May 17, 2005

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Headline News

• PTDI Recertifies Truck Driver Training School Courses and Driver Finishing Program
• Highway Bill Discussions “Heating Up”; Deadline for Latest Extension Ends May 31, 2005
• DOT Announces Suspension of Advisory Committee Meeting on Minimum Standards for Drivers Licenses and Personal Identification Cards
• FMCSA Withdrawals ANPRM on Minimum Uniform Standards for Biometric Identifiers on CDL
• Johnson Receives Senate Confirmation as New Administrator of EPA
• CBP to Enforce Driver Identification Requirements for BRASS Shipments Beginning May 1
• NHTSA Issues Notice and Request for Comments on “Next Generation” of GPS for Automotive Safety
• Do Your Recruiting Dollars Get Results? Improve Your Profitability By "Branding" Your Company Thursday, May 26, 2005 - 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm ET

PTDI Recertifies Truck Driver Training School Courses and Driver Finishing Program

Contact: E. Nancy O'Liddy, Director Public Affairs
703/838-1950 or noliddy@truckload.org

Alexandria , Virginia – T he Professional Truck Driver Institute (PTDI) is proud to announce it has recently recertified truck driver training courses at six schools and recertified the driver finishing program at U.S. Xpress Enterprises, the only carrier to offer a PTDI-certified driver finishing program.

Darlene Crabtree, director of driver training at U.S. Xpress, said the fact that the carrier is the only one to offer a PTDI-certified program says that “we care about the drivers we're putting out there.”

Despite the extra effort and cost involved, Crabtree said, “We choose to maintain PTDI certification and maintain excellence,” because it correlates to the company's goal of making safety the #1 priority. “We strive to maintain a quality program with the highest standards on the road,” Crabtree said, and she hopes to see other carriers follow their lead by offering a PTDI-certified finishing program. Security and quality of training are important to the company, but the main benefit of PTDI certification, she said, is “peace of mind…in knowing the quality of the drivers we're putting [on the road].”

Safety is also a top priority for Chuck Mosqueda, director, Wichita Area Technical College , Seneca Campus, who recognizes that graduating prospective drivers from PTDI-certified courses is only “a starting point.” Although PTDI assures him that graduates of their program will be safe, professional drivers, Mosqueda's dream is to have carriers follow up with a PTDI-certified finishing program such as U.S. Xpress offers. “If we could get more carriers to buy into that, we could have a much safer industry,” he said.

He stresses that it is important “to keep the motoring public safe when we put our students out there. That's my biggest concern.”

Since starting out in the industry as a driver in 1967, Mosqueda said he understands the business from inside and out, which is why he calls it an “absolute necessity” to properly train truck drivers. “Our carriers are starting to wake up to the idea that we need to have trained drivers out there,” he said, “and PTDI is the only one that has the standards.”

Harry Kowalchyk, president, National Tractor Trailer Schools, also expressed concern about the quality of drivers being hired, noting the lack of consistency in the industry from drivers being trained in quick, two-week programs with trainees spending little time behind the wheel. He knows firsthand the positive impact PTDI standards is having because his schools are constantly self-critiquing by soliciting feedback from students, graduates, employer clients, and other stakeholders. “It was a business decision to exceed the bar,” he said, by seeking PTDI certification, and “trucking companies do appreciate and support this. They know that when they hire PTDI course graduates, they're hiring consistency.”

As proof, Kowalchyk notes that they have established firm relationships with clients who have been recruiting from NTTS for 10 to 15 years or more. He believes that “c ourse certification is extremely important, especially in this day and age when you have to achieve the highest standards and benchmarks available on the market. PTDI serves as that mechanism.”

The following schools have obtained course recertification: American Institute of Technology, Phoenix, Arizona; National Tractor Trailer School in Liverpool and Buffalo, New York; ProDrive Truck Driver Training, Scarborough, Maine: Swift Driving Academy, Millington, Tennessee; and Wichita Area Technical College, Seneca Campus, Wichita, Kansas.

PTDI is a national, nonprofit organization established for the twofold purpose of developing uniform industry skill, curriculum, and certification standards for entry-level truck driver training and motor carrier driver finishing programs, and certifying entry-level truck driver training courses at public and private schools and driver finishing programs at carriers for compliance with PTDI standards. PTDI is based in Alexandria , Virginia .

