Trucking Industry

Transportation Experts Say More Funds Needed to Navigate COVID-19

August 29, 2020 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

As various transportation groups work around the obstacles brought on by COVID-19, industry experts are saying more federal funding is extremely necessary.

“The folks closest to the work usually have the best thoughts and suggestions to bring forward, anyway,” said former Bay Area Rapid Transit general manager, Grace Crunican, of the importance in keeping transit employees on the job.

As of the beginning of June, federal funding programs offering COVID-19 related aid to local and state transit grants had expenditures of about $3 billion out of a total of $25 billion in appropriations, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. $159 billion of total funds had been disbursed by that time, including funds for Medicaid, airport grants, and the Education Stabilization Fund. According to Crunican, transportation industry agencies need more. She believes the industry would benefit greatly from further funding following the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.

Crunican said that this is an ideal time for cities to undergo repair projects, as well.

“Now is an incredible time for rail systems to do state-of-good repair work,” she said. “It’s a good time to invest in a rail system and get the system back in order. Any funding that could be provided to systems that have plans in place would be an added boost.”

She explained further that all transportation systems would have their own unique difficulties in getting needed repairs off the ground. Still, Crunican wants city authorities to listen to public transit riders regarding what would make them feel safest in returning to transportation systems once regular schedules resume.

“There’s alot of uncertainty that’s out there, Crunican continued. “I think transit reflects the rest of the country. Every system is different. People are still trying to feel their way back to what they know.”

She also said many transit groups have begun implementing new ways of keeping employees and riders safe during COVID-19, like utilizing social distance markers and creating barriers around bus drivers.

At last month’s Eno Center for Transportation’s webinar for industry professionals, Eno Center president Robert Puentes echoed Crunican’s statements.

Puentes said that reduced tax revenue and overall ridership have been results of nationwide stay-at-home orders, and that the pandemic is expected to reduce state transit revenue by $50 billion over the next year and a half, according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

“These ongoing health concerns mean that the timing of return-to-normal operations are still uncertain,” Puentes said.

American Public Transportation Association director of policy development and research, Darnell Grisby, said the decreased numbers of overall traffic as a result of the pandemic have brought ample time to recreate street networks in order to finally meet the needs of pedestrians and public transportation systems.

“This is a great opportunity to take this crisis and do something with it,” said Grisby.

In order to help the public feel secure that public transit will be safe to use, Uber Technologies Inc. head of global policy for public transportation, Christopher Pangilinan, believes hard evidence will be the most effective tool. He noted New York’s subway system of the 1980s, which many locals refused to use due to concerns of safety.

“We don’t want that to happen again because of COVID,” he explained.

During this time, the Department of Transportation is also working with GAO to increase “communication efforts with stakeholders on coordination opportunities, including its plans to reorganize technical assistance center web pages to centralize information and best practices,” according to GAO’s website. GAO also said it believes a “comprehensive communication plan” is necessary for stakeholders to stay informed of “opportunities to enhance rural transit services.”

GAO also mentioned that because CARES Act funds will be distributed to public transportation, including that of rural areas “that have not previously received FTA funds,” this boosted communication between agencies will be particularly necessary.

This comprehensive communication, GAO said, is recommended in order to ensure that “FTA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) identify and develop controls to address the risk of duplicate funding,” including methods to better identify all transit expenses in applications sent to FEMA by cities and counties.

Technology Proves to be More Important Than Ever for Trucking During Pandemic

August 23, 2020 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Throughout the pandemic of the novel coronavirus, technology has played a major role in how trucking companies have been able to work through the changes and challenges of the industry during an economic shift.

“When you think about it from a technology standpoint, it’s all about communication and it’s about information,” said senior vice president of sales at NFI Industries, William Mahoney. “So, [this includes] being diligent and trying to do more with less.”

Employee health and safety has become a main focus of most trucking companies at this time, as well. In these efforts, technology has also helped companies reduce the number of in-person interactions typically required of daily duties.

“Our core value of safety in regard to drivers, dockworkers, office personnel, customers, and all essential members of the supply chain has been the primary focus of our technology and process improvements,” said Saia vice president of line-haul and industrial engineering, Patrick Sugar. “This pandemic has led us to challenge the way we think as an organization.”

One example of Saia’s implementation of helpful technology in the midst of COVID-19 has been the use of a time clock application within its employee portal, which is currently allowing for mobile and remote access for workers.

