The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will on Tuesday publish a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that gives the agency the ability to more quickly shut down carriers chameleon carriers.

The NPRM says the agency is targeting carriers which have “egregious” disregard for safety compliance, which permit persons who have shown egregious disregard for safety compliance to exercise controlling influence over their operations or which operate multiple entities under common control to...

Robert L. Rode of the Rode Law Firm cites out-of-service order declaring Kansas company knowingly dispatched truck drivers ‘in a potentially fatigued or excessively fatigued condition.’ 

Tulsa, OK (PRWEB) September 28, 2012 Oklahoma truck accident attorney Robert L. Rode said today the federal order that took two Kansas-based trucking firms out of service is a strong sign of how often truck drivers on our nation’s roads are likely to be fatigued or otherwise overworked. 

“The out-of...

Distracted driving was cited as a contributing factor in nearly 10% of all fatal crashes in 2010, while that number nearly doubles (to 18%) for crashes where individuals were injured, according to a report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The report studied all vehicle crashes in 2010, analyzing how influential distracted driving behaviors were in those crashes. (NHTSA notes that the numbers reported for 2010 should not be compared to the data collected for 2009, as the...

Byline: Deborah Whistler, Fleet Owner

 OSHA has ordered Georgia-based Interline Logistics Corp. to rehire a whistle-blowing Sauk Village, IL, driver who reported that his truck had brake problems and was ordered by the company to take the rig to the shop in violation of federal hours of service regulations.

 According to OSHA investigators, a dispatcher told the driver to take the truck to a repair shop. He refused, stating that doing so would force him to work more hours than Dept. of T...

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has identified nearly 300 commercial truck and bus drivers who continued driving after testing positive for drugs or alcohol.The IDs were made during the FMCSA's annual "Drug and Alcohol Inspection Strike Force" and the drivers were ordered off the road.

In addition to citing 287 drivers, the FMCSA instituted enforcement actions against 128 companies for allegedly failing to adhere to federal drug and alcohol rules.

An FMCSA official, speaking o...

Byline: Don Jerrell, Contributor

HNI recently held a workshop called FMCSA Safety Audit Requirements and How to Prepare, featuring FMCSA and Wisconsin State Patrol officials talking about new policies and procedures in place. It was brought to our attention that not only is FMCSA's auditing process changing, but so are the techniques used by the auditors.

With CSA being the most common reason for a visit from FMCSA, most carriers will not receive a "full compliance review" but instead w...

Two Kansas State University civil engineers are working to make Kansas roads and highways safer by reducing the number and severity of vehicular crashes that involve large, cargo-carrying trucks.

Sunanda Dissanayake, associate professor of civil engineering, and Siddhartha Kotikalapudi, master's student in civil engineering, India, are looking at five years' worth of statistics about crashes involving commercial trucks. Although large trucks account for just 3% of registered vehicles in the ...

Thousands of commercial trucks flow through Arkansas every day, but what the public may not realize is that a large percentage of those behind the wheel suffer from a condition that could put others at risk. You can hear the report from FM 89's Beth McEvoy above.

Wanda Lindsay is on a mission to educate others about the dangers of sleep apnea in the trucking industry. She is also working to draft legislation that would force trucking companies to implement programs for drivers with the disor...

This week the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) will place special enforcement emphasis on the addition of tow trucks to the Move Over/Slow Down law, which requires motorists to move over or slow down when certain vehicles are stopped on the side of the road with emergency lights activated. To remind the public of this important safety measure, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will activate electronic signs this week, which will read: If Tow Truck Stopped Ahead, Move Over ...

PRINCETON, N.J. — As mobile phones with transportation apps become more common in truck cabs, carriers face a growing safety and compliance challenge — making sure that their drivers aren’t using the devices while they’re on the road.

One way for fleets to address distracted driving is to track drivers’ phone use so they can see who is a risk, Matthew Howard, CEO and co-founder of ZoomSafer, said May 17 at the ALK Transportation Technology summit here.

“We can manage this becaus...

Charlotte- The NC Highway Patrol kicked off a new anti-texting campaign at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, Sunday.

Colonel Michael Gilchrist announced the "No Texting, Just Driving" educational awareness campaign.

He says the campaign is designed to educate drivers on the dangers of distracted driving, especially texting.  The campaign is especially geared toward teen drivers.

"The Highway Patrol is committed to saving lives on our North Carolina Highways, said Gilchrist, "We intend to educa...

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said it will not require drivers who transport storage container tanks that are empty or contain residue to obtain tank truck hazardous materials endorsements.

The agency on Thursday responded in part to industry concerns that the existing definition of tank trucks could have a “dramatic impact” on the number of drivers required to have tank vehicle endorsements.

FMCSA agreed last month to consider a petition filed by American Trucking As...

Byline: David Tanner, Land Line associate editor

If you don’t have a tanker endorsement already, you might consider obtaining one. Besides being handy for business, it could help you avoid penalties if you haul certain types of fluid bins. Why now? Some states may already be enforcing an expanded definition of “tank vehicle” that now applies to vehicles hauling an aggregate of 1,000 gallons in containers of 119 gallons or larger.

It’s quite possible that you run in a state, or wi...

WASHINGTON, DC - The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) ordered Alabama-based BM&L Trucking, LLC, affiliated company IDM Transportation, Inc. and its owners to immediately cease all transportation services based on serious safety violations that posed an imminent hazard to public safety.
The shutdown order follows FMCSA’s extensive review of BM&L Trucking’s operations, which found multiple federal safety violations in the areas of hours...