trucking legislation

Truck Parking Availability Issue Worsens Amid E-Commerce Boom, Lack of Funding

February 24, 2022 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

“There isn’t a day that goes by that a parking issue doesn’t come up, whether it is a driver that can’t find a place to park, or a customer won’t let them park,” said vice president of safety for Cargo Transporters, Shawn Brown.

Truck parking has remained a major issue for the entire trucking industry, an issue that has been significantly worsened by the coronavirus-induced boost in nationwide e-commerce. Additionally, a lack of parking funding in city areas, as well as various municipal mandates, have made the problem as severe as ever.

Hopefully, shipper solutions, technology-based methods, and private and public investments will help to ease the issue, some industry experts say.

“It is one of these issues that is going to be right there in our [faces] until we make a truly concerted effort to do something,” said senior vice president of the American Transportation Research Institute, Dan Murray. “There are no short-term solutions to fix it.”

Parking concerns worsen the closer a trucker is to a densely-populated, urban region, noted president of C.R. England, Brandon Harrison, as these areas see the most freight traffic.

“Late afternoon and evening hours continue to be some of the most challenging times for drivers to find parking availability,” he said.

The steep incline in e-commerce is pushing demand towards larger cities, which has exacerbated parking capacity issues–as has land costs and zoning restrictions, said ATRI research associate, Alexandra Shirk. States have continued to end up “on the other side of the fence when it comes to fighting or enhancing the truck parking opportunities,” added Murray.

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s director of enforcement programs, William Elovirta, also chimed in, noting that urban planning development has begun focusing on parking space reduction in recent years.

“I don’t think we’re seeing a huge effort on the local and state [levels] for an organized push for truck parking in the same sense of the other priorities,” he explained.

Many industry members have been lamenting the idea that even though both the public and the government see the need to improve the nation’s bridges and roads, truck parking is often overlooked. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act initially allocated $1 billion toward parking funding, but the funding was ultimately dropped from the measure. Once the legislation officially passed, truck parking funding was not included.

“There is discretionary funding available that can be put toward trucking parking solutions,” added Shirk, who notes that it now seems parking funding is in competition with that of bridge and road projects.

The state of Minnesota expects around a 30% increase in federal funding from the infrastructure bill, and the Minnesota Trucking Association is currently advocating for funds to finally be allocated to truck parking capability, said the association’s president, John Hausladen.

“We’re hopeful that at least there is a pool to work with, but the fact that truck parking was not designated in any of those funds means it continues to battle with every other need,” he explained.

Additionally, cities like Minneapolis have been banning parking in residential streets, which can make matters even worse than they already are, Hasladen added.

“As a highly populated urban center, there isn’t a lot of available land to just create truck parking without some sort of incentives or government support that move it forward,” he said.

The trucking industry has actually begun looking toward private and public parking options alike, noted ATRI’s Murray.

“In a perfect world, we’d have perfect collaboration where the public sector helps the private sector expand capacity and manage capacity,” he noted.

Individual states should also start looking into methods of lowering private sector costs in regards to expanding or building designated truck parking areas–this may include land acquisition, maintenance assistance, or specific tax incentives, according to Tiffany Wlazlowski Neuman, the vice president of public affairs at truck and travel stop industry-representing trade association, Natso.

Natso also recommends that regulators begin actively exploring the potential effects of any new legislation on truck parking, such as the ELD mandate, which brought major changes to when truckers drive and when they park, as well as to the overall utilization of available truck parking.

FMCSA Relaxes Vision Regulations for Monocular Truckers

February 18, 2022 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

New vision standards will relax previous requirements mandating that truckers with inadequate vision in one eye must seek an exemption from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

The agency announced the new rule late last month, which will now allow commercial drivers “who do not satisfy, with the worse eye, either the existing distant visual acuity standard with corrective lenses or the field of vision standard, or both, to be physically qualified to operate a commercial motor vehicle in interstate commerce under specific conditions.”

The updated regulation now “enhances employment opportunities while remaining consistent with FMCSA’s safety mission,” the agency added. The new rule will be fully implemented on March 22nd.

