For Immediate Release
Contact:     Brad Bentley
(256) 241-3310
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala., (August 2011) - Randall-Reilly Business Media & Information announced TMC Transportation company driver Darek Paul as the winner in its Trucking’s Top Rookie program at a ceremony on Friday, August 26 during the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas.

Paul was chosen for the award by an expert panel of judges, which included representatives from motor carriers, training schools (both public and private), suppliers and trade associations.

As the Top Rookie, Paul won $10,000 in cash and the following prizes:

• One-year complimentary membership in the National Association of Independent Truckers
  
  
• A Year’s supply of 5-Hour Energy drinks
  
  
• RoadPro Getting Started Living On-The-Go Package
  
  
• NAIT OGIO briefcase and duffle bag
  
  
• American Trucking Associations “Good Stuff Trucks Bring It” package
  
  
• A GPS unit and CB radio from COBRA Electronics
  
  
• 1 year of free access to Pro-Tread training series from Instructional Technologies, Inc.

Paul will be featured in Randall-Reilly’s Student Driver Placement and Pro Trucker publications and in an interview with Midnight Trucking Radio’s Eric Harley.

A Nashville native, Paul received his CDL training at CDI in Christiana, Tenn. Before becoming a driver with TMC, Paul served in the Army for three years and spent 15 months in Iraq. In late August, he also celebrated his one-year anniversary with TMC.

“Darek is a fine young man and we are so proud of him,” says Duane Boswell, VP of Recruiting. “Since he was in orientation and earned the honor roll award for his high test scores Darek has stood out. He performs his job safely, efficiently and most importantly with pride. He is the type of person we wish to hire and attract to the profession. Darek is an excellent representative for this award and our company. We look forward to his future success at TMC.”

The Trucking's Top Rookie contest was created to highlight the opportunities in the truck driving profession and promote the truck driving career choice during a severe shortage of drivers. Carriers were asked to nominate their top rookie who had graduated from a PTDI certified, or NAPFTDS- or CVTA-member driver training school within the past year and had been employed by their trucking company for less than one year. Nominees were judged on their safety performance, customer service and achievements within their organization.

Nine other finalists for the Trucking’s Top Rookie award each received $500 in cash and a variety of other prizes. The other finalists were Jackie Rhodes, Crete Carrier Corp.; Theodore Mueskes, Trimac Transportation; Clayton Tuma, Grand Island Express; Lorissa Strychowskj, MacKinnon Transport; Brian Knott, Maverick Transportation; Matthew Underhill, Con-Way Truckload; Wesley Baker, Cargo Transporters; Christopher Thiel, Grand Island Express and Damon Frazee, Crete Carrier Corporation.

Trucking’s Top Rookie is a partnership between Randall-Reilly, Truckload Carriers Association, Progressive Insurance, the National Association of Independent Truckers, Commercial Vehicle Training Association, Shell ROTELLA, National Association of Publicly Funded Truck Driving Schools, American Trucking Associations and the Midnight Trucking Radio Network.

From Steve Brantley, USA Truck, Inc.

I wanted to give your members a heads up that a new Scammer is on the streets, and he is calling your schools pretending to be from USA Truck. He usually goes by the name of James Hayes at phone number 615-975-9326. This person is NOT a representative of USA Truck. If you have any question about the identity of anyone who says they are connected with USA Truck, please call me directly at 479-471-6671.

DOT Safety Regulation Update Fast-Fax™
Week of August 22, 2011
Foley Services Your Single Source for DOT Compliance

The Obama Administration is waging war against regulations deemed harmful to small businesses; every agency is taking the ax to out dated or harmful regulations and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is no exception.

In an effort to kick-start the struggling economy, President Obama has ordered every Federal agency to review the regulations that it enforces and to trim the fat. Any regulations deemed harmful to small businesses in particular as well as those that are out dated or serve no current purpose are to be withdrawn.

The Department of Transportation is no exception; every agency of the department has submitted regulations for review. This issue will focus on the regulations identified by FMCSA as being ax-able.

So These Regulations Are Gone?

No. Not yet at least. FMCSA (as well as the other agencies) have consulted with industry insiders to identify regulations that can be gotten rid of. The regulations will now have to be reviewed before they are entirely axed. Quite what the percentage of those that were highlighted that will be axed remains to be seen.

Which Regulations Are Up for Review?

Below is a complete list of the regulations that are up for review. Beneath each regulation is an excerpt from the explanation issued by FMCSA as to why the regulation could be cut or changed.

49 CFR 383.31:

FMCSA acknowledges [the American Trucking Associations] concerns given that 49 CFR 384.209 requires the licensing agency for the State in which the conviction took place to notify the State licensing Agency that issued the CDL. Both sections 383.31 and 384.209 require that the notifications take place within 30 days of the conviction.

49 CFR 395.1(g):

The statutory exemption from the HOS requirements provided for certain motor carriers transporting grapes in New York expired on September 30, 2009, and that the implementing regulation under 49 CFR 395 should be removed.

