July 5, 2005

Note: To print this newsletter in its entirety, simply press the print button on your web browser.

CLICK HERE to send us your comments about this newsletter.

Headline News

• Keeping the Best in Your Corner, Retention Tips From U.S. Xpress
• TCA Attends FMCSA Public Meeting on Establishment of National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners (NRCME)
• Another Highway Bill Extension Looms; Reported Funding Number Agreed Upon
• CVSA Cites Safety Improvements in Road Check 2005 Official Numbers
• FMCSA Publishes Motor Carrier Safety Progress Report
• EPA Issues Correction Notice on Hazardous Waste Manifest System Final Rule
• OSHA Requests Proposals in New Safety and Health Training Grants

Keeping the Best in Your Corner, Retention Tips From U.S. Xpress

As the industry continues to struggle with driver shortages, we are faced with endless articles and accounts from the industry about recruiting woes. Ironically, as we direct increased attention toward the problem of recruiting on the front end, there are many companies who are missing a key strategy for relieving some of the burden of the challenge on the back end – holding on to current drivers.

At U.S. Xpress, our goal is to continually adapt our operations, recruitment, and support systems to address the changing needs of drivers. By doing this, we can hold on to them, and build more profitable relationships for driver and company. So, without showing all of our cards, here are some general practices that we've found critical for addressing fundamental retention needs of our drivers at U.S. Xpress:

•  Build Awareness Of The Value Of Retention: This means educating office staff and drivers about the cost of turnover. Your operations teams should know the value of a driver, and the cost incurred to replace a driver, even over the most trivial disagreements. Conversely, it's important for a driver to know that job-hopping also affects his or her pocket. For example, a driver changing jobs frequently can lose five to ten cents per mile over the cost of a career.

•  Deliver The Goods: Pay, that is. Early in '05, U.S. Xpress restructured pay packages for Contractors and Teams. This brought those pay packages in line with Company Driver pay as the tops in the industry. Short-haul pay was also raised so that every load is a viable one. Aggressive bonuses also add to the overall package value. In summary, make sure you're competitive, and if possible, (like at U.S. Xpress), lead the pack.

•  Be Aware Of The Value Of Hometime: Knowing that drivers are increasingly wanting to be in control of their lifestyle and spend more time at home, U.S. Xpress offered more regionalized options in the Southeast and Midwest , to allow the opportunity for hometime three weekends out of the month.

•  If They're Looking For Routine, Give It: The U.S. Xpress dedicated fleet gives drivers permanent assignments with routine schedules, mostly Monday through Friday. By providing more dedicated opportunities, you can retain drivers who are looking for more predictability and stability in their day-to-day work routine.

•  Don't Discount The Value Of Equipment: At U.S. Xpress, our drivers are excited to drive the “big red trucks.” We feature late model Freightliner, Peterbilt, and Volvo conventionals (auto shift, sleeper cabs), and provide constant assistance with convenient terminal fuel-ups, maintenance stations, fuel discounts, and assigned tractors. Your trucks aren't your only equipment, so build awareness of the value of your facilities to your drivers.

•  Bleed Technology: The end goal is still the same for a driver (delivering freight), but the means for accomplishing that has changed. At U.S. Xpress, we live and breathe technology, because we know that “state of the art” means that our drivers can find no better technological support anywhere. As they grow comfortable with each advance, they see their jobs becoming less administrative, and more about driving.

•  Recruit With Discipline: First impressions are everything, and at U.S. Xpress, we know that starts with recruitment. Our goal is to be honest about driver expectations, to hire drivers who are honest in return, and to treat drivers the way they should be treated …professionally.

•  Don't Dwell: Orientations can be the most boring minutes, hours, or days of a driver's life. It can also be a costly time. At U.S. Xpress, we staff our orientation classes with trainers that communicate information in a fun, interesting, and efficient way. The key to a good orientation is to make it a true learning experience, and then to get drivers out the door doing what they like…driving. They'll appreciate your helping them do that quickly.

•  Re-Enforce The Non-Pay Items: A paycheck is only one part of a driver package. But drivers often overlook that, particularly once they are working for you. At U.S. Xpress, we strive to constantly build awareness of our outstanding 401k, insurance, and other benefit programs. If they do decide to weigh options at other companies, we want them to know ALL of the great things they'll be forced to leave behind.

•  Educate, Educate, Educate: Drivers are independent people, but they value team efforts for gathering knowledge. Make sure you're helping achieve that by updating them on industry issues, maintenance matters, and freight cycles.

•  …And Don't Forget Your Company Culture: At U.S. Xpress, we're all in it together. That unity is a part of our culture. And it's illustrated not only by specific rewards such as company picnics and safety bonuses, but also in less obvious ways, such as open-door management and “always available” 24-hour dispatch. Structuring your company to champion achievement through rewards and support will resonate with drivers, who – in the end – are looking for a true partnership.

