The popular electronic logging device (ELD) exemption for agricultural haulers is up for renewal before Sept. 30, but it’s longer-term fate may hang with Congress’ ability to pass a budget – or at least a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government open beyond Sunday.
Military members looking to become truck drivers may have an easier time in doing so as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has authorized states to waive the commercial learner’s permit (CLP) knowledge test and driving skills tests.
The long-anticipated Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill is up for a vote and it does not include the controversial meal-and-rest break provision that the American Trucking Associations (ATA) and other industry forces were seeking.
Cashflow Corner presented by TriumphPay …A creature from the Black Lagoon, George Washington’s desk, and a 10-foot gold-plated harp are just a few of the odd things hauled by truck drivers, according to the 2018 King of the Road survey from Atlas Van Lines.
Schneider National has a Crisis Communications Team that is responsible for planning the safety of employees, equipment and customer freight during hurricanes and other adverse weather situations. Here is some of what they have learned.
Despite publicizing that hours-of-service (HOS) violations would be the focus of this year’s International Roadcheck, Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) annual June event resulted in 43.7% of all drivers placed out of service done so because of HOS violations.
The Freight Movement is in partnership with Arrive Logistics …In many ways, truckers are quietly excluded from the comfortable, modern lives that they make possible for us. As David Rivers found out, “Until you experience it, you don’t realize how significant the sacrifices are that drivers make.”
FreightWaves spoke with the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN) to learn how drivers can use their resources to help ahead of Hurricane Florence.
America is taking a week to celebrate its truckers: it’s National Truck Driver Appreciation Week. Thank you, drivers, for all that you do to keep our country moving despite all the obstacles in your way.
Speaking at the American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) 2nd Annual Economic Summit on Thursday in Washington, DC, ATA President & CEO Chris Spear touted the accomplishments of the association but told attendees now is not the time to become complacent.
For gay, lesbian, transgender and black truck drivers, life on the road can be a comfort and provide a level of safety and security, in part because of the way the trucking community has accepted them.
Cashflow Corner presented by TriumphPay …It doesn’t matter if you believe the driver shortage is real or not, if you need a driver, you need a driver. So how do you get one?
Presented by Trucker Tools
With a vision of bringing “trucks, trailers and goods online,” KeepTruckin continues to innovate and invest in technologies that improve the lives of drivers.
For many truckers, their vehicles are their pride and joy. Each year at the Great American Trucking Show, they get a chance to show off their creations during the Pride & Polish competition.
CVTA member schools could train more students, but lack of finances both for tuition assistance and for states to employ testers is causing students to bypass truck driving as a career choice
It’s no surprise that truck drivers who travel during peak times face slower average speeds and that more flexible HOS regulations could not only speed those travel times, but also would not impact the miles drivers cover in a day, according to ATRI.
Joe DeLorenzo, director of the Office of Enforcement and Compliance for FMCSA, went through some of the common problems the agency is seeing since the ELD mandate went into effect, and there have been plenty.
If there is just one word that can best sum up the official Listening Session on hours of service (HOS) that FMCSA held on Friday at the Great American Trucking Show, it would be flexibility.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is moving forward with plans to solicit public comment on current hours-of-service (HOS) regulations.
Cashflow Corner presented by TriumphPay …Running under your own authority offers plenty of challenges, but some would have it no other way. One of the biggest challenges is finding freight.
As polls open today for Tennessee primary elections, you might see an unfamiliar name on the ballot: Aaron Pettigrew. Currently an over the road driver for Big G Express—based in Shelbyville, Tennessee—Aaron Pettigrew has been in the industry for 14 years and has over a million and a half miles to show for it.
Truck drivers involved in certain behaviors are more likely to have a future crash, ATRI research has concluded.
Cashflow Corner presented by TriumphPay …Weigh station bypass systems are an often-overlooked way for drivers to save both time and money.
Dock411 says that 60% of truckers visit a new location each day and 70% have lost time because of unfamiliarity with a location. But that is only half the story. Once at a facility, many locations do not have amenities such as bathrooms for drivers.
A USDOT 3-year pilot program would allow drivers under the age of 21 and holding a military CDL to drive interstate commerce when sponsored by a participating trucking company.
Cashflow Corner presented by TriumphPay …Drivers can potentially benefit from added flexibility by utilizing the current split sleeper provision allowed under hours-of-service laws.
Understanding hours-of-service and ELD regulations and their exemptions can help fleets better manage driver’s time.
Efforts are being made to exempt livestock and certain agricultural haulers from ELD and hour-of-service rules, but a trucking group and safety advocacy organization are fighting back.
