Yesterday, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced several extensions of the COVID-19 Emergency Waivers and Declarations until February 28, 2022.
- Livestock and livestock feed;
- Medical supplies and equipment related to the testing, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19;
- Vaccines, constituent products, and medical supplies and equipment, including ancillary supplies/kits for the administration of vaccines, related to the prevention of COVID-19;
- Supplies and equipment necessary for community safety, sanitation, and prevention of community transmission of COVID-19 such as masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, soap, and disinfectants; and,
- Food, paper products, and other groceries for emergency restocking of distribution centers or stores;
- Gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and ethyl alcohol; and,
- Supplies to assist individuals impacted by the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., building materials for individuals displaced or otherwise impacted as a result of the emergency).
FMCSA has also extended the commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) and commercial learner’s permits (CLP) waivers under certain circumstances. However, this waiver permits, but does not require, states to extend the validity of for those issued on or after March 1, 2020, until February 28, 2022.
Michigan Secretary of State HAS NOT extended either the CDL or CLP waivers.
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Transport Topics- To help address ongoing nationwide supply chain issues, Gov. Mike DeWine on Nov. 23 reinstituted a pandemic-era order allowing trucks to carry an additional 10,000 pounds of freight over the normal 80,000-pound limit without needing a permit beforehand.
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Freight Waves- Hoping to quell a rising tide of smuggled goods and lost tax revenue, Mexico’s controversial new waybill regulations — known as the Carta Porte supplement — is scheduled to go into effect Wednesday.
The regulations from the Mexican Tax Authority (SAT) aim to reduce cargo theft and the movement of contraband throughout the country. The SAT also estimates that Mexican authorities are losing as much as $7 billion a year on uncollected taxes from smuggled goods.
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Commercial Carriers Journal- Autonomous trucking technology upstart Gatik, in collaboration with Walmart, is now operating daily without a safety driver behind the wheel of its delivery route in Bentonville, Arkansas.
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MTA officially joins ATA in legal challenge to vaccine mandate |
Michigan Trucking Association has officially been named as a party to the American Trucking Associations legal challenge to the Biden Administration's mandatory COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Papers were filed November 23 to add MTA, as well as the Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee State Trucking Associations—which represent the states making up the Sixth Circuit—as named parties.
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Freight Waves- Roads – no matter how well-planned, constructed and maintained – are not perfect, and unfortunately accidents are inevitable. Most U.S. highways were not designed for trucks, although some highways are safer than others.
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Transport Topics- Congress has created a new requirement for automakers: Find a high-tech way to keep drunken people from driving cars.
It’s one of the mandates along with a burst of new spending aimed at improving auto safety amid escalating road fatalities in the $1 trillion infrastructure package that President Biden is expected to sign soon.
Under the legislation, monitoring systems to stop intoxicated drivers would roll out in all new vehicles as early as 2026.
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Freight Waves- A La Nina climate pattern is emerging for the second consecutive winter in the U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC).
For carriers, this means their drivers may have to deal with a high number of delays in the Northwest and Great Lakes. Impacts would spread to shippers and customers.
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Bid December 10 on a
T680 Kenworth Truck!
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