Top

TCA Attends FMCSA Public Meeting on Establishment of National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners (NRCME)

On June 22, 2005 the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) conducted their first public meeting on the subject of the potential creation of a registry of certified medical examiners for performing the physical examinations of drivers of commercial motor vehicles (CMVs). The agency had originally announced the scheduling of this meeting in the May 18, 2005 issue of the Federal Register . While Congress has yet to enact legislation to require the agency to establish a registry of certified medical examiners -- there is language in Section 7110 of the Senate version of the Highway Bill that would mandate this initiative -- at this meeting the FMCS A provided a general introduction to the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners (NRCME) concept with the idea of initiating dialogue on the topic with the subject matter experts (industry and trade association representatives, individuals from the medical community, etc.). Ultimately, when the NRCME is implemented, the FMCSA would only accept medical examinations conducted by persons listed in it as proof of the physical qualification standards for interstate CMV drivers.

Keynote speaker FMCSA Administrator Annette Sandberg kicked off the meeting, by providing the attendees with the framework for the session with a discussion of the three critical initiatives the agency is pursuing as it relates to the concept of the NRCME. These three initiatives are:

1. the creation of a Medical Review Board – a panel of five experts on this subject – which they hope to have up and running by this Fall. The Medical Review Board would be the advisors for overseeing this entire medical review process -- including review of the current DOT medical qualification standards for CMV drivers -- from beginning to end;
2. the FMCSA will propose a rule sometime in the year 2006 to electronically link a driver's medical certificate to the state issued Commercial Driver's License (CDL); and
3. the agency will issue a future proposal to establish the aforementioned list of certified medical examiners. Ms. Sandberg said that the agency's goal is to have this registry in place by the year 2009.

Future public meetings on this initiative will be conducted by the FMCSA as well.

More information regarding the NRCME initiative can be found at the following website: http://www.nrcme.fmcsa.dot.gov . For further questions or comments, or for copies of the handout materials that were distributed at the public meeting, please contact Rich Clemente at (703) 838-8847 or email: rclemente@truckload.org

Top

Another Highway Bill Extension Looms; Reported Funding Number Agreed Upon

On June 23, the House and the Senate reached an important compromise on the funding levels for the Highway Reauthorization Bill. The Conferees, who had begun initial discussions on June 9 th , reportedly reached a tentative funding compromise of $286.5 billion. Sources say that despite repeated veto threats from President Bush on any bill with a spending limit over $284 billion [the current House version limit] that the feeling is on Capitol Hill that the $286.5 billion figure would not be vetoed. However, with time running short on the latest short-term extension on the current Highway Bill, an eighth extension was anticipated [although had not been officially announced as of the writing of this article]. This next extension was expected to be a rather short one – perhaps for only a few weeks until the date of July 19.

This latest stalemate was in regards to one issue -- the minimum rate of return states would be guaranteed on their payments into the Highway Trust Fund. At present, it is unclear according to sources close to the negotiations whether this sizeable difference can be resolved. To this point, the Conferees have requested the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to calculate how a proposed formula between donor -- those states that provide more funds than they receive in return – and donee -- those states that receive more monies in return than they generate -- would impact the individual states. Other Highway Bill issues to be discussed at conference will include fuel surcharge, and the potential “codification” of the current hours of service (HOS) rules, just to name a few. Presently, there is fuel surcharge language in the House version of the Highway Bill, but not in the Senate version. In addition, the HOS codification language is not in either version of the bills at this time – although the intent has been all along to have this language inserted into the respective bills when they are taken up in conference.

Top

CVSA Cites Safety Improvements in Road Check 2005 Official Numbers

For the sixth consecutive year, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA)-sponsored Roadcheck resulted in an increase in roadside commercial vehicle inspections. The 18 th annual event was conducted on June 7-9, at 1,348 various locations throughout North America . Roadcheck 2005 resulted in 60,562 truck and bus inspections (primarily of commercial motor vehicles (CMVs)) performed by state and provincial personnel. That number represents 2,777 more inspections than last year, and nearly 56% more than the 38,864 that were completed in the year 1999. Of particular note, of the 60,562 driver and vehicle inspections conducted, a CVSA decal was placed on 30,202 -- nearly 50% -- of the CMVs showing that no safety violations were found during the vehicle inspection. According to CVSA, this is the highest number of vehicles with no violations discovered in the history of the prior 17 Roadchecks.

Other key Roadcheck 2005 results showed the driver out-of-service (OOS) rate dropping from 5.0% in 2004 to 4.5% this year – a 10% decrease. In addition, the vehicle OOS rate was 22.6% this year down from 23.9% in 2004 – a little over a 5% decrease. It is also worth noting that the driver and vehicle OOS rates fell for the first time in three years. On the positive side as well, among drivers OOS citations, the rate from hours of service (HOS) violations decreased to 54.2% from last year's figure of 61.6%. On the vehicle side, brake-related citations remain the primary reason for OOS vehicles by far. Out of the total OOS vehicle citations, 30.1% pertained to faults in brake adjustment, with another 25.2% involving brake systems, lighting problems accounted for 11.8%, tires and wheels 8.9%, safe loading 8.5%, and suspension 5.1%. On the negative side, there were 1,143 citations issued for seat belt violations, up from 755 in 2004. Also, in the United States , 3.80% of the 2005 inspections conducted resulted in an OOS conditions for HOS violations, up from 3.44% in the year 2004.

