With a few glitches, which is to be expected, the new search engine is up and running. Thank you for all of the positive feedback.  We have had so many calls for training so that everyone in a company is aware of the power now at your fingertips. We Love It!

We are also still getting submissions on our request to help us out with finding an acronym for the site. We are going to leave it open again for another month and then give you all of the choices to vote on.

This month we report the following interesting Bits and Pieces:

INCREASED BRAKE VIOLATIONS – For those of you who subscribe to our premium service and receive reports on your carrier’s violations, do not be surprised if you see an upturn in brake violations this month.  The CVSA held a brake safety week this month, from Sept. 12 through Sept. 18. The program is designed to increase awareness of brakes and brake issues by educating drivers, mechanics and others. With more inspectors focusing on the brakes we anticipate greater number of violations.

DISTRACTED DRIVING RULES – U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood held the 2010 national Distracted Driving Summit this month. He introduced the new anti-distracted driving regulations for drivers transporting hazardous materials, commercial truck and bus drivers, and rail operators. The new rulemaking prohibits commercial truck drivers from texting while transporting hazardous materials. The final rules banning commercial bus and truck drivers from texting were also issued. In 2009, nearly 5,500 people died and half a million were injured in crashes involving a distracted driver. A copy of the new rules can be viewed here.

Read More

Be on the lookout for our announcement later this week launching our new and improved Carrier and Vehicle Research System (the CAB subscriber website for those of you IT challenged like myself) to our premium subscribers.  We are very excited about this and look forward to your comments and suggestions.

Here we are at the end of the summer once again. Hope you all enjoyed your summer and got a chance to take some time off.  We have had many calls from underwriters concerning the upcoming termination of the BMC-32 endorsement. Right now there is no specific answer on what steps an underwriter should take to terminate existing endorsements. There is no rulemaking which automatically deletes them from any policy.  We would be happy to discuss options with any subscriber to our services.  This month we report:

NAFTA – Mexico is getting tired of waiting for the U.S. to move forward and open the border.  More retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports have been imposed to pressure the government to take action. Pork, cheese, pistachio nuts, ketchup and citrus fruits are among the new products subject to levies as high as 25%. Those Senators involved in the Transportation Department’s 2011 budget have included a provision in the proposed legislation which would require that that the President come up with a plan by October. Read More