PRESQUE ISLE, Maine - Staying safe on the roads is important for everyone, including trucking companies. News Source 8 Isaac Potter has more on the growth of trucking safety in the state of Maine.

Christopher Cyr: “For our company approximately eleven years ago, Chamberland family held a meeting and they determined that they were going to turn around their culture of safety if they were going to remain in business.”

There are things in life you can count on like death, taxes, and if you live in Maine…posted roads. Mainers, especially those in the Trucking Industry, are quite familiar with the spring thaw and the necessity of the State and Towns to post roads during mud season. This article is a refresher of the posted road law to help our members comply.

Expect to see new engine and aftertreatment hardware to go with advanced software and technology as the industry prepares for stricter heavy-duty engine and vehicle standards, which the EPA will officially start imposing in 2027.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published its final new rule for heavy-duty engines and vehicles in the Federal Register on Jan. 24, officially creating more stringent emissions rules for truck OEMs. As manufacturers refine and develop the technology to meet the next step of the EPA's Clean Truck Plan, fleets should consider how it affects their operations.

More than a dozen bills offered at the Connecticut statehouse call for the state to eliminate the highway use tax on large trucks. On Jan. 1, the state implemented a use tax on trucks traveling on any Connecticut highway.

The tax is applied to large trucks ranging from Class 8 to Class 13. The per-mile tax rate ranges from 2.5 cents per mile for vehicles weighing 26,000 to 28,000 pounds to 17.5 cents per mile for vehicles weighing more than 80,000 pounds.

To most people, owning your own business is a way to become successful. For me, it was a mission – a lifeline to a brighter future for myself and my daughters.

 That journey began in California more than three decades ago, when I dropped my nursing studies to get a commercial driver’s license. As a woman, the thought of working in a male-dominated field was intimidating at first. But those initial fears soon gave way to the rewarding opportunities that a career in trucking offers.

TCA’s annual Safety & Security Meeting brings truckload carrier safety professionals together to discuss problems, share ideas, and seek solutions to make their businesses and our roads safer.

The event offers the highly popular “Safety in the Round” sessions where attendees can draw from the knowledge of the group to solve common safety management and human-resource problems. Topics typically include adoption of safety technologies, improving driver training procedures, insurance and litigation best practices, and others.

If you are interested in the meeting, visit https://www.tcasafetymeeting.com/. Once you decide to register, use the discount code “MILA” to get $400 off your registration fee.

The federal government is one step closer to a rule requiring side underride guards on trailers to mitigate underride crashes into the sides.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently sent an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) on side underride guards to the White House Office of Management and Budget. OMB must approve it before it’s published in the Federal Register. An ANPRM, or "pre-rule," is a notice primarily intended to request information and data before developing a proposed rule.

Faced with information technology challenges to its medical examiners' online registry, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced measures to ensure physicians will resume taking critical refresher training.

Physicians would have to undergo the training five years after their original certification, and then be tested for recertification every 10 years.

Nearly 41,000 truck drivers tested positive for marijuana in 2022, a 32% increase over 2021, according to a report recently compiled from data in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse.

The new report shows that more than 100,000 truck drivers have tested positive for marijuana since FMCSA opened the Clearinghouse on Jan. 6, 2020. Truck drivers who test positive for marijuana — and other drugs — are prohibited from driving, and must enter a “return-to-work” process and retest to get back behind the wheel.

Transport Topics

WASHINGTON — Federal policymakers seeking to modernize freight industry vehicles should revisit efforts to repeal a long-standing excise tax on new trucks, the leader of American Trucking Associations told a Senate committee Feb. 15.

Chris Spear, ATA’s president and CEO, pointed to potential supply chain connectivity and environmental benefits that would result from undoing a World War I-era 12% tax on new truck and trailer purchases.

The American Transportation Research Institute is seeking motor carrier input on the impact of marijuana legalization on the trucking industry’s workforce. While many states have made its use legal, marijuana is still considered a Class 1 illegal drug at the federal level and its use is prohibited for safety-sensitive workers such as truck drivers.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will publish Wednesday a notice of proposed changes to its CSA carrier Safety Measurement System based in part on recommendations from a 2017 National Academy of Sciences study (required by Congress almost a decade ago).

Battery-electric trucks may be ready for their moment in the sun, but widespread rollouts continue to be constrained by the struggles to establish related charging infrastructure.

“Overwhelmingly, infrastructure is slowing us down in terms of EV [electric vehicle] deployment,” Daimler Truck North America president and CEO John O’Leary said during a Jan. 31 media briefing. “Siting, permitting, construction delays – all that means current lead times are measured in years, not weeks or months.”

The 2023 Training & Event Schedule has been updated to include new dates for Air Brake classes, Electrical Diagnostics and Emissions seminars Click on the link below to download the schedule or go to go to our Course Book to reserve your seat today!

February 24, 2023

8:30am

MMTA Office, Augusta

March 3, 2023

8:30am

MMTA Office, Augusta

March 15, 2023

8:30am

MMTA Office, Augusta