“With limited exceptions, individuals physically qualified under the alternative standard for the first time must satisfactorily complete a road test administered by the employing motor carrier before operating a CMV in interstate commerce,” said FMCSA in a federal register post. “This rule eliminates the need for the current federal vision exemption program, as well as the grandfather provision for drivers operating under the previously-administered vision waiver study program.”

The updated standard–which has been changed for the first time since 1998–will bring about a more “collaborative process” to allow a driver to obtain verification; a driver must have a complete optometrist- or ophthalmologist-conducted vision evaluation before he or she can become medically certified under the new standard. Additionally, the doctor must record the evaluation results and offer professional opinions regarding an agency Vision Evaluation Report. Currently, nearly 2,000 truck drivers hold vision exemptions under the previous standards.

The ophthalmologist or optometrist recording these report findings may then offer a driver up to 12 months of a certification period if the driver is found to meet FMCSA’s physical qualification standards and the new vision standard. The driver will need to be evaluated again each subsequent year for renewed qualification.

To make these determinations, examiners are required to take into account the entire Vision Evaluation Report and apply four particular standards using his or her own medical judgment. These standards include that the driver has a stable vision deficiency; has had enough time since the deficiency became stable to adapt to the vision changes; can recognize traffic signal and device colors and see the differences between red, green, and amber; and have a distant visual acuity of at least 20/40 in his or her stronger eye, with or without corrective lenses, as well as a field of vision that is of at least 70 degrees in the horizontal meridian.

FMCSA is seeking public comment on this final rule by February 22nd, and received 69 comments on the proposed rulemaking notice in 2021. These comments came from drivers, motor carriers, private citizens, healthcare providers, and trade associations. 45 of these comments showed support for the potential regulation change.

“Common reasons cited for supporting the proposal include the following: The evidence shows monocular drivers are safe and have no adverse impact on safety; the rule would remove barriers to entry, create job opportunities, encourage more individuals to enter the workforce, keep experienced drivers and reduce the driver shortage,” said the agency.

Should any safety concern arise from the new rule, FMCSA has claimed that its most prominent counter-argument is that monocular drivers have had no major issues in recent years.

“This could lead one to conclude drivers with monocular vision are as safe as other drivers,” the agency noted. “We remind readers that the data is either absent or conflicting regarding the safety of monocular drivers. With such a small percentage of drivers having monocular vision, this data will continue to be difficult to obtain in a statistically-significant manner.”

FMCSA’s medical review board approved the rule update last year, although it recommended that the policy’s field of vision standard require commercial drivers to have a field of vision of at least 120 degrees.

CDL Testing Processes Becoming Less Restricted in Effort to Ease Driver Shortage

February 16, 2022 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

A variety of actions are in the works to speed up the commercial driver licensing process by streamlining credentialing steps for new truckers.

Regulators have been updating guidelines as two bills are introduced in Congress; the Licensing Individual Commercial Exam-takers Efficiently (LICENSE) Act, for example, will allow state driver licensing agencies to utilize third-party test administrators to conduct both a CDL skills test and knowledge test. This comes as the act would make two Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration-issued waivers permanent.

Through this legislation, states would be able to conduct driver skills tests for any applicant, regardless of what state the driver is from or where the driver underwent training. Additionally, under the act, commercial learner’s permit holders who have already passed their CDL skills test but haven’t obtained credentials would be able to drive with a veteran trucker in the truck.

“With a shortage of roughly 80,000 drivers, we should be making the process of becoming a professional truck driver as user-friendly as possible,” said Chris Spear, President of American Trucking Associations. “By making common-sense changes to the CDL testing process and eliminating redundant background checks, we can cut red tape so these hard-working men and women can get on the road navigating our nation’s highways instead of navigating its bureaucracies.”

The act was first introduced into the House by Representatives Troy Balderson of Ohio, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Josh Harder of California, and Darin LaHood of Illinois. In the Senate, the act was introduced by Senators Mark Kelly of Arizona and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming.

