Trucking Industry

The California Public Utilities Commission on Wednesday adopted a wide-ranging new approach to the regulation of the state's trucking industry that is designed to improve highway safety and industry stability while promoting competition. For the most part, the commission increased regulation of the industry, which it began to deregulate in 1979. But a few of the policies adopted Wednesday actually loosened some trucking industry regulations.

The American Trucking Assn. said that it expects the industry to haul more freight than it did last year, but it added that the pace of growth would probably be slower than it was in 2010 and 2011. The association is the nation's biggest trade organization for the trucking industry, with affiliates in each of the 50 states. In 2010 and 2011, freight tonnage grew by 5.8%, but this year the Trucking Assn. is expecting growth of slightly less than 3%. Bob Costello, chief economist for the ATA said that the trucking industry's performance during the first quarter "was reflective of an economy that is growing, but growing moderately.

In a move that pleased labor groups, outraged the U.S. trucking industry and upset the Mexican government, the Clinton administration on Monday postponed implementation of new trade provisions that were to give U.S. and Mexican truckers greater access to each other's turf. On the day that border barriers to trucking were to have come down, U.S.

After an unwelcome reprieve caused by the global recession, employers in international trade again are growing concerned about whether there will be enough qualified candidates to fill the next generation of cargo and logistics jobs. A spate of reports over the last two years has conjured up images of ships with too few seafarers to operate them, truck-ready freight with too few drivers to do the hauling and warehouse and distribution centers without enough qualified administrators to run them.

A government agency that regulates the trucking industry violated federal rules by asking trucking companies to lobby Congress on its behalf, according to a report released Thursday by the Transportation Department's inspector general. "The investigation shows the incestuous relationship that has developed between the trucking industry and the government agency charged with enforcing compliance with the rules," said Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.

As a midnight strike deadline approached with no resolution in sight, the Teamsters and major trucking companies Tuesday braced themselves for a walkout that could disrupt freight shipments nationwide. Trucking and union officials blamed each other for the impasse during dueling press conferences hours before about 80,000 Teamster members were scheduled to begin the strike at 12:01 a.m. today EDT.

Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole called today for an end to all federal regulation of truck companies, a move that brought strong objections from the trucking industry and the Teamsters union. The trucking industry was substantially deregulated in 1980, but rate changes for most goods must still be filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission within one to seven days in advance, a procedure Dole said is wasteful.

The nation's largest trucking industry group said it supports random drug testing of truck drivers and opposes increasing the speed limit to 65 m.p.h. Thomas Donohue, president and chief executive officer of the American Trucking Assn., told a news conference his organization would back "a universal, fair, equitable and constitutionally proper procedure" to test truckers for drugs. On permitting states to raise the speed limit from 55 m.p.h. to 65 m.p.h.

The trucking industry is seeking to partly lift the ban on triple trailer trucks in California in legislation pending in Congress, a proposal that has alarmed some safety advocates. California, along with 33 other states, is off limits to triple trailer trucks, which can weigh more than 64 tons and stretch 120 feet--longer than a Boeing 737 jetliner.

In early December, trucker Joe Rini learned that his own personal recession had just gotten worse. One of his best clients called about a load of building materials that needed to travel to the Pacific Northwest, Northern California and Colorado -- normally a $4,400 job. Rini offered to do it for $3,400. But before Rini's truck had arrived to pick up the load, the Cleveland-area customer of more than four years called back. Another trucker had offered to do the job for $400 less.

By deciding to set the first fuel efficiency standards for big-rig trucks, President Obama on Friday handed environmentalists a victory, but one that the vehicle industry said it was happy to embrace. At a televised Rose Garden ceremony at the White House, Obama signed a memorandum ordering federal agencies to prepare plans for the fuel efficiency standards. The president argued that the standards were needed to ease the United States' dependency on foreign oil and help reduce greenhouse gases and pollutants.

For the 15 months that ended in September, Americans scrapped 1.2 million more vehicles than they bought, a historical first, according to a company that has tracked car-owning patterns since 1948. More than 14.8 million cars and light trucks were crushed or recycled in that period, while consumers registered 13.6 million new vehicles, according to R.L. Polk & Co. "It foreshadows what may be pent-up demand. The assumption is that those vehicles have to be replaced," said Lonnie Miller, Polk's vice president for marketing and industry analysis.

Trade associations for the oil, chemical and trucking industries filed suit in federal court in Fresno on Tuesday to void California's first-in-the-nation low-carbon fuel initiative. The regulations, which took effect last month, are aimed at slashing greenhouse gas emissions from gasoline and diesel sold in the nation's largest transportation market by 10%, and spurring the development of alternative fuels and technology. But the lawsuit portrays the rules as discriminating "against transportation fuels and fuel feed stocks imported from outside of California with the intended effect of promoting in-state production of transportation fuels and keeping consumer dollars local . . . " Thus, it contends, the rules are an unconstitutional interference with interstate commerce.

The Port of Long Beach has reached a settlement in a lawsuit brought by the American Trucking Assn. over disputed elements of a plan to clean up the air around the nation's busiest seaport complex. Long Beach officials have agreed to strip their plan of all requirements that are not directly tied to the goal of getting cleaner trucks on the road, including a demand that trucking companies file financial reports. Under the change, trucking companies would agree to comply with environmental, safety and security requirements.

Stephen Owings, whose 22-year-old son died when his car was rear-ended, is fighting to have the federal government require the use of speed-limiting devices on all big rigs, saying: "We're not against truckers; we're pro-highway safety." Most often, citizen-crusaders find themselves in lonely, unequal struggles against industry groups and lobbyists. But this time, David and Goliath seem to be on the same side. Owings has drawn support from the American Trucking Assns.

Congress has hit the brakes on a Bush administration program to give Mexican trucks wider access to U.S. roads, putting President Obama in the middle of a politically sensitive trade dispute. A $410-billion spending bill that passed the Senate on a voice vote Tuesday would end funding for the cross-border trucking program, one of the most contentious issues to arise out of the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement. The House approved the spending measure last month.

A lot has happened in the trucking industry since Life magazine warned its readers in the spring of 1959 that if Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa wanted to, he could "bring a major portion of U.S. transportation--and thus the entire economy--to a halt." With almost 90% of the nation's intercity trucks operating under Teamster contracts 35 years ago, the 1.6 million-member union had the power to choke off freight shipments almost anywhere. Not anymore.

For the first time in 60 years, the Federal Highway Administration plans to propose new limits on the number of hours truckers can drive each day, the Associated Press has learned. The agency, in a rule this fall, is expected to force drivers to be off duty for at least 14 hours in a 24-hour period, according to trucking industry sources who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity. Currently, truckers are limited to 10 hours behind the wheel in one stretch.

In early December, trucker Joe Rini learned that his own personal recession had just gotten worse. One of his best clients called about a load of building materials that needed to travel to the Pacific Northwest, Northern California and Colorado -- normally a $4,400 job. Rini offered to do it for $3,400. But before Rini's truck had arrived to pick up the load, the Cleveland-area customer of more than four years called back. Another trucker had offered to do the job for $400 less.

Two decades ago, Rosa Vielmas, young and hopeful, moved to Riverside County for cleaner air. Goodbye to smoggy East Los Angeles. Hello to Mira Loma, an unincorporated speck of a village, and a one-story stucco bungalow with a yard. "We could see the stars," she recalled. But that was before Mira Loma became one of Southern California's "diesel death zones," as activists call the truck-choked freeways and distribution hubs that fan out from the massive ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.