Welcome to Fall.  The cooler air in most parts of the country seems to come with more work for everyone as we head into the last quarter of the year.  We welcome the newest member of our staff, Robert Haupt who will join us as an Account Executive.  Be nice to him when you get a chance to speak with him. We have told him only nice things about most of you! Tiana and I will be at the AAMGA meeting in Tennessee at the end of October and we look forward to getting a chance to catch up with some of you.

In the news this month we report:

VEHICLE REGISTRANTS – The enactment of the FMCSA requirement that all current “vehicle registrant only” operations either switch their designation to a motor carrier registration or deactivate the number has been slowed.  The FMCSA has advised that it will now phase in the requirement in order to give states time to address the changes and determine how to minimize the impact on state operations. The DOT number of vehicle registrants is set to expire in mid-October.

SHUT DOWNS – The FMCSA has ordered HP Distribution LLC to shut down stating that the Kansas based operation posed an imminent hazard to public safety,” Apparently the company’s drivers had extensive hours-of-service violations. The out-of-service order included information on repeated violations of hours-of-service laws, and also concluded that the carrier permitted its drivers to falsify logbooks to hide the violations.  In other orders, just two months after shutting down Three Angels Farms of Lebanon, TN the FMCSA has now shut down Terri’s Farm in TN.  It was ordered to cease operations after investigators found the company was “operating the same vehicles, and maintaining the same operational and safety management structure as former horse transporter, Three Angels Farms.”

ANTI-INDEMNITY STATUTES – Massachusetts has joined 34 other states in outlawing indemnity provisions in truck contracts. Provisions are no longer permitted in motor carrier contracts that provide for shippers to be indemnified for losses caused by their own negligence, making them void and unenforceable. Michigan is expected to follow shortly, with legislation close to signature.

RISE IN EQUIPMENT LEASING – We just learned that there is an Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation which provides a Monthly Confidence Index for the Equipment Finance Industry (MCI-EFI) . This month they report that the index is up to 53.0, up from the August index of 50.2, According to the foundation this reflects an increased optimism and willingness to expand businesses operations even when there are uncertainties over the path of the country. Thank goodness we get some good news.

BUREAU OF TRANSPORTATION REPORTS – The BTS has released a few reports which may be of interest.  They released the State Transportation Statistics 2011. It includes calculations showing which states had the highest and lowest number of highway traffic fatalities per 100,000 population in 2010. The ninth annual STS consists of 115 tables of state data on infrastructure, safety, freight transportation, passenger travel, registered vehicles and vehicle-miles traveled, economy and finance, and energy and environment, plus a U.S. Fast Facts page. The report can be viewed here.  If you want to know more about the trends for containerized shipments moving in the U.S. they also released a report on the trends in containerized freight.  The report can be viewed here.

DRIVER TURN OVER INCREASES – The ATA reports that driver turnover at large truckload carriers (those with revenues in excess of 30 million) reached 106% in the second quarter — the highest level since the final quarter of 2007. A 106% turnover rate means that drivers on average spend less than one year at a particular company. Not good news for an industry already suffering from tight capacity. Read More

I am not sure anyone is out there in these waning days of summer. There were few newsworthy events this month as focus seems to be on getting in that last bit of summer.   For those of you who are just waiting for the Labor Day Holiday to begin we bring you the most update information on the transportation industry to send you on your way. For those of you who are viewing this report this after the break – welcome back.   This month we report:

CAB LABS – This month we rolled out two new features, one into the Carrier Search section and one into the Submission Report™ section, of our subscriber site. For those of you who use our Carrier Search page, you are undoubtedly familiar with the critical information that accompanies the search results to help quickly identify potential issues with the entities you are viewing without having to load up a complete report. In addition to the Shared Address, Shared Phone, Inactive and Chameleon™ icons that can be found adjacent to any entity in the results, we’ve now added in an Out of Service icon that will alert you instantly to the fact that the FMCSA has taken this carrier out of service. Hovering over the icon will tell you when this OOS order was issued and why. We’ve seen numerous instances of carrier’s being taken out of service and then reincarnating as a ‘new’ Chameleon Carrier™ which is why it’s critical to pay attention to any entities that are related to an out of service carrier. 

In addition to this, for those of you that are taking advantage of our Hot Zone alerts which allow a company to flag specific states and counties and receive an alert if the carrier has traveled in any of those locations, we’ve added in to the Radius tab of the Submission Report™ a chart displaying a breakdown of the inspections that have taken place in flagged zones. For further information on any of these features please contact us and we’d be happy to personally walk you through a demo of these new features. 

COMING CSA CHANGES – The FMCSA has announced proposed coming changes to CSA this December. According to the organization the changes will include modifications to Cargo-Related BASIC (Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category) to the Hazardous Materials (HM) Compliance BASIC, as well changing the Fatigued Driving BASIC to the hours-of-service (HOS) compliance BASIC which is designed to weigh HOS paper and electronic logbook violations equally. In addition, they will incorporate cargo and load securement violations into the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC, include intermodal equipment violations that should be found during drivers’ pre-trip inspections, removing 1 to 5 mph speeding violations; and better record violations accurately to reflect the proper inspection type.  There is also the possibility of the formulation of a CSA subcommittee, which will include shippers, carriers, and safety groups, as well as other interested groups to discuss proposals and recommendations regarding future alterations to the CSA program.  The FMCSA reports that there was a 5% reduction in crashes in the past year and they point to the success of CSA in reducing those numbers.

ATA U.S. FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION FORECAST – The ATA has released its U.S. Freight Transportation Forecast to 2023 and the forecast is positive! Freight tonnage is expected to increase 21% by 2023, with revenue up 59%.   Of those numbers trucking will have 69.6% of the tonnage and 81.7% of the freight revenue.  Rail carrier’s overall share of tonnage will fall to 15% in 2023 from the 15.7% in the baseline year of 2011 but intermodal tonnage will rise.  Domestic waterborne transit is also expected to see some modest growth.

HAZMAT VIOLATIONS – Under the new Federal Highway Reauthorization law, motor carriers and shippers who are cited for hazardous materials violations face the potential of fines of up to $75,000 per day per violation, up from $50,000.  In cases of death, severe injury, serious illness or substantial property damage fines can increase to $175,000 per day per violation.

CVSA REPORT – CVSA has released its report of its most recent inspection blitz.  95.4% of all truck and bus drivers passed inspections, with only 4.6% placed out of service.  The overall out-of-service rate for all vehicle inspections was 20.9%, slightly above the record low of 19.3% from last year.   They also report that the out-of-service rate for Level 1 inspections, the most comprehensive, declined to 22.4%, from 22.8% last year.

FREIGHT POLICY COUNCIL -The DOT has announced a Freight Policy Council to focus on improving the condition and performance of the national freight network to better ensure the ability of the U.S. to compete in today’s global economy. The council is to formulate a national, intermodal plan for improving the efficiency of freight  The Council will be chaired by Deputy Transportation Secretary John Porcari, and will include DOT leadership from highways, rail, ports and airports and economic and policy experts from across the administration. Read More