Top

FMCSA Publishes Motor Carrier Safety Progress Report

Last week, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) published its detailed Progress Report as of March 31, 2005, which indicates a major increase in the number of safety audits of new carriers, as well as progress made on the amount of time it takes for local agencies to submit crash and inspection information to the agency's database. Of particular note, new entrant safety audits increased substantially to 25,316 in the year 2004 compared with 7,205 in 2003. These safety audits were conducted as part of the FMCSA initiative that became effective January 1, 2003, that new motor carriers would be subject to an 18-month on-site safety-monitoring period. The timeliness of the agency's crash and inspection data also showed significant progress. The average time it took to upload a crash to the FMCSA was 84 days in the year 2004 compared to 136 days in the prior year. In addition, the average time for inspection data was 15 days in 2004 compared to 26 days in 2003.

The agency's Progress Report also covered the most recent National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) truck fatality numbers. In the year 2004, the preliminary number of large truck fatalities (those trucks 10,000 pounds or over Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR)) indicated that the number of these had increased by 4.2% to 5,196 from the 4,986 in 2003. It should be noted, however, that at the time of this NHTSA preliminary report, the total vehicle miles traveled (VMT) figure for large trucks has still not yet been completely compiled or released by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), so the figure for fatalities per VMT is not available at the present time – and probably won't be until sometime much later this year. It should also be noted that these truck-related fatality figures do not indicate who was at fault in the accident.

Top

EPA Issues Correction Notice on Hazardous Waste Manifest System Final Rule

In the June 16, 2005, Federal Register , the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Final Rule with correcting amendments to their March 4, 2005 Hazardous Waste Manifest System rule. The effective date of this Final Rule is September 6, 2005, and it does not create any new regulatory requirements from their March 4 ruling.

This June 16 rule corrects the printing omissions of the manifest form (EPA Form 8700-22) and the continuation sheet (EPA Form 8700-22A), which were inadvertently omitted from their March 4 rule. To correct this, the agency has inserted the manifest form and the continuation sheet into the corresponding manifest instructions. Furthermore, this rule amends portions of the instructions for the manifest form and continuation sheet, which are contained in the Appendix to part 262 of chapter 40 of the CFR, amends the marking requirements of 40 CFR 262.33 for hazardous waste generators and amends the manifest discrepancy requirements at 40 CFR 264.72 and 265.72.

By way of review, in their March 4 Final Rule, the EPA established new requirements revising the Uniform Hazardous Waste Manifest regulations and the manifest and continuation sheet forms used to track hazardous waste from a generator's site to the site of its disposition.

The revisions announced in that notice will:

•  standardize the content and appearance of the manifest form and continuation sheet;

•  make the forms available from a greater number of sources; and

•  adopt new procedures for tracking certain types of waste shipments with the manifest. These types of shipments include hazardous wastes that destination facilities reject, wastes consisting of residues from non-empty hazardous waste containers, and wastes entering or leaving the U.S.

Top

OSHA Requests Proposals in New Safety and Health Training Grants

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced in the June 21 Federal Register that the agency is accepting proposals for approximately $6.9 million in new grants to nonprofit organizations for safety and health training and educational programs under their Susan Harwood Training Grants program. Furthermore, an additional $3.3 million will be used to fund renewal grants for recipients of 2004 institutional competency-building grants.

Nonprofit organizations, including community-based organizations, are eligible to apply for the new grants. The grants are targeted to organizations that propose to develop training materials to educate Hispanic and other non-English speaking workers, employers in small businesses, and workers who are employed in high hazard industries and industries with high fatality rates. OSHA will be accepting new applications for the following two categories of grants:

1) Targeted Topic Training Grants – will support training for two occupational safety and health topic areas: construction hazards and general industry hazards. There is approximately $2.9 million available for this grant category, and grants will be awarded for 12 months with an average award of $150,000.

2) OSHA Training Materials Development Grants – will support the development, evaluation, and validation of training materials for five occupational safety and health topic areas; construction hazards, general industry hazards, respiratory diseases, prevention of transportation fatalities and accidents- work-related, “other safety and health topic areas.” There is approximately $4 million available for this grant category, and grants will be awarded for 12 months with an average award of $200,000.

Applications are available on OSHA's website at www.osha.gov or may be obtained from the OSHA Office of Training and Education, Division of Training and Educational Programs, 2020 South Arlington Heights Road , Arlington Heights , IL 60005 . Grant applications are due in the Arlington Heights office by July 21, 2005.

Top