Trucking news and briefs for Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024:
Louisiana issues emergency declaration ahead of hurricane
Hurricane Francine is forecast to make landfall late Wednesday along Louisiana's coast.National Hurricane Center
A state of emergency has been declared in Louisiana ahead of Hurricane Francine, which is forecast to make landfall as a Category 2 hurricane along the state’s coast Wednesday evening.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry issued the declaration Sept. 9 in anticipation of the storm and is effective through Sept. 18 unless amended, modified, terminated or rescinded.
As a result of the declaration, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) has waived normal size and weight regulations for commercial vehicles operating for the purpose of emergency preparedness and disaster relief efforts, allowing a total gross weight of up to 88,000 pounds. Trucks are still required to abide by posted weight limits for bridges.
Additionally, DOTD is waiving all tolls collected on the Louisiana Highway 1 toll bridge from Leeville to Port Fourchon and Grand Isle.
The issuance of an emergency declaration also automatically triggers an exemption from 49 Code of Federal Regulations Part 395.3 (maximum driving time) for motor carriers and drivers providing direct assistance during an emergency.
According to reports from AccuWeather, Hurricane Francine is expected to continue to strengthen in the Gulf of Mexico as it moves toward the Louisiana coast. AccuWeather also reported that Louisiana is expected to bear the brunt of the storm’s wind, rain and storm surge.
Hurricane warnings are in effect for areas along the Louisiana coast, and tropical storm warnings have been issued for the Texas and Mississippi coasts.
[Related: Preparation and communication are critical in hurricane season]
FMCSA extends comment period for guidance review
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is giving trucking stakeholders an additional two weeks to comment on its notice announcing the agency will review its existing guidance documents to evaluate their continued necessity and whether they should be updated or eliminated.
In August, FMCSA published a notice asking the public to help identify and provide input on guidance documents that are good candidates to be updated or removed.
The comment period was initially set to close Sept. 12. With the extension, the comment period is now open through Sept. 26. Comments can be filed here.
FMCSA said it received a comment from the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance to extend the comment period by 60 days. CVSA said 30 days was “not an adequate amount of time to provide substantive, meaningful feedback to the agency on the more than 1,300 individual guidance documents in FMCSA’s Guidance Portal.”
The agency noted that while only granting a two-week extension, public comments can be provided at any time on FMCSA guidance.
In its original notice, FMCSA specifically asked commenters to provide the following information:
- A specific reference to the guidance document and associated statutes or regulations that the comment discusses, including the title or subject, date of issuance, guidance docket number if available, web address of guidance location, or other source of the guidance document. If available, the reference should include citations to the associated statutes (e.g., FAST Act) or regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations.
- A description of the problem with the specific guidance document explaining why the document should be revised or removed. Comments that reflect experience with the guidance or a related statutory or regulatory requirement and provide data describing that experience are more helpful than comments that are not tied to direct experience.
- A description of alternatives that are better than the specific guidance document.
- Examples of entities that are, have been, or will be negatively affected by the specific guidance document and examples of entities that will benefit if the guidance is removed or revised.
Former Yellow CEO Hawkins lands next role
The North American Chassis Pool Cooperative (NACPC) announced last week that former Yellow CEO Darren Hawkins has been named its President and will assume the role of Chief Executive Officer in 2025.
Prior to this appointment, Hawkins served as CEO of Yellow and has 35 years of experience in transportation logistics service with three large motor carriers.
“Darren is serving as President now and will add the CEO designation January 1, 2025. I will transition to Chairman of the Executive Board, allowing me to stay involved with this great company and take advantage of many personal interests outside of work,” said Dave Manning, CEO, NACPC. “I’ve known Darren for many years and am excited to have him guiding NACPC into the future. He is the perfect person to lead NACPC to achieve the ambitious growth goals established by our Board.”
NACPC was established in 2012 with the goal of establishing an efficient, competitively priced chassis supply that can be implemented on a national basis to support the domestic and international intermodal network with adequate supply levels, a modernized chassis fleet, a transparent set of economics, and terms of use that benefit all modes and shippers, the company said.
“I’m honored to work with the NACPC team to continue providing a modern fleet of chassis to the U.S. intermodal container network with first class service, expansion in our domestic services, and continued heavy investment in our international services to benefit U.S. motor carriers with chassis choice and competitive pricing,” Hawkins said.
Iowa issues harvest proclamation for certain ag haulers
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has issued a proclamation relating to the weight limits and transportation of grain, fertilizer, and manure.
The proclamation is effective immediately and continues through Oct. 9, unless extended. It allows trucks transporting corn, soybeans, hay, straw, silage, stover, fertilizer (dry, liquid, and gas), and manure (dry and liquid) to be overweight (up to 90,000 pounds gross weight) without a permit.
The waiver applies to loads transported on non-interstate highways within Iowa that do not exceed a maximum of 90,000 pounds gross weight, do not exceed the maximum axle weight limit determined under Iowa Code by more than 12.5%, do not exceed the legal maximum axle weight limit of 20,000 pounds, and comply with posted limits on roads and bridges.
