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the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has begun deploying “Portable Emissions Acquisition Systems (PEAQs) – so-called “Dirty Truck Detectors” – in areas of heavy truck traffic to educate drivers and operators about the new truck smog check program that starts Jan. 1.
ICSA’s safety consultants get many calls every week from members asking us to send them video of incidents or crashes involving their drivers. Yet the SmartDrive Program belongs to you – the member. You own the data and you can, and should, access it yourself. In fact, because they belong to you, ICSA can’t send or use any of your videos without your permission.
As our members know, ICSA is active in many trucking organizations and attends many conferences to get and share information that can be useful in your business. On a regular basis we will provide information that you can use. In October, we attended the Management Conference and Exhibition (MCE) put on by American Trucking Associations (ATA). The following week, we also attended the Future of Freight Festival put on by Freightwaves.
FMCSA intends the guidance to help define key roles in the transport of goods. Is that company or person you hired to help you find loads truly the “dispatch service” they claim to be?
Under federal rules, motor carriers are required to conduct drug and alcohol violation background checks prior to hiring any driver. Beginning January 6, 2023, motor carriers conducting such checks on prospective drivers will no longer need to contact the applicant’s previous employers. That’s because the FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse will have accumulated three years of data by then, meeting the timeframe required by law.
For some time, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association (FMCSA) has been considering a request by a couple of organizations to change the way that brokers operate and require them to be more transparent with the carriers that haul for them. The FMCSA expects to have a decision on the rulemaking process in early 2023.
Earlier this year, ICSA informed its members that the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), the trade association representing commercial vehicle law enforcement, had petitioned the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for a change in FMCSA’s guidance on the use of “personal conveyance.” FMCSA has now denied that petition.
When the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in May 2022 asked for comments on the possibility of mandatory speed limiters on trucks, the trucking industry response was immediate and massive. Over 15,650 comments were officially filed, according to the Federal Register count.
For decades, California, of all the states, has been particularly aggressive in attempting to regulate truckers (and other businesses) domiciled in other states but serving California businesses and consumers. ICSA members are familiar with California’s efforts to regulate truck driver hours of service, truck engine emissions, owner-operator status and other aspects of interstate commerce despite the Commerce Clause (Article I, Section 8) of the U.S. Constitution giving Congress exclusive authority to regulate interstate commerce.