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Bits and Pieces
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Happy May. I am looking forward to seeing many of you in a few weeks at the annual IMUA meeting in Atlanta. Please stop by our table during the breaks and visit. It is always a good event. Check it out at imua.org.
This month we report:
DOT CABINET POST - Anthony Foxx, the mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, will be put forward as the new leader of the DOT. Foxx doesn’t have any specific experience as a transportation executive.
CARRIER OUT OF SERVICE REPORT - It was a busy month over at the FMCSA. The FMCSA has ordered four Olathe, Kan.-based trucking companies – Royal Transport, Inc.; Nationwide, Inc.; Freight, Inc.; and Midwest A, Inc. – to immediately cease all interstate transportation service based on evidence that they are chameleon carriers ™ for an unsafe truck company previously shut down by the agency. Atlanta-based Southern Transportation Inc. was also ordered to stop operating, for refusal to release safety records to investigators. General Trucking, Inc. also based in Atlanta, Ga., was shut down as an imminent hazard to the public due to a pattern of serious safety violations, as well as Washington DC Party Shuttle, which also does business under the name Onboard DC Tours. The FMCSA rounded out the month placing Best Limo Service, also from Georgia out of service as an imminent hazard. With all of their new enforcement power, the FMCSA also declared Johnny Allen Spell from North Carolina to be an imminent hazard to public safety and has ordered him not to operate any commercial motor vehicle in interstate commerce.
STATISTICS - For those of you who are number junkies, the BTS has updated a number of its statistical reports on transportation, including stats on various accidents by mode of transportation, and information on various state laws on distracted driving. Anyone interested can view the report here.
HOUSEHOLD GOODS CARRIERS - The FMCSA has issued a clarification on the limited service exclusion that held that trucking companies that provide and move containers are not household goods carriers. They concluded that when companies also provide the laborers with the containers they will be considered movers and subject to all household goods movers regulations. FMCSA’s notice said it would consider the issue on a case-by-case basis, and it outlined eight factors the agency would consider in determining eligibility for the limited service exclusion, including whether the container company advertises itself as a mover, how it handles referrals to companies that pack goods and the corporate or employment relationships between the parties.
In other household goods news, the FMCSA launched its new moving fraud prevention campaign to inform consumers about how to spot the "red flags" of fraudulent or dishonest movers- the “Protect Your Move” campaign. Resources include a moving fraud prevention checklist, a moving broker checklist and tips for a successful move. Consumers can also search a company's complaint history and compare safety records of companies nationally. In 2012, FMCSA received over 3,100 consumer complaints about household goods movers, up from 2,851 in 2011. Among the most common complaints are shipments being held hostage; loss, damage or delay of shipments; unauthorized movers; and deceptive practices, such as overcharges. Nationwide, the top ten cities with the greatest number of consumer complaints in 2012 were New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Seattle, Orlando, San Antonio, and San Diego.
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Generally around this time of year I like to wish you all a Happy Spring. However my hat and gloves and scarf make it difficult to convey that feeling so I think I will wait another month. I heard that they indicted Puxatawny Phil for misrepresentation. Speaking as a lawyer I think that is one of the most righteous charges I have heard in a long time. But I digress.
This month we report:
FMCSA SHUT DOWN REPORT - The FMCSA went after a number of carriers this month, placing them out of service, and also placed another driver out of service. Highway Star from Oak Park, MI, and its driver, Ibrahim Fetic were both placed out of service as imminent hazards, primarily for log book violations. General Trucking from Atlanta, GA, was also put out of service after the FMCSA found violations of safety regulations, including dispatching unqualified drivers, inadequate compliance with hours of service, and dispatching unsafe, overloaded vehicles.
In the bus arena, Rimrock Stages Inc., of Billings, MT, which also does business as Rimrock Trailways, was declared an imminent hazard to public safety, as well as Oklahoma City-based Heartland Charters & Tours which was shut down for “failing to adhere to operating conditions” the company agreed to follow in July 2012. Ming An Inc., a New York City bus company was shut down for failing to conduct pre-employment drug and alcohol testing; employing drivers without CDLs; allowing drivers who are not medically certified to drive; failure to prepare records of duty status; failure to require drivers to prepare vehicle inspection reports; and failure to annually inspect the vehicles. FMCSA used its recently granted powers to shut down the Fung Wah bus company, the first time the agency revoked a carrier’s operating authority using powers granted in Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21). Finally Santana Busline Inc., of Springfield, MA was found to have failed to ensure that its drivers comply with hours-of-service requirements, allowed unqualified drivers to operate its vehicles in an unsafe manner, failed to conduct periodic vehicle safety inspections, failed to properly maintain and repair vehicles as required by federal regulations, and knowingly dispatched vehicles with safety defects.
