News

From Fleet Owner. Registration opened this week for fleets looking to participate in Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Safe Driver Apprenticeship Pilot Program, which will study how younger drivers operate in interstate commerce. Up to 3,000 commercial drivers between 18 and 20 years old will be accepted into the program, which is backed by the…

From Commercial Carrier Journal. Overall positivity rates in urine drug tests in the transportation/warehousing industry increased 4.4% in 2020 versus 5.5% in 2021 – a relative 25% increase year over year – according to data compiled by medical lab Quest Diagnostics. Almost 130,000 truck drivers have found themselves in the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse as…

From Fleet Owner. The cost of a gallon of diesel plummeted 16.4 cents this week to a nationwide average of $5.268, marking the fifth week in a row the price has trended downward, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Prices are trending downward in tandem with consumers’ confidence in the economy as…

From FreightWaves. Legislation aimed at expanding truck parking facilities throughout the U.S. was approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday and will advance to the House floor. The Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act provides $755 million in competitive grants over four years (2023-2026) to expand truck parking capacity. The legislation was introduced…

From Transport Topics. Efforts to boost the number of younger drivers in the trucking workforce are underway, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told a congressional committee on July 19. An apprenticeship program to allow truckers under 21 to operate commercial vehicles across state lines will start considering applicants as early as this summer, Buttigieg told lawmakers…

From Transport Topics. More than 70 trade associations representing wide-ranging supply chain interests have sent a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom asking him to issue an executive order to temporarily pause enforcement of the state’s AB 5 contractor law. The letter, signed July 11 by trade organizations representing interests ranging from trucking and retail…

From Transport Topics. Truck tonnage in June soared 7.9% above the same month last year, American Trucking Associations’ For-Hire-Truck Tonnage Index released July 19 showed. Sequentially, from May to June, the index increased by 2.7% after showing a 0.3% improvement in May. The index equaled 120.1 in June (2015=100) versus 116.9 in May. “June’s jump…

From FreightWaves. Should electronic bulletin boards — known in trucking as load boards — be considered brokers and therefore required to register as such with federal regulators? The question was posed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in soliciting comments for future guidance on how freight brokers, bona fide agents and truck dispatchers should…

From Transport Topics. American Trucking Associations is among the stakeholders recently calling on congressional committees to pass a bill that expedites applications for commercial drivers seeking security credentials. On July 11, the nearly 90 groups representing the trucking industry and various other commercial transportation sectors wrote lawmakers on the transportation panels to express their support…

From Transport Topics. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a challenge to a controversial California law aimed at reclassifying owner-operators as motor carrier employees, carriers and independent contractors could soon be thrust into an uncertain business environment. By remaining silent on a challenge to California’s AB 5 law, the high court…