Still Time to Register for the 2016 TMHA Summer Safety Meeting
 
TMHA will hold its annual Summer Safety Meeting at The Abbey Resort in Fontana, Wisconsin, with two half-day sessions occurring on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 27 and the morning of Thursday, July 28.   If you haven't already registered to attend, please do so now via this website link.
 
Wednesday evening a cocktail cruise reception, sponsored by HNI Truck Group, will take TMHA attendees on a tour around beautiful Lake Geneva.  At the conclusion of the cruise, attendees will report back to The Abbey Resort for dinner in the scenic Porto Room, sponsored by Great West Casualty Company.  Meeting attendee guests are invited to enjoy the Wednesday evening activities; however,  please be sure to register them when submitting your online registration.
 
The official TMHA Annual Meeting is sponsored by Comdata Corporation.
 
We have three great presenters scheduled to speak to the group:

CVSA Update

Collin Mooney, CVSA

 

CSA Program, Update & Overview

Jeff Davis, Fleet Safety Services

 

Regulatory & Legislative Update

 Tim Wiseman, Scopelitis Law Firm


 

If you have questions about the meeting, please don't hesitate to reach out.  A specific schedule of events can be found via this website link.  Otherwise, please make sure you register yourself, or coworkers, to attend this year's TMHA Annual Meeting!

 
We look forward to seeing everyone at The Abbey Resort!




TMHA Board
of Directors
  
President
 
Mike Connell
Bennett Motor Express
  
First Vice President
 
Dave Gallano
Gallano Trucking
  
Second Vice President
 
Tom Witt
Roehl Transport
  
Past President
 
Jon Coca
Diamond Transportation System, Inc.

  
Clayton Fisk
Warren Transport

Jeremy Ihle
Ihle Transport, Inc.
  
Heather Johnson
Landstar 
Transportation Logistics
  
  
TMHA Mission Statement  
  
To provide an ongoing forum for education, networking and advocacy for flatbed, step-deck and lowboy (RGN) carriers that specialize in the transportation of machinery and machinery-related commodities throughout the United States and Canada.
  
Commenters Slam Safety Fitness Proposal

Comments filed with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on its proposed safety fitness scores were mostly negative.

American Trucking Associations, among those commenting by the May 23 cut-off date, called on FMCSA to rescind the proposal until the National Academies of Sciences reviews Compliance, Safety, Accountability data, which the agency used to form the proposal.

In rating a carrier's safety fitness, the proposed rule would replace the current three-tiered system (satisfactory, conditional and unsatisfactory) with a sole determination of "unfit." The determination would be based on roadside inspection data, FMCSA on-site investigations or a combination of the two.


SOURCE:  Transport Topics
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has published a final rule in the Federal Register on June 7, requiring that all passengers traveling in property-carrying commercial motor vehicles wear seat belts.

While it already requires that drivers wear seat belts, the agency has been silent on whether passengers riding in large trucks must use seat belts.

The rule, effective Aug. 8, holds motor carriers and drivers responsible for ensuring that passengers riding in property-carrying CMVs are using seat belts.

Since 1990, federal regulations require manufacturers of trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds to install seat belts or a "complete passenger protection system" at every seating position in a truck, the rule said.


SOURCE:   Transport Topics 
FMCSA Issues Rule Increasing Most Motor Carrier Civil Penalties

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has issued an interim final rule increasing - and in some cases decreasing - its motor carrier civil penalties for violations of federal regulations.

In an announcement scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on June 27, the agency said several laws require periodic "catch-up" adjustments based on cost-of-living increases, Those adjustments result in most penalties jumping from 10% to more than 105%.

The adjusted penalties go into effect Aug. 1, the agency said.

The rule provides for some of the more serious penalties to be assessed on a daily basis if a carrier fails to take corrective action or obey out-of-service or suspension orders.

Although most of the penalty increases are computed using a formula, others are left to the discretion of the agency, according to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 2015.


SOURCE:  Transport Topics

Foxx Sees Tsunami Of Change Coming To Transportation

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx sees "a tsunami of change" coming in transportation over the next 30 years. 

"Technology exists to solve a problem, but if we're unclear about what the problem is that we're trying to solve, we'll never solve it," Foxx said. "We're facing a tsunami of change in transportation. We're going to have 70 million more people over the next 30 years.

"There are changes where those people are coalescing. Many of them coalescing around our urban centers, and many of them are moving to the South and to the West, places that historically have been more dependent on the automobile."

Foxx also sees changes ahead for the movement of freight.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration submitted its proposed Phase 2 greenhouse-gas emissions and fuel-economy rule for trucks and trailers to the Office of Management and Budget on June 3 for required regulatory review.

That's the last step before the expansive rulemaking can be finalized. As of now, the two agencies jointly promulgating it project that OMB will complete its review quickly enough that the final rule could be published in the Federal Register as early as August.

A monster of a regulatory development, the proposed Phase 2 rule was unveiled last June. They will cover 2021 to 2027-model-year trucks and tractors and 2018-to-2027 MY trailers.
 

SOURCE:  HDT Headline News