“From employees arriving to the terminal to clocking out at the end of the day, every process has been evaluated and modified in order to reduce face-to-face interaction,” Sugar explained. “We have leveraged technology where capable in the short time, and have built mid- and long-term technology road maps to create process resiliency.”

Many technological tools used in offices and vehicles to adapt with the current changes and to continue to allow loads to be efficiently booked and hauled are web-based solutions, said Trimble Transportation director of product management mobility, Jenna Dobrovolny. She also said the ability to work remotely has been a key component of these updates, as well.

As telematics systems automate dispatching, driver monitoring, hours-of-service compliance, and GPS location efforts, they play an important part in allowing workers to work remotely. When these systems are paired with safety devices like in-cab cameras, cargo monitors, collision avoidance systems, and lane departure control, fleets can have double the benefits.

“Telematics solutions are vital in the current situation,” said Mix Telematics head of global market, Jonathan Bates. “A fleet can only take care of safety if it knows what is happening every second of every day with its drivers and vehicles.”

Fleets’ safety systems can also be accessed remotely, said Stefan Heck, CEO of Nauto. Nauto’s in-cab camera technology has allowed safety personnel to work from home. This way, they give their feedback through the system application’s web portal.

The amount of data collected by telematics systems is currently more vital than ever, said Omnitracts CEO, Ray Greer.

“This unprecedented disruption means that drivers and fleets need to be much more reliant on real-time data from all tiers of the distribution model,” Greer explained. “Real-time routing and rerouting will be crucial in ensuring timely delivery of anything from basic goods to protective gear.”

For Estes Express Lines, touchless delivery has become a regular aspect of day-to-day activity. The company has stopped delivery appointment and signature requirements and keeps customers up-to-date on shipments via texts and phone calls. Vice president of process improvement at Estes, Webb Estes, says customers have taken the changes well.

“It’s important to understand that consumers don’t view the shipment and delivery process any differently from their online shopping experience,” Estes said. “To them, it is one continuous process.”

For NFI, technology has helped to analyze the market changes that have taken place since the beginning of the pandemic, as the company has dealt with higher-than-usual demand for essential services.

“How do we maximize the miles and hours that our drivers have to drive? ” Mahoney asked. “Because, right now, business has slowed down in so many verticals, like automotive.”

Will Connell, Gulf Intermodal Services President, praises the ability of technology to make the current necessary recovery a different process from that of previous economic crises.

“What’s different today than what happened in the Great Recession is the technology is much greater,” said Connell. “So, we’re able to leverage the technology that we have in the truck with our internal transportation management system.”

SmartDrive Video Safety Program to be Installed in All Knight-Swift Fleets

August 22, 2020 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

SmartDrive will be installing its video-based safety technology throughout Swift Transportation’s entire fleet across the United States and Mexico. Although Swift merged with Knight Transportation in September of 2017, Swift is just now using the safety program already utilized by Knight.

Swift Transportation’s focus is to boost its overall safety capabilities, as it joins not only Knight but hundreds of other fleets that are currently using SmartDrive’s system.

“Smart Drive allows our drivers and fleets to clearly see and measure safety performance, which allows the company to foster meaningful ownership of safety performance,” said company CEO, Dave Jackson. “SmartDrive excels in aligning drivers, operations, and management around insightful and actionable metrics, allowing us to reinforce our safety culture of accountability throughout our entire organization.”

Swift Transportation believes this program will help its drivers to execute their own performance improvement through the safety score metrics they receive as well as the system’s helpful dashboard technology.

“Knight Transportation has experienced meaningful reductions in collisions rates since installing SmartDrive in its fleet,” said Knight-Swift Transportation senior vice president of safety and risk management, Brett Sant. “That experience was instructive in the decision, ultimately, to roll out the SmartDrive program within our Swift fleets.”

Once SmartDrive was implemented into the company’s fleets, Sant knew it would create a manner of individual driver responsibility for overall safety. “We wanted to create some useful and clear visibility,” he said, “so people can see how they are doing and improve.”

Currently, Knight-Swift operates a fleet of around 19,300 tractors and 68,000 trailers and containers. The Phoenix-headquartered company also has around 25,000 employees and provides full services in truckloads and logistics throughout the entire continent of North America.

“We are grateful for the work SmartDrive has done and the positive impact the SmartDrive team has had on our fleet’s safety,” Sant said.

