Regulations

In an unprecedented move, the U.K. has voted to terminate its membership in the European Union after more than 40years.

Truck drivers hours of service limits may be tweaked under a fiscal 2017 transportation funding bill passed by an influential Senate appropriations committee this spring. Under the move spearheaded by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the legislation set a 73-hour cap as the allowable hours per seven-day work week that truck drivers may work before taking a break.

Regardless of capacity, pricing, or the economy, trucking industry regulations are never far from the freight transportation limelight. That is especially evident when it comes to the federally mandated hours-of-service (HOS) regulations. As usual, the current state of HOS remains somewhat fluid. And the reason for that has to do with legislation coming from the Senate Transportation Appropriations legislation that is currently being considered by the Senate.

Trucking CEO's speak out on how regulations affect productivity at NASSTRAC Shippers Conference and Transportation Expo in Orlando this week.

Trucking regulations are once again front and center for carriers and shippers and are making an immediate impact on carrier costs, capacity, rates, and relations between shippers and carriers. During this webcast—co-presented by Logistics Management and NASSTRAC—our expert panel brings shippers up-to-date on the state of trucking regulations and how these rules are impacting carrier costs, capacity and rates.

Even through improvements in rule's language from its introduction are apparent, questions remain about how it will be specifically enforced by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

New developments in global trade (TTP, T-TIP, ACE) will play a significant role in 2016, making an impact on a wide spectrum of U.S. shippers. Analysts contend that those who are properly prepared can make substantial gains this year—while those who lag behind may run into unanticipated grief.

The objective of the rule, according to FMCSA, is to strengthen commercial truck and bus drivers’ compliance with hours-of-service (HOS) regulations that combat fatigue. The rule will take full effect on December 10, 2017, two years after the date of the final rule being issued.

Upon the signing of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act into law late last week, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced changes it made to its Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (CSA) program, as per the FAST Act that called for changes to improve transparency in the FMCSA’s oversight activity.

The rule, which will take effect on January 29, 2016, adopts regulations that prohibit motor carriers, shippers, receivers, or transportation intermediaries from coercing drivers to operate commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) in violation of certain provisions of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.

In recently issued CSA research, entitled “Assessing the Impact of Non-Preventable Crashes on CSA Scores the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) took a deep dive into the impact that non-preventable crashes would have on motor carrier CSA Crash Indicator BASIC measures.

In mid-September, the much anticipated final rule for electronic logging devices was pushed back one month from September 30 to October 30, according to the Report on DOT Significant Rulemakings issued by the United States Department of Transportation. But while October has now come and gone, the situation regarding the final ELD rule remains the same in that nothing has been issued. But according to a research note issued by Jason Seidl, transportation analyst at Cowen and Company, the ELD implementation rule...

Our top trucking correspondent examines the daunting regulatory hurdles facing trucking—and gives shippers a clearer picture of what they can expect in terms of rates and capacity based on the cumulative effects.

While shippers ready themselves for the long Labor Day weekend, we’d like to remind them that new security and compliance regulations are - as always – looming ahead.

The biggest issue for transport in 2015 is funding for Interstate highways. That current funding will expire in May after a stop-gap nine-month continuing resolution expires. Whether the new Congress has the gumption to tackle the sticky problem of how to pay for much-needed highway and bridge reconstruction is an open question, however.