Industry News

 OOIDA National Call to Action Alert‏

The Owner Operators Independent Drivers Association calls on members to contact their U S Senators and Representatives to pass theTRUCC Act.

OOIDA Sent the following email to all members on 6/26/2008

As you know, a Congressman and two Senators were elected to represent you, your family, your hometown and your state in Washington, DC.

If you are receiving this email, it means that at least 2 of those 3 lawmakers on Capitol Hill have not yet committed to supporting the TRUCC Act by signing on as cosponsors of the House or Senate versions of the bill. For some of you, all 3 of your elected representatives have yet to get on board.

H.R.5977 (House) and S.2910 (Senate) will require that 100 percent of fuel surcharges levied on a shipper be passed through to whoever actually pays for the fuel to haul that shipper's goods, obviously in most cases that's a trucker.

Both bills share the same title - "Trust in Reliable Understanding of Consumer Costs Act" or "TRUCC Act" and both will ensure that middlemen will no longer be able to skim or pocket fuel surcharges that should be going to truckers. Click here to view the bills.

OOIDA has been working hard to move the TRUCC Act forward in the legislative process, but for the Congressional leadership to take the bill seriously, they also need to see that it has the support of several Congressmen and Senators.

Please call the offices of both of your Senators and your Congressman to ask them to commit their support for the TRUCC Act by signing on as 'cosponsors' of the bill.

To contact your 2 Senators and your Representative in the House, call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121, provide the operator with your home zip code. The operator will connect you with the offices of your elected representatives.

You are also welcome to call OOIDA at (800) 444-5791. Association staff will be happy to help put you in touch with your elected officials in Washington.
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HOUSE - SAMPLE MESSAGE:

"I am from and I strongly support the TRUCC Act. As my elected representative, I ask that the Congressman/Congresswoman commit to helping truckers by cosponsoring H.R.5977. "

SENATE - SAMPLE MESSAGE:

"I am from and I strongly support the TRUCC Act. As my elected representative, I ask that the Senator commit to helping truckers by cosponsoring S.2910. "
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Remember, taking a few minutes to make phone calls to your elected representatives can make a major difference in how those individuals understand and view issues affecting you and your livelihood.

If you have questions, please do not hesitate to call the Association at 1-800-444-5791.
TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE OUR VOICES HEARD.
TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE CAPITOL HILL TAKE NOTICE.
TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE LIFE BETTER FOR TRUCKERS THROUGHOUT AMERICA
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You can also help your voice be even stronger in Washington by contributing to the OOIDA Political Action Committee.

100% of OOIDA PAC money goes towards contributions to elected officials who listen to and act upon the concerns of small business truckers and professional drivers.

For further information on the OOIDA PAC, please contact the Membership Department at 1-800-444-5791.

HR 5977 SUMMARY

5/6/2008--Introduced.
Trust in Reliable Understanding of Consumer Costs Act or the TRUCC Act - Amends federal transportation law to require certain fuel costs disclosures and fuel costs reimbursements by a motor carrier, broker, or freight forwarder providing or arranging transportation or service using fuel for which it does not bear the cost.
Requires such a motor carrier, broker, or freight forwarder to: (1) reimburse persons (truckers) that do bear fuel costs for any such costs they have paid; and (2) give such persons a written list that identifies any freight charge, brokerage fee or commission, fuel surcharge or adjustment, and any other charges.
Prohibits any person from causing a motor carrier, broker, or freight forwarder to present false or misleading information on a document or in an oral representation about the actual rate, charge, or allowance to any party to the transaction or transportation.

