Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration had yet to announce its course of action regarding the hours-of-service regulations as CCJ went to press. The 45-day delay in the July 16 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia vacating the current rules was to end Aug. 30. Options were to appeal the ruling or to initiate a rulemaking to replace the current rules. Either way, FMCSA could ask that the current rules remain in place in the interim.
FMCSA will conduct an extensive review of how the agency can best monitor truck and bus safety and ensure the compliance of operators. The multi-year Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 project begins this month with a series of public listening sessions. For a copy of the FMCSA notice, visit http://dms.dot.gov/search and search Docket No. 18898.
Penske Truck Leasing Co. will acquire the full-service truck leasing, rental, maintenance and logistics operations of Auto Rental Corporation, known as AMI Leasing, from Ford Motor Credit Co. The acquisition, covering more than 1,500 customers at 26 locations, adds about 14,000 tractors, trucks and trailers to Penske’s fleet.
Ohio Gov. Bob Taft has asked state officials to consider ending the split speed limit and reducing truck tolls on the Ohio Turnpike to entice more truckers to use the highway. Truck traffic on roads parallel to the turnpike has grown dramatically in recent years.
n National Motor Freight Traffic Association (www.nmfta.org) announced a new Weighing & Research (W&R) Training and Support Program to help motor carriers more accurately weigh, measure and classify freight. Estimates are that one in four shipments transported by common carriers are described, weighed or measured incorrectly, said Don Newell, who heads the W&R program for the organization.
ArvinMeritor named Charles McClure chairman, chief executive officer and president to replace Larry Yost, who retired. McClure most recently was CEO of Federal-Mogul and previously was present and CEO of Detroit Diesel.
California is poised to become the latest jurisdiction to regulate truck idling. On July 22, the California Air Resources Board approved a restriction that will limit truck and interstate bus operators to five minutes of nonessential idling, but allows for exceptions, according to a board announcement. The rule will become effective in about six months if it passes the California Office of Administrative Law’s technical review.
An important exception is that it will not apply to truck drivers who rest in sleepers in compliance with hours-of-service regulations. Those drivers would be exempt from the time limit but may be affected by future regulations. In general, the rule applies to any vehicle or combination of vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of more than 10,000 pounds. It applies to all trucks and interstate buses registered in California, as well as those from out of state. The Air Resources Board and California Highway Patrol would enforce the measure. The agencies could charge violators with a civil penalty of $100 per offense.
