Trailer/Body Builders:

The trucking industry announced the launch of a fund-raising effort for an industry-wide movement centered on a positive image and a more robust connection with policymakers and the general public.

This initial phase of the movement has been launched online at TruckingMovesAmerica.com, where creative materials, messaging, and social media links are available to all elements of the industry as well as the public. Critical to this movement are messages of new trucking technology that has an increased focus on safety, sustainability, efficiency and reliability. But also a focus on just how critical trucking is to the national economy. Supporting almost 7 million jobs, it is one of the largest and growing industries in the country.

“We’re extremely excited for the fundraising effort of this movement to have launched,” said John Conkin, president of the Allied Committee for Transportation (ACT 1). “The trucking industry serves America’s economy, its families and businesses in a way no other industry does. Trucking is essential to the every day lives of all Americans. Our mission today is to make that message stronger and connect our good work with the rest of America.”

The full movement launch will be in March 2014 at the Mid-America Truck Show in Louisville, Ky., the industry’s largest truck show.

ACT 1 is an initial founding member of the movement, which includes: Allison Transmission, Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, Bridgestone Commercial Solutions, Castrol Heavy Duty Lubricants, Cummins Inc., Dana Holding Corporation, Detroit Diesel Corporation, Eaton Corporation – Roadranger, GE Capital, Goodyear, Great West Casualty Company, Hendrickson, International, J.J. Keller & Associates, Inc., Kenworth Truck Company, Love’s Travel Stops, Mack Trucks, Inc., Meritor, Michelin, Pegasus, TransTech, Peterbilt Motors Company, Omnitracs, Inc. a Qualcomm company, Randall Reilly, TRW, and Volvo Trucks.

Other founding members include: American Trucking Associations (ATA), Bulldog Hiway Express, Combined Transport, Inc., Daimler Trucks North America, Hahn Transportation, Inc., Jet Express, Inc., Longistics, Motor Carrier Service, Inc., Old Dominion Freight Lines, Tennant Truck Lines, Tennessee Express, Inc., and Truckload Carriers Association (TCA).

“This movement won’t be a one-time deal,” said Mike Card, fundraising chairman for the movement. “It involves every single part of the industry, from rest stop owners to drivers to manufacturers, and everything in between. Our hope is every individual involved in the industry – along with their families and supporters – will get involved in one way or another.”

To learn more or to donate to the movement, visit www.TruckingMovesAmerica.com.

The Trucker News Service

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama Tuesday quietly signed into law legislation to ensure any federal standards governing screening, testing, or treatment of individuals operating commercial motor vehicles for sleep disorders would be through a rulemaking instead of guidance, which has previously been the case.

The bill, introduced by Reps. Larry Bucshon, R-Ind., and Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., passed the House 405-0 and the Senate on unanimous consent.

While sleep disorders could define a wide range of medical problems, the bill clearly defines sleep apnea as a sleep disorder.

The legislation, highly applauded by trucking stakeholders was somewhat moot because the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration had already announced it was following the wishes of the trucking industry and would deal with the sleep disorders issue through the rulemaking process rather than regulatory guidance.

The American Trucking Associations and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association quickly applauded Reps. Bucshon and Lipinski for introducing the bill.

The ATA said the legislation would “ensure that if the federal government sets standards for sleep apnea screening and testing of professional truck and bus drivers, those standards are established through an informed rulemaking process.”

OOIDA said that a rulemaking “would include requiring that a full cost-benefit and regulatory impact analysis be used should the FMCSA decide to set policy regarding screening, testing and treatment for sleep apnea as opposed to guidance, which is not subject to this critical analysis.”
Truckers and medical professionals have long complained that fuzziness in federal guidance on obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) testing and treatment has resulted in pendulum swings from one extreme to the other.

One extreme mentioned by drivers is that an examiner may see a trucker’s stomach sticking out over his belt and immediately order sleep apnea testing. From an examiner’s point of view, it’s not worth staking one’s medical career on, so better to be safe than sorry and test pretty much everyone.

On the other hand, there are horror stories about truckers finding a practitioner who will turn a blind eye to excessive daytime sleepiness or other obvious signs of OSA.

Trucking’s request for more than regulatory guidance on sleep disorders has been longstanding.
Over a year ago, the Board of Directors of American Trucking Associations, meeting in Las Vegas, passed a new policy urging that any government decisions on sleep disorder screening for commercial drivers be made following a regular, science-based process.

“Fatigue and driver health are two serious issues facing the trucking industry,” ATA President and CEO Bill Graves said. “However, as important as it is to address those issues, it is equally important for the federal government to use the regulatory process – with its emphasis on science-based outcomes and cost-benefit analyses.”

The ATA policy approved in Las Vegas reads in part that any effort to address sleep disorders, like obstructive sleep apnea, should be done “through rulemaking and not through the publication of regulatory guidance;” and that those rules focus on “conditions that pose a substantially elevated crash risk based on sound data and analysis, be cost beneficial and promote effective treatments that minimize the impact to motor carriers.”

“This is not an insignificant step,” Graves said. “There are more than 3 million professional truck drivers and the cost of screening, diagnosis and treatment for sleep apnea could easily exceed $1 billion annually. Taking a step as potentially costly as that shouldn’t be undertaken lightly and outside of the normal processes.”

The Trucker News Services

LIBERTY, Mo. — American Central Transport has taken first place in the General Commodities Truckload/Line-Haul Division/Between 20-50 Million Miles Category in American Trucking Associations national truck safety competition.

The carrier received its award during ceremonies at the ATA Safety Management Council’s 2013 Safety and Human Resources National Conference & Exhibition held recently at Sparks, Nev.

The ATA National Truck and Industrial Safety Contests are the only two national safety programs that recognize the extraordinary safety accomplishments of motor carriers across the United States by operation type and size.

The contests are judged based upon a trucking company’s safety experience.

The truck safety contest calculates an accident ratio based on vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and the number of DOT recordable accidents as well as based on “all accidents” which includes virtually all accidents involving property damage, injury or death, regardless of fault or DOT recordability. The all accidents ratio is used as a tiebreaker.

Carriers are judged on their safety records relative to others within their classes of competition. Safety records are determined from the carriers’ vehicle accident rates or lost workday case rates. Carriers enter based on type of operation.

A carrier with more than one type of operation can enter more than one category by recording the numbers that pertain only to that operation.

Each category is further broken down by local and line haul operations and again by VMT.
The type of operation categories are General Commodities Truckload, General Commodities Truckload, General Commodities Less than Truckload (LTL), Tank Truck, Heavy Hauler, Flatbed, Auto Transporters, Van/Small Truck Delivery, and Miscellaneous Fleets.

In the event a carrier ranks in the top three of a category/division, they undergo an independent audit overseen by the state trucking association of their domicile state, which verifies the numbers and ratio submitted.

Any carrier awarded first, second or third in any category division is invited to compete for the ATA President’s Trophy.

Entry requires the completion of application that encompasses the entire scope of a carrier’s safety operations.

These are judged by specially selected law enforcement judges, who generally specialize in commercial vehicle enforcement.