Jackson’s goal for the company, from day one, was “to be the safest company in the truckload industry the world has ever seen. I don’t think that is mutually exclusive with being the largest and most profitable. For us, we define success as being the most profitable and safest company on the road.”

Because of this, company executives worked to “de-risk” Swift as much as possible with safety blueprints already in use by Knight. “We tried to learn everything we could [about Swift] and use the data to help guide what was working and what needed to be improved,” said Jackson.

From the beginning, the company’s top priorities were to establish driver training systems, as well as accountability systems, to foster a culture of safety among all employees.

“We started with the foundational part. Did we have the right people?” Sant said. “We had the right principles guiding what we were doing.”

This is when Knight executives focused on safety technology, and reached a decision in March of this year to replace the previous Lytx DriveCam technology used by Swift with SmartDrive.

Because Knight had been using SmartDrive’s video-based system since 2016, the company knew that experience was going to be “very positive” throughout Swift’s vehicles, Sant explained.

Jackson added that with the technology, Knight has had large declines in its DOT-recordable crashes, as well as insurance reductions and decreases in accident claims costs.

These positive changes came from both SmartDrive external recording cameras and driver-facing cameras. These are used in collaboration because “we don’t feel like an inward [camera] adds value or creates those conditions that are really critical to our culture at this time,” said Sant.

“It’s not the first step that you do to improve the safety of a fleet,” Jackson said of external cameras, “because anybody can go buy a camera, but not everybody gets the same results.”

SmartDrive’s user interface was a major factor in Swift deciding to implement the technology into its vehicles. The dashboard “allows us to not only see but effectively quantify how people are performing to create some visibility and ownership around performance,” explained Sant.

SmartDrive’s system monitors driver data, as well as the vehicle’s ECM, to spot unsafe driving behaviors (like speeding or following another vehicle too closely). A driver’s speed can also be measured in relation to driving conditions with an advanced feature of the system.

Then, SmartDrive calculates scores based on safety and gives real-time feedback to drivers. These scores are focused on safe behaviors as opposed to looking at all individual events that take place during a drive, said SmartDrive CEO, Steve Mitgang.

“The goal isn’t to have 10 less harsh braking events,” he said. “What you want is a driver to drive at the top of his game. Our score represents how the driver is doing, not just how much they did good or bad.”

Pre-Employment Drug Testing Waiver Extended to Relieve Truckers During COVID-19 Crisis

August 15, 2020 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has announced that it will be offering a 90-day waiver from pre-employment drug testing requirements to recently furloughed commercial truck drivers, due to the effects of the current coronavirus pandemic.

The waiver became effective in June and is set to expire September 30th, and amends regulations in place that have required drivers to comply with pre-employment drug testing. A potential employee must have a negative test result shown to his or her employer before any safety-sensitive actions are performed, such as operating a commercial motor vehicle.

“In response to the COVID-19 pandemic public health emergency, many employers have imposed layoffs, furloughs, or otherwise temporarily removed employees from performing safety-sensitive functions, resulting in their removal from the random pool for controlled substances and alcohol testing for a period greater than 30 days,” said the FMCSA in its announcement.

The waiver states that if a pre-employment controlled substances test can not take place, the potential employee must not be allowed to perform Department of Transportation duties with any safety risks until a negative test can be conducted.

The regulation also extends an exemption to this rule to drivers who have been part of a recent testing program (within the last 30 days) that meets the requirements of regulation and who were also tested for controlled substances within the last six months before the date of the employment application, or who have participated in the random controlled substances testing program within the last 12 months before the date of the employment application.

If an employer can ensure that no previous employer of the prospective employee has any records of a violation in regards to this area of the controlled substances-use rule of another DOT agency within the last six months, an exemption can also be granted.

“As employers begin calling these drivers back to work, they will incur the cost of conducting pre-employment controlled substances testing before using these drivers to perform safety-sensitive functions,” the agency continued. “The administrative and cost burdens of pre-employment testing for furloughed drivers outside the random testing pool for more than 30 days falls on motor carrier employers at the very time they are attempting to return to expanded levels of operation.”

Now, the FMCSA says this temporary regulatory flexibility will help motor carrier companies heal after impacts from the coronavirus crisis, while not affecting overall safety. The agency also explained that this waiver is meant to help economic recovery throughout the entire country by allowing for the resumption of cargo transportation.

