eTrucking Business

If you know all about the hands-on side of trucking, but want to learn more about the business side, an upcoming OOIDA business seminar is just for you.

Organizer Tom Weakley of the OOIDA Foundation says the three-day session will be all about the financial side of the business.

“I think that it includes just about everything you would need to know before you ever get into the business of trucking and the business side of trucking,” Weakley told Land Line Now.

Topics covered include how to write a business plan; how to spec a truck; types of insurance; getting authority; the ins and outs of hauling hazmat; permitting, signing leases and the dangers that go along with certain leases; how to deal with brokers; and how to negotiate contracts.

“It runs the whole gamut of running a business, and that’s invaluable,” Weakley said, “especially from the people right here at OOIDA who deal with that on a daily basis.”

Weakley points out that the seminar is not just for people new to the industry, it’s for people who want to make a change.

“They’re good drivers, and they’ve been good drivers for many years. They understand the industry and how it works, but they’ve never had to do the business part of it – the paperwork part of it – and that is so essential if you’re going to be in business for yourself,” he said.

“There’s just a lot to learn, and hopefully the seminar will help them to not make as many mistakes as without it. We cram a lot into three days.”

The OOIDA business seminar is set for Oct. 27-29 at OOIDA headquarters in Grain Valley, MO, just east of Kansas City at Exit 24 off Interstate 70.

A tuition fee of $450 covers classroom materials and breakfast and lunch each day.

If you’re interested, just call 800-444-5791 and ask for JoAnn in the Membership Department.

– By Land Line and Land Line Now staff

Transportation officials in New Hampshire are asking for feedback from residents on several road and bridge proposals throughout the state.

The state Department of Transportation recently opened a series of public hearings on New Hampshire’s 10-year transportation plan. The initiative is intended to identify roadwork while also addressing how to pay for the program with the state being confronted with tight budget constraints.

New Hampshire did get a shot in the arm this year with the infusion of $130 million for roads and bridges from the federal government. But it is a short-term boost.

A state legislative commission says in order to get work done on the state’s 10-year plan, more revenue sources must be found. The group is looking into increasing fuel taxes, bonding opportunities and possible vehicle-miles-traveled taxes to help reach their funding goals.

These options and more are expected to be discussed at more than 30 public hearings that started in mid September and run to Oct. 29. To see a list of the hearings scheduled across the state during the next few weeks, click here.

Citizens will be able to comment on the draft plan, which includes $20 million to widen Interstate 93 from Manchester to the Massachusetts line and retrofit tolls in Hooksett for high-speed passage. Another priority is fixing the state’s most deficient bridges. New Hampshire has 137 “red list” bridges, and 87 of them appear in the 10-year plan.

The commission responsible for drafting the 10-year plan will meet for a final discussion and vote on the plan this fall. They must submit the plan to Gov. John Lynch in December. The governor will take the plan to lawmakers during the 2010 regular session, where the Legislature must approve it before the session wraps up in late in June.

Anyone unable to attend the public hearings through the end of October can submit written testimony within 10 days of each of the public hearings. Written comments should be addressed to:

William J. Cass, P.E.
Director of Project Development
New Hampshire Department of Transportation
John O. Morton Building, 7 Hazen Drive
P.O. Box 483
Concord, NH 03302-0483

To view other legislative activities of interest for New Hampshire in 2009, click here.

– By Keith Goble, state legislative editor

Editor’s Note: Please share your thoughts with us about the legislation included in this story. Comments may be sent to statelegislativedesk@ooida.com.

The Utah Department of Transportation is issuing a warning to truckers and other motorists that two Interstate-80 bridge replacement projects in Salt Lake City will create traffic headaches.

Replacement of one of the bridges – at the Echo exit just east of the I-84 interchange – is expected to cause four-hour traffic delays Sunday, Oct. 4.

Replacement of the other bridge – at 2300 East – will create delays in mid-October.

UDOT advises truckers to plan alternate routes. For information on the bridge construction and road closures, visit www.itruck.utah.gov.

A new law in the province of Ontario takes effect this month to ban text messaging for drivers, but the restriction goes further. The ban also applies to talking on the phone while driving unless the driver uses hands-free technology to dial and talk.

The new law, brought forward by Ontario Transportation Minister James Bradley, states that “driving while holding or using a hand-held wireless communication device or electronic entertainment device is prohibited.”