49 CFR 392.7 and 396.13:

Two regulations concerning driver vehicle inspections should be reviewed to eliminate redundancies. The pretrip review doesn’t require any documentation or paperwork. [FMCSA] will review these requirements to consider whether they could be streamlined to reduce burden without reducing safety.

49 CFR Part 395:

FMCSA will soon issue a final rule to codify the statutory exemption provided by the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (RSIA of 2008). The Act provides that employees of railroad contractors and subcontractors who are engaged in installing, repairing, or maintaining signal systems are now governed exclusively by the HOS laws administered by FRA.

49 CFR Parts 390, 391, 395 and 396:

ATA and some of its key members have expressed an interest in the use of electronic signatures. However, the current safety regulations require traditional signatures. These options would provide significant paperwork reductions and be less burdensome to the industry than the paper records we currently require.

49 CFR Part 369:

FMCSA would rescind the requirement for certain for-hire motor carriers of property to file the annual Form M concerning their revenues, profits and losses

49 CFR Part 393:

The FMCSA received a petition for rulemaking to amend its brake system requirements for commercial motor vehicles. The rulemaking would allow carriers to disconnect the brakes on the last axle of a truck tractor being transported as the 3rd unit in a saddlemount arrangement.

Complete Listings

If you would like to know more about the process by which FMCSA chose these regulations — or if you would like to read the full reasoning behind each regulation chosen — the DOT has issued complete documentation. If you would like to a free copy, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

FMCSA Tweaks Intervention Thresholds for Certain Carriers. Fewer carriers are subject to stringent hazardous materials intervention thresholds after recent changes to FMCSA’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) safety measurement system. This week, FMCSA announced that only carriers that transport placardable quantities of hazardous materials are subject to CSA’s hazmat intervention thresholds. Previously, any carrier that indicated that it transported hazmat during registration was prioritized for intervention based on the stricter hazmat threshold.

With the recent changes, carriers that transport hazardous materials in amounts that do not require placarding are held to the general intervention thresholds of 65% and 80% instead of the hazmat thresholds of 60% and 75%.

Visit www.FoleySer vicesBlog.com for more information.

Editor: Roxanne Swidrak, Vice President, Operations • 1-800-253-5506 • www.FoleyServices.com • Vol. 111, No. 701 • © Foley Carrier Services, LLC. 2011

By Natalie Doss - Aug 25, 2011 1:26 PM ET
Bloomberg.com
Source: bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-25/driver-shortage-shows-gain-in-u-s-truck-cargo-freight-markets.html

U.S. trucking companies may face a 30 percent surge in wage bills by 2014 as rising demand for freight shipments threatens to push the industry’s driver shortage to the longest on record.

The current shortfall will double in a year to about 300,000 full-time positions, or 10 percent of the workforce, said Noel Perry, managing director at consultant FTR Associates in Nashville, Indiana. A three-year deficiency would top the 300,000 vacancies lasting for about a year in 2004, he said.

A gap between cargo demand and the driver supply adds to evidence that the freight industry is recovering. While the stock-market slump since July weighs on truckers such as J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., 2011’s gains in cargo tonnage fit “with an economy that is growing very slowly,” the American Trucking Associations trade group said this week.

“The truck-driver population is growing at less than 1 percent a year,” said Jeff Kauffman, a Sterne Agee & Leach Inc. analyst in New York who follows truck and railroad stocks. “Freight’s growing at closer to 4 percent.”

Truckers’ shipping volume, a barometer of the broader economy, was up 11 percent in July from a year earlier, according to Cass Information Systems. Echo Global Logistics Inc. (ECHO), a Chicago-based provider of freight services, said last month it’s “very optimistic about continued growth in the second half.”

U.S. Regulations

The shortfalls seen in previous freight rebounds are getting a new twist, according to Perry. U.S. safety regulations curbing drivers’ work hours mean companies must have more employees. Also now in place are rules helping companies assess applicants’ driving histories -- weeding out bad risks while also shrinking the pool of applicants.

Rising wages would add to the cost pressures from a bigger workforce and higher prices for new trucks required by federal emissions rules.

Truckers also are paying more for diesel fuel, which averaged 30 percent more a gallon this year through Aug. 23 than the same period in 2010, putting them at a competitive disadvantage to railroads’ superior efficiency.

“Truck is more expensive than rail already,” Kauffman said in an interview. “If it was purely a decision based on price, I probably already have moved to rail. But the flip side is, there’s a service difference” favoring truckers because of their greater speed.
Index Drops

The Standard & Poor’s Midcap Trucking Index slid 11 percent in 2011 before today, and remains 53 percent below its peak in 2007, before the last U.S. recession. J.B. Hunt, the biggest trucker by market value, has dropped 4.3 percent this year. The S&P 500 Railroads Index (S5RAIL) was down 1.6 percent.

Revenue per mile driven excluding fuel surcharges for dry van shipments has advanced 13 percent to $1.55 since the low reached in 2009 as freight demand plunged in the recession, according to industry researcher Truckloadrate.com. Trucks carry about 29 percent of domestic cargo, as measured by revenue ton- miles, compared with about 39 percent... Continue Reading...

Source: bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-25/driver-shortage-shows-gain-in-u-s-truck-cargo-freight-markets.html