Your GNJMA Member News for September!

Your Member Monthly News & Updates

October 11th

Fall Annual Association Meeting Keynote

David W. Cooper, Industry Engagement Manager for Highway and Motor Carriers for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Office of Security Policy and Industry Engagement, will discuss bus security as well as ways that operators can enhance their security assessments and planning, training and exercises, and information sharing. Click here to read the press release from June for more information.

Registration for the the Fall Annual Association Meeting, and related events, closes September 26th. Sponsorship opportunities close September 14th.

Click Here to Register Now!

Need more motivation? Check out our Top 10 Reasons To Attend!

Member Headlines

Bailey Coach Driver of the Year

John W. Bailey, President of Bailey Coach, announced the Motorcoach Drivers of the Year Awards at their driver safety meeting held on Tuesday August 21, 2018.

Bailey Coach recognizes their drivers in Gold, Silver and Bronze categories. The awards are based on safe driving practices based on many factors provided by their insurance company that monitors each trip the driver drives during the past 12 months, via their onboard camera system. Each driver received an award certificate along with gift cards for their accomplishments.

The winners were:

Gold: Hal Brook

Silver: Tami Moore

Bronze: Tom Shellenberger

Welcome New Members!

The following new members have joined the GNJMA since our August newsletter. Please join us in welcoming them!

Don Brown Bus Sales
Primary Contact : Mike Genovese

Hunterdon Hills Playhouse

Primary Contact: Rich Ollwerther

Open House

Perfect Body & Fender Company will host an open house for valued customers and company affiliates.

Date: September 12th, 2018

Time: 11:00AM - 2:00PM

Location: 7100 West Side Avenue, North Bergen, NJ

Vendor partners will also be on hand to display their products. Lunch will be served!

Charity Poker Run - Stout's Transportation

Shawn Stout, Stout's Transportation, has organized a charity poker run to benefit The Cooley's Anemia Foundation.

His nephew, Nicholas, was born with a gen etic blood disorder called thalassemia or Cooley's Anemia. It is life-threaten ing anemia requiring chronic blood transfusions and aggressive management of iron overload to avoid organ failure and early death.

Nicholas will have blood transfusions every 2-4 weeks of his life unless a cure is found. Nicholas has already received more than 36 blood transfusions and is only 3 years old. The Cooley's Anemia Foundation helps fund research towards increasing the quality of living for these patients and towards finding a cure for everyone diagnosed with Cooley's Anemia.

Saturday, September 29th
10:00AM Registration; 11:15AM Kickstands Up

Get more information here!

GNJMA Annual Driver Safety Meeting

Bob Crescenzo is Vice President of Safety & Loss Control at the Lancer Insurance Group headquartered in Long Beach, NY. Since 1985, Lancer has been one of the nation's leading insurers of the passenger transportation industry.

For over 27 years, Bob has been responsible for coordinating the Lancer safety engineering program, marketing and seminar preparation for motorcoach operators. He has also authored several articles and has been extensively quoted in industry trade publications on the topics of safety, driver training and regulatory compliance.

Please join us on November 7, 2018 at 11:45AM at the Tropicana in Atlantic City for this no-cost event. This annual session is geared specifically for our drivers, is always well-attended with excellent educational content, a delicious lunch, great camaraderie and giveaways. All Members are welcome!

Register Now!

Industry Information

CVSA Brake Safety Week September 16-22

Webinar Tomorrow

CVSA-certified enforcement personnel will conduct roadside inspections on commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) as part of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance's (CVSA) Brake Safety Week, September 16-22, in order to identify and remove CMVs with critical brake violations from our roadways and to call attention to the dangers of faulty brake systems.

According to the CVSA, most of the inspections conducted during Brake Safety Week will be the North American Standard Level I Inspection. Vehicles with defective or out-of-adjustment brakes will be placed out of service.

Additionally, in the 12 jurisdictions using performance-based brake testing (PBBT) equipment, vehicle braking efficiency will be measured. Last year's Brake Safety Day and the unannounced Brake Safety Day held in April this year resulted in 1,064 and 1,595 vehicles, respectively, being placed out of service for brake-related violations.

Join CVSA's "Getting Ready for Brake Safety Week" webinar tomorrow, September 6 (12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CDT) for a thorough review of items that will be covered during an inspection to ensure that not only your brakes will be ready for Brake Safety Week, but your vehicles and drivers are prepared throughout the year. Click here to go to the registration page.

NJ Gas Tax Increasing October 1st

New Jersey's gas tax will increase in order to ensure compliance with the 2016 law that requires a steady stream of revenue to support the state's Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) program. Due to the formula explicitly outlined in the law, the PPGR tax rate on gasoline and diesel will increase 4.3 cents per gallon. Read more...

Route 495 Construction in NJ has Begun

Two lanes on Route 495 will be closed for almost three years of construction, and Governor Murphy said it was high time to replace the 80-year-old massive string of bridges.

Help For Checking Drivers' Histories

Do You Have Drivers Licensed In A State With An Employer Notification Service?

Under federal regulations (Â§383.51), commercial drivers are required to notify their employer of any traffic violation (except parking) within 30 days, and any driving disqualifications within one business day, but that doesn't always happen.

Currently, motor carriers are mandated to investigate the previous employment record and safety performance history with respect to each driver they employ, and to annually check the driving history record of their drivers. Therefore, if a driver does not self-report, they may be operating illegally on the roadways for up to 364 days before the motor carrier discovers any violation or disqualification.

An Employer Notification System (ENS) is a program that automatically sends updates to the requestor when a driver's license status changes, there is a crash, and/or a conviction is posted to the driver's record. The use of these services, in particular those with "push" notifications, satisfies the federal requirement for a motor carrier to make an inquiry into each driver's record.

At the present time, there are 15 states and the District of Columbia that have an ENS system, and several other jurisdictions have programs that provide easy, periodic access to driving records, but do not automatically send "push" notifications. A motor carrier using these systems is still required to check the driving record annually (Â§391.25).

The link below provides summary information compiled by the FMCSA on the ENS, or other systems, currently available.

Employer Notification Services by State

Apprenticeships Help Relieve Transportation's Technician Shortages

The use of apprenticeships to transfer skills from one generation to the next dates back to ancient Egypt, Rome, and Greece. In early America, the practice of training younger workers through apprenticeship was carried over from England and other European countries where master craftspeople worked side by side with apprentices. When apprentices achieved the status of craft workers they became accepted as highly regarded members of society. Read more...

ELDs Making A Difference Per FMCSA

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) says it's electronic logging device mandate is working to improve hours-of-service compliance, and it's updating a graph monthly to show that is that continues to trend, or not.

Check for monthly updates here.

Senate Agrees to One-Year Ban on Transit Rail Car and Bus Procurements from Chinese-Owned Companies

The U.S. Senate agreed to a one-year ban on any new procurements of mass transit railcars or buses from companies owned or subsidized by the government of the People's Republic of China, if the procurement uses any Federal Transit Administration formula or bus funding.