Mark Schremmer
Addressing Highway Trust Fund shortfalls and a lack of truck parking were among the topics discussed at the House Highways and Transit subcommittee’s first hearing of the 119th Congress.
The subcommittee held the hearing “America Builds: Highways to Move People and Freight” on Wednesday, Jan. 22.
Rep. David Rouzer, R-N.C., chairman of the subcommittee, used his opening statement to discuss inequities with the current Highway Trust Fund, which uses fuel taxes to pay for federal road and bridge projects. According to Rouzer, the fund hasn’t been fully solvent since 2008.
“We must also have a frank conversation about the solvency of the Highway Trust Fund – the main funding source for highway projects,” Rouzer said. “Since 2008, Congress has transferred approximately $275 billion to cover the shortfall of revenues as expenditures have grown.”
Although the problem is not a new one, the congressman said it is time for lawmakers to figure out a new funding mechanism, as electric vehicles are not contributing to the current system.
“Highway funding relies on a user-pay principle,” Rouzer said. “It’s pretty simple: You purchase fuel to fill up your vehicle to use the roads, and the fuel tax collected from that purchase is put into the Highway Trust Fund. However, electric vehicles, which are often heavier than their conventional counterparts because of the weight of their batteries, do not pay in the Highway Trust Fund.”
In previous sessions, a vehicle-miles-traveled tax and tolls have been presented as potential ways to correct the issue. However, a VMT tax has raised concerns over privacy, and the trucking industry has argued against efforts to create truck-only tolls.
Rouzer suggested that getting all vehicles to pay their fair share should be a priority.
“It is wholly unfair that an entire segment of users doesn’t contribute to the roads and bridges they use,” he said. “This won’t address the greater solvency issue, obviously, but we must rectify this so that all users are treated fairly and contribute to the systems on which they rely.”
Dennis Dellinger, president of Cargo Transporters, testified that funding should be generated in an equitable manner.
“The trucking industry is the leading payer into the Highway Trust Fund, contributing almost half of all revenues while representing less than 5% of road users,” Dellinger wrote in his submitted testimony. “While the trucking industry is proud to pay our fair share, Congressional attention and action is necessary to ensure a lasting, viable and equitable revenue source for continued infrastructure investments.”
Truck parking
The truck parking crisis across the nation has been well-documented. The 2019 Jason’s Law Report found that 98% of drivers regularly experience problems finding safe parking. According to the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and the American Trucking Associations, there is only one truck parking space for every 11 truckers nationwide.
Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., introduced the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act in the previous two sessions. The bill would allocate $755 million over three years to the construction of parking spots. According to the bill text, any project funded by the bill cannot include paid parking. All parking under the bill must be publicly accessible and free of charge.
Bost, who is expected to reintroduce the bill, asked Jim Tymon of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials if states would pursue funding for truck parking if Congress created a grant program.
“If there was a grant program for truck parking, states would be interested in that,” Tymon said. “I would say that it’s not just availability of funding on the state DOT side. A lot of the right-of-way that the state DOTs have control of, there is a restriction as to what they can do within that right-of-way, including establishing new rest areas and commercializing them to be able to support truck parking.”
Bost then asked Tymon for additional conversations with his staff to determine what would need to be done to make sure truck parking expansion was possible.
Plan Calls for Use of TMC ‘Recommended Practices’ as Training Guide
Eric Miller
A technician works on a Peterbilt truck engine. An individual now can become qualified as an inspector in as little as four months by following TMC’S Recommended Practices. (Peterbilt Motor Co.)
Federal regulators have granted a five-year exemption to American Trucking Associations that could help mitigate the tech shortage, and exempt motor carriers and intermodal equipment providers from the requirement that an individual must complete one year of training to conduct annual commercial motor vehicle inspections.
ATA said the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s waiver, made public Jan. 16 in a Federal Register notice, will cut the time new technicians need to spend preparing to enter the workforce while maintaining high standards for safety and competency. The idea also has the potential to stem some of the nettlesome tech shortages.
Under the new policy requested by ATA in 2020, technicians would be allowed to skip the federally required one-year of training or experience needed to conduct CMV inspections and brake-related repair and maintenance provided they received training based on ATA’s Technology & Maintenance Council Recommended Practices.
“TMC, through its study groups and task forces, has developed a robust set of Recommended Practices, and these RPs form the backbone of the knowledge leadership the council provides to its members and the industry,” TMC Executive Director Robert Braswell said. “This exemption recognizes that TMC’s RPs meet the industry standard for technical knowledge, and technicians who are trained on them are more than capable of performing essential work.”