The LICENSE Act also aims to bring boosted support to regulatory FMCSA guidance revisions that will bring to light the regulations and guidelines that won’t hinder any third-party testing administrators from conducting CDL learner permit knowledge tests, as well.

The second bill introduced in Congress is the Transportation Security Administration Security Threat Assessment Application Modernization Act, which calls on TSA to make the application and renewal processes easier for those working toward multiple credentials at a time, as well as to lower overall fees for applicants. This act was introduced in the House by representatives John Katko of New York and Adam Smith of Washington.

The bills are a no-brainer to Commercial Vehicle Training Association president Bailey Wood, who noted that permitting third-party administrators to conduct knowledge tests would ultimately “allow states to address the driver testing backlog” and help ease the ongoing driver shortage. Although state licensing agencies can use third-party administrators for skills tests, only a couple of states currently allow for the usage of knowledge test results conducted by a third-party tester.

“According to my research and discussions with members, only Texas and Virginia permit third-party knowledge testing,” explained Wood. “Almost all states in some shape or form use third-party testing for skills tests, but skills testing is a completely different beast.”

Making the testing process as streamlined as possible should be everyone’s priority, Wood noted.

“We’re going to be encouraging states to adopt third-party knowledge test administration,” he said. “The new guidance allows one-stop shopping for students, letting them get knowledge and skills testing at the same location. Anything that expands the number of testing opportunities is a good thing.”

FMCSA has claimed, up until 2019, that third-party testing should only occur within the skills section of a CDL test, “unless an employee of the state who is authorized to supervise knowledge testing is present during the testing.” Now, FMCSA has announced in a Federal Register post that it has “reconsidered its earlier guidance” and come to the decision that none of its present guidelines block states from allowing third-party CDL knowledge tests.

This is due to the agency’s understanding that third-party testing may still be overseen by federal and state regulators to check for federal requirement compliance, and that test administrators may also need to undergo background checks, as third-party testing would allow any public and private entity to conduct a skills test on the respective state’s behalf.

ATA, Trucking Carriers Express Worry Over Pilot Program Reporting Requirements

February 15, 2022 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

A controversial apprenticeship program, gaining funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, will allow drivers under the age of 21 to drive commercial motor vehicles across state lines. Now, this program is bringing to light worries around motor carrier reporting requirements.

The pilot program will permit intrastate truck drivers between the ages of 18 and 21, along with their respective carriers, to enroll in a program requiring proper monitoring and training. In a series of comments filed with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Truckload Carriers Association and American Trucking Associates explained their concerns that the outline data collection requirements within the program will hinder its productivity. These comments came in response to FMCSA’s Federal Register information collection request last month.

In this request, the agency predicted that the pilot program’s necessary data collection would take around 20 minutes for each response for every carrier, experienced driver, and apprentice application form; 15 minutes for each response for all safety benchmark certifications; 90 minutes every month for miscellaneous data submission; and 60 minutes every month per driver for all monthly safety and driving data.

Additionally, FMCSA has been urging the White House Office of Management and Budget to rapidly approve its requests, and the agency only allowed for five days of public commentary. It also noted that these extensive data submission requirements may prevent smaller carriers from wanting to be part of the pilot.

“The draft information collection request may create unnecessary administrative burdens and/or prevent or delay small- and medium-sized motor carriers from participating in the program, limiting the success of the program–potentially significantly,” said ATA in the comments it offered. “Every additional burden placed on motor carriers may reduce the number participating.”

Still, ATA is staying optimistic for the potential the program has to improve the ongoing and severe truck driver shortage.

“While we believe the data collection is too broad and a registered apprenticeship mandate may prevent broad participation, ATA and its members will promote the program and [look] forward to assisting FMCSA in supporting the program,” the group said.

Although the Drive Safe Coalition supports the pilot program itself, the group believes that additional data submission requirements should be limited each month to address “only those elements that are essential in evaluating the safety impact of the young drivers,” the coalition explained. “Allowing younger commercial drivers to operate across state lines and transport interstate freight if they meet heightened training and safety equipment requirements will provide a real opportunity to address current and future truck driver shortages.”

