HDT Staff
Operating
costs were up across the board last year, costing fleets an average of
$71.78 per hour to run freight, according to the American Transportation
Research Institute’s latest Operational Costs of Trucking report.
The
2019 update to ATRI’s report looked at trucking industry operating
costs during 2018 which saw a robust economic environment for carriers
and drivers. While times were good for fleets overall, the economic boom
also put upward pressure on nearly every line-item cost center
experienced by carriers, according to ATRI.
ATRI
found that a good economy, difficulties in finding and keeping drivers,
and increased fuel and insurance prices all contributed to
year-over-year cost increases. The average marginal cost per mile, which
includes costs due to fuel, equipment, maintenance, insurance, permits,
licenses, tires, tolls and driver wages and benefits, increased 7.7% in
2018 to $1.82 per mile.
Costs
went up in every category except tires, and fuel costs saw the largest
increase at 17.7%. Not far behind fuel cost increases, were insurance
costs at 12%. Driver wages and benefits continued to make up the largest
portion of operating costs and 2018 was a year of substantial driver pay increases industry wide.
Driver
wages and benefits increased 7.0% and 4.7% respectively as a strategic
response to the severe driver shortage that existed in 2018, according
to ATRI. On an hourly basis, average costs due to driver wages increased
from $21.97 to $23.50 in a single year. Benefits increased from $6.78
to $7.10 per hour. Wages and benefits represented 43% of all marginal
costs in 2018.
Repair and maintenance costs increased 24% since 2012 to 17.1 cents per mile on average.
These
numbers represent an average of the trucking industry, however ATRI’s
report also analyzes costs by sector which can have varying costs due to
the type of activity. Specialized carriers have the highest cost per
mile at $2.02, with additional factors such as HazMat and OS/OW permit
costs, complex maintenance requirements and higher driver compensation
contributing to increased costs.
Truckload
carriers have the lowest operating cost per mile at $1.71, despite a
14.8% increase from the previous year, mostly attributed to driver pay
increases.
Greenbelt, Maryland (Dec. 2, 2019)
– Starting Dec. 17, 2019, all motor carriers and drivers subject to the
U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA)
electronic logging devices (ELD) final rule
must use an ELD. This deadline also pertains to grandfathered automatic
onboard recording devices (AOBRDs),
which will no longer be allowed under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Regulations to provide records of duty status as a substitute to a
required ELD. Motor carriers utilizing an AOBRD must have a fully
operational ELD installed by Dec. 17, 2019.
According
to FMCSA, there will be no extensions or exceptions made to the Dec.
17, 2019, ELD rule deadline. In addition,
the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) stated that inspectors
will begin fully enforcing the ELD rule on Dec. 17, 2019; there will be
no “soft enforcement” grace period.
If a commercial motor vehicle driver is required to have an ELD and the vehicle is not equipped with a
registered
compliant ELD, the driver is considered to have no record of duty
status; that also applies to a driver still using an automatic onboard
recording
device after the AOBRD to ELD transition deadline of Dec. 17, 2019.
According to the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria, a
property-carrying driver who does not have a record of duty status in
his or her possession when one is required will be
declared out of service for 10 hours and a passenger-carrying driver
without a record of duty status when one is required will be placed out
of service for eight hours.
CVSA-certified roadside inspectors use the
North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria
to identify conditions that preclude further operation of a commercial
motor vehicle by its driver for
a specified amount of time, or for some conditions, until the violation
is corrected. The April 1, 2019, North American Standard Out-of-Service
Criteria specifies the out-of-service conditions related to
deficiencies of record of duty status and hours-of-service
rules and regulations. In addition, CVSA’s
Inspection Bulletin
regarding hand-held and electronic logging devices outlines the
requirements for devices used to record drivers’ hours of service,
according to
49 CFR Part 395 Subpart B – Electronic Logging Devices.
FMCSA
implemented the ELD rule to make it easier and faster to accurately
track, manage and share record of duty status
information, and to help improve road safety and reduce the number of
crashes. An ELD automatically records a driver’s driving time and other
hours-of-service data. Hours-of-service rules and regulations were
developed to minimize driver fatigue and improve
safety for everyone on the road. In addition, ELDs monitor a vehicle’s
engine data, such as when the engine is running, whether the vehicle is
moving, miles driven, duration of engine operation, etc.
