Happy Halloween!  May the ghouls and goblins stay away and may you only get candy in your trick or treat bag! Seriously though, as we head into the holiday season we wish you all the best. Enjoy the coming Thanksgiving holiday too.

The response to our training sessions has been great – We appreciate your taking the time to learn how the CABAdvantage can work for you. Because of the continuing interest we will be holding sessions again in November. These are open to anyone and we would encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to learn about our new SALEs program and the CAB Basics. The SALEs training will be approximately 30 minutes and will demonstrate effective use of the system.  The CAB Basics will be an hour and will include an overview of our new features as well as a refresher of the features and navigation of the CAB website.  To register click on the following:

CAB Basics- Tuesday November 12^th at 3:00 p.m. EST

CAB SALEs- Wednesday November 13^th at 3:00 p.m. EST

In addition to our standard CAB Basic and SALEs training, we are going to be offering focus sessions.  These will be short training sessions on a particular topic or feature of CAB.  The November focus session will be November 19th, at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time and you can click here to register.  The session will focus on the Workspace and all of its features and different ways it can be used.  Also, we would like your feedback on topics for future focus sessions.  Please email us by clicking here with the topics you would like us to cover.

For those of you who will be attending TIDA’s annual seminar this year, we have a great training opportunity. CAB will be holding a subscriber training meeting prior to this year’s TIDA conference. On Wednesday November 13, 2013, from 3:30 PM – 5:00 P.M., prior to the Cocktail Reception, CAB will hold a hands-on training session on effective use of the CAB’s premier website to enhance claim handling.  This session is only open to CAB Subscribers and space is limited.  Please reserve your space here.

Shuie and Tiana were at the Transportation Risk Specialist’s annual Motor Carrier Insurance Education Foundation seminar this month and were pleased to bring back to the rest of us here all of the accolades for the programs that we offer.  Thanks for all of the great feedback.

This month we report:

SLEEP APENA RULES – The Senate followed the House and approved measures to require the FMCSA to undertake a formal regulatory process before implementing any future requirements with respect to sleep apnea, which the President quickly signed into law. Rather than simply issuing guidance they will be required to analyze the potential cost of sleep apnea before they can determine the applicable regulations.

CARGO THEFT REPORT – Freight Watch International has reported that cargo theft in the third quarter is up 15 percent, but the average loss value is down about 5 percent compared with second quarter 2013.  In the reporting period, FreightWatch recorded a total of 231 thefts, with 74 thefts in July, 76 in August, and 81 in September. The average loss value per incident was $154,866. Food and drinks topped the list, with 21 percent of all incidents from July to September. Following close behind was electronics, 29 thefts, home and garden supplies, 25 thefts.  California remained the state with the most thefts, accounting for 31 percent of all thefts in the quarter. Florida took over the second spot with 30 thefts, while Illinois and Texas tied for third with 28 each. Georgia rounded out the top five with 15 thefts.

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Fall is upon us and the weather has been glorious in New Jersey.  We hope you are enjoying this lovely time of year. This month we have a pinch hitter writing the first part of the Bits for Jean, (Jean still wrote the Cases section) so if things seems a little different you will know why.

In September we held our first open-session training on the CAB Basics and our new SALEs program. We were very pleased by the attendance and feedback.  Many of you have asked when the next sessions will be, and we are excited to announce that we will offer both sessions again in October. These are open to anyone and we would encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to learn about our new SALEs program and the CAB Basics. The SALEs training will be approximately 30 minutes and will demonstrate effective use of the system.  The CAB Basics will be an hour and will include an overview of our new features as well as a refresher of the features and navigation of the CAB website.  To register click on the following

October 16th at 3:00 p.m. EST CAB SALEs

October 17th at 3:00 p.m. EST CAB Basics

For those of you who will be attending TIDA’s annual seminar this year, we have a great training opportunity. CAB will be holding a subscriber training meeting prior to this year’s TIDA conference. On Wednesday November 13, 2013, from 3:30 PM – 5:00 P.M., prior to the Cocktail Reception, CAB will hold a hands-on training session on effective use of the CAB’s premier website to enhance claim handling.  This session is only open to CAB Subscribers and space is limited.  Please reserve your space here.

This month we report:

FMCSA RULEMAKING – There were a couple of actions by the FMCSA on the rulemaking front. First, the FMCSA along with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration changed the regulations to prohibit a driver of a commercial motor vehicle or of a motor vehicle transporting certain hazardous materials or certain agents or toxins from entering onto a highway-rail grade crossing unless there is sufficient space to drive completely through the grade crossing without stopping.  It is estimated that there are almost 20,000 grade crossings nationwide where this is an issue. The rulemaking is available here.

Second, The FMCSA is withdrawing its proposed rulemaking that proposed new entry-level driver training standards for CDL’s.  According to the FMCSA the rulemaking was withdrawn following the acknowledgement of substantive issues which have led the agency to conclude that it would be inappropriate to move forward with a final rule based on the proposal., and since the NPRM was published, FMCSA received statutory direction on the issue of entry level driver training from Congress via the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) reauthorization legislation and finally because the FMCSA tasked its Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee (MCSAC) to provide ideas the agency should consider in implementing the MAP-21 requirements.

NEW CARRIER AUDITS – The FMCSA is currently running a test program in California, Florida, Illinois, Montana and New York to perform many of its required new-entrant audits through the electronic submission of information rather than in person. Currently all new entrants need an initial audit within 18 months and MAP-21 will reduce that to 12 months. The test will continue through July 2014.

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