This article first appeared in the October issue of Bulk Transporter magazine.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has a new deputy administrator in Wiley Deck.
But before leaving his position as acting FCMSA administrator at the end of August, Jim Mullen—who succeeded Ray Martinez in October 2019—moderated a virtual Trucking Safety Summit panel presenting the safety priorities and concerns of four trucking industry leaders: former National Tank Truck Carriers (NTTC) president Dan Furth, American Trucking Associations (ATA) president and CEO Chris Spear, Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) executive vice president Lewie Pugh, and Steve Owings, co-founder of Road Safe America.
After a video introduction by Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao, who thanked truckers “for all that you do for our country,” Mullen deemed FMCSA’s safety event an opportunity to hear how partners are prioritizing safety, and how solutions and successes they have discovered can help advance the shared goal of roadway safety.
“We want to thank everyone in the commercial vehicle industry for your tremendous efforts during the past several months to keep our nation’s supply chain moving and our roadways safe,” he said. “Your efforts have shown us all that truckers are American heroes. The department and the FMCSA want to make sure we’re doing our part to help keep all commercial motor vehicle drivers safe. That’s our mission and that’s our top priority.”
As examples of FMCSA’s work to promote safety on the nation’s roadways, Mullen cited critical updates to hours-of-service rules that they believe increase safety and add flexibility for commercial vehicle drivers; the launch of FMCSA’s Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse, which he said had received reports of 30,000 violations since January; and emergency regulatory relief for truckers the agency helped secure during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He also referenced FMCSA’s actions to ensure continued access to commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) and permits, and truck stops, during the pandemic; and work with safety partners that delivered more than 3 million protective masks to truckers.
“It has been inspiring to see the collaboration with the agency, the CMV industry, our state partners, and local law enforcement throughout this pandemic,” Mullen said. “This type of problem solving and progress are exactly what the American people not only expect but what they deserve during this uncertain time.”
Mullen opened the discussion by posing three questions to all four panelists: What does the association see as its role in truck and highway safety, how can associations collaborate with the larger regulated industry and stakeholders to improve safety, and what are the association’s top priorities in those arenas.
NTTC’s take
Furth, who was last to respond, began with a joke about batting cleanup, then reviewed NTTC’s mission of championing safety and success in the tank truck community through advocacy and education before pointing out that the tank truck sector is “a little bit outside that box, a little bit different,” than the larger trucking industry.
One key difference for tank carriers—operating cost. “Our trailers are four times what other people pay,” he said. “Our insurance, our risk profile, is incredible, and becoming increasingly more complicated. We’ve said for years we have a great deal of barriers to entry. Now we actually have barriers to stay, so it’s troubling what’s going on.”
Furth said he’s proud of NTTC’s strong partnership with FMCSA, with the two groups working together on cargo tank training for more than 20 years, helping provide education for “thousands” of trailer technicians, whose jobs are almost as dangerous as loading and unloading tank trailers. “If you go and work on a trailer that has a former product in it, you’re talking risk,” he said.
Because of the singular complexity of the tank truck business, and its unique risk profile, Furth said his association’s members and industry stakeholders often are misunderstood, making it critically important for the NTTC to work with everyone else in the trucking industry, as well as the enforcement and emergency response communities.
And, he maintained, tank truck industry leaders are more than willing to do their part.
“Our guys, generally, our members, are leaders,” he said. “They’ve led with their wallet. … You don’t just buy one (tank truck), you buy many. And we’ve had success with (the U.S. Department of Transportation). One of our members (Groendyke) recently had a victory with the brake-light exemption on the back of their trucks, because we’re having all sorts of people, as Chris mentioned, with distracted driving, just driving right into the back of our trucks, all the time. It’s not once in a while—it’s all the time. And frankly it’s extremely dangerous given the product that’s in that truck.”
Among top priorities, Furth pointed to the NTTC’s recent work on relief from the Federal Excise Tax (FET)—and the increasingly heavy burden that tank fleets bare. “We’re paying, in our case, $30,000 per tractor-trailer unit,” he said. “It seems wrong.” Furth also said NTTC was working on filing a petition to allow HAZMAT carriers to use electronic shipping papers. “Because of the COVID situation, the last thing we want our drivers to be doing is handing papers back and forth, pens back and forth, and a large percentage of the time, you can’t get them the shipping papers anyway. That’s why we have the placarding system.”
Also on the legislative side, Furth lamented the near victory on NTTC’s dry bulk axle tolerance request, emphasizing its “not an increase in size and weight” by repeating it three times. The request only pertains to loads like flour or plastic pellets shifting in transport. “We just want to get that behind us and move on,” he said.
Finally, Furth said NTTC members would be open to hair testing drivers to screen for marijuana or opioid use if the federal government were to promulgate guidelines affording them the option of using hair testing in lieu of urinalysis. “I think our guys would move to it almost immediately because, again, you take a tractor and a trailer, it’s $250,000,” he said. “It’s like flipping keys to a Maserati to somebody. You want to make sure they’re in the right physical and mental state to drive it. It’s extremely dangerous. We can’t have it.
“So I think we’d be huge adopters of it if it was promulgated.”
ATA’s take
The U.S. trucking industry spends more than $10 billion each year on safety, which includes technology, training, and compliance measures, according to the ATA. Despite those efforts, two-thirds of the accidents involving commercial trucks are caused by passenger vehicles, Spear said. “This multibillion-dollar investment has really been spread thinner over recent years, making it even more important to spend that money wisely to make a concerted effort to reduce the overall number of fatalities each year,” he maintained.