As demonstrated by recent collisions involving autonomous vehicles, drivers must remain vigilant and ready to take control of the vehicle at any moment. “Driver readiness” is paramount to successfully operating an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle,
Imagine the worst boss you’ve ever had looking over your shoulder all day and telling you what to do, and then once 14 hours have elapsed since you drove to work, you have to drop everything, stop work and take a 10-hour break regardless of the time of day.
Netradyne’s Driveri system records driver behaviors. A new extension of that adds real-time notifications to the driver in the cab.
Even with low unemployment, recruiters in a new survey indicate they expect an increase in driver job applicants, but they also expect driver turnover to rise as companies continue to boost pay and sign-on bonuses.
While April 1 turned out not to be the total disaster so many predicted, the hard enforcement date has brought pain to some individual truck drivers and fleets who continue to be tripped up by common mistakes.
Convoy put the freight brokerage industry and shippers on notice with it’s automatic detention system.
As Phil Wilt, the president and COO of American Central Transport said, “I had heard about a driver shortage for the 12 years I’ve been in the industry. It’s finally arrived.”
Detention time is a major issue for truck drivers and carriers, but Convoy is doing something about it by introducing automatic detention pay for those operating under Convoy loads.
Uber Freight had a prime spot at the entrance to the show floor last week at the Mid-America Trucking Show, hoping to draw attention to its services as well as its new Uber Freight Plus program.
Building out its suite of driver focused benefits, ONE20 has partnered with MDLive to offer members a virtual health insurance program and is also adding a fuel card option with discounts are large as 55 cents off per gallon.
Shippers are increasingly being held responsible for actions of carriers hauling their freight, says a leading transportation attorney.
While driver pay has been inching up, something else has been increasing: guaranteed pay programs.
Have ELD’s worsen the truck parking problem? Perhaps, but the real problem remains where spots are located and letting drivers know those locations.
Cashflow Corner presented by TriumphPayDetention of drivers remains a significant problem in the industry, with few solutions in sight, although ELDs may be able to help smaller fleets and owner-operators enforce detention policies.
Unilever has pulled back the veil of secrecy on its palm oil supply chain hoping that greater transparency into the process can create greater efficiencies.
Drivers aren’t robots and one size doesn’t fit all, so in the absence of flexibility, wide-awake drivers attempt to sleep in rest stops on 10-hour breaks during the day, which is what makes the 14-hour clock so dangerous.
The Owner-Operators Independent Drivers Association has joined efforts to change the current hours-of-service rules to allow drivers to stop driving when they are tired.
Trucking companies face high insurance costs, and few are higher than new venture insurance for new carriers. Some steps can be taken to help lower that initial cost, though.
Even trucking original equipment manufacturers are not immune to spot freight volatility. Because of that, Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA), is working to shore up its supply chain relationship with contracted freight carriers through a new digital platform.
Two-year-old startup NEXT Trucking has secured $21 million in a Series B round of financing, led by Sequoia Capital, as it seeks to stand out in a crowded field of competitors looking to match available truck capacity with freight.
ATRI research identified trucking industry costs of $63.4 billion as a result of congestion on the nation’s highways. That cost generates from 996 million lost hours of industry productivity, the equivalent of 362,000 truck drivers sitting still for an entire year.
Learning Machine Technologies, a leading global provider of blockchain-based records for institutions including MIT and the Republic of Malta, has joined the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA).
Back in November, KeepTruckin launched a petition drive asking FMCSA to provide a 2-hour exemption for long-haul drivers delayed at a shipper.
In the last few weeks, there has been a lot of confusion in the driver community regarding the per diem, which has been eliminated for company drivers under the new Republican tax plan.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is taking a survey of truck drivers’ commutes to and from work.
Owner-operators have unique insurance needs, and it matters whether you have your own authority or are leased to a carrier. Either way, it’s important to understand what coverage you need and find policies that fit your budget.
With all the cheering from business over passage of the Republican tax plan, the next step in the tax reform journey has now begun: the real-world impact. And it could fundamentally change the way drivers are classified.
When the U.S. Department of Transportation announced in August that it was abandoning a proposed rulemaking for sleep apnea, many in the industry were not pleased. While there is no mandate, sleep apnea remains a very treatable problem for drivers.
It is estimated that truck driver vacancies have reached nearly 50,000 this year and if the trend continues, it could explode to six figures in the next decade. Could immigrants fill those gaps?
Nearly 17 years in the making since the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration first attempted to require electronic logging devices (ELDs) on commercial vehicles, the day has finally arrived for most of the nation’s 3 million plus driver workforce to begin using the devices.
The ELD mandate has finally arrived, but lets stop pretending this is a safety issue. Its not. The ELD mandate is about money. If we wanted to talk safety, our attention should focus on the real-evil: Hours of Service rules.