Passed earlier this year, the measure known as Bill 118 is set to take effect Oct. 26 starting with a three-month education period. Starting Feb. 1, 2010, drivers convicted of texting, typing, dialing or e-mailing with a hand-held device can face $500 fines.

The law applies to vehicles in motion and makes an exception for stopped vehicles that don’t impede traffic.

Other exemptions include the use of navigation devices such as GPS as well as commercially used logistical transportation tracking systems, collision avoidance systems and gauges.

Ambulances and other emergency vehicles are exempt from the law, as are drivers who use a phone or hand-held device to contact emergency services.

According to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, “a person may drive a motor vehicle on a highway while using a device … in hands-free mode.”

– By David Tanner, staff writer
david_tanner@landlinemag.com

Truckers who have been confused by the seemingly endless options of motor oils will breathe a sigh of relief at Shell’s new approach to its oil lineup.

In an effort to streamline oil selections, Shell moved its line of Rotella oil to a CJ-4 rating – which can be used in any 2010 and older truck. The company will also be eliminating its Quaker State and Pennzoil diesel engine motor oils.

The Shell “Ladder of Protection” will offer five different motor oils that essentially step up in engine protection and fuel savings.

Starting with the full conventional blend Rotella T1, progressing through the Rotella T3 and Rotella Triple protection, the line will include a synthetic blend with the Rotella T5 up to a full synthetic with the Rotella T6.

The top three – the T6, T5 and Triple – will be offered as Shell’s preminum heavy-duty engine oils. The T5 is touted to offer superior fuel savings with a 1.6 percent fuel savings compared with the Rotella T line. The T6 offering touts a 1.5 percent fuel savings.

In addition, the oil lineup was reformulated with Shell’s proprietary “Energized Protection,” which incorporates adaptive molecules and viscosity modifiers. In simple terms these molecules and modifiers can collect, adapt, move around and even expand to offer more protection where needed through various engine demands and temperature conditions.

The History Channel is hoping to duplicate the success of “Ice Road Truckers” with a new trucking show from the same producers.

Reuters reports that “Extreme Trucking” will be filmed in locations worldwide where truckers drive on hazardous roadways.

Nancy Dubuc, president and general manager of the History Channel, said there is an “endless supply of dangerous roads, and they’re in places where they are highly unregulated.”

The new show is scheduled to hit the air next summer.

OOIDA and its members tuned in Wednesday, Sept. 30, to see where the summit on distracted driving this week in Washington, DC, will lead. Much of the emphasis on the first day of the two-day summit was on texting while behind the wheel.

Truckers and their concerns were represented on site by OOIDA, which accepted an invitation from the DOT to participate in the summit. Those not among the 200 speakers and safety groups invited to the forum have tuned in by Internet feed or social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook..

The summit is interactive. Many social networkers have been tweeting (sending messages via Twitter) and participating in the online forum provided by the U.S. DOT.

Many want to know whether new laws regulating texting or e-mailing while driving are right around the corner for states that are not already pursuing them. The answer that U.S. senators have given is that “we’re working on it.”

During the summer, Democratic lawmakers led by Sen. Charles Schumer of New York filed legislation – essentially an ultimatum – urging states to adopt anti-texting laws for drivers or face rationing of the federal transportation funds they receive.

Few can argue that distracted driving isn’t a big deal. New studies show that death and injury from crashes involving distracted drivers are more prevalent than before.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who is hosting the forum, said distracted driving puts lives at risk.

“Every single time someone takes their eyes or their focus off the road – even for just a few seconds – they put their lives and the lives of others in danger,” he stated. “Distracted driving is unsafe, irresponsible, and in a split second, its consequences can be devastating.”

The summit continues Thursday, Oct. 1. To catch the live Internet stream or to view the archives upon completion of the summit, click here.

– By David Tanner, staff writer
david_tanner@landlinemag.com

Only about 2 percent of all motor carriers are currently audited by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration each year. The logistics of limited manpower and plowing through mountains of paper have been a hurdle the agency has simply not been able to overcome.

FMCSA hopes that will all change next year when the Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 initiative – called CSA 2010 – goes live nationwide.

