The Importance of a Pre-Trip Inspection
Planning a safe trip as a professional truck driver requires thoughtful preparation before every journey. These are key practices to keep in mind throughout each stage of your trip.
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has informed New York Governor Kathy Hochul that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has revoked its approval of New York City’s Central Business District Tolling Program, better known as congestion pricing. The congestion pricing program began on January 5, 2025. A termination date has not been announced.
Federal law prohibits tolls on existing lanes of federally funded highways. However, there is an FHWA program, the Value Pricing Pilot Program (VPPP), which makes an exception for fifteen states, including New York. Secretary Duffy said the New York plan failed to meet VPPP standards in two ways:
New York has no alternate routes available to avoid the tolls. All previously approved VPPP plans offered alternate, toll-free routes.
The NYC toll revenues flow to the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), which operates the NYC subways, with rates set to meet MTA’s budgetary needs and not used for congestion relief, the purpose of the VPPP.
The MTA is preparing litigation against the U.S.DOT decision.
Planning a safe trip as a professional truck driver requires thoughtful preparation before every journey. These are key practices to keep in mind throughout each stage of your trip.
English-language proficiency, non-domiciled truck driver licensing, enforcement of cabotage rules, thorough commercial driver’s license (CDL) training… actions in all of these areas made trucking headlines in the first year of the Trump Administration.
On December 18, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order directing the federal government to conduct rulemaking to move marijuana from a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to Schedule III.