With truck drivers across the country being required to have electronic logging devices in their vehicles as of Dec. 18, some have complained about the move to electronic recording of hours when paper logs work just fine. For BigRoad CEO Tony Lourakis, the rule presented an opportunity.
To get a more detailed look at the impact ELDs are having on the industry, FreightWaves talked with drivers and a fleet that has been running the devices, and each has reported different experiences, but in the end, the concern of all of them is that the devices simply work.
For millions of football fans, a trip to the Super Bowl is the ultimate bucket list item. For blue collar workers, though, attending the game is often out of reach with ticket prices reaching $5,000 and above on the secondary ticket market. For two lucky truck drivers that will change.
Truck drivers are concerned with pay, but it’s not the most important topic on their mind when providing feedback to their employers. WorkHound compiled a list of topics drivers talked about the most, and pay only came in fourth. What was number one?
Toyota announced it is building a megawatt Tri-Gen hydrogen plant in California. The plant will produce hydrogen using renewable sources and will provide fuel for its Project Portal Class 8 hydrogen truck.
Following on the heels of a 90-day waiver from the ELD rule for agriculture haulers, and several other exemptions granted by FMCSA in recent months, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) has submitted a new exemption request to the agency.
Last week, FreightWaves published a commentary suggesting that solving the driver shortage may be as easy as raising pay – a supply and demand issue. We got many comments on that, including from Stifel Equity Research’s John Larkin, who said economics is not the only issue at play.
An FMCSA pilot program to study the impacts of allowing drivers more flexibility in determined when they rest is being welcomed by many in the industry.
Even with rates rising – both contract and spot – and capacity tightening, attracting drivers still remain a primary concern for fleets. Driver pay is increasing, but outside influences are still hurting the recruitment efforts.
In the tussle to improve conditions of the freight marketplace for both the carrier and shipper community, a lot has been left to be desired for the truck driver fraternity. A community-driven application named Road Hunter is now trying to take center stage – helping truckers on the road with essential information on truck stops, fuel stations, repair shops, and even weather updates.
The driver shortage has surged to the most important issue facing the industry, according to the latest top ten critical issues survey, the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), said.
Driver costs are the highest cost for fleets, surpassing fuel for the second year in a row, according to data from the American Transportation Research Institute.
The never-ending story of whether port truckers should be contractors or employees is facing a new battlefront as two councilmen for the city of Los Angeles have introduced a bill that would bar trucking companies from serving the ports if they use independent contractors.
Protests on both coasts in the past few days have placed truckers in the spotlight. Truck drivers in California and Washington, DC, staged protests to highlight the implementation of the electronic logging device (ELD) rule.
Following the devastation Hurricane Maria delivered to Puerto Rico, there have been many places to levy blame as the island nation has been slow to recover. An aging electric grid that was destroyed, a country mired in debt that has been unable to maintain basic infrastructure, an arguably slow government response. One segment that received blame, unfairly, was the nation’s truck drivers.
Trucker District CEO Marcel Alvarado’s time driving for a carrier provided insight into the difficulties faced by drivers in the industry and potential problems arising due to the deeply fragmented trucking community. His company is trying to bring that community closer together.
An entirely new generation of technological change is now occurring in the transportation industry, and it’s called the autonomous truck, or what design specialists refer to as “intelligent engineering.” But what are some of the benefits, and risks, associated with the technology?
There are many things that fleets do to attract drivers, and certainly plenty of options that drivers look for when choosing a fleet. When Mack Trucks was designing its new Anthem highway tractor – it’s first new on-highway model since the introduction of the Pinnacle in 2005 – it turned to drivers.
Ask an over-the-road truck driver what their biggest concerns are and you won’t have to go far down the list before finding a safe place to park appears. But a new company is hoping to change that, allowing drivers to reserve a spot ahead of time at a nominal fee.
There is growing talk of a possible bill in Congress that would kill the upcoming electronic logging device (ELD) rule that goes into effect on Dec. 18 of this year due to the cost to individual truckers, sources have told FreightWaves.
A 2014 report found that drivers are more than twice as likely to be obese than the general population, and there are a number of other health risks drivers face. So how can drivers, on the road for weeks at a time, stay fit?
Plenty of load boards and brokers exist for trucking companies looking for freight. There are nearly 600 found on a basic web listing – and likely many, many more. But there are few, if any, like Sleek Fleet.
Commonly considered a driver protection rule, the federal coercion rule institutes large fines for companies that pressure drivers to drive in violation of federal regulations, including hours of service. But is it working?
Any trucker knows the importance of directions. Have the right ones, and there is a good chance you can arrive on time. But incorrect directions, and not only will you be delayed, but your employer may be out money for that late arrival. A new app is hoping to change that.
