Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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JOURNAL NEWS INBRIEF 07/12 The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a final rule that eliminates the requirement for drivers operating intermodal equipment to submit driver-vehicle inspection reports when the driver has neither found nor been made aware of any IME defects. Ohio became the 39th state to prohibit texting behind the wheel. Beginning March 1, 2013, texting will become a secondary offense for adults and a pri- mary offense for those under age 18. The Port of Tacoma's Truck Scrappage and Replacements for Air in Puget Sound (Tacoma ScRAPS) program is now open to truck owners who own a Class 4-8 truck with a pre-1998 model year engine that operates in Pierce County, Wash. Call 253-617-3201 or go to www. portoftacoma.com/truck-program. FMCSA ordered both Euless, Texas- based Demco Express and Racine, Wis.-based WTSA US Express to cease all transportation services immediately following extensive reviews of both companies' operations that discovered multiple federal safety violations. Arkansas Best Corp. acquired Panther Expedited Services Inc. from private equity firm Fenway Partners for about $180 million. Arkansas Best said Panther's expertise in expedited logistics will enhance its end-to-end offering. Indianapolis-based Celadon Trucking Services acquired part of the operating equipment of Huntington, Ind.-based Hiner Transport for an undisclosed sum. The Truckload Carriers Association's Safety & Security Division presented its 2012 Safety Professional of the Year Award to Jerry Waddell, safety director for Cargo Transporters of Claremont, N.C. 12 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | JULY 2012 SMS COMMENT continued from page 11 and to provide fleets with bet- ter visibility. Under the Safety Fitness Determination, FMCSA could use that data to replace the onsite inspection process. Ferro said fleet feedback from the CSA preview is critical. "Some in the industry are very concerned, and we need to know what those concerns are so that we can address them," she told Symposium attendees. Ferro estimated a current population of about 500,000 freight carriers and said that about 490,000 of those have no fatality numbers. "We have 200,000 carriers with sufficient data to analyze for all carriers, FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro updated attendees of the CCJ Spring Symposium in Birmingham, Ala., on the agency's latest rulemakings. and 92 percent of all crashes are attributed to those carri- ers," she said. "They represent 80 percent of the power units." Crash history is one of the stronger predictors of future crashes, said Ferro, discussing how FMCSA is addressing crash accountability in CSA's Behavior Analysis Safety Improvement Categories. Ferro said the agency calls this process "crash weighting" – Continued on page 14 T ATA URGES HIGHWAY BILL CONFEREES TO ADDRESS TRUCKING'S NEEDS he American Trucking Associations last month asked members of the conference committee negotiating the highway bill to address several issues of importance to the truck- ing industry. "The trucking industry has consis- tently delivered for members of Congress who have asked for our support in advancing a long-term surface transpor- tation bill, so now we hope the conferees will complete a bill that moves us all toward safer less-congested highways," said Dan England, ATA chairman and chairman of C.R. England, based in Salt Lake City. "We need help from our elected leaders to continue improving our industry's impressive record on safety and efficiency." ATA's call followed a letter from ATA President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Graves to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) and their fellow conferees outlining ATA's priorities: Preservation of the National Freight Program proposed by the Senate; Inclusion of truck productivity provi- sions drafted by the House, as well as limiting of a potential study on truck pro- ductivity to one year rather than six; Retention of amendments to restrict expansion of infrastructure privatization programs; Adoption of the Senate's language Continued on page 18