Spear then broke down what the ATA sees as the top three factors that are fueling the industry’s spending on safety. The first is driver safety. Singling out speeding and distracted driving, Spear referred to the use of smartphones and social media apps as “technology-born problems, where innovation may be the only solution.”
Secondly, Spear highlighted the nation’s ongoing war on opioid use, coupled by the increasing number of states that have legalized recreational marijuana use. ATA staunchly believes that more tools are needed to screen talent within the trucking industry.
“Urinalysis has reached its limits, and with opioid and marijuana use on the rise, hair testing must be finalized by the Departments of Health and Human Services and Transportation if we’re to keep people driving trucks and cars safe on our nation’s highways,” Spear said. “Furthermore, populating the test data in the Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse and fixing the CSA score card are both common-sense catalysts for safety.”
The third factor on Spear’s list is the need to invest in modern infrastructure. He cited as evidence the nation’s “decaying” roads and bridges and “the abhorrent lack of federal investment.”
“Our roads and our bridges are without question safety hazards to anyone who drives on them,” Spear said. “Truckers currently lose $74.5 billion sitting idle in traffic each year. That equates to 425,000 drivers sitting idle for an entire year, emitting 67 million tons of CO2.
“Infrastructure is not free and it’s not cheap,” he continued. “Devolving the responsibility to the states is not only irresponsible, it poses multiple threats to public safety.”
Spear said that one example is states adopting tolling schemes, which end up pushing truck traffic off primary arteries and into residential areas.
“We feel very strongly and have testified multiple times in front of the Senate and House on this issue. I am very pleased to see the House majority finally move a comprehensive infrastructure bill,” Spear emphasized. “We call on the Senate and the president to take a stand and get this done. It’s for the betterment of the country, our economy, and certainly our industry—and, most importantly, public safety.”
OOIDA’s take
Speaking on behalf of owner-operators and truck drivers across the nation, Pugh expressed his hope that FMCSA’s summit would address solutions to improve highway safety and make the trucking profession a more equitable and attractive career.
“This starts by listening to real truckers,” he advised. “By that I mean, listen to the professionals, the men and women who make their living behind the wheel.”
“It’s no secret that most drivers don’t like ELDs,” Pugh added. “The ELDs have created more stress, more cost and more fatigue. There is simply no safety justification whatsoever for the ELD mandate.”
OOIDA does, however, support the revisions made to the federal Hours of Service (HOS) rules, which were set to take effect Sept. 29. Pugh lauded FMCSA’s approach to the revisions, which allowed thousands of commercial drivers to provide input.
Pugh also addressed the newfound national appreciation for truck drivers and the sacrifices that they make every day.
“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, truckers were busy keeping grocery store shelves stocked and delivering critical health care supplies to medical professionals,” Pugh emphasized. “They did this under extreme difficulty working under harsh economic conditions. Freight rates collapsed, professional protective gear wasn’t readily available, and many drivers were hundreds and even thousands of miles away from home.
“This all highlighted something that we’ve been saying at OOIDA for decades: The supply chain does not value the drivers,” he continued. “Too many drivers are forced to haul cheap freight, too many motor carriers mistreat and underpay drivers, and too many shippers and receivers detain drivers for excessive periods of time. This has to be addressed.”
Pugh called on FMCSA to move forward with OOIDA’s petition to improve broker transparency. He also urged the industry to properly compensate truck drivers.
In addition, Pugh said OOIDA discourages FMCSA from any further delays to the entry-level driver training rule, which now has been pushed back until 2022.
“The initial delay means more drivers will enter the industry without the basic skills needed to operate safely,” Pugh explained. “Driving a truck is a highly skilled profession. More professional instruction would reduce crashes and help prepare individuals for a safe and viable career in trucking.”
OOIDA also has been working with Congress to enact H.R.6104, the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act.
“I started trucking myself in 1994, and some of the issues have gotten worse since then,” Pugh said.
“These issues won’t disappear, and I sure as hell hope that we won’t be having the same conversations 25 years from now.”
HOS revisions
Mullen reiterated that revisions to the HOS rule were scheduled to take effect Sept. 29.
“Four petitions have been filed, but there is no effort to abate or hold off on the Sept. 29 date,” he said before leaving his position. “As of right now, we are on track for that.”
On June 1, FMCSA revised the HOS regulations to provide greater flexibility for drivers. Here’s a recap of what is changing:
- Short-haul exception: Expands the short-haul exception to 150 air-miles and allows a 14-hour work shift to take place as part of the exception.
- Adverse driving conditions exception: Expands the driving window during adverse driving conditions by up to an additional two hours.
- 30-minute break requirement: Requires a 30-minute break after eight hours of driving time (instead of on-duty time) and allows an on-duty/not driving period to qualify as the required break.
- Sleeper berth provision: Modifies the sleeper berth exception to allow a driver to meet the 10-hour minimum off-duty requirement by spending at least seven, rather than at least eight hours of that period in the berth and a minimum off-duty period of at least two hours spent inside or outside the berth, provided the two periods total at least 10 hours, and that neither qualify period counts against the 14-hour driving window.
FleetOwner’s Cristina Commendatore contributed to this report.