This extension comes after Donald Trump’s executive order in May calling for action to “combat the economic consequences of COVID-19 with the same vigor and resourcefulness with which the fight against COVID-19 itself has been waged.”

This order urges agencies to focus on the impacts of this economic crisis “by waiving or providing exemptions from regulations and other requirements that may inhibit economic recovery consistent with applicable law and with protection of public health and safety.”

The waiver also requires employer verification of a driver having participated in controlled substances testing, and that he or she has had no recorded violations of the FMCSA’s controlled substances-use regulations within the last six months. The employer must also cooperate with the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse pre-employment query requirement, complete investigations and inquiries needed by any federal regulations, and give notice of any accident involving any driver operating under the terms of the waiver, with specifications that the driver was indeed operating under these terms, to the FMCSA within five business days of the accident. Lastly, the employer cannot allow a driver to perform any safety-sensitive duties if the results of a Clearinghouse pre-employment query show that the driver has been prohibited from performing said duties.

According to the FMCSA, with current precautions in place regarding this waiver, the agency “has determined that the waiver is likely to achieve a level of safety that is equivalent to the level of safety that would be obtained absent the waiver,” and that “the waiver of a particular regulation should not be looked at in isolation, but rather as part of the whole of all regulations governing the safety of drivers.”

EPA’s Stormwater Proposal Could Bring Changes to Trucking Industry

August 14, 2020 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

The Environmental Protection Agency’s intentions to expand its ability to regulate facility activities at buildings exposed to stormwater runoff could potentially affect trucking fleets with refueling, maintenance, or truck washing operations.

“The trucking sector is unique in that larger fleets may typically have facilities across the country, each of which must be familiar and comply with different state or federal stormwater requirements,” said American Trucking Associations. “As this requirement will complicate the development of properties near or on brownfields, it should be a sector-specific requirement and be eliminated for low-risk facilities.”

According to EPA’s draft proposal from this spring, stormwater runoff can cause certain pollutants to enter nearby storm sewer systems or bodies of water. In regards to public comments on the proposal, ATA was the only trucking association to comment. The proposal detailed huge updates to the agency’s five-year Multi-Sector General Permit plan for industrial stormwater runoff regulations.

EPA originally sought public comment on its 2020 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Multi-Sector General Permit (MSGP) for industrial activity stormwater runoff for 60 days following the proposals’ publication in the Federal Register. Once finalized, this MSGP will replace the permit implemented in 2015.

States with EPA stormwater programs, like Massachusetts, New Hampshire, or the District of Columbia, or those using permit requirements based on those of EPA, may have to drastically change their current regulations. Glen Kedzie, ATA’s energy and environmental affairs counsel, says they may even need to implement quarterly stormwater discharge sampling.

“Some fleets are not even aware they must have permits until they are reported,” explained Kedzie. “There’s been a lot of activity in California and other states where environmental groups get into public databases to figure out who is supposed to have a permit.”

EPA outlined its tiered approach to monitoring in the MSGP in order to improve stormwater data quality in its final proposal fact sheet, saying that the agency is proposing “a possible ‘inspection-only’ option in lieu of benchmark monitoring available at low-risk facilities of the proposed permit,” the requirement of new “universal benchmark monitor,” the continuation of current benchmark monitoring requirements in place from 2015’s MSGP, and the requirement of “continued benchmark monitoring as part of the proposed Additional Implementation Measures protocol for repeated benchmark exceedances.”

The U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, which commented on the proposal, recommended this monitoring approach, and suggested the effort focuses on “gathering high-quality data for future rule-makings rather than immediate, burdensome, regulatory requirements.” The organization said this would “ensure that the 2020 Multi-Sector General Permit will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.”

Environmental Strategies & Management of Massachusetts also weighed in on the universal benchmark proposition, saying it is “rather onerous and burdensome” for small businesses in industry sectors which have stormwater runoff that has “very minor, if any, effect to surface water.”

In regards to the trucking industry in particular, companies like those within the ready-mix concrete business must have permits for the rinse water needed for washing their thousands of trucks and wide range of equipment, which would be extremely tedious. These requirements would bring an onslaught of paperwork for just the act of washing alone.

Land transportation and warehouse facility quarterly benchmark monitoring is estimated to cost between $5,000 and $12,500 per facility each year, if a facility plans to meet all of these requested parameters. These costs include lab analysis, equipment, materials, and staffing costs; however, costs will vary due to the number of permitted outfalls.