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Highway Bill Discussions “Heating Up”; Deadline for Latest Extension Ends May 31, 2005

Discussions on the Senate side of the Highway Reauthorization Bill have started up in earnest again, on May 9, the Senate leaders introduced a plan to boost spending by $11 billion for the six-year bill over the $284 billion measure passed by the House in March. Supporters of the Senate's action, introduced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Max Baucus (D-MT) urged White House flexibility, stating that it would increase the flow of money into the Highway Trust Fund without adding to the federal deficit or raising the 18.4 cents a gallon federal gas tax. Echoing support for this measure was Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, who said he supports the extra money because of the dire situation of the nation's “congested and unsafe roads.” A vote on the Senate version of the bill was anticipated late last week. President Bush has threatened a presidential veto of anything over the $284 billion figure.

Another item of interest on the Senate side, was the passage of an amendment introduced by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) on May 10 that would prevent tolls on existing lanes of Interstate highways. The amendment eliminates the three-state toll pilot program created in 1998. According to ATA, “under this amendment, only one facility in Virginia would be able to toll the I-81 truck lanes under the provisions of an existing tolling pilot program.” The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) must approve the application before I-81 can be tolled, however. A similar amendment to the Hutchinson amendment, proposed by Representative Mark Kennedy (R-MN) was voted down in the House version by a vote of 155-265. This battle will continue when the respective bills move to the conference phase.

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DOT Announces Suspension of Advisory Committee Meeting on Minimum Standards for Drivers Licenses and Personal Identification Cards

The Department of Transportation (DOT), Office of the Secretary (OST) announced in the May 6, Federal Register , their intent to suspend the next meeting of the Negotiated Rulemaking Advisory Committee on Minimum Standards for Driver's Licenses and Personal Identification Cards which was originally scheduled for May 10-13, 2005. The reason for this government action is impending Congressional action in the near future concerning the REAL ID Act. This legislation has already passed in the House on April 5, and in the Senate this past week. President Bush is anticipated to sign this bill into law. If the REAL ID Act is ultimately signed into law as is anticipated, it would terminate the Department's Negotiated Rulemaking Committee activities for good, and this announcement will be published in a future issue of the Federal Register . Under the provisions of the REAL ID Act, if states do not conform to the new standards, federal agencies cannot accept their driver's licenses as ID's. Furthermore, the bill would effectively stop any state from issuing a driver's license to illegal immigrants.

The DOT's initiative for the Negotiated Rulemaking Committee originally arose from Section 7212 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, signed into law on December 17, 2004. Section 7212 mandated the issuance of minimum standards for State-issued driver's licenses and personal identification cards that would be accepted by Federal agencies for official purposes. This committee consisted of persons who represent the interests affected by the proposed rule, i.e. , State offices that issue driver's licenses or personal identification cards, elected State officials, the Departments of Transportation and Homeland Security, and other interested parties. The DOT formed such an advisory committee that met only once, on April 19-21, 2005.

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FMCSA Withdrawals ANPRM on Minimum Uniform Standards for Biometric Identifiers on CDL

In the May 9, Federal Register the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) formally announced the withdrawal of two Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemakings (ANPRMs) on the use of biometric identifiers to provide positive identification of drivers in the Commercial Driver's License Information System (CDLIS) and also to prevent drivers from obtaining more than one CDL. The ANPRMs in question were originally published on May 15, 1989 and March 8, 1991. The reason given by the agency for these withdrawals is that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is currently working on developing a Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) that will incorporate biometric identifiers, and the FMCSA does not want to cause a conflict in standards adopted by each agency or place an undue burden on States by imposing two different standards and/or technologies for CDLs and the TWIC. The ANPRMs that were withdrawn are as follows:

• On May 15, 1989, the agency requested comments on the establishment of biometric identifiers for CMV operators and announced the pilot study on the use of fingerprints and retinal scan technology to positively and uniquely identify operators of CMVs. The pilot study was conducted in 1990;

• On March 8, 1991, the agency published an ANPRM with the results of the pilot study and with a summary and response to comments to the 1989 ANPRM. The then FHWA concluded that neither retinal scanning nor automated fingerprint identification systems (AFIS) was sufficiently accurate or cost effective to be practical at that time. Therefore, the agency did not issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). Instead, further rulemaking action on the matter was deferred until the technology developed to meet FHWA functional requirements, and the agency continued to require States to make available in CDLIS a driver's personal identification information.

In 1998, section 4011 (c) of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21 st Century (TEA-21) required the agency to issue a rule mandating that all CDLs issued by the States after January 1, 2001, include a unique identifier that may be biometric. The agency believes that it has satisfied the unique identifier standard in TEA-21 through its adoption of a specialized search procedure as part of the CDLIS. This procedure contains seven personal identifiers.

