Stay up to date on industry trends and topics
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.
We know that you are working in or on your business 24/7 and don’t have the time or resources to attend industry conferences and meetings. That’s why ICSA is your eyes and ears and why we try to report back to you on the issues that affect your business and what industry leaders are saying about these issues. ICSA is active in several key industry organizations, including American Trucking Associations (ATA), the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), and the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA), to name a few.
Collisions between vehicles and wildlife are a big problem on U.S. roads. Each year, between one million and two million collisions with large animals occur, especially mule deer and white-tailed deer, resulting in 200+ fatalities, 26,000 injuries, and costs exceeding $1 billion. Crashes with deer are most likely to occur in the late fall, during breeding season and migration.
By now, everyone should know that event recorders help reduce the severity and frequency of crashes and protect carriers from false claims. You should also know that Event Recorders (front-facing cameras) can save you significantly on fuel and maintenance costs.
Recently several ICSA members received some substantial bills for ordering extended videos from their SmartDrive system. Members are the owners of their SmartDrive system and data, and certainly have the right to order anything they wish. However, in some of these cases, the member would not have needed to order an extended recording had he or she followed a few simple steps.