I attended the National Cargo Theft Summit in Washington D.C. It was good to see a number of insurers attending the summit as the number of cargo thefts continue to grow. Ultimately it is the insurers who pay for these losses.
We’ve almost completed picking out the finalist entries for our contest. Check back on our website over the next week or two for a chance to vote on the name for our new Carrier Research and Analysis system.
This month we also report:
LOG BOOKS – The ATA won a victory this month against the FMCSA. A Federal Appeals court has advised the FMCSA that they have until Dec. 30 to advise what documents trucking fleets need to retain to verify their drivers’ hours-of-service logbooks. The rule was mandated by a 1994 statute and the FMCSA had never issued its required rulemaking.
FREIGHT FORWARDER PRICE FIXING – Six international freight forwarders admitted that they were guilty in fixing prices from 2002 through 2007. They have agreed to pay $50.3 million in fines. The Department of Justice has indicated that this is an ongoing investigation into price fixing in the freight forwarding industry. The six forwarders are EGL Inc., Houston; Kuhne & Nagel International, Schindellegi, Switzerland; Geologistics International Management, Hamilton, Bermuda; Panalpina World Transport, Basel, Switzerland; Schenker AG, Essen, Germany; and BAX Global, Toledo, Ohio.
EOBR – The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has filed a petition for review of the recently implemented on-board recorder rule. The organization contends that the rule, which targets motor carriers who are found to be in violation of log and service requirements, is invalid and should be redrafted. The government has until early November to respond to the petition. At the end of September, the Commercial Drive Compliance Act was introduced in the senate which would require EOBR’s on all trucks.