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Johnson Receives Senate Confirmation as New Administrator of EPA

On April 29, Stephen Johnson was confirmed in a voice vote by the U.S. Senate to be the next Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). On March 4, President Bush had officially nominated Johnson, and he will replace Mike Leavitt who resigned the top position to become head of the Department of Health and Human Services earlier this year.

Mr. Johnson, a career government employee who has been with the EPA for 24 years, becomes the agency's 11 th director. He has been praised by both parties as being a career scientist, and he most recently served as Assistant Administrator in the agency's pesticides office. Among other issues on their busy regulatory agenda, the EPA sets regulations related to emissions from diesel engines, which are scheduled to tighten in the years 2007 and 2010.

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CBP to Enforce Driver Identification Requirements for BRASS Shipments Beginning May 1

As a reminder, beginning on May 1, 2005, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is now enforcing a major provision of the Trade Act of 2002. Drivers transporting shipments using the Border Release Advance Screening and Selectivity (BRASS) release system, may do so only if they have been issued a Free and Secure Trade (FAST) driver identification card. The CBP said that following a two-week “grace period” from May 1-15, 2005, beginning on May 16, 2005, non-compliance with this component of the Trade Act of 2002 would result in the denial of the permit to proceed for the conveyance/denial of entry for the conveyance.

“The enforcement of this requirement of the Trade Act of 2002 will promote free and secure trade by using common risk-management principles, supply chain security, industry partnership, and advanced technology,” said CBP Commissioner Robert Bonner. “This will lead to improved efficiency of screening and clearing of commercial traffic at our shared border.” The CBP stated that it has increased staffing and extended the working hours of the FAST enrollment centers to help alleviate the expected increase in new applicants trying to satisfy the May 1, 2005 compliance date. The agency also said that it has notified carriers in an attempt to expedite issuance of FAST cards for their drivers.

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NHTSA Issues Notice and Request for Comments on “Next Generation” of GPS for Automotive Safety

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a notice in the April 13, Federal Register that requests industry comments and information to help the agency determine the civilian specifications for the next generation of the Global Positioning System (GPS III) based on future automotive safety needs that could be enhanced by a modernized GPS. The U.S. DOT is working closely with the Department of Defense (DOD) in modernizing the GPS. This “next generation” of GPS will be available beginning approximately in the year 2012, and in use for approximately two decades. Examples of use include the enhanced vehicle positioning information that could be provided by a modernized GPS that would improve the performance of various automotive safety systems such as intersection collision avoidance and road departure prevention. Industry comments were due to be filed with NHTSA by no later than May 31, 2005.

In this notice, in particular, NHTSA requests the specifications for such an upgraded and modernized GPS and discussions of advanced driver assistance systems, postcrash medical attention and other new safety applications that would take advantage of such a system. The agency will use the information in discussions between DOT and DOD to finalize the requirements for the next generation of GPS. NHTSA has established Docket No. NHTSA-2005-20936 as the collection site for the filing of information, statements, and comments on issues related to the automotive safety use of GPS. These individual comments, when filed, can be accessed at the following website: http://dms.dot.gov using the “Simple Search” option and the above mentioned docket number. A copy of the April 13 Federal Register notice can be downloaded by clicking here for a PDF or here for an HTML. For questions or comments on it contact Rich Clemente at (703) 838-8847 or email: rclemente@truckload.org.

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Do Your Recruiting Dollars Get Results? Improve Your Profitability By "Branding" Your Company
Thursday, May 26, 2005 - 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm ET Audio Conference/Webcast

As we all know, recruiting students is the #1 concern for training schools. Schools are spending thousands of dollars trying to reach new audiences of potential drivers, and trying to find a niche they can call their own to attract students to their schools.

If you are out of ideas, or if you are having trouble trying to define what makes your school the students right choice, TCA is hosting an audio conference that is entitled: "Improve Your Profitability by 'Branding' Your Company". Branding is the new buzzword for your marketing or advertising campaign within your school.

The audio conference will help figure out how to create your own school brand that tells students why they should come to you. The audio conference will cover topics like the following:

• How do you create a message to brings drivers into your company/school
• How do you separate yourself from all the other schools
• How do you get everyone in the school to buy-in to your branding message
• What are the 10 Commandments for branding in trucking?

We have created a new fee for schools with PTDI certified course(s), the fee is only $79 and you can invite as many people as you want to attend at your site.  To learn more about how to increase your recruiting results click on http://www.linkconferencecall.com/reg/tca/branding/ or contact Ginny DeRoze, 703-838-1950 or vderoze@truckload.org

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