ANTI-INDEMNITY CLAUSES - Montana is expected to be the next venue to join the majority of states which prohibit indemnity clauses in transportation contracts. The bill has been sent to the Governor for signature. In neighboring Idaho, a similar statute was signed into law, taking effect July 1st.
FRAUDULENT DOT LICENSES AND PLATES - The FMCSA has issued a warning that licenses plates and CDL’s bearing a false DOT endorsement are appearing throughout the country. The FMCSA does not issue any such plates or licenses and those using them are guilty of criminal activity.
HOURS OF SERVICE - Oral argument on the hours of service regulations went forward this month, with a ruling expected sometime this summer. The FMCSA has announced it won’t delay the July 1 start date for enforcement of the latest version of the hours-of-service rules pending the court’s decision. The ATA claims that driver training, software updates and other preparations for the July implementation date will cost the trucking industry $320 million and would be wasted if the rules are changed by the court decision. At press time various legislators are attempting to intervene and delay the implementation of the new rules.
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Here we are at the end of February already. It amazes me how quickly the months go by and how things just never slow up anymore. We would like to thank those of you who have responded to our recent survey. If you have not, we would ask that you take a few moments and complete it so that we can determine what else we can do to help make your use of our services the best it can be. If you do not have the email with the link to the survey please contact Mark Schweber and he will get it to you. Shuie and his gang of teckies are constantly finding new ways to improve and enhance the CAB experience and are always interested in hearing from you on things you might like to see.
This month we report:
MEXICAN CARRIERS - The beleaguered long haul cross border pilot program has finally added a new participant. The FMCSA approved Grupo Behr de Baja California as the 10th participant. Whether they will get to the required numbers before the program expires looks unlikely.
VEHICLE CRASHES - The National Safety Council released its preliminary analysis of vehicle crashes for 2012. It estimates that 36,200 people died in vehicle crashes in 2012, up from the previous year total of 34,600. There was also an increase in needed medical care following the events, up 5%. The rate of vehicle deaths increased 1.23 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. This report is slightly different from the NHTSA report as it reports all deaths as long as they occurred within one year of the accident. The NTHSA only counts traffic deaths that occurred within 30 days of the crash.
MOTOR COACH REGULATIONS - The FMCSA has announced a crackdown on unsafe bus operations. The FMCSA will work with local and state police to investigate driver qualifications, equipment, scheduling and other safety concerns of high-risk carriers. The first part of the crackdown will take the next two months and will include a complete analysis of bus safety and enforcement programs. More bus companies are expected to be taken off the roadway.
INTERMODAL FREIGHT - The Intermodal Association of North America reports that intermodal freight in North America set an all-time record of 14.6 million shipments in 2012, with a huge growth in domestic container shipments in the fourth quarter. We remind underwriters of the additional concerns and risk in underwriting containerized freight when the condition, quality and value of the cargo is often unknown.
BROKER BONDS - October 1, 2013 is the date set for compliance with the new broker bonds. The bond is being increased from $10,000 to $75,000. All brokers and forwarders must be registered by that date. You can view the frequently asked questions on the changes in broker regulations here.
HOURS OF SERVICE - The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance has requested that the FMCSA delay implementing scheduled changes to the hours-of-service rules for truck drivers until three months after a pending legal challenge is resolved. Oral arguments are set for March 1 and at the current time the rules are set to take effect in July.
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I know it has only been two short weeks since you received our annual report and so we will keep this month’s report short. I don’t want you to get tired of hearing from us! We appreciate all of the feedback that we get on these reports and invite any and all comments that can better help us focus this to be a timely and pertinent report for you.
CAB LABS:
We are excited to introduce this month our new Workspace, Carrier ‘Sneak Peek’ and Shared Email Alert features.
The Workspace tool will assist you in comparing multiple entities that are interrelated by different characteristics, allowing you to do a variety of searches by phone, address, email address, etc. and provides quick access to useful tools that will help you analyze your Workspace contents. Carriers you add to the Workspace will stay there until you remove them, even if you log out or sign in to your account on a different computer.
