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May
4, 2004
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Headline
News
Update
Your Admissions Program
Do you know the
key ingredients present in a successful truck school admissions team?
Many schools have an inconsistent admissions program and don’t
reach out to the numbers of students they could enroll. Make sure your
admissions program is running smoothly and reaching as many potential
students as possible with the following expert
tips.
Top
Truck
Involved Fatalities Down For A Second Year
A preliminary report
on highway deaths issued in an April 28 press release by the Department
of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA) indicates that truck-involved fatalities may drop below 5,000
for the second year in a row. If the number is confirmed, the estimated
4,942 truck-involved fatalities for the year 2003 would represent a
slight 0.9% increase from the 4,897 deaths reported in their 2002 report.
For purposes of these reports, NHTSA defines large trucks as those that
are 10,000 pounds or over Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR).
It should be noted
that while trucking was the only highway user group to record a decrease
in highway fatalities in 2002, the industry this time recorded the smallest
increase of all highway user groups. Some of the other preliminary report
numbers of interest are as follows:
- Overall, there
were 43,220 deaths on the nation’s highways in the year 2003,
up slightly (0.9%) from 42,815 in 2002;
- NHTSA estimates
that the 2003 fatality rate remains unchanged from 2002 – 1.5
deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT);
- In 2003, 58%
of those killed in passenger vehicles were not wearing seat belts.
40% (17,401) of all fatalities were alcohol-related, essentially unchanged
from the prior year;
- In 2003, the
VMT increased slightly to 2.88 trillion, up from 2.86 trillion in
2002, according to the DOT’s Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA).
“The law enforcement
community, the motor carrier industry and the Federal government must
continue to stress the need for the continuing education of the general
public in highway safety, so that we can continue to decrease the overall
accident and fatality incidents on our highways”, said Lance Craig,
TCA Chairman and President and COO of Craig Transportation Company,
Perrysburg, Ohio.
NHTSA annually collects
crash statistics from 50 states and the District of Columbia to produce
the annual report on traffic fatality trends. The final 2003 report,
pending completion of data collection and quality control verification,
will be available in August 2004. Summaries of the preliminary report
are available on the NHTSA
website.
Top
U.S. Supreme Court Could Open The Borders to Mexican Trucks
On April 21, the Federal
Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) asked the Supreme Court
to allow Mexican trucks to travel throughout the U.S. by overturning
a lower court ruling that an environmental impact study had to be completed
before the ban on such operations could be lifted. The court was informed
by the agency that the border opening was mandated by the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993, and that the environmental analysis
ordered by President Bush back in 2002 would have no impact on the border
opening. By way of background, the President had acted after a NAFTA
arbitration panel found the U.S. in violation of the NATFA treaty. At
the time, Transportation Secretary Mineta warned that the U.S. could
be liable for $1 billion a year in punitive tariffs from Mexico for
failing to allow the trucks across the border.
However, before the U.S.
could implement safety and inspection rules to govern the Mexican trucks,
Public Citizen, along with environmental, consumer and labor groups,
challenged the FMCSA rules governing access given to Mexican trucks.
The suit, United States v. Public Citizen, 03-358 claims Mexican trucks
are more polluting than their U.S. counterparts, among other things.
A federal appellate court agreed with their contention that DOT had
to complete an environmental impact study before the borders could be
opened.
Reports of the hearing indicate
that some of the Supreme Court justices appeared to be less concerned
with pollution and more with agency jurisdiction. “They did an
awful lot of questions about the weight of responsibility of an agency
to regulate what it’s not their responsibility to regulate,”
said Margaret Irwin, Director of Cross-Border Operations for the ATA.
In other words, it’s not the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s
(FMCSAs) job to regulate pollution; their job is to regulate truck safety.
Most of the questioning by the justices focused on whether the agency
became obligated to do an environmental study by issuing its safety
regulations last year.
According to the Associated
Press, several justices said it’s inevitable that Mexican trucks
will be allowed in to comply with NAFTA “regardless” of
the environmental review. The Bush administration wants to drop the
court-ordered environmental study that has delayed the border’s
opening and asked the court to intervene.
The Supreme Court
is expected to issue a decision on this case later this year.
Top
OSHA
Committee To Meet Again, Regulations Could Eventually Affect Trucking
The Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced in the April 28 Federal
Register that the National Advisory Committee on Ergonomics (NACE)
has scheduled its fifth public meeting on May 11-12 in Washington, DC.
NACE was chartered for a two-year term back in late 2002, to provide
advice and recommendations on ergonomic guidelines, research, and outreach
and assistance. The committee has met four times prior, with the most
recent meeting held on January 27-28 of this year. The National Coalition
on Ergonomics (NCE), which represents more than 250 trade associations,
medical professionals, and individual businesses spanning near all of
the private and parts of the public sector boycotted the January conference.
Voluntary ergonomic guidelines
have already been developed and implemented by OSHA for the nursing
home industry. OSHA has also proposed guidelines for the retail grocery
store and poultry processing industry. The trucking industry, however,
has of yet been unaffected with any proposed or draft ergonomic guidelines
resulting from recommendations by the NACE or other OSHA initiatives
on this issue. However, we feel it is important to inform you that the
NACE has established a working group to identify additional industries
for guidelines based on injury data collected by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS).
The NACE will meet
on May 11-12 at the Holiday Inn on the Hill, 415 New Jersey Avenue,
N.W., Washington, DC 20001. A copy of the April 28 Register
notice can be found by clicking here
for an HTML or here
for a PDF. TCA will keep you informed if our industry is affected
in any way by these on-going meetings.
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TCA
Salutes Highway Angels Team of Matt Jorgensen and Bob Landis
Click
here to read more.
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