California Air Resources Board could be exceeding its legal authority if it enforces provisions of its transport refrigeration units rule in the absence of an Environmental Protection Agency waiver, the American Trucking Associations warned in a Jan. 24 letter to the state agency. The TRU regulation requires additional emissions controls on truck and trailer refrigeration units, starting with model year 2001 and older units, beginning Dec. 31, 2008.
Shipper Sears Roebuck & Co. and intermediary National Logistics Corp. are jointly and severally liable for nearly a half million in freight charges owed to Oak Harbor Freight Lines, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in January. The court concluded, among other things, that Sears bore the risk of nonpayment when it chose to pay freight charges through a broker rather than directly to the motor carrier. The court’s opinion (Case No. 06-35460) is available at www.ca9.uscourts.gov.
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is considering a rulemaking that would limit truck idling to five minutes per hour, effective as early as this summer. The ban would not apply when ambient temperatures are below 40 degrees Fahrenheit or above 75 degrees.
Tractor-trailers now are banned from the left lane of a 40-mile stretch of Florida’s Turnpike through South Florida. The restriction will be enforced from the Lantana toll plaza south to the Golden Glades interchange. Truck drivers caught violating the ban face a fine of up to $130.
Q We are a small carrier that placed our public liability insurance with a large insurer through an independent agent affiliated with a bank. Premiums were to be assessed based upon a percentage of gross receipts, and the agent told us gross receipts excluded pass-through items such as fuel surcharge and lumpers’ fees. Months into the policy period, the insurer audited our operation, included the fuel surcharge and lumpers’ fees, and increased our premiums by 30 percent. What recourse, if any, do we have?
A This is not the first complaint I have received about the arrogant audit procedures of this insurer. The insurance form on which this policy is written does not exclude pass-through items. The insurer will insist that you are liable for this excess premium under the insurance contract and may hold your continued coverage hostage until you pay.
At time of issuance, the underwriter assessed your risk of loss. I am confident you provided both revenue and mileage figures at the time of binding and that they quoted you a premium. It seems blatantly unfair for the insurer to now recalculate the premium by as much as 30 percent by including fuel surcharge and lumpers’ fees if there was no increased risk of loss. As one knowledgeable truck insurance agent says, “If the pass-throughs were excluded in the estimated revenue, the pass-throughs should be excluded from the audit.”
