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TMHA Accepting Entries for Inaugural Fleet Safety Awards Program 

 

The Machinery Haulers Association is currently accepting entries for its inaugural Fleet Safety Awards Program. All carrier members of TMHA have the opportunity to earn a fleet safety award that will recognize companies for their commitment to safety.

 

Entries, which are being accepted through Monday, June 2, can be submitted by using the entry form linked below. The document includes an overview of the program's rules and eligibility requirements.

 

Winners will be announced with a presentation at the TMHA Summer Safety Meeting at Lake Geneva in Fontana, Wis., July 30-31.

 

Submit your entries to The Machinery Haulers Association office by mail (717 E. Court Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa 50309); e-mail ([email protected]); or fax (515-244-2204). Should you have any questions, please contact Phillip Nicolino in the TMHA office at 515-244-5193.

 

TMHA Fleet Safety Awards Program Entry Form 

 

 

Determining Your OOS Percentage

Please note when completing the entry form that percentage of driver/vehicle Out-of-Service DOT Inspections from the previous year should be based off the total number of inspections and not overall number of violations. This means an inspection with more than one OOS violations would only count as one inspection towards your percentage for the driver and/or vehicle.

 

A way in which you may obtain the needed driver and vehicle Out-of-Service data is through the motor carrier's FMCSA Portal. Once logged into the portal, go through the following steps:

  • Click "Reports" in upper left-hand corner
  • Configure your date parameters (1/1/2013 to 12/31/2013)
  • Select report format and click "Submit Request"

It usually takes about 10 minutes before the download is available. The OOS percentages for the year can then be found on the page of this report headed "Inspections Summary." It should show you the percent of OOS inspections for both driver and vehicle.

 

This report will also generate what the FMCSA calculates as your rate of reportable accidents per million miles on one of the first pages.

 

TMHA Board
of Directors
  
President
 
Jon Coca
Diamond Transportation System, Inc.
 
First Vice President
 
Aaron Tennant
Tennant Truck Lines
  
Second Vice President
 
Mike Connell
Bennett Motor Express
  
Past President
 
Jim Towery
Steelman Transportation
  
  
Clayton Fisk
Warren Transport

Dave Gallano
Gallano Trucking, Inc.
  
Jeremy Ihle
Ihle Transport, Inc.
  
  
TMHA Mission Statement  
  
To provide an ongoing forum for education, networking and advocacy for flatbed, step-deck and lowboy (RGN) carriers that specialize in the transportation of machinery and machinery-related commodities throughout the United States and Canada.
  

FMCSA Starts New Rule to Raise Insurance Minimums

The time has come to take a close look at the minimum insurance requirements for trucking, says the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.


In a new report to Congress the agency said it is clear that the current minimums need to be reevaluated.

 

The last adjustment was in 1985. It set the current standard of $750,000 for general freight, $5 million for the most dangerous hazmats and $1 million for other hazmats.

 

The FMCSA has formed a team to draft a new rule and considers this a high priority.

 

This initiative arises from a study ordered by Congress in the 2012 highway law, MAP-21, in response to the increasing costs of crashes. As it drafted the law, Congress considered raising the insurance minimum for general freight from $750,000 to $1 million, but eventually decided to have the agency prepare an analysis that could become the basis for changes in the standard. Congress also ordered the agency to conduct a review every four years, going forward.


If the minimums were pegged to the medical CPI, general freight would require $3.2 million, dangerous hazmats would require $21.3 million and other hazmats would require $4.3 million.

 

Read more about this article at www.truckinginfo.com.

CVSA Holds Spring Workshop

Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance held its spring workshop the week of April 7-11 in Los Angeles. There were approximately 400 enforcement and safety personnel from the trucking industry in attendance.

 

Two of the bigger issues covered in the five days was the National Registry of Medical Examiners and Electronic Logging Devices.

 
The FMCSA stated that they realize that the deadline for the National Registry of Medical Examiners is rapidly approaching and that they are monitoring the progress daily. They realize that the number of certified medical examiners is growing every day, but that there are geographic areas that are still severely short of examiners.
 
The proposed rule for ELDs was primarily discussed by the Associates Committee and Driver-Traffic Committee. As with most proposed regulatory rules, there was mixed support in the room. A general consensus among enforcement committee members was that only carriers with regulatory problems should be mandated to install ELDs. Each committees' recommendations will go to the CVSA Executive Committee, which will make a determination on whether or not they support the SNPRM for ELDs and how they will make comments during the comment period. 
 
Read more about this article at www.machineryhaulers.org.

Registration Open for TMHA Summer Safety Meeting

 

If you have yet to do so, mark your calendars to attend the TMHA Summer Safety Meeting at The Abbey Resort at Lake Geneva, Wis., on Wednesday, July 30, and Thursday, July 31.

 

Already established is a great line-up of speakers presenting on the following topics:

  • CVSA Update: Presented by Michael Irwin from CVSA
  • ELD In-Depth Overview: Presented by a J.J. Keller & Associates representative
  • Regulatory Update: Presented by David Heller from TCA

Hotel accommodations have been arranged at The Abbey Resort with a special room block available until July 1. Registration is also open and being accepted electronically by using the link below.