To help sort through search results returned by our Carrier Search page, we’ve offered a ‘Sneak Peek’ feature allowing you to get a high level overview of the safety and operation information of a returned entity by hovering over the magnifying glass adjacent to the DOT number. This month we’ve added the ability to ‘pin’ this information onto the page to make it easier to compare and identify trends across multiple entities.
Similar to the alerts that identify other entities using the same address or phone number which were designed to alert you to possibly related entities, the Shared Email Alert identifies whether or not the email address used to register this carrier was used to register any other carriers. If there is a match, clicking on the new email icon will load up all the other entities that used that email address.
To learn more about these exciting new features, you can download the most current version of the User Guide or contact us to set up a training session.
This month we report:
DOT SECRETARY - Although a few weeks ago it looked like Secretary LaHood would be staying around for a bit longer he has now announced that he will be leaving his post. President Obama has not yet announced his replacement.
TRUCKING BANKRUPTCIES - Avondale Partners states that 150 carriers left the industry in the 4th quarter, bringing the yearly total to 495. This resulted in 7,370 trucks coming off the road. Avondale indicates that these numbers were fueled by weakening used-truck prices, lower freight demand and higher costs.
HOURS OF SERVICE - The ATA has requested a further extension on the implementation of the most recent proposed hours of service rules. Oral argument is scheduled for March with a decision from the court expected in early summer. Rather than implement changes which may be impacted by a court decision, a delay is probably the best action.
2013 AGENDA FOR CONGRESS - The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee announced its oversight plan for the 113th Congress. Highway funding, the CSA program and hours of service are listed as top priorities for the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit. Last year they requested an audit of CSA, which is expected to be completed this year.
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I am not sure if anyone is out there this week as I hope that most of the industry is off celebrating the holidays. This is the Bits 'n Pieces that gets the most “out of office” responses each year! It has been an interesting year and I hear from more than one of you (myself included) that most of us will be happy to see 2012 slide in to the history books, especially as reports of the losses from Hurricane Sandy start to be released by insurers. I hope that you took some time to enjoy the end of the year lull (although personally I don’t think there is a lull anymore).
This month we report:
CAB's LAB - We've got a number of exciting new features that will be rolled out at the beginning of the new year. Stay tuned for more details and always remember to pick up the latest copy of our User Guide to learn about the latest enhancements.
CSA - The FMCSA announced 11 changes to CSA this month. CAB has, of course, updated its reports to reflect the new changes. The changes include replacing the Cargo-Related BASIC with the Hazardous Materials (HM) Compliance BASIC, strengthening the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC by including cargo and load securement violations that were previously in the Cargo-Related BASIC, counting intermodal equipment violations found during drivers’ pre-trip inspections, aligning speeding violations to be consistent with current speedometer regulations that require speedometers to be accurate within 5 mph, changing the name of the Fatigued Driving BASIC to the Hours-of-Service (HOS) Compliance BASIC to more accurately reflect violations contained within the BASIC, and aligning the severity weight of paper and electronic logbook violations equally on the SMS for consistency purposes. The change applies to the prior 24 months of data used by the SMS and all SMS data moving forward.
CARRIER SERVICE ACTIONS - The FMCSA commenced a proceeding to revoke Peace of Mind Relocation, Inc.'s operating authority registration following a determination that Peace of Mind Relocation, Inc. held hostage household goods of individual shippers in violation of federal statutes. The FMCSA has also ordered Trusted Moving and Storage d.b.a. Nationwide Top Movers (Trusted Moving and Storage) of Santa Clara, Calif., to return household goods to the original shippers. The order is the first time FMCSA has used new enforcement powers granted to the agency under the federal surface transportation reauthorization program known as MAP-21. FMCSA has also initiated a proceeding to suspend Trusted Moving and Storage's authority to operate in interstate commerce as a household goods motor carrier.
In the general commodity arena, the FMCSA ordered Two Dayes Trucking and Two Dayes Transport, based in Murfreesboro, NC, and Ben Gordon Enterprises, LLC d/b/a Gordon’s Tree Service of Sidell, LA to immediately cease all transportation services due to a pattern of serious safety violations that pose an imminent hazard to public safety.
In a surprising move, the FMCSA also issued an “out of service” on a driver, Georgia-licensed truck driver Johnny Felton Jr., who was working for DOT Transportation, Inc. out of Mount Sterling, IL, declaring him an imminent hazard and ordering him to immediately cease all commercial vehicle driver operations because of his failure to exercise an appropriate duty of care to the motoring public regarding his medical conditions. It was the first time in at least eight years the agency had released information about an individual driver put out-of-service.
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