us, has been quite a year,” said Hood. “There certainly have been things that we’ve learned that we can move forward with into 2021. And one of those things is our ability to respond to what’s going on. Being quick to bring either value or bring decisions forward that allow the business to progress.”

On top of new decision-making abilities and a wide understanding of technology innovation, Hood also noted that shutdown policies, which continued to change during the pandemic, made her newly-boosted versatility abilities vitally important.

“When you incorporate business agility into the framework of your strategy and how you move through your initiatives…it brings a new level of value to the organization, your employees, as well as your customers,” she explained. “It’s a way that you can improve your business and be quick to adapt to any new environment–more quickly than if you thought about it in a traditional annual plan environment.”

Technology upgrades can also boost profit margins in a huge way, Jacobs said, with companies able to route their trucks as efficiently as possible and create density in LTL. He’s done so with his company, and expects many other trucking professionals to follow suit.

“It may take them a couple of years to do,” he said. “We’ve taken the smart labor technology, smart labor tools, and workforce automation tools that we have in our contract logistics business [and use them] in order to staff up our warehouses accurately to match demand. We’ve taken those and applied them to LTL.”

By using specific algorithms to predict freight numbers from customers, these technologies were also able to be used to bring on new employees accordingly, as well as create a 5% improvement in overall productivity for the company, according to Jacobs.

“The top 10 LTL carriers probably run 20 million miles a day or something like that,” he explained. “As we use more intelligent technology to route those trucks on the highways, we can probably take out a very significant portion of that, like 10% or 15%. I’m not sure what the limit is. [It] could be more than that.”

LTL carriers have also been steadily lowering their operating ratios, Jacobs noted, also detailing that the trucking industry has been working within the less-than-truckload sector for more precise and accurate probabilities and prices.

“I think the long-term trend for LTL is to have more profitable operations,” said Jacobs. “I think technology is the underlying motivation of growth in LTL profits and all kinds of different technologies, [especially regarding] technology on [pickup and delivery] optimization.”

Additionally, new intelligent technology could have major effects on a trucking company’s bottom line. It could also bring in better overall pricing systems and improve current issues regarding overpricing and underpricing, which lead to either a loss of business or a loss of money.

“The pricing system in LTL is archaic,” said Jacobs. “It’s not going to last. It’s not efficient, and things that aren’t efficient don’t last. It’s surprising it’s lasted this long. Eventually, we’ll sell LTL based on space and on dimensions, because that’s what we have.”

Still, Jacobs remains hopeful.

“It’s not just on weight and it’s not on these arbitrary classifications, either, that aren’t always accurate,” he continued. “So, I think the way freight is priced will be more automated, [and] more [often] done by algorithms. I think it’ll be more accurate.”

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.”