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April
20 , 2004
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Headline
News
Court
Case Could Alter HOS Rules
On April 13, oral
arguments were heard in the hours of service (HOS) court case in the
U.S. District Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia. The date
for this hearing was moved up from the original scheduled hearing date
of April 15. As a reminder, Public Citizen (comprised of the Citizens
For Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH) and Parents Against Tired Truckers
(PATT)) filed suit last year against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA) on the "new" HOS rules. The TCA had
filed a Motion For Leave To Intervene in this Court challenge (with
the ATA and the Distribution and LTL Carriers) in support of the agency
to help ensure that benefits the industry gained under the final rule
would not be lost; specifically, the 34-hour restart; the 11-hours driving
time; and no mandate for on-board recorders.
During the oral
arguments the Court asked the FMCSA attorney tough questions as to the
agency's scientific support for the choices it made in the final rule
and asked whether the agency had fully considered driver health in its
analysis. Serious questions were also posed to Public Citizen's attorney
about the deference the court owed the agency's conclusions.
The Court of Appeals'
ultimate ruling in this matter could take a variety of courses. They
could sustain the rule in its entirety, finding each element of the
rule to be reasonable and within DOT's discretion. Alternatively, the
Court could approve parts of the rule and disapprove other parts, with
the disapproved elements returned to DOT for reconsideration and reissuance.
DOT may have the discretion for any disapproved elements of retaining
them, but only if it can provide better factual and scientific support
for their decision. Finally, the Court could disapprove of the entire
rule and send it all back to DOT for reconsideration. It is possible,
though not likely, that the Court could even direct DOT as to how it
should restructure any disapproved element. If some or the entire rule
is disapproved, it will be enjoined and the current rules on that area
will go back into effect. The Court decision should be reached within
the next 2 to 3 months.
TCA will keep you
posted with any further developments as they occur, and if you have
any questions please contact Rich Clemente at (703) 838-8847 or by email:
rclemente@truckload.org.
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Report
Cites FHWA For Millions In Unused Funds
The Office of the
Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)
on March 31 publicly released a report entitled, “Inactive Obligations”
of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). According to the OIG report,
the FHWA has at least $284 million – and perhaps nearly $400 million
– in unused funds for transportation projects that should be reallocated
to projects where they will be used. In a March 31 memorandum directed
to the FHWA Administrator, the OIG was quoted as saying, “In today’s
tight budget environment when highway investment needs exceed available
resources, allowing unneeded obligations to sit idle on highway projects
leaves fewer funds available for expanding and preserving National Highway
System infrastructure, increasing mobility, and improving safety, all
key FHWA performance goals.”
This is the OIG’s
third audit of FHWA’s follow-up on transportation grants to state
and local governments. In it the IG said the agency’s Administrator
should take “more aggressive steps” to account for allocated
funds so they are not left idle. Furthermore, although the FHWA said
“dealing with inactive obligations has been an emphasis area for
the past few years,” the IG’s report said, “the continued
existence of hundreds of millions of dollars of idle obligations…suggests
otherwise.”
FHWA Administrator
Mary Peters responded to the OIG’s report with a memorandum that
stated that the issue of inactive fund obligations “has been an
emphasis with the FHWA during the past few years.” Ms. Peters’
response memo to the OIG also addressed point-by-point the specific
audit recommendations. The complete copy of this OIG report can be downloaded
at www.oig.dot.gov
under the “Just Released” section of the homepage. For further
questions or additional information, please contact Rich Clemente at
(703) 883-8847 or email: rclemente@truckload.org.
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FDA
Requests Comments on Facility Registration
The Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) announced a reopening of the industry comment period
for the two interim final rules (IFRs) of the Bioterrorism Act of 2002
– Registration of Food Facilities (Section 305) and Prior Notice
(Section 307) in the April 14, 2004 Federal Register. FDA took
this action consistent with its statement in the October 23, 2003 IFR
that it would reopen the comment periods on both of these initiatives
for 30 days in March 2004, to ensure that those commenting have had
the benefit of FDA’s outreach and educational efforts and some
experience operating under these new rules. The FDA request for comments
on the Registration of Food Facilities focuses on the economic impact
of foreign facility registration and the requirement for foreign facilities
to identify a U.S. agent. The request for comment on Prior Notice seeks
input on integrating FDA and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) requirements,
including access to CBP programs that facilitate movement into the U.S.
from Canada and Mexico.
By way of reminder,
the rule on registration of facilities says that “transport vehicles
that hold food only in the usual course of their businesses as carriers,”
are not required to register with FDA. In addition, truck terminals
and other stationary facilities that serve merely to assist transportation
vehicles in the process of transporting food are not required to be
registered with FDA as well.
In addition, a third
FDA notice was issued on the same day, in conjunction with the CBP announcing
the availability of a plan entitled, “Joint FDA-CBP Plan for Increasing
Integration and Assessing the Coordination of Prior Notice Timeframes.”
The agency’s integration plan proposes incorporating this Customs-Trade
Partnership Against Terrorism and the Free and Secure Trade programs
into FDA’s Bioterrorism Act requirements, along with integration
of personnel and targeting tools. Industry comments must be filed with
FDA on all three of these notices by no later than May 14, 2004.
