Mileage Matters
October 26, 2021
Michigan Trucking
Association

Association asks White House for truck driver exemption
Transport Topics- American Trucking Associations has sent a letter to the Biden administration expressing “grave concern” over the potential damage that the president’s plans for a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for many businesses — including trucking companies — could cause for the country.

The federation warns that motor carriers it represents – who it said supply 80% of the country and move 70% of all freight tonnage — could lose up to 37% of their drivers.


Also, ATA has issued a toolkit to answer questions about the mandate:
Freight Waves- The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance has compiled the results of its second-ever hazardous material/dangerous goods (HM/DG) inspection in the U.S., which is notable for its advance warning process: It doesn’t have one. 
Unlike the broad-based Roadcheck Week or Brake Safety Week, the latter for which the CVSA just announced the 2021 results, the HM/DG inspection was conducted unannounced June 21-25. The results were just recently disclosed.

Transport Topics- Trucking is short at least 80,000 drivers, and as freight volumes rise, so too does the need for more workers behind the wheel. Many have retired because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and new drivers entering the industry have been slow to emerge because of backlogs in training and obtaining commercial driver licenses.

Those are the conclusions of American Trucking Associations Chief Economist Bob Costello, who raised the estimate of drivers needed from 61,500 in his annual findings.
Transport Topics- Though it’s not yet Halloween, delivery companies UPS Inc.,
FedEx Corp. and the U.S. Postal Service have released their recommended deadlines to ship packages in time for the holidays.



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Commercial Carriers Journal- For the fifth year in a row, the driver shortage has topped the American Transportation Research Institute's (ATRI) annual Top Industry Issues report, a survey of more than 2,500 carriers, commercial drivers and other industry stakeholders.

The driver shortage isn't the only labor-related concern noted in ATRI’s Top 10 as a shortage of diesel technicians cracked the list (No. 10) for the first time. 
The Mackinac Bridge Authority (MBA) voted to reinstate its suspended driver assistance program on November 1, along with the pedestrian, bicyclist, and snowmobile transportation programs.

To help defray the average cost of roughly $33 per trip for the program, the MBA will begin charging $10 per trip when the program resumes, and $15 per trip starting Jan. 1, 2025.
NPR- When thinking about the trucking industry, the first thing that comes to mind about its drivers is that they tend to be older — industry experts say the average trucker is 54 years old. But given the nationwide truck driver shortage, that's now changing.

A high school in California is now training teens to enter the industry through its truck driving school program.
Sapp Bros. Travel Center Cashier Jessica Chapman from Junction City, Kansas has been named the 2021 Harriet Tubman Award winner by Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT) for helping a woman who had been sexually exploited.
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