National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has drafted a proposal to reduce the required stopping distance for new heavy-duty truck tractors, and the White House Office of Management and Budget is reviewing the document. The long-anticipated proposal would revise Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 121, which currently requires a loaded tractor-trailer traveling 60 mph to stop within 355 feet.
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has withdrawn an advance notice of proposed rulemaking that had been issued in 1992 regarding the vision standard for commercial motor vehicle drivers. After reviewing comments, FMCSA said it believes there is insufficient data to support moving forward with a proposal to change the vision standard now, but a review of vision standards will occur as part of FMCSA’s long-term plan to reevaluate all of its commercial driver health standards and guidelines.
Freight Transportation Services Index fell 0.5 percent from May to 112.6 in June, the first decline in three months, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported. The June 2005 level is still 1.1 percent higher than the June 2004 level.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and most of the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee introduced legislation (S. 1699) to strengthen federal prohibitions against the trafficking in manufactured goods that bear counterfeit marks. A similar measure (H.R. 32) passed the U.S. House of Representatives in May.
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has unveiled a pilot project to explore the use of alternative-fuel vehicles in the state’s fleet, beginning in 2006. If the pilot program continues as envisioned, at least 25 percent of all new passenger vehicles purchased for the state’s fleet will be hybrid by 2011.
Yellow Roadway appointed Michael Smid president of Roadway Express, replacing Robert Stull, who retired after 28 years with Roadway. Smid previously was president of YRC Enterprise Services and chief integration officer and has held a variety of management positions at Yellow Transportation since 1985.
Dart Transit announced that David Oren became company president on Oct. 1. Oren succeeds his father, Donald Oren, who is stepping down as president but will remain as board chairman.