When CSA 2010 was unveiled to industry stakeholders at a listening session three years ago, then FMCSA Administrator John H. Hill said he hoped the aggressive new approach to compliance and enforcement would be a vital tool in reducing the number of fatalities in the large truck and bus industries.

The agency’s top priority is to reduce fatalities. For years fatalities have not necessarily increased, but they have not decreased either. That mere fact alone has been a driving force behind the development of CSA 2010.

In August 2004, FMCSA kicked off CSA 2010 with a comprehensive review and analysis of the agency’s existing compliance and enforcement programs. The goal of the program is to develop a new approach for FMCSA to identify drivers and carriers that pose safety problems and take steps to intervene and address those problems.

Currently, compliance reviews are targeted at the motor carrier and not the individual driver. FMCSA officials have said CSA 2010 will change that.

The CSA 2010 system is designed to:

• Provide for an assessment of a greater portion of those regulated by FMCSA;
• Analyze data related to specific safety areas of interest that are known to contribute to crashes;
• Leverage modern technology to continuously evaluate and monitor compliance and safety performance; and
• Apply progressive intervention to correct safety deficiencies before they become so ingrained that they cause a “significant breakdown” in the safety performance of a motor carrier.

The agency hopes to use data collected on carriers in seven different areas – dubbed BASICS which is short for Behavioral Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories – that include unsafe driving, fatigued driving, driver fitness, drugs and alcohol, vehicle maintenance, cargo securement and crash experience. The data will be measured for the previous two years of roadside violation and crash data to calculate a safety score.

Several things could happen with that data.

Currently, carriers are assessed one of three fitness ratings: “satisfactory,” “conditional” and “unsatisfactory.” The CSA 2010 model proposes only two categories: “continue to operate” and “unfit.”

The plan also outlines a number of intervention steps that a carrier may encounter before a full-blown compliance review is conducted if data indicate a company’s behavior isn’t up to snuff.

The intervention steps include everything from a warning letter, targeted roadside inspections and an off-site review to a comprehensive on-site review.

Through the CSA 2010 project, a separate Driver Safety Measurement System has been developed and is being tested to identify individual drivers on a set of criteria across multiple employers.

The program is currently being tested in seven pilot states as FMCSA works out the kinks and prepares to issue a Final Rule in the Federal Register to officially implement the program. Nationwide rollout of the program is planned for the summer of 2010 and state-by-state rollouts to happen through the end of 2010.

– By Jami Jones,senior editor
jami_jones@landlinemag.com

Truck owners who make stops at California ports have reached an important deadline.

Trucks that visit ports in California are required to be signed up with the California Air Resources Board’s drayage registry by Sept. 30. The application can be found here. For more information, click here.

Truckers visiting the ports on Oct. 1 and later must be signed up with the drayage registry.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2010, trucks with 1993 or older engines are banned at ports and intermodal rail yards. Also on New Year’s Day, trucks with model year 1994-2003 engines must be equipped with a CARB-approved diesel particulate filter.

The CARB port rule is different from local port plans adopted by ports at Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland, which have their own equipment limits.

– By Charlie Morasch, staff writer
charlie_morasch@landlinemag.com

The Louisiana State Police will start issuing tickets Thursday, Oct. 1, for holding up traffic by lingering in the left lane.

Many local police departments have been writing tickets since the law took effect Aug. 15. The State Police and some other police departments opted to hold off on ticketing offenders until Thursday. Troopers who have spotted infractions during the past six weeks have issued warnings instead of writing tickets.

Col. Michael Edmonson said it is part of the patrol’s duty to provide public education of the left-lane rule.

Louisiana law already prohibits vehicles from using the left lane if they are moving at less than the normal speed of traffic. But the new rule addresses the difficulty the troopers had enforcing it.

Intent on stopping “rolling roadblocks,” the new law makes the left lane off-limits for cars and trucks except for passing. Exceptions to the lane rule are made for preparing to turn at an intersection or when the right lane is congested.

At least 20 states have similar left-lane restriction rules, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Kansas and Oklahoma have approved their own restrictions this year. The Kansas lane restriction took effect early this summer while the Oklahoma law is scheduled for implementation Nov. 1.

To view other legislative activities of interest for Louisiana in 2009, click here.

– By Keith Goble, state legislative editor

Editor’s Note: Please share your thoughts with us about the legislation included in this story. Comments may be sent to statelegislativedesk@ooida.com.