 

Contact the TMHA office at (515) 244-5193 or [email protected] with questions.

 

TMHA Summer Safety Meeting Flyer

 

FMCSA Proposes Rule to Allow Electronic Signatures
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration published a proposed rule change in the Monday, April 28, edition of the Federal Register to enable carriers to sign and maintain important documents electronically.
  
The proposal, part of an effort to cut paperwork, would codify an earlier guidance which came out in 2011, in which the agency gave carriers the option of using electronic signatures and storing documents electronically.
  
The FMCSA said this move came in response to many requests to allow electronic methods for generating, signing and storing documents. The electronic option would apply to records that carriers and drivers must keep, not to documents that must be submitted to the agency. The FMCSA expects this proposed rule to provide regulatory relief to the industry.
  
Under this proposed rule, regulated entities would have the flexibility to conduct business using either electronic or traditional paper-based methods. The FMCSA also expects regulated entities to choose technologies that would maximize benefits in accordance with their individual needs and circumstances.
  
Comments are due by June 27, 2014. For information on the proposed changes, or on how to submit comment visit www.gpo.gov.

Roadcheck 2014 Just Around the Corner

The annual international truck and bus safety event known as Roadcheck will be held this year on June 3-5.

The event is held throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico, and it will focus on commercial vehicle and driver safety and security. The focus is to save lives on our highways.

In 2013, the 72-hour truck and bus inspection effort included 72,023 inspections. Ninety-five hundred inspectors participated across over 2,500 locations throughout North America.

Roadcheck 2013 included special emphasis on motorcoach safety, including traffic enforcement, as well as cargo securement.

Brakes routinely stand out in the mix of Out-of-Service violations issued during Roadcheck. In 2013, over 49 percent of vehicle OOS violations were related to brake adjustment and other brake system violations.

Roadcheck 2014 is nothing to fear. Simply ensure that your vehicles are in a safe operating condition, and your drivers are up to date on physicals, CDLs, etc. Safety should be something we address daily, not just prior to an event like Roadcheck.

For more information about Roadcheck 2014, visit www.cvsa.org.

TMHA Redesigning Its Web site

  

The Machinery Haulers Association is currently in the first phase of redesigning its Web site -- www.machineryhaulers.org. There are several new plans being developed for the site and TMHA could use the support of its members to bring some of its goals to fruition.

 

One concept is to include logos from all its members on the designated "Carrier" and "Allied" member pages with those logos hyper-linked with URLs back to the members' Web sites. To achieve this, TMHA is requesting all members provide the association with a high resolution version of their logos (three inches wide with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi). Additionally, please note the Web address for your company so the logo can be properly linked to your site.

 

A second request for TMHA's new site is access to any high resolution images members have available of their operations. Specifically, the association would like to obtain photos its members displaying their trucks hauling machinery and other specialty equipment. The preferred size of these pictures would be four inches wide and a resolution of 300 dpi.

 

Please provide your company logos and any other images you would like to have considered for the Web site by Wednesday, May 21. They can be e-mailed to the attention of Phillip Nicolino at [email protected].

ATRI Seeks For-Hire Carriers to Participate in Survey

American Transportation Research Institute has launched a data collection initiative to update its 2013 Operational Costs of Trucking Report.

 

Through a brief online survey, ATRI seeks to capture basic cost information from for-hire carriers such as driver pay, fuel costs, insurance premiums and lease or purchase payments. Carriers are asked to provide full year 2013 cost per mile and cost per hour data.

 

The results of this data collection, combined with previous Operational Costs of Trucking reports, will yield six full years (2008 to 2013) of trucking cost information derived directly from fleet operations. This research provides carriers with an important, high-level benchmarking tool and government agencies with real world data for future infrastructure improvement analyses.

 

For-hire motor carriers are encouraged to provide confidential operational cost data through ATRI's survey, which is available online through the ATRI Web site. A paper version of the survey is also available at www.atri-online.org.

 

The results of this study will be available later in 2014.

Trucking Industry Sees $9.2 Billion in Congestion Costs in 2013

Congestion on the nation's Interstate highways added over $9.2 billion in operational costs to the trucking industry in 2013, according to research released by American Transportation Research Institute on April 30.

 

ATRI, the trucking industry's not-for-profit research institute, utilized motor carrier financial data along with billions of anonymous truck GPS data points to calculate congestion delays and costs on each mile of interstate roadway. Delay totaled over 141 million hours of lost productivity, which equated to over 51,000 truck drivers sitting idle for a working year.

 

ATRI's analysis also established the states, metropolitan areas and counties with the highest congestion costs. California led the nation with over $1.7 billion in costs, followed by Texas with over $1.0 billion. The Los Angeles metropolitan area saw the highest cost at nearly $1.1 billion and New York City was close behind at $984 million.

 

Read more about this article at www.atri-online.org.

The Machinery Haulers Association

717 E. Court Avenue
Des Moines, Iowa
Phone: (515) 244-5193
Fax: (515) 244-2204

Your Professional Staff

Brenda Neville, Director
Don Egli, Safety
Phillip Nicolino, Marketing