News

This week, MTAC President Joe Sculley visited MTAC Vice Chairman John Pruchnicki’s business, Coastal Carriers of Connecticut. Coastal Carriers has built a reputation for safe and reliable transportation services to the petroleum industry. They are a 24/7/365 carrier that efficiently responds to all scheduled and emergency deliveries. Their state of the art dispatch technology assures…

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has released its long-awaited final rule required Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs). The four main elements of the ELD Final Rule include: Requiring commercial truck and bus drivers who currently use paper log books to maintain hours-of-service records to adopt ELDs within two years. It is anticipated that approximately…

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is expected to delay the implementation date for use of new Medical Examiners Report and Medical Certificate. The agency had been targeting a date of Dec. 22, 2015 for use of the new forms, at which point use of the current forms would not have been allowed, and…

Governor Malloy called the Connecticut legislature to a special session on Tuesday, Dec. 8 for “deficit mitigation” purposes. As part of the special session, the legislature also considered a measure to institute a Constitutional amendment to put a “lockbox” on funds going into the state’s Special Transportation Fund. The text of the proposed Constitutional amendment…

Driver demographics, industry growth, and strict carrier policies and governmental regulations are contributing to a projected shortage of 175,000 commercial drivers by 2024, according to a study released by the American Transportation Associations (ATA). Presently, over-the-road truck drivers are overwhelmingly male (94 percent) and older than the average worker, with a median age of 49,…

On Nov. 30, Transport Topics reported federal regulators at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration once again delayed the final rule on electronic logging devices (ELDs) concerning replacing paper hours-of-service logs with automated logging. Although the proposed rule was released in March 2014, the final rule has been delayed multiple times. From Transport Topics… Federal…

This week, MTAC President Joe Sculley visited MTAC Chairman Mark Gagnon’s company, Capitol Moving and Storage. At Capitol, a specialized exhibit department dispatches and monitors each shipment by computer, ensuring that it arrives on schedule. They handle corporate moves from international to national relocation to anywhere in the world. In addition, Capitol Moving provides warehouse…

Voting closed Nov. 19 on the proposal to significantly amend the audit and record-keeping rules of the International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA). IFTA has officially adopted those amendments, effective with audits completed after Jan. 1, 2017. Very quickly, those are: increased flexibility for how motor carriers may produce and maintain their IFTA records; explicit approval…

A proposal for a new truck stop in Hopkinton, R.I. – just beyond the Connecticut/Rhode Island border off I-95 – will increase the space available for truck drivers to rest and refuel along I-95 in southern New England. From The Day… A proposed truck stop across the border in Rhode Island would help address a lack of…