Starting Nov. 18, the Oregon Department of Transportation will perform an 24-hour truck weighing and inspections on I-5, reported Land Line Magazine. The motor carrier agency intends the three-day intensive operation as a way to not only weight regulations, but to educate drivers about the dangers of unevenly distributed load weights, and regulatory mistakes such as expired permits.
While most motor carriers and drivers comply with Oregon’s highway laws, an “intensive enforcement event like this can help identify those who are not,” said ODOT motor carrier field services manager Ed Scrivner.
More than two million trucks were weighed in the state last year using static scales, with nearly another million and a half weighed on in-motion scales by the state’s Green Light pre-clearance system. Scrivner said the concentrated activities, while the same type that the staff undertook each day, helped to emphasize the priority ODOT places on safety and weight compliance.
Source: Land Line Magazine: Truck weight blitz this week in Oregon
After receiving several separate petitions from truck and brake manufacturers, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it will reconsider or amend portions of its requirements for truck stopping distances.
Four main issues of the final rule were called into question by the Truck Manufacturers Association, Bendix Spicer Foundation Brake, the Heavy Duty Brake Manufacturers Council of the Heavy Duty Manufacturers Association, and ArvinMeritor. The agency also received four separate petitions in support of the TMA request, these from Peterbilt, Kenworth, Navistar and Daimler Trucks North America.
[click to continue…]
A change in Boston’s truck route, in which Mayor Thomas M. Menino eliminated daytime permits for gas and fuel trucks, has been ruled illegal by the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration, reported the Boston Globe.
The federal agency said the city never requested or received approval to ban haz-mat loads from passing through, which is FMCSA’s jurisdiction.
The route change effectively shifts danger to other communities, as evidenced by a 2007 accident on a residential street in Everett, when a rerouted tanker overturned and [click to continue…]
Montana’s director of the Department of Transportation announced that tractor-trailers will still be allowed to run Hwy. 35 near Flathead Lake. The decision was made after several truck-only accidents occurred on the narrow road. Haz-mat loads will also still be allowed access to the roads, reports the Billings Gazette.
A truck wreck in April 2008 spilled thousands of gallons of gasoline near the lake area, requiring evacuation of five family homes that lasted more than a year. The accident spurred residents’ requests for restricted or banned truck travel on the state highway, which runs on the lake’s eastern shore. Area residents have called for restricting truck traffic to the lake’s west-shore highway, U.S. 93, which is both more modern and wider.
Three more single-truck accidents have occurred along Hwy. 35 in the past year and a half.
Source: The Billings Gazette: DOT director says truck traffic will continue on Flathead highway. Assoc. Press.
Diesel fuel prices slid last week, down 1.1 cents to average $2.790 per gallon, reported the Department of Energy. That’s down 1.9 cents from the same week a year ago.
Fuel costs dropped across the board, with the exception of the New England region. The northeast’s price crept upward to $2.868, though the increase was still less than a cent per gallon. California prices, while less than last week, remained the highest in the nation at $2.964, still a 21-cent hike from last year. Central Atlantic states saw the greatest drop, with the average price of 2.912, down 1.4 cents. Gulf Coast drivers enjoyed the best pricing at $2.733, down 1.3 cents.
Source: eTrucker.com: National diesel prices drop
More than 400 truckers took to the streets Friday, protesting what they say are unfair regulations at the Los Angeles port. The purported aim of the regulations, cleaner air, isn’t the problem. Drivers tied up traffic on the I-710 freeway, and honked their horns outside of City Hall, trying to draw attention to their plight, saying the rule will force them to either give up independence or give up loading at the ports. Some held signs reading, “(L.A. Mayor) Villaraigosa, Don’t Tread on Me” and “NPDA Wants To Go Green. Help Us!”
The L.A. port’s Clean Truck Program requires trucks be replaced or retrofitted to meet stricter emissions standards. But the program has elements that are unconstitutional, truckers said, according to the L.A. Times. One provision of the ‘concession agreements’ requires any drivers operating at the port be employee drivers of trucking companies, according to the Journal of Commerce.
In addition to barring non-retrofitted trucks from hauling at the ports in 2010, owner-operators would be shut out from the ports beginning in [click to continue…]