TCA agreed, noting that the large amounts of data that will be required will likely create unprecedented difficulty for a majority of carriers.

“We must note our concern with the monthly frequency of the reporting required of the carrier, as well as the vast amounts of data that must be supplied through these reports,” said TCA. “While the statutory language grants the Secretary of Transportation the flexibility to request data relating to the safety of apprentices aged 18 to 20 years operation in interstate commerce, we fear that the breadth of data outlined in the Information Collection Request will present an undue burden to carriers.”

There also seems to be a lack of understanding regarding the extent to which most of the nation’s carriers can comply with these methods of data monitoring, TCA added.

“In particular, the requirement to supply ‘safety event data (as recorded by all safety systems installed on vehicles, to include advanced driver assistance systems, automatic emergency braking systems, onboard monitoring systems and forward-facing and in-cab video systems),’ will be very difficult to satisfy,” TCA said, “particularly for smaller carriers that do not have an extensive staff to handle this reporting.”

Werner Enterprises Inc., a carrier out of Omaha, Nebraska, also expressed its worry that the likelihood that “voluminous” data collection requirements “without some limitations” may come to fruition, and noted that certain changes to these reporting requirements may “help to strengthen the impact of collected data.”

Illinois Cracks Down on Biometric Privacy Law Compliance, Worrying Carriers

February 14, 2022 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Trucking carriers and those who provide them with technology may end up in the midst of various federal and state class-action lawsuits regarding Illinois biometric privacy law compliance, legal experts are saying.

Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act, implemented in 2008, has been brought up in various recent cases–the law states that any business utilizing the collection, usage, and retention of biometric identifying data like iris scans, fingerprints, voice prints, facial geometry scans, or full hand scans must first inform employees of this intent and receive consent to do so. Additionally, the company must ensure and make clear that all records kept are entirely secure.

Overall liability in regards to this law is likely increasing quickly, and Illinois state trucking companies may be subject to more class action lawsuits in the coming months as a result, stated Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson & Feary in a recent public notice. These potential increases come after a December Illinois appellate court opinion expressed interest in boosting this liability.

Various Illinois Legislature members worked last year to try and relax some of the law’s severity, without much luck.

“Biometrics are unlike other unique identifiers that are used to access finances or other sensitive information,” said a bill summary released in the Illinois Legislature in 2021. “For example, social security numbers, when compromised, can be changed. Biometrics, however, are biologically unique to the individual, therefore, once compromised, the individual has no recourse, is at heightened risk for identity theft, and is likely to withdraw from biometric-facilitated transactions.”

Any violation of the law can allow an “aggrieved” individual to obtain liquidated damages totaling $1,000 for each negligent violation and $5,000 for any reckless violation. For a trucking company that has been scanning employees in various manners for a number of years, these damages can add up significantly.

“This is a really big issue right now in Illinois–not just for trucking, but across industries,” said firm partner Chip Andrewscavage. “BIPA has been dormant for a long time, but in the past few years, there have been literally hundreds–if not thousands–of cases filed. The risk is very high to go to trial, so we’ve been seeing a lot of class cases settled outside [of] court.”

Some trucking companies are beginning to panic, many state industry experts say.

“I am hearing from my members about this,” said Illinois Trucking Association executive director, Matt Hart. “I even had one member who reached out to me who literally told me this lawsuit will result in his filing for bankruptcy and moving his company out of Illinois.”

Hart also noted that the Illinois Chamber of Commerce has been working with trucking companies to avoid such large lawsuits, and he has been trying to help.

“While the intentions of the law were to protect privacy, trucking companies are becoming aware of it, but are attempting to adapt to it a little too late,” said Hart. “Now, they’re facing lawsuits because they did not gain consent from their employees.”

Trucking companies should begin working alongside their individual technology suppliers in regards to compliance of this law, although they should have already been doing so to begin with, noted Trucksafe Consulting president, Brandon Wiseman. Trucksafe Consulting, based in Greenfield, Indiana, is a truck regulatory compliance firm.

