trucking legislation

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.

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.

Positive Changes for Trucking Amid the Pandemic

August 7, 2020 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, trucking companies have been looking for ways to adapt and innovate to the changes the industry has faced.

In a recent survey by the American Transportation Research Institute and the Owner Operators Independent Drivers Association, data showed that about 80% of survey respondents, who were either small fleets or independent owner-operators, did not have a business plan ready for the major changes brought on by COVID-19.

“I think going forward, it would behoove everyone in the industry to think about what lessons we learned and how can we document that in our research and in [trucking] operation,” said ATRI president and COO, Rebecca Brewster. “How can we make sure, going forward, [that] this has less of an impact on us as an industry and as we service the nation’s needs?”

At the early June WorkHound webinar regarding long-term transportation changes amid the current health crisis, Brewster also added that a positive change for ATRI has been the “tremendous amounts of data” benefiting the industry as it progresses.

For some trucking companies, virtual on-boarding processes and paperless driver bill of ladings have lowered the need for in-person interactions so that employees and truckers can continue social distancing. Bay & Bay Transportation‘s director of operations, Jackie Giefer, said these changes are going to become a permanent part of her company. She also said she wants light to continue being shone on safer truck driver parking throughout the country following the protocols put in place from this pandemic.

“Our company has probably gone through more change over the past two months than we probably ever have,” said Frank Hurst, president of Roadrunner Freight. “We deployed technology to allow our folks to work from home. We reorganized our entire sales team during this process, as well. We really went from a customer-facing force to a virtual sales force in a matter of days.”

Permanent at-home work situations seem to be growing across many companies.

“Many things have changed for us,” said U.S. Xpress chief people officer, Amanda Thompson. “The biggest change is that today, our office staff is almost entirely operating from home. U.S. Xpress has moved from less than 1% of office employees working from home to more than 95% of office employees working from home. This was put in place in an extremely short period of time.”

U.S. Xpress has recently implemented methods of working with drivers to overcome pandemic-related obstacles.

“We are also increasing our use of technology to help support our drivers who clearly cannot work from home,” Thompson continued. “We have added new features to our in-cab technology, including visibility of roughly 40,000 tractor-trailer parking locations.” The company also added a feature for in-cab devices to locate grocery stores so drivers can find meals more easily.

The company has also deployed safety-centric tools for delivery drivers, said Thompson.

“We’ve worked to make the delivery process as frictionless as possible for [drivers] by attempting to digitize forms for them and our dedicated accounts. This builds on our efforts to streamline and improve efficiencies for both our drivers and customers,” she said.

Although proving difficult, this particular time is one of exciting, positive change, said chairman and CEO of TransLand, Mark Walker.

“Out of every one of these crisis situations comes wonderful opportunities for innovation, and we are seeing that across the board,” he explained. “The words ‘agility’ and ‘resiliency’ come to mind. We had to turn on a dime. All of a sudden, we had more employees capable of working from home. In two weeks’ time, we went from having our on-call people able to work from home to having virtually 100% of our office staff able to work from home.”

For Bay & Bay, company culture has also seen a positive boost, and Giefer says the company’s staff has actually become closer than ever.

“Our drivers are invaluable, and they are leaning on us every day now,” said Giefer. “They don’t get to sit and chat in truck stops with one another and share their experiences; they’re staying in the trucks. Now, they are calling us and telling us what’s going on out there. We are really staying in touch with our drivers. It has really pulled us all together as one big family.”

More positive outcomes, according to Brewster, are that the entire country has been focusing on the value of truck drivers, and that less detention time, and better overall treatment for truckers, have come to the forefront.

Last-mile delivery is also likely to become a huge part of the supply chain, as customers rely on receiving goods in a timely manner–which will give a boost to manufacturers, distributors, and the rest of the supply chain. The Paycheck Protection Plan has become a “tremendous safety net that helped alleviate a lot of anxiety and fear” for smaller businesses, according to TransLand’s Walker.