The exemption applies to motor carriers, intermodal equipment providers and individuals, allowing them to self-certify that they have completed a training program based on TMC’s RPs. This training and certification, rather than the currently required year of additional training or work experience, “would likely achieve a level of safety equivalent to or greater than the level of safety provided by the regulatory requirements,” FMCSA said.
“Quite simply, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations just say if you want to be qualified to vehicle inspect, a person who is qualified to do brake-related maintenance or repair, you simply need a year of either schooling or experience or some combination of both to qualify you for that role takes a year,” Braswell told Transport Topics. “Now an individual can become qualified as an inspector in as little as four months if he or she uses TMC’S Recommended Practices.”
TMC has developed more than 500 Recommended Practices organized into 15 sections that outline individual procedures for inspecting, repairing or replacing components on commercial vehicles. The RPs are available in a document titled “TMC’s Recommended Practices Manual.”
“We believe that by allowing technicians trained in programs based on TMC’s Recommended Practices, the industry can make it easier and more efficient for new technicians to enter the industry,” Braswell said. “The industry continues to face a persistent shortage of technicians, so anything we can do to cut red tape and get students and young people onto the shop floor quickly will help address it.”
TMC does not actually administer the course.
“The school or the fleet has to follow the TMC guidelines, but there are no requirements that users be TMC members,” Braswell added.
The exemption applies to motor carriers, intermodal equipment providers and individuals, allowing them to self-certify that they have completed a training program based on TMC’s RPs.
“We believe that by allowing technicians trained in programs based on TMC’s Recommended Practices, the industry can make it easier and more efficient for new technicians to enter the industry,” Braswell said. “The industry continues to face a persistent shortage of technicians, so anything we can do to cut red tape and get students and young people onto the shop floor quickly will help address it.”
“FMCSA supports ATA’s TMC recommendation that the training program duration should be at least 540 hours (approximately 13.5 work weeks) for new individuals, divided into one-third classroom-based instruction and two-third laboratory hands-on based instruction,” the agency said.
Braswell said that the shortage of traditional diesel technicians is getting better.
“Still, if you take a look at the demand for diesel technicians there are about 9,700 new positions and about 31,000 replacement positions,” Braswell said. “So the total demand is 40,000 or 41,000, and, replacement positions are outpacing positions created by growth to a rate of about 4 to 1.”
Mark Schremmer
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has granted a limited five-year exemption to the American Trucking Associations from training or experience requirements related to conducting commercial motor vehicle inspections.
FMCSA announced the exemption in a notice that was published in the Federal Register on Thursday, Jan. 16.
Current regulations require motor carriers and intermodal equipment providers to ensure that individuals performing annual inspections of commercial motor vehicles, including individuals who inspect, maintain, repair or service CMV brake systems, have a total of at least one year of training or experience.
In 2021, ATA requested an exemption on behalf of individuals seeking inspector qualifications. Instead, ATA requested that FMCSA permit educators to self-certify their training programs based on the Technology and Maintenance Council’s recommended practices and permit technicians who complete those programs to be qualified to inspect commercial motor vehicles in less than one year.
The exemption request was supported by the American Bus Association.
The group said that the exemption would “positively impact the commercial motor vehicle industry by expanding accessibility and opportunities for professional development and staffing.”
FMCSA agreed that ATA’s Technology and Maintenance Council has developed a series of best practices that serve to give training providers the necessary content to deliver comprehensive training programs and assessments that provide individuals with the knowledge and skills to become qualified inspectors.
The agency said it has determined that “granting an exemption from the requirements that motor carriers and intermodal equipment providers ensure that individuals performing annual inspections have one year of training, experience or a combination thereof would likely achieve a level of safety equivalent to or greater than the level of safety provided by the regulatory requirements if the individuals instead successfully complete a performance-based inspector training program consistent with the Technology and Maintenance Council’s recommended practices.”
The exemption took effect Thursday, Jan. 16 and will run through Jan. 16, 2030.
FMCSA has adopted its proposed changes to its Crash Preventability Determination Program (CPDP), adding four new eligible crash types and broadening the definition of existing crash types to include indirect consequences of actions of other motorists. The new and updated eligibility criteria will apply to requests for data review (RDR) for crashes that occur on or after December 1, 2024. Crashes occurring prior to that date will be reviewed according to the prior criteria. FMCSA said it will announce on the CPDP website at https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/crash-preventability-
determination-program when DataQs will be available to accept submissions of the new and updated crash types. The four new crash types are as follows:
- CMV was struck on the side by a motorist operating in the same direction.
- CMV was struck because another motorist was entering the roadway from a private driveway or parking lot.
