Trucking news and briefs for Friday, Jan. 19, 2024:
J.B. Hunt adds former rail exec to Board of Directors
J.B. Hunt Transport Services (CCJ Top 250, No. 3) announced Wednesday that Patrick Ottensmeyer has been elected the newest member of its board of directors, effective Jan. 12, expanding the board to 10 total board seats.
Ottensmeyer brings more than 17 years of rail industry experience to the company’s board. He served as president and CEO of Kansas City Southern (KCS), a Class I railroad, from 2015 to 2023, until the completion of the merger creating Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) in 2023. From 2008 to 2015, he was executive vice president of sales and marketing at KCS and served as executive vice president and Chief Financial Officer at the railroad from 2006 to 2008.
Ottensmeyer also served as the U.S. Chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s U.S.-Mexico Economic Council (USMXECO) from 2019 to 2023. In this role, he was instrumental in representing business interests during the formation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) from 2017-2020.
He currently serves on the board of directors for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; for the Greenbrier Companies, an international supplier of equipment and services to global freight transportation markets; and for Watco Companies, a single-source transportation and supply chain services company with locations throughout North America and Australia. Ottensmeyer is also co-chair of the Brookings Institute USMCA Initiative and chair of the Truman Library Institute.
Ottensmeyer is the third new board member since 2021 for J.B. Hunt and will serve on the board’s Compensation Committee and Nominating and Governance Committee. Last year, Persio Lisboa joined the board following his retirement in 2021 as president and CEO of Navistar, Inc. His 35-year career included extensive senior executive experience with Navistar.
Thad Hill was also elected to the board in 2021. Hill is CEO of Calpine Corporation (Calpine), one of the nation’s largest independent competitive power companies operating power plants and retail businesses in 22 states and Ontario, Canada.
[Related: 'Get ready to compete': New rail behemoth sets sights on trucking]
FMCSA renews HOS exemption for certain paper mill drivers
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is provisionally renewing an exemption from the hours-of-service regulations for WestRock that allows its employees to operate on specific section of public road between its shipping and receiving locations.
The exemption is restricted to a specific route, measuring less than 300 feet in one direction, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, allowing WestRock’s shipping department employees and occasional substitute CDL holders to occasionally work up to 16 consecutive hours and be allowed to return to work with less than the mandatory 10 consecutive hours off duty.
FMCSA previously determined that the operations of WestRock’s drivers under this exemption would likely maintain a level of safety equivalent to or greater than the level of safety that would be achieved in the absence of the exemption. The exemption renewal is for 5 years, effective April 17, 2024, through April 16, 2029.
In its exemption application, WestRock said its shipping and receiving departments are on opposite sides of the paper mill, requiring driver-employees to travel on a public road to shuttle trailers as needed. These drivers utilize a public road an average of 40 times per day to travel between WestRock’s manufacturing facility and shipping and receiving docks.
FMCSA said it’s “unaware of any evidence of a degradation of safety attributable to the current exemption for WestRock’s drivers.”
Iowa’s harvest proclamation waiving weight limits extended again
Grain, fertilizer and manure haulers traveling on non-interstate highways and roads in Iowa are getting even more time to operate outside normal weight restrictions.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Jan. 13 signed an extension to the harvest proclamation that has been in effect since Sept. 11 and has now been extended four times since in one-month increments.
The proclamation, now effective through Feb. 12, allows vehicles transporting corn, soybeans, hay, straw, silage, stover, fertilizer (dry, liquid and gas), and manure (dry and liquid) to be overweight (not exceeding 90,000 pounds gross weight) without a permit for the duration of the waiver.
It applies to loads transported on all highways within Iowa (excluding the interstate system) and those that don't exceed a maximum of 90,000 pounds gross weight. Other stipulations that must be met to take advantage of the exemption:
- The load cannot exceed the maximum axle weight limit determined under the non-primary highway maximum gross weight table in Iowa Code § 321.463 (6) (a) and (b) by more than 12.5%
- The load cannot exceed the legal maximum axle weight limit of 20,000 pounds
- Drivers must comply with posted weight limits on roads and bridges