HR 5977 FULL TEXT

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-5977

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Mexican Trucks to run in US

By John Crawley Sat Sep 1, 11:44 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration can proceed with a plan to open the U.S. border to long haul Mexican trucks as early as next week after an appeals court rejected a bid by labor, consumer and environmental interests to block the initiative.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco late on Friday denied an emergency petition sought by the Teamsters union, the Sierra Club and consumer group Public Citizen to halt the start of a one-year pilot program that was approved by Congress after years of legal and political wrangling.
The Transportation Department welcomed the decision and said in a statement that allowing more direct shipments from Mexico will benefit U.S. consumers.
The 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement approved broader access for ground shipments from both countries but the Clinton administration never complied with the trucking provision. A special tribunal ordered the Bush administration to do so in 2001.
"This is the wrong decision for working men and women," Jim Hoffa, president of the Teamsters, said in a statement after the court ruling. "We believe this program clearly breaks the law." The Teamsters represents truckers that would be affected by the change.
The emergency stay was sought on grounds the administration's pilot program had not satisfied the U.S. Congress' requirements on safety and other issues. But the appeals court ruled otherwise.
SAFETY ASPECTS
The administration plans to start the program on September 6. Transportation Department officials hope to receive final clearance early next week from the department's inspector general's office, which is reviewing its safety aspects, and finalize details with Mexican authorities.
The Mexican government must grant reciprocal access to U.S. trucks under NAFTA. That provision is not expected to be a problem, regulators said.
Mexican trucks operating in the United States have for years been restricted to U.S. points near certain large border crossings where their goods are transferred to trucks owned by U.S. firms.
Under the pilot program, Mexican long haul trucking companies that have met safety, licensing, and other U.S. requirements will be allowed to operate their rigs throughout the country. Proponents say this will reduce costs and speed up shipments.
Trucking regulators said in a court filing the goal is to gradually accommodate 100 Mexican trucking companies by the end of the pilot program, or roughly 540 large trucks.
But opponents said those figures do not reflect the number of companies that could seek access to U.S. roads if the pilot is successful, which they said raises safety concerns.
"This (pilot) program is basically a show trial. They haven't provided notice up front about who will participate. You just don't know what the program will look like," said Bonnie Robin-Vergeer, attorney for Public Citizen.
Public Citizen and the Teamsters still plan to proceed with a lawsuit they filed in federal court, challenging the Mexican truck program on broader grounds. That case will not likely be decided until next year.
Trucks from Canada have no operating restrictions in the United States.
(Reporting by John Crawley)


Updated: 8/17/2007 4:50:00 PM

DOT Sets Conditions on Mexican Trucks Program

Have you seen one of these lately?

The Department of Transportation said that Mexican trucks will be allowed to operate throughout the United States under its pilot program as long as U.S. trucking companies have equal access south of the border, Bloomberg reported Friday.

The announcement, published in Friday’s Federal Register, means that DOT is ready to resume the pilot program that was blocked by Congress last month, Bloomberg said.

Under the program — which is being reviewed by DOT’s inspector general at Congress’ request — a limited number of trucks and trucking companies that operate in the current U.S. border zone would be given wider access to the United States, DOT said.

Congress has demanded equal access to Mexico for U.S. trucking companies, and the Federal Register notice by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said the project “will not commence until such reciprocity is provided.” FMCSA is part of DOT.

In a statement, the Teamsters union slammed the DOT move.

“It’s outrageous that the Bush administration would announce on a Friday during Congress’ August recess that it plans to recklessly move forward with its hugely unpopular program to throw open our border to unsafe Mexican trucks,” said Teamsters President Jim Hoffa.

The House voted July 24 to block the Bush administration’s planned pilot program, limiting visiting trucks to the current border-area zone in part due to safety concerns.

The plan also has been criticized by labor and safety groups, and in May the House voted 411-3 to impose more restrictions on DOT’s plans to grant Mexican trucks access to U.S. highways.
 