It’s important to note that the ELD final rule does not change any of the underlying hours-of-service regulations. For more
information regarding ELDs, the ELD final rule, hours-of-service, etc., visit
FMCSA’s website.
Below find an article by the United States Postal Service Office of the Inspector General. Technology does not solve problems. People solve problems using the right technology in the right manner.
Case in point: Dynamic Route Optimization (DRO), a technology-based initiative to reduce miles and costs for surface transportation. The U.S. Postal Service did not save the $22.4 million it projected for fiscal years (FYs) 2017 and 2018, our recent audit report found.
DRO allows Highway Contract Routes (HCRs) to change from a fixed-price contract with set, or static, routes to a rate-per-mile contract with varying departure times, travel plans, and mail types transported based on mail volume. This “dynamic” approach allows the Postal Service to optimize routes to reduce mileage and transportation costs – critical for containing costs in the overall HCR program, which moves mail between post offices and other designated stops. In FY 2018, the Postal Service spent $4.3 billion on HCR transportation.
The Postal Service awards DRO contracts for sites selected for conversion from static to dynamic contracts and uses an approved commercial off-the-shelf software and a web application to generate weekly dynamic manifests at the DRO sites.
But USPS didn’t identify and resolve program issues before national rollout of DRO and thus fell short of planned savings. Despite spending $32.7 million in total investments on DRO in FYs 2017 and 2018, most of the sites were still running static routes. Only five of the 34 sites were fully optimized and only one was operating dynamically.
Our audit found that the commercial software and web-based application the Postal Service used for its national rollout required continual re-configuration. We also found management and oversight of the program needed better controls. We noted that USPS has initiated improvements to the program this fiscal year, including appointing an acting national program manager for DRO.
Canada has recently released the Technical Standard for ELDs, and American carriers operating in that country will have to comply with its rules. The rule was adopted as law on June 12, but there will be a 24-month implementation period after which it will be fully enforceable, that is June 2021. During this period, each Canadian province and territory will to have to integrate the rules into their own regulations.
Read the rest of the article here…..
Starting today, April 1, 2019, the Commercial
Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) 2019 North American Standard
Out-of-Service Criteria is now in effect. The 2019 out-of-service
criteria replaces and supersedes all previous versions.
The North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria
is the pass-fail criteria for roadside safety inspections. The purpose
of the criteria is to identify critical safety violations. Those
violations render the driver, vehicle and/or motor carrier out of
service until the condition(s) or violation(s) can be corrected or
repaired.
In accordance with CVSA bylaws, the changes
were proposed to the Class I Members of the Alliance on Oct. 22, 2018,
and subsequently ratified on Oct. 31, 2018. Voting members approved 12
changes to the out-of-service criteria which are effective as of April
1, 2019.
The following changes were made to the out-of-service criteria:
- Amendment
to Part I, Item 4. DRIVER MEDICAL/PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS, a. Skill
Performance Evaluation Certificate by modifying the language. A driver
who possesses a valid Skill Performance Evaluation (SPE) but is not
complying with the SPE requirements should be placed out of service.
- Amendment
to Part II, Policy Statement regarding how to deal with expired CVSA
decals. It was determined that removing old decals before applying a new
one is most appropriate.
- Amendment
to Part II, Item 1. BRAKE SYSTEMS, g. Brake Drums and Rotors (Discs),
(2) by adding language and a picture for cracks in structural supports
of a brake rotor. If there are cracks through the vents in rotors, a
collapse of the rotor is imminent; therefore, the vehicle should be
placed out of service.