FMCSA Offers Flexibility to Truckers in Final HOS Rule

July 27, 2020 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

The final rules for hours-of-service regulations, which have been in the works for months, have finally been published by The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. This effort, the agency says, is meant to bring further flexibility for truckers across the country.

The final regulation, effective 120 days after its publication date in the Federal Register, was announced recently by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, along with FMCSA Acting Administrator Jim Mullen. The rule has four new revisions regarding the most-voiced concerns truckers have brought to light–including the time split in sleeper berths, for instance, as well as the mandatory 30-minute rest break.

According to Mullen, the revisions came from taking into account 8,000 public comments received by the agency. These changes were made to bring “needed flexibility in the lives of America’s truckers,” he explained.

Now, the final HOS rule will allow for more flexibility in regards to mandatory rest breaks of 30 minutes by instead requiring one break after eight hours of driving. The break can include a driver using an “on-duty, not driving” status as opposed to just an “off-duty” status.

Sleeper berth exceptions have also been implemented, as drivers can now divide the required 10 hours of off-duty time into two split periods–either an 8-hour/2-hour split or a 7-hour/3-hour split. These periods will not count against a driver’s 14-hour total driving window.

“Each of these changes were based on the feedback we received from the thousands of public comments we received during the rulemaking, and through the listening sessions we held around the country,” Mullen said. “It is also important to note that this new rule will not increase driving time and will continue to prevent [commercial motor vehicle] operators from driving more than eight consecutive hours without at least a 30-minute change-in-duty status.”

Still, the HOS rule also changes the exception for adverse driving conditions, as the maximum window for driving during inclement weather has been extended by two hours.

Exceptions for short-haul routes have also been made available to drivers–their maximum on-duty period has been extended from 12 to 14 total hours. The distance limit in which a driver can operate has also been extended from 100 air miles to 150 air miles.

“This new final rule will improve safety for all motorists and increase flexibility for America’s truckers,” said Chao. “Each of these areas of reform are designed to provide much-needed flexibility to drivers while maintaining safety on the roads. This has been a deliberate and careful process.”

American Trucking Associations submitted comments to the FMCSA regarding these changes, and ATA’s vice president of safety policy, Dan Horvath, said that the association supported the majority of proposed regulation changes when they were first announced. However, he also said the ATA was not necessarily on board with short-haul air mile radius changes, saying more carriers may not need to implement electronic logging device usage as a result. ATA has been in full support of ELD usage since they first became available.

“Overall, we’re happy to see the final rule released,” said Horvath. “It’s not everything that we had supported in the past, but it’s certainly a good step in the right direction. We’ll continue to work with the agency on making sure that whatever hours-of-service regulations remain in place are offering drivers flexibility and backed by safety.”

Mullen also pointed out truckers’ important roles throughout the coronavirus pandemic, and said this new rule will boost regulatory efficiency for the industry during this time.

“In the past few months, we have seen the heroic actions that truckers have done to keep up our supply chain, keep it open, and ensure that American families, businesses, and hospitals are able to make the deliveries and receive the products that we all need,” Mullen said. “Their efforts have been inspirational and should make all Americans proud.”

“Each of these areas of reform are designed to add flexibility and regulatory savings for the motor carrier industry, which is critical for our nation’s economic recovery,” Chao added.

Although many in the industry point to safety when referencing these new regulations, it does seem that the savings, as mentioned by Chao, are at the forefront of the reform’s reasoning. Many in opposition to the hours-of-service changes have pointed out that driver fatigue is an increasing, and often deadly, problem in the trucking industry, and that allowing truckers more flexibility in choosing break and resting time lengths as well as the ability to drive for longer periods of time will increase the amount of trucker fatigue–and accidents–on the roads.

Also missing from the final rule is a provision that would pause a trucker’s driving window. This proposed change, which was included in the August proposal, would have called for an off-duty break of at least 30 minutes, but not more than three hours. This would have paused a trucker’s 14-hour diving period (as long as the driver takes 10 consecutive off-duty hours after his or her shift).