By Transport Topics


INVASION USA

It's official: Mexican trucks coming

100 companies will have unlimited access to U.S. roads

________________________________________
Posted: February 23, 2007
2:41 p.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

(TTNews.com)
One hundred Mexican trucking companies will have unlimited access to U.S. roads to haul international cargo as part of a year-long pilot program, the Department of Transportation announced today
In return, 100 U.S. trucking companies will be allowed to operate in Mexico but at a later date.
Calling for congressional hearings, Teamsters General President Jimmy Hoffa compared the announcement to the "Dubai Ports debacle," charging President Bush is "playing a game of Russian roulette on America's highways."
As WND previously reported, the Teamsters Union has strongly protested the opening up of U.S. highways to Mexican trucks, citing safety concerns.
(Story continues below)
A spokesman for Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies, told WND the senator plans to hold hearings March 8 on the DOT pilot program.
A statement from Murray's office said she wants "to find out if the administration has really met the safety requirements that the law and the American people demand before long-haul Mexican trucks can travel across all our highways."
A spokeman from the office of Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, told WND hearings will most likely be held by Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, chaired by Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore.
Both Oberstar and DeFazio are traveling today and a spokesman from Oberstar's office said the lawmakers have not had a chance yet to confer, so no hearings have yet been scheduled.
Oberstar and DeFazio have posted statements on the homepage of the House Transportation and Infrastructure raising questions about DOT's proposed Mexican truck pilot program.
Todd Spencer, spokesman for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, told WND that "to reach a conclusion that the safety regime in Mexico is compatible in any way, shape, or form with what we have here in the U.S. is ignoring reality. Mexico has never had hours-in-service regulations or drug testing of drivers. We still can't verify the accuracy of somebody's Commercial Driver’s License in Mexico for safety or compliance."
Spencer stressed the decision is not just a border decision.
"Once Mexican trucks are in the United States on this pilot program, they can operate everywhere in the U.S.," Spencer told WND. "If some state highway policeman in Vermont or Iowa stops a Mexican commercial truck in their state, they have absolutely no idea of deciding if that vehicle is in compliance with federal safety requirements. Who's going to provide the training or the equipment for state police to verify the legality of a commercial truck from Mexico, in terms of its cargo, its haul, its log book, or even the driver? Local police aren't going to have a clue."
Hoffa cited Mexico's inability to satisfy the DOT Inspector General's requirements for safety that have been mandated to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or FMCSA.
WND previously reported applications of some 678 Mexican motor carriers seeking long-haul authority to operate about 4,000 vehicles was being held up pending the completed DOT Inspector General's review of proposed FMCSA rules regarding safety reviews for Mexican trucks seeking to operate in the U.S., including rules for on-site safety inspections in Mexico.
The DOT spokesman also affirmed to WND the FMCSA has now drafted regulations that the DOT Inspector General has accepted, after an audit of the enforcement mechanisms and regulations the FMCSA created.
The Teamsters Union posed to WND a series of "unanswered questions," including:
• Will the drivers be checked against the terror watch list, or will our borders be open to anyone with a Mexican driver's license?
• Will the drivers be required to carry a Mexican passport as U.S. citizens are required to present their passports when entering the country from Mexico?
• Will all U.S. standards be applied to Mexican drivers, including the requirement that U.S. drivers undergo regular physicals and meet minimum age requirements?
• Will Mexican truck drivers participating in the pilot program be required to undergo drug and alcohol testing in U.S. labs? Who will oversee the collection of random samples for drug and alcohol testing of the Mexican drivers while they are in the U.S.?
• Will U.S. wage and hour laws be enforced for Mexican drivers during the pilot program? How will DOT enforce hours of service rules and prevent false log books and fatigued drivers from entering the U.S.?
• How can DOT assure the U.S. public that all trucks will be inspected by U.S. officials in Mexico and at the U.S. border when fewer that 10 percent of all Mexican trucks entering the commercial zone are inspected today?
According to a DOT spokesman, the pilot program "is predicated on the notion that Mexican trucks operating in the U.S. under the pilot program will operate pursuant to every single requirement that pertains to U.S. trucks operating in the United States, including both safety and security requirements on both the state and federal level."
DOT has increased its inspection staff by some 270 inspectors to implement the program. Still, DOT plans to continue the on-site inspection activities in Mexico that were announced by DOT Secretary Mary Peters earlier this week in Monterrey, Mexico.
The DOT spokesman confirmed there is no limit to the number of trucks the 100 Mexican trucking companies can operate in the United States. There is no restriction on the roads within the United States that the Mexican trucks can travel once they are admitted in the pilot program at the border.
The Mexican trucks, however, will be limited to carrying international cargo, in that they will be prohibited from stopping at one point in the U.S. destined for another point within the country.
On their return home, Mexican trucks, however, will be allowed to pick up in U.S. cargo originating in the U.S. destined for delivery back to Mexico.
While in the U.S., the Mexican drivers will operate under U.S. rules and regulations, including those controlling hours of time allowed at the wheel without a break.
The DOT spokesman specified that under agreements with Mexico already in effect, Mexican and U.S. commercial driver's licenses will be consider equivalent during the pilot program.
Mexican trucks operating in the United States will be required to have U.S. insurance coverage for all liabilities, including traffic accidents.
"The intent is for the Mexican trucking operations in the U.S. to be indistinguishable from U.S. trucking operations," the DOT spokesperson affirmed, "except that the driver and the truck began their trip in Mexico."
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OOIDA tells Senate committee NAFTA pilot plan unsafe