- Amendment
to Part II, Item 2. CARGO SECUREMENT, a. through f. by adding
subheadings to each out-of-service condition. Subheadings were added to
the Cargo Securement section of the out-of-service criteria to provide
uniformity with the rest of the criteria and to make it easier to
distinguish between subsections.
- Amendment
to Part II, Item 2. CARGO SECUREMENT, TIEDOWN DEFECT TABLE by adding
defective condition language for the Doleco USA Textile Link Tiedown
Assembly. Language was added to the Tiedown Defect Table in the
out-of-service criteria so that an inspector can adequately determine if
the Doleco USA Textile Link Tiedown Assembly is defective once it is in
use.
- Amendment to Part II, Item
4. DRIVELINE/DRIVESHAFT, b. Universal Joint, (3) by adding a bearing
strap to the out-of-service condition. A bearing strap was added to the
out-of-service criteria and a descriptive label was added to the current
picture of a bearing strap to help identify and clarify the component.
- Addition
to Part II, adding new Item 5. DRIVER’S SEAT (MISSING), a. to provide
an out-of-service condition for a missing driver’s seat. Drivers using a
temporary seat rather than a permanent seat that is secured to the
vehicle in a workmanlike manner was added to the out-of-service
criteria.
- Amendment to Part II,
Item 6. EXHAUST SYSTEMS, a. through d. by adding subheadings to each
out-of-service condition. Subheadings were added to the Exhaust Systems
section of the out-of-service criteria to provide uniformity with the
rest of the criteria and to make it easier to distinguish between
subsections.
- Amendment to Part
II, Item 7. FRAMES, by adding subsection (5) to the existing NOTE. It
was determined that subsection (5) should not pertain to monocoque-style
frames.
- Amendment to Part II,
Item 10. STEERING MECHANISMS, h. Tie Rods and Drag Links, (3) to add an
out-of-service condition for a non-manufactured hole. A non-manufactured
hole in a drag link should be placed out of service.
- Amendment
to Part II, Item 16. BUSES, MOTORCOACHES, PASSENGER VANS OR OTHER
PASSENGER CARRYING VEHICLES – EMERGENCY EXITS/ELECTRICAL CABLES AND
SYSTEMS IN ENGINE AND BATTERY COMPARTMENTS/SEATING, by adding (TEMPORARY
AND AISLE SEATS) to the Critical Vehicle Inspection Item title. This
amendment allows vehicles with manufactured seating violations that do
not qualify as an out of service condition to receive a CVSA decal.
- Amendment
to Part III, Items 1. through 10. by adding some subheadings and
removing unnecessary language. Revisions were made to Part III of the
out-of-service criteria to follow the same format as the rest of the
out-of-service criteria.
The
CVSA Training Committee, the Education Quality Assurance Team in Canada
and the National Training Center in the U.S. will incorporate these
changes, as appropriate, into North American Standard Inspection
training materials, along with several updated inspection bulletins,
inspection procedures, operational policies and training videos.
NOTE:
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) 2019 North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria app is now available in Apple and Google Play stores for purchase. This is the new out-of-service criteria, which went into effect yesterday, April 1, 2019.
We’re
currently offering special half-off pricing for new app purchase and
download. The app is $24.99 USD ($34.99 CAD, $479 MXN) for a limited
time so don’t miss out on this opportunity to get the out-of-service
criteria for half off its regular price.
IF YOU PURCHASED THE APP LAST YEAR:
This year only, for early adopters who purchased the 2018 app, you can
download the new 2019 out-of-service criteria app for free, as a thank
you from CVSA for being among the first to purchase the app last year.
Apple: You’ll first have to delete the 2018 (green) app icon from your device. Then, click here to download the 2019 (yellow) version.
Google Play: Click here then you’ll be prompted to download the new 2019 (yellow) version, which will replace last year’s version.
