• Motorcycle Trip Raises Funds for PTDI
• Are On-Board Recorders Coming to Trucking… Your Comments Are Necessary
• FMCSA Removes Accident SEA and Overall SafeStat Score from Website

Motorcycle Trip Raises Funds for PTDI

Members of the refrigerated transportation and distribution community joined Carrier Transicold and a number of its dealer representatives for three days prior to the Truckload Carriers Association Refrigerated Division annual meeting to raise money in support of the Professional Truck Driver Institute (PTDI). The 34 participants in the fourth Riders for Drivers Motorcycle Rally left Boston on July 10, 2004. The annual motorcycle trip ended in Rockport, Maine on July 13, where Carrier Transicold presented a check for $6,000 benefiting PTDI to Chris Burruss, president of the Truckload Carriers Association.

The Riders for Drivers Rally started in 1999 when 22 motorcycle enthusiasts traveled from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Vail, Colorado, prior to the Refrigerated Division meeting. Since that time, Carrier Transicold has broadened the event to include riders from the food distribution community and its dealers as well as truckload carriers. The rally is scheduled prior to and in the same geographic area as the TCA Refrigerated Division annual meeting.

Seeing driver recruitment and retention as a major challenge to the fleets that are its customers, Carrier Transicold saw an opportunity to combine support for a good cause with the hobby shared by its customers and dealers. This year’s 800-mile trip took riders through New Hampshire, coastal Maine, and Acadia National Park.

At the end of each tour, Carrier Transicold thanks drivers by providing them with a video set to music created from video footage and still photos taken during the ride.

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Are On-Board Recorders Coming to Trucking… Your Comments Are Necessary

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) in the September 1, Federal Register requesting industry comments on a potential requirement that motor carriers use electronic on-board recorders (EOBRs) to document their compliance with the hours of service (HOS) regulations. In the ANPRM, the agency poses a lengthy series of questions to help develop better performance specifications on the devices, as well as requesting information about the costs and benefits of EOBRs. These comments must be filed by November 30, 2004. The agency states in the ANPRM, “Because our current regulations do not reflect the considerable advances in the technology used in current-generation recording devices [EOBRs] we seek information concerning issues that should be considered in the development of improved performance specifications for these recording devices.”

The agency is seeking comments on a multitude of issues including:

1. synchronization of recorder to a vehicle operation parameter;
2. amendment of records;
3. duty status categories when the vehicle is not moving;
4. ensuring that drivers are properly identified;
5. reporting and presentation (display) formats;
6. audit trail;
7. ability to interface with third-party software for compliance verification;
8. verification of proper operation;
9. testing and certification procedures;
10. EOBR maintenance and repair;
11. development of “basic” EOBRs to promote increased carrier acceptance;
12. definitions of terms;
13. potential benefits and costs; and
14. incentives to promote EOBR use.
    

This ANPRM comes “right on the heels” of the recent D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals July 16th decision to vacate the FMCSA’s new HOS rules. Despite the fact that the Court vacated the rules as the agency “ignored the issue of the driver’s health”, the Circuit Court Judge also wrote, “the agency’s justification for not requiring EOBRs….is another aspect of the final HOS rule of questionable rationality.” In addition, the Court had suggested that the FMCSA had not fulfilled its duty in properly testing and evaluating EOBRs. From their decision, “It is .… plausible that EOBRs will have substantial safety benefits, and it was incumbent on the agency at least to attempt to analyze those benefits. We cannot fathom, therefore, why the agency has not even taken the seemingly obvious step of testing existing EOBRs on the road, or why the agency has not attempted to estimate their benefits on imperfect empirical assumptions.” In response, FMCSA stated in the ANPRM, “This Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which has been under development for some time, is an effort to do just that.”

By way of reminder, on January 9, 2003 TCA had joined with the ATA and the Distribution and LTL Carriers Association in filed comments in response to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) October 11, 2002 notice on Event Data Recorders (EDRs). The agency had requested industry comments on a series of questions related to the use of EDRs assisting in motor vehicle crash investigations, which were specifically divided into the following sections:

1. safety benefits;
2. technical issues;
3. privacy issues; and
4. NHTSA’s role in this area.

A copy of the September 1 Federal Register notice can be downloaded by clicking here for a PDF and here for an HTML . If you have any questions or feedback on this issue, please contact Rich Clemente at (703) 838-8847 or email: rclemente@truckload.org.

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FMCSA Removes Accident SEA and Overall SafeStat Score from Website

TEarlier this year, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) made an announcement that they were going to restrict access to some of the SafeStat data in response to the findings of the Office of Inspector General (OIG) report. FMCSA Administrator Annette Sandberg had stated at that time, "By the end of this summer, we will temporarily remove the Accident Safety Evaluation Area (SEA) and the overall SafeStat scores from the Website."

Subsequently, on Tuesday, August 31, the following announcement appeared on the “Home Page” of FMCSA's Website [www.fmcsa.dot.gov]. "FMCSA has temporarily removed the motor carrier Accident SEA and Overall SafeStat scores from its Analysis & Information Online (A&I) Website while the agency works with its State partners to improve the timeliness, completeness and accuracy of large truck and bus safety data. Carriers can still access their own Accident SEA and Overall SafeStat Scores." The Agency has said that while they have restricted public access to these scores, motor carriers will still have the ability to access their own Accident SEA and Overall SafeStat scores. To assist carriers in how this whole process will work, complete instructions including a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section are now downloadable on the FMCSA’s A&I Website by clicking here.