WASHINGTON (March 8, 2007) — A small business trucker testifying on behalf of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) told a U.S. Senate committee that small business truckers oppose DOT’s pilot program to qualify 100 Mexican truckers to travel deeper into the U.S.

Charlie Parfrey, who has spent 10 years on the road and 23 years in the trucking industry, named safety and security concerns, including driver verification, drug and alcohol testing, insurance and Hours of Service, among other things.

The testimony was before a U.S. Senate committee that is considering DOT’s year-long pilot program to allow 100 qualifying Mexican trucks beyond the narrow trade routes now in place along the border.

Todd Spencer, executive vice president of OOIDA, said the pilot plan is ignoring homeland security concerns.

“It is simply abhorrent to think that our government would allow Mexican trucks full access to U.S. highways before all safety, economic and homeland security concerns are completely and appropriately addressed,” Spencer said.

He said DOT is “bending over backwards to accommodate Mexican motor carriers” and “Yet on matters that would significantly help hundreds of thousands of American truckers and advance safety on our nation’s highways, we often hear from DOT officials that the department has limited resources and staff.”

Spencer said the pilot program is “not in the best interest of the American public.”

— The Trucker News Services
                                                                                                                                

Preliminary figures show truck fatalities down

By Jill Dunn

Preliminary figures indicate large truck fatalities decreased in 2005 from the previous year, but were up from 2003,

according to a new Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Progress Report.

All the 2005 figures in the safety outcomes category were preliminary. Large truck fatalities were 5,036 in 2003, 5,235

in 2004 and 5,212 in 2005. The large truck fatality rate per 100 million truck vehicle miles was 2.31 in 2003, 2.37 in 2004 

and 2.34 in 2005.

However, total large truck injuries dropped during those two years, from 122,000 to 114,000.

The 2005 figures in the rest of the report were not preliminary and showed general improvement in data quality and beefed-

up enforcement. The number of roadside truck inspections increased since from 2,949,558 in 2003 to 3,133,102 in 2005.

The complete report is online at www.fmcsa.dot.gov.

2005 National Large Truck Crash Facts               

   

4,932 Large Trucks Involved in Fatal Crashes
5,212 Fatalities in Crashes Involving Large Trucks
139,772 Large Trucks Involved in Non-Fatal Crashes
60,617 Large Trucks Involved in Injury Crashes
91,824 Injuries in Crashes Involving Large Trucks
79,155 Large Trucks Involved in Towaway Crashes
2,371 Large Trucks Involved in Hazmat (HM) Placard

Crashes

Click Here to view       

 Fatality Facts for 2005