- CMV was struck because another motorist lost control of their vehicle. The Police Accident Report (PAR) must specifically mention loss of control either in the citation, contributing factors, and/or PAR narrative.
- Any other type of crash involving a CMV where a video demonstrates the sequence of events of the crash.
In addition to the newly eligible situations that are reviewable, FMCSA has reworded several crash types to account for situations in which other motorists caused crashes that they were not directly involved in. For example, one prior description was “CMV was struck by a motorist driving in the wrong direction.” The new version is “CMV was struck because another motorist was driving in the wrong direction.” FMCSA noted that the new definitions now allow for review if a CMV was struck by a vehicle that had been struck by a motorist driving in the wrong direction, making an illegal turn, experiencing a medical issue, etc. FMCSA emphasized that the CPDP is limited to how crashes show up in the Safety Measurement System for the purpose of targeting enforcement and does not affect crash preventability determinations made through FMCSA safety investigations. Moreover, preventability determinations under CPDP will not affect carriers’ safety rating or ability to operate, FMCSA said. For the Federal Register notice, visit https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2024-28377.
Truckers News Staff
FinditParts
Safety is a primary concern for many truckers when visiting truck stops. In fact, 80% of truckers in a recent survey said they would pay extra for services at truck stops where they felt safe.
The survey conducted by FinditParts also found that the younger the trucker, for the most part, the less safe they felt at truck stops. However, the majority of truckers do feel safe at truck stops, according to the survey’a results.
The online survey found:
- 59% of Gen Z (drivers born between 1997 and 2012) feel safe at truck stops
- 78% of Millennials (drivers born between 1981 and 1996) feel safe at truck stops
- 86% of Gen X (drivers born between 1965 and 1980) feel safe at truck stops
- 84% of Boomers (drivers born between 1946 and 1964) feel safe at truck stops
Truckers are also willing to pay extra for services at truck stops they consider safe and clean. Fully eight in 10 respondents said they would pay at least 5% more for services at a truck stop where they felt safe. Two in five would pay up to 25% or more.
The survey also found that women drivers are twice as likely as men to feel unsafe sleeping at a truck stop. Over a quarter of women said they’d feel “somewhat unsafe” sleeping overnight at a truck stop, and another 24% said they’d feel “very unsafe.” Women are 12% more likely to pay for a hotel than stay at a sketchy truck stop than men, according to the survey’s findings.
Tyson Fisher
Although workplace fatalities among truck drivers are trending downward, the job of a trucker remains one of the most dangerous in the United States.
That’s according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries report, which breaks down the number of workplace fatalities for 2023. As in previous years, truck drivers and other transportation workers rank among the highest in fatalities of all private sector employees.
Workplace fatalities claimed the lives of 823 heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers in 2023. That was down significantly, by 12%, compared to the previous year. It also marked the fewest workplace deaths among truckers since 2016, when 786 truck drivers died on the job. The vast majority of those deaths were transportation incidents. Only 7% of fatalities were the result of contact incidents, with 6% caused by exposure to harmful substances/environments.
When drilling down to specific occupations, more truck drivers died while working than did workers in any other job. In a distant second, there were 318 workplace fatalities among construction laborers.
Zooming out, driver/sales workers and truck drivers accounted for the most workplace fatalities by civilian occupations, with nearly 1,000 deaths, followed by grounds maintenance workers (226) and miscellaneous agricultural workers (146). Per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers, the truck driver fatality rate of 26.8 ranked seventh. Leading occupations in fatality rates are logging workers (98.9), fishing and hunting workers (86.9) and roofers (51.8).
More broadly, workers in transportation and material-moving occupations represented the occupational group with the most workplace fatalities, with nearly 1,500 deaths. Fatalities in that group dropped nearly 8% from 2022, largely the result of the 12% decrease among truck drivers.
Transportation and material-moving workers also experienced the second-highest fatality rate per 100,000 workers at 13.6. Farming, fishing and forestry occupations’ workplace fatality rate of 24.4 was the highest.
By sector, transportation and warehousing had the second-most total workplace fatalities at 930 deaths, down 12% from 2022. The construction sector’s 1,075 fatalities were the most in the private sector.
Across all sectors and occupations, transportation incidents were the most common type of fatal event, accounting for more than a third of all workplace fatalities. Those incidents made up 72% of fatalities within the transportation and warehousing sector. Among those, two-thirds were roadway collisions, and nearly half occurred on an interstate, freeway or expressway.
In 2023, a worker died every 99 minutes from a work-related injury. Overall, workplace fatalities in the private sector went down 4% in 2023 to nearly 5,300 deaths.
