|
State task force says students need more access to career and technical education
Bangor Daily News
CARIBOU, Maine — If Caribou High School junior Kameron Rackler had not entered the school’s career and technical education center as a freshman, it might have taken him longer to find his passion.
Rackler was part of the first cohort of freshmen, sophomores and juniors to take part in Caribou Technology Center’s new exploratory program in fall 2021. The program let him take classes in all the center’s ‘hard trades’: welding, auto body, auto tech, commercial driver’s license, carpentry, construction and large equipment repair and maintenance.
Read more...
| |
|
2024 MMTA Employee Benefits Program Rates/Plans Now Available
MMTA
Are you taking advantage of MMTA’s group employee benefits? MMTA works with some of the most respected insurance carriers in Maine to create a diverse employee benefits program to offer our members. The program includes a variety of plan options, including dental, vision, short-term disability, and life insurance, for all budgets.
By leveraging member purchasing power and creating a larger pool, we have negotiated better prices and rate stability for our plans. Our 2024 rates are competitive, with some plans staying the same and some rates are even lower.
Click here to read the full article...
| |
|
MMTA RELEASES 2024 TRAINING/EVENT SCHEDULE
MMTA has released our 2024 training and events calendar. While the schedule may change, we thought it was important to get the dates and training topics out as early as possible so members can make their plans for the year. As always, you can register for trainings and events online at www.mmta.com as well as find sponsorship opportunities that are available.
Read more...
| |
|
FMCSA Warning: Drivers Who Drug-Test Positive Will Lose CDLs
Transport Topics
Federal trucking regulators have issued a warning that late next year truck drivers who test positive for drug use will not only be placed on prohibited driving status, but will lose their commercial driver licenses and not be issued learning permits until they complete the federal return-to-work process.
Read More...
| |
|
Autonomous trucks cutting a path in forestry sector
Today's Trucking
In an untamed Quebec forest, a Canada lynx watches curiously from the bush as a platoon of Mack Granite logging trucks, one of them driverless, passes by on a remote logging road. Meanwhile in Maryland, engineers from Robotic Research Autonomous Industries (RRAI) watch the lynx on screens set up to monitor the performance of the autonomous truck platoons serving a Resolute Forest Products facility. This is the rugged Canadian wilderness, where forestry trucks encounter some of the toughest conditions imaginable. And this, according to Robotic Research, is the perfect environment for the near-term automation of commercial trucking.
Read more...
| |
|
New ATRI Research Analyzes Predatory Towing and Efforts to Prevent It
American Transportation Research Institute
Washington, D.C. – The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) today released a new report that examines the causes and countermeasures of predatory heavy-duty towing, with the goal of improving the relationship between the towing and trucking industries.
The most common types of predatory towing were excessive rates, experienced by 82.7 percent of motor carriers, and unwarranted extra service charges, experienced by 81.8 percent of carriers. A majority of carriers encountered additional issues such as truck release or access delays, cargo release delays, truck seizure without cause, and tows misreported as consensual.
Read More...
| |
|
Fleets spending more on safety: ATA
Today's Trucking
The U.S. trucking industry spent $14 billion on safety-related technology and training, according to a study by the American Trucking Associations (ATA). That was up more than 40% since the ATA’s last such survey in 2015. Fleets ranging from a few trucks in size, to more than 10,000, were surveyed, accounting for nearly 170,000 drivers and 160,000 trucks.
Read more...
| |
|
Trucking organizations support bill to streamline TSA-credentialing
Truckers News
Numerous trucking and related organizations and businesses have called on Congress to approve new legislation that would eliminate what a letter with the request called "redundant fees and background checks for essential transportation workers."
Read more...
| |
|
A pesky EV question keeps coming up
FleetOwner
This is an industry about efficiency—long before it became an EV buzzword. Large diesel trucks today are nearly 99% cleaner than a generation ago. But the rising costs of newer diesel equipment and the century-old Federal Excise Tax on fleet equipment are reasons smaller fleets and owner-operators are still running less clean diesel trucks.
Read more...
| |
|
Change is Coming to How Users Access the DOT’s Drug and Alcohol Management Information System
U.S. Department of Transportation Bulletin
What’s new with the DOT’s Drug and Alcohol Management Information System (MIS)? DOT-regulated employers required to submit annual drug/alcohol testing data will need to go through Login.gov to access the DOT’s drug and alcohol MIS and to input and submit their drug/alcohol testing data.
Read more...
| |
Recruiting and Retaining Drivers Remains a Challenge
Transport Topics
Amid ‘Freight Recession,’ Retention Is a Top Priority for Fleets
The economics of recruiting and retaining drivers has taken on a new layer of challenge recently, as a slowing freight market has shaken up the driving ranks. Amid what many have called a freight recession, keeping one’s best drivers takes on a new level of priority, said Scott Dismuke, vice president of operations for the Professional Driver Agency.
Read more...
| |
|
Board Proposes Adding Fentanyl to Drivers’ Drug Testing List
Transport Topics
A federal drug advisory group has begun the cumbersome process of placing fentanyl on the list of drugs to test federal safety-sensitive employees and truck drivers for drug use.
While it is clear that fentanyl is an “emerging drug of concern,” it may take up to a year or more for federal drug officials with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to plow through the process.
Read more...
| |
FMCSA Limits Scope of Emergency Regulatory Waivers
Heavy Duty Trucking
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has limited the scope of regulatory relief in emergency situations, changes that went into effect Dec. 12. The new rules limit the duration of emergency relief exemptions in state or regional emergencies to 14 days, and those exemptions now only apply to hours of service limits.
Read more...
| |
UPCOMING MMTA TRAINING & EVENTS | |
|
MMTA Member/Board Meetings
January 11, 2024
2:00pm
Meeting Rooms A&B
Cross Insurance Center, Bangor
| |
|
MMTA Annual Banquet
January 11, 2024
5:00pm
Cross Insurance Center, Bangor
FMI and Registration
| |
|
Hours-of-Service Training
January 26, 2024
8:30am - noon
MMTA Office, Augusta
FMI and Registration
| |
Thank you MMTA Annual Sponsors | |
Zero percent loans for approved CDL school training |
MMTA
Students attending approved CDL schools are eligible to apply for tuition loans to attain their Class A or Class B Commercial Driver’s License at an amazing ZERO percent interest.
| |
| | | |