A copy of the Registration
of Food Facilities Register notice can be found by clicking
here. A copy of the Prior Notice Register notice can be found by
clicking
here. Finally, a copy of the FDA-CBP Availability of Joint Plan
Register notice can be found by clicking
here. ). If you have any questions or comments, please contact Rich
Clemente at TCA at (703) 838-8847 or by email: rclemente@truckload.org.
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How
Do Your Listening and Responding Skills Rank?
Listening and responding
skills are vital for driver trainers. Communications skills can often
be overlooked but they are the best way to grasp if a student comprehends
what you are teaching. The best way to keep you communication skills
strong is to honestly assess your behavior and consistently work to
better them using a variety of techniques. Click below to assess your
listening and responding skill and learn how to improve them.
Listening
& Responding Skills
Communication skills
are perhaps the most important set of skills that a driver trainer can
master and use to ensure that new drivers acquire the necessary skill
and knowledge to be effective in their chosen profession. There are
four critical sets of skills that driver trainers should master: listening;
understanding nonverbal cues; resolving conflict; and reinforcing behaviors.
This “Standard Issue” will discuss listening and responding
skills.
Based on what you
hear and how you evaluate it, you react and respond to the other person.
It is this combination of hearing, interpreting, evaluating, and reacting
that makes up the whole activity called listening.
At best, we only
remember about 50% of what someone else said, and within 24 hours, most
people usually remember less than 25% of what someone said. Nevertheless,
there are ways to improve listening skills. A number of those are included
in the following text.
First, to master
guidelines for good listening, there are a few simple rules to follow:
• Stop
talking. You cannot listen if you are talking!
• Show you want to listen and remove distractions.
• See the situation from the other person's point of view.
• Be patient. Hold your temper.
• When you argue, even if you win, you lose.
• Ask questions to show interest and make things clear.
• Stop talking. This is both first and last,
because all other listening depends on it. Remember, you have two
ears and only one mouth. Listen twice as much as you talk.
Are You a Good Listener?
Attitudes
1. Do you try
to see the problem as the speaker sees it?
2. Are you interested in the speaker as a person?
3. Do you listen willingly?
4. Can you remain calm, even though the speaker may be angry and excited?
Actions
5. Do you take
the time to listen?
6. Do you give the speaker your full attention?
7. Do you hear the speaker out, although the speaker is unorganized
and repetitious?
8. Do you withhold judgment until the speaker is finished?
9. Do you try to get the speaker’s meaning from his context?
10. Do you try to locate the main idea(s)?
11. Do you get the implication (what the speaker is implying, as opposed
to what the speaker is only saying) in what is being said?
12. Do you sense the underlying feelings?
13. Can you keep the speaker tuned in, regardless of distractions?
14. Do you smile, nod, and otherwise encourage the speaker?
15. Do you ask questions (at appropriate times) to be sure that you
understand?
16. Can you set aside your biases concerning the speaker?
17. Do you withhold your response until the speaker is finished saying
what he or she wants to say?
18. Do you look at the speaker most of the time (not stare)?
19. If the speaker hesitates, do you encourage him or her to continue?
20. Do you restate the speaker’s idea, at appropriate times,
to see if you “got it right”?
In addition to
the preceding attitudes and actions, other skills and actions to improve
your listening abilities include:
Use and encourage nonverbal signals, such as: eye contact;
facial expression; saying things like "tell me more…"
or "hmmmm…;” nods, and appropriate posture.
Establish
eye contact. It is especially important and useful.
Rephrase or paraphrase comments by restating the main
idea or content to: check and/or clarify accuracy; let the interviewer
know that you understand; hear yourself say the idea; and encourage
more discussion.
Focus on key words, main ideas, and visual images (examples)
to help retain important points.
Mentally outline ideas and put them into categories such as: similarities
and differences; advantages and disadvantages; or chronology.
Ask questions if what the other person is saying is not clear
or complete. Do not pretend to understand if you do not! The
following phrases can help you, as a listener, interject nonjudgmental
feedback into a conversation:
Clarifying.
Get the other person to explain something that was not clear, e..g.,
“I don’t understand what you mean.” or “Would
you repeat that again?”
Paraphrasing. Repeat what the other person said,
but in your own words, e.g., “Let me see if I’m with you.
You said…” or “In other words, you think…”
or “What I hear you saying is…”
Summarizing. Put a number of points into one sentence,
e.g. “What you have said so far is…” or “As
I understand it, your key point is…”
Take notes,
in list or outline form, if that will help you keep up with the conversation.
However, do not concentrate on the notes, at the expense of the conversation.
Avoid bad listening habits, such as:
• assuming
in advance that whatever the speaker says will not be rewarding or
interesting;
• mentally criticizing the way the other person speaks instead
of listening to the words;
• reacting with such immediate opposition to an idea that you
do not even hear the rest of the speaker’s arguments—you
are busy thinking of opposing arguments instead of listening to what
is being said;
• concentrating on small details and missing the main ideas;
• trying to take notes on everything that someone says instead
of just the main points;
• pretending to pay attention but thinking about something else;
• remaining silent when the speaker is unclear or incomplete
in expressing thoughts;
• tuning out when the speaker uses technical terms that do not
mean anything to you; or
• letting prejudice against certain words or phrases block your
receptivity to the speaker’s ideas.
Excerpt from
“Student Course Book: Train-the-Trainer” published
by Thomson Delmar Learning
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