“Work with your vendor, and see what your vendor is doing about this,” Wiseman said, adding that the carrier and tech vendor should both have data stored properly within their own systems. “I think it’s certainly possible for motor carriers to get pulled into the litigation.”

Some carriers are frustrated, saying that they should not be punished if they had no knowledge of the legislation in place.

“I get the intent of the law,” said a Midwestern carrier’s president who wished to remain anonymous. “But we didn’t do anything wrong. We just didn’t know the law existed.”

Still, many Illinois carriers have been using handprint and fingerprint scanners or inward-facing cameras for a number of years now, and should be doing so as responsibly as possible, Wiseman added.

“The law does not prohibit carriers from collecting data,” he said. “It requires carriers to make it clear to their drivers what exactly [they’re] collecting, and get their consent to do so.”

USDOT Claims Safety Will Guide New Budget Spending–Will It?

February 7, 2022 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

According to senior officials within the U.S. Department of Transportation, the safety of American drivers throughout our nation’s roadways is the top priority of the department in its policy implementation regarding the effects of new infrastructure legislation on the trucking industry.

Safety goals will be the overarching guide to policy implementation and funding allocation, noted Polly Trottenberg, Deputy Transportation Secretary. Trottenberg’s comments came as part of her keynote speech at the annual meeting for the Transportation Research Board.

The $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, implemented late last year, calls for workforce retention and recruitment in regards to various trucking and freight provisions. For the trucking sector, specifically, the bill set forth a women-in-trucking outreach initiative, a truck-leasing task force project, and an apprenticeship program for commercial drivers under the age of 21 to be able to drive within interstate commerce.

These initiatives come as the industry scrambles to fill roles in the midst of the seemingly never-ending truck driver shortage, worsened by the effects of the pandemic. The trucking industry is missing a necessary 80,000 truck drivers at the moment, American Trucking Associations estimates.

“I want to emphasize, in particular [in regards to] the apprenticeship program, because as you know, there’s a lot of discussion about…the safety element, [and] making sure that we’re doing it in a way that is safe,” said Trottenberg. “Our leadership at [the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration] has been engaging with all of the stakeholders on that.”

She added: “We want to bring new populations into this field, but I always want to make sure we’re prioritizing safety as well.”

These comments regarding safety seem like empty promises to many roadway safety advocates as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act brings about an apprenticeship pilot program allowing new truckers between the ages of 18 and 20 to operate commercial vehicles interstate, whereas previously, commercial drivers younger than 21 were not allowed to operate CMVs in such a capacity.

“The consequences are too dire to trust inexperienced drivers on the roads with 80,000 pound trucks,” noted Levinson and Stefani’s Ken Levinson. “They need more experience in safe driving, and there’s just too much that can go wrong to let brand new drivers take the wheel of a truck.”

On top of this young driver initiative, the Department of Labor and USDOT are prioritizing recruitment and retention programs over the next few years as part of the Biden administration’s overall trucking action plan.

“In some parts of the trucking industry, 90% of drivers turn over each year,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a recent statement. “Making sure truck drivers are paid and treated fairly is the right thing to do, and it will help with both recruiting new drivers and keeping experienced drivers on the job.”

In an effort to boost driver retention rates, a truck leasing advisory board has been implemented in order to help promote commercial driver-assisting resources in regards to understanding and assessing trucker leasing agreements.

“The big focus we have: We’re standing up a lot of different programs and just making sure that we’re well-organized, that we’re rolling those [programs] out, and that particularly…we’re working with our stakeholders,” said Trottenberg.

“These investments are going to have a very real impact on our daily lives,” said Buttigieg at the annual Transportation Research Board conference. “They’re going to help people save money on gas, save time on their commute…they’re going to help more children take the bus to school without having to worry about being exposed to toxic fumes. They’re going to put people to work. They’re going to reconnect communities, and I believe they’re going to save lives.”

Trottenberg added that the pandemic era and its supply chain difficulties have made clear truck drivers’ importance to the American economy.

“The pandemic has underscored how incredibly vital their work is–vital for the supply chain, vital for making sure we [have] medical supplies, [that we have] the food on our grocery shelves–all the things we need,” she said.