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April
6 , 2004
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Headline
News
PTDI
Certified Delaware Tech Instructors Participate in DMV Training
As the Delaware
Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) recently prepared to implement a revised
testing program for the commercial driver’s license (CDL), faculty
from the commercial transportation department at Delaware Technical
& Community College in Georgetown assisted with DMV staff training.
The Commercial Transportation Certificate Program at Delaware Tech is
certified by the Professional Truck Driver Institute.
Chris Antonik, instructional
coordinator for the department, and Lee Derrickson, an instructor, played
the part of CDL applicants as members of a team that helped train DMV
employees in proper testing procedures. They took the college’s
tractor-trailer rigs to inspection lanes in Wilmington and Dover to
work with examiners from all four DMV sites in the state.
“By posing
as CDL applicants and performing the actions and maneuvers required
by the new regulations, we helped the examiners assess whether their
scripted instructions would produce the desired results, and we helped
them clarify a number of terms, standards, and definitions that will
affect the test results,” Antonik explained. “Our current
graduating class will be the first group to be tested under the new
program, so it was great that we got to be involved in the DMV examiner
training. We not only learned what will be expected of our students
when they go for their road tests, but also got to provide feedback
to the people who will be conducting the tests.”
Students in the
Commercial Transportation Studies program at the Owens Campus acquire
operating skills and practical knowledge of tractor-trailer driving
with an emphasis on business skills needed in the transportation industry.
The program combines classroom work, driving range practice, and highway
training to prepare graduates for careers in local or long distance
trucking.
Top
Fingerprint-based
HM-CDL Background Checks Officially Delayed
The Transportation
Security Administration (TSA) issued a Final Rule in the April 6, 2004
Federal Register which amends its prior November 7, 2003 Interim
Final Rule establishing security threat assessment standards for commercial
drivers authorized to transport hazardous materials (HM). With this
Final Rule, TSA is changing the date on which fingerprint-based background
checks must begin in all States until January 31, 2005. The agency is
making this amendment so that the States will have enough time to make
changes to their existing commercial driver safety and testing programs
to facilitate implementation. This ruling thereby eliminates the prior
April 1, 2004 [and subsequent December 1, 2004] deadlines for the States
to establish a fingerprint collection program. The effective date in
the Register notice is April 6, 2004, and TSA is not requesting
industry comments to this Rule. Other points of interest are summarized
as follows:
- Prior to January
31, 2005, the TSA will conduct name-based, terrorist-focused checks
on drivers who are currently authorized to transport HM. If TSA discovers
during the course of these name-based checks that an individual is
suspected of posing or poses a security threat, TSA will initiate
action to revoke the individual’s HM-endorsement, in accordance
with the procedures in 49 CFR §1572.141.
- In addition,
prior to the January 31, 2005 deadline, TSA will work with the States
to begin fingerprint collection and submission using pilot programs.
TSA is adding a definition of “Pilot State” to §1572.3,
as a state that volunteers to begin the security threat assessment
process prior to January 31, 2005. TSA will work with the Pilot States
on procedures for the collection and submission of fingerprints.
- TSA will complete
a rulemaking proceeding to collect fees to cover the cost of each
security threat assessment. In the near future, the agency will issue
a rule that establishes reasonable fees to cover the cost of the HM-driver
security threat assessment.
- It is also important
to note in this Final Rule that TSA is not delaying the September
2, 2003 compliance date set forth in §1572.5(b) for surrendering
an HM-endorsement. This section of the rules requires any HM-CDL endorsement
holder who does not meet the security threat assessment standards
in part 1572 to surrender the endorsement beginning on September 2,
2003. Nothing in the April 6, 2004 Final Rule changes this surrender
requirement.
A copy of the April
6 Register notice can be downloaded by clicking
here for an HTML and here
for a PDF. If you have any questions or need further information,
please contact Rich Clemente at (703) 838-8847 or email: rclemente@truckload.org.
Top
Soon to be Released Rules Will Affect Food Transportation
TCA recently learned that
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that the two new
final rules on Administrative Detention (Section 303) and Establishment
and Maintenance of Records (Section 306) of the Bioterrorism Act of
2002 which were due to be released by the end of March have been delayed.
It is now anticipated that FDA will publish both of these final rules
by the end of May 2004.
By way of reminder, the proposed
rule for Administrative Detention would require a detention order to
be approved by the FDA District Director of the district where the detained
article of food is located or a more senior official. A copy of the
detention order would be given to the owner, operator, and/or agent
in charge of the place where the article of food is located, and to
the owner of the food if different than those listed above. If FDA issues
a detention order for an article of food located in a vehicle or other
carrier used to transport the detained article of food, FDA would also
have to provide a copy of the detention order to the shipper of record.
The proposal would also require a detained article of food to be held
in a secure location, as determined by FDA.
The record-keeping proposal
is designed to help FDA track foods implicated in future emergencies,
such as terrorism-related contamination. Manufacturers, processors,
packers, distributors, receivers, holders and importers of food would
be required to keep records identifying the immediate source from which
they received the food, as well as, the immediate subsequent recipient,
to whom they sent it. This requirement would apply to almost all foreign
and domestic food sources and almost all recipients of food destined
for consumption in the U.S. It would assist FDA is assessing credible
threats of serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or
animals. FDA’s proposals would allow companies to keep the required
information in any form that they prefer -- paper or electronic, provided
they contain all the required information. The proposal also specifies
that existing records can be used to satisfy the requirements of the
regulations if these records contain all of the required information.
Finally, the outreach
and implementation continues for the first two sections of the FDA rules:
Registration of Food Facilities (Section 305) and Prior Notice of Imported
Food Shipments (Section 307). More than 190,000 facilities have registered
to date and FDA is continuing to reach out and educate domestic and
foreign facilities of their regulatory responsibilities. Trucking companies,
trucks and truck terminals do not have to register under these regulations.
For more information on these outreach sessions go to the following
website: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov.
For questions please contact Rich Clemente at (703) 838-8847 or email:
rclemente@truckload.org.
Top
TCA's
Recently Release Legislative Alert On TEA-LU
The attached legislative
alert was sent to TCA members last week in opposition to new tolls on
existing interstate highways. Since the alert was sent the FAST Act
requiring tolls on existing interstate highways to be collected in new
lanes only from users who voluntarily chose to drive in these lanes
and the elimination of tolls once the lane is paid for was passed. TCA
wishes to thank all the members who expressed their opposition to new
tolls to their Members of Congress. Click
here to view TCA's legislative alert.
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