These EPA updates come from a 2016 settlement which required the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s National Research Council to make recommendations regarding improved ways to mitigate surface water pollution from industrial companies to EPA.

Although this permit will only be administered in a few states, other states with the ability to continue their own regulation systems will need major program revisions if their current oversight does not meet federal standards.

Additionally, the proposed MSGP would involve 29 different sectors of industrial activity and their stormwater discharges. The sectors include Land Transportation, Water Transportation, and Transportation Equipment (industrial or commercial machinery).

Democrats Unveil $494 Billion Economy-Boosting Transport Bill

August 9, 2020 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

A new five-year bill has been unveiled by House Democrats on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, a $494 billion measure to boost safety and funding for commuter and freight programs.

This legislation aims to update the FAST Act 2015 highway law that is set to expire in fall of this year. The bill will help enhance highway and transit program fundings and will also offer $4.6 billion for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

It will also work to aid areas facing huge obstacles from the COVID-19 pandemic as well as address issues at hand in relation to climate change. According to the committee’s summary of the bill, the new legislation will require the Department of Transportation to create measures reducing greenhouse gas emissions with specific goals in place for each state to meet. To help states reach these goals, the bill will provide them with $8.35 billion; states with sub-par performances will need to invest 10 percent of their federal surface transportation funds in additional emission-lowering efforts.

“The bulk of our nation’s infrastructure–our roads, bridges, public transit, and rail systems, the things that hundreds of millions of American families and businesses rely on every single day–is not only badly outdated, [but] in may places it’s downright dangerous and holding our economy back,” said Peter DeFazio, committee Chairman. “Yet, for decades, Congress has repeatedly ignored the calls for an overhaul and instead simply poured money into short-term patches.”

These actions have led to an entirely outdated system, DeFazio continued. “We’re still running our economy on an inefficient, 1950s-era system that costs Americans increasingly more time and money while making the transportation sector the nation’s biggest source of carbon pollution.”

$6.25 billion from the bill will be funnelled into resilient infrastructure designed to withstand extreme weather as a result of climate change. States will need to maintain infrastructure vulnerability assessments to properly allocate these investments.

$350 million in annual grants will also pay for electric vehicle charging systems and hydrogen fueling stations.

To help with those struggling from coronavirus effects, the bill will provide $83.1 billion in the 2021 fiscal year to aid local transportation agencies that have dealt with major financial setbacks. The bill will also temporarily end state-federal matching, so all federal funds provided in 2021 will be offered at 100 percent federal share. State and local governments will also be able to utilize $22 billion for operating expenses and employee salaries.

In regards to trucking, $250 million will be allocated toward truck parking facility enhancement as well as for motor carrier safety data display prioritization by the secretary of the U.S. Department of Education.

The bill will also direct the DOT to delay hours-of-service changes until a new comprehensive review of waivers for commercial drivers is in place. In this review, state enforcement agencies would need to provide consultation on analysis of both safety impact and driver impact within the rule’s updates. These findings must also appear in the Federal Register within 18 months, with allowance of public comment and a comprehensive report issued to Congress. All details of the report will need to be displayed on the department’s website.

This hours-of-service rule update takes effect in September, and will bring more flexibility to truck drivers’ schedules, allowing truckers to take necessary breaks with “on-duty, not driving” statuses as opposed to “off-duty” statuses. The rule change also “expands the short-haul exception to 150 air-miles and allows a 14-hour work shift to take place as part of the exception, [and] expands the driving window during adverse driving conditions by up to an additional two hours,” according to the Federal Register.

The bill will provide $319 billion for the Federal Highway Administration’s federal-aid highway program. $5.3 will be provided to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The American Trucking Associations has supported the measure, and ATA’s president, Chris Spear, explained that he believed the bill “contains significant investment in our country’s roads and bridges.” DeFazio agreed, saying the legislation is a “transformational bill that will catapult our country into a new era of how we plan, build, and improve U.S. infrastructure.

American Road and Transportation Builders Association chairman, Steve McGough, echoes these sentiments, saying infrastructure investments will lead to major economic boosts. The association has often been urging Congress to push forward large-scale infrastructure funding measures.

“Without the infrastructure built, maintained, and managed by the nation’s transportation construction industry, virtually all of the major industry sectors that comprise the U.S. economy–and the American jobs they sustain–would not exist or could not efficiently and profitably function,” McGough said.