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Best Fleets to Drive For: Chief Carriers, C.A.T. take home top honors for 2023

Two for-hire carriers were named the Overall Winners of the 2023 Best Fleets to Drive For contest at the Truckload Carriers Association’s (TCA) convention in March. This year marks the awards’ 15th anniversary. TCA and CarriersEdge presented the Best Overall Fleet in the small carrier category to Chief Carriers, Inc., of Grand Island, Nebraska, and the Best Overall Fleet in the large carrier category went to C.A.T. Inc. of Coteau-du-Lac, Quebec, Canada. The award for the small carrier category is sponsored by Eleos Technologies, while the large carrier award is sponsored by TruckRight. Both of this year’s overall winners represent firsts for the program. C.A.T is the first fleet in over a decade to win the overall award in its first year as a Best Fleet. “Most participants need multiple years to progress from Finalist to Top 20 to Overall Winner”, said Jane Jazrawy, CEO of CarriersEdge. “For C.A.T. to make it not just into the Top 20, but to the top of the list, is a remarkable achievement. They’ve put a huge effort into their programs this past year, and that effort was evident throughout the evaluation process.” Chief Carriers represents a first of a different kind. The company’s general manager, Andrew Winkler, is the first person to win the overall award at two different companies. He previously worked with Best Fleets Hall-of-Famer Grand Island Express. “Seeing Chief Carriers progress in the past few years, it’s not surprising that they won the overall award”, Jazrawy noted. “They clearly have a plan for developing driver support programs, and their scores across all categories show that the plan is working.” TCA President Jim Ward noted the importance of driver-centric culture. “Year after year, the overall winners are truly changing the game,” he said. “It’s imperative that fleets establish driver-centric offerings which attract and retain a skilled workforce while establishing programs that improve the work-life balance for their employees. Chief Carriers, Inc. and C.A.T. Inc. have done just that, and their results show that those efforts pay off.” The Best Fleets to Drive For survey and contest is open to any for-hire fleet operating 10 or more trucks, regardless of TCA membership status. Nominated fleets are evaluated in areas such as driver compensation, pension and benefits, professional development, driver and community support, and safety record. The contest accepts nominations from Labor Day to Halloween each year and reveals its Top 20 Best Fleets to Drive For winners each January. The highest-scoring fleet in each category is named an Overall Winner during TCA’s Annual Convention. For more information about the competition, visit bestfleetstodrivefor.com.

Highway Angel of the Year: CFI driver honored for rescuing victims of fiery crash

Zach Yeakley has been named the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) 2022 Highway Angel of the Year. Yeakley, who lives in Batesville, Arkansas, and drives for Joplin, Missouri-based CFI, was recognized March 7 at the Gaylord Palms Resort during the Truckload Carriers Association’s annual convention. Yeakley was selected for the honor via a public voting process. Yeakley was instrumental in ensuring the safety of numerous people who were involved in a fiery crash. On March 17, 2022, at about 8:15 a.m., he had just crossed the state border into Charleston, Missouri, when he heard on his CB radio that there was an accident up ahead. He then noticed smoke and a man wearing a safety vest flagging down drivers to alert them to the accident, which occurred in an area of dense fog. The scene was a fire-filled, chain-reaction crash involving nearly 50 vehicles. Yeakley immediately pulled over and jumped into action. “I went up there; they already had a couple people out,” he said. “Some people had some broken arms, one had a collapsed lung, a few broken ribs from the impact.” Yeakley, a 15-year member of the Army National Guard, is trained as a combat lifesaver. He quickly assessed the severity of the scene, surveying the situation so he could provide information for emergency personnel once they arrived. Fire was spreading among the crashed vehicles, and tires were exploding all around them, he recalls. “There was one guy trapped in his truck,” he said. “So me, a sheriff, a state trooper, and a FedEx driver, we did what we could to get him out.” Yeakley and the group were able to pry a dashboard off another trapped crash victim and rescue him from his vehicle, as the flames quickly surrounded them. Once the victim was rescued from his truck, Yeakley and a sheriff ran back to the scene to try to rescue the driver of a car trapped between a truck and a trailer, also surrounded by flames. In total that day, Yeakley helped rescue six crash victims from different vehicles. Police reported at least six fatalities from the fiery crash. Yeakley, who has been driving a truck for four years, says he wouldn’t hesitate to jump back into the fire again to rescue drivers, crediting his military training for preparing him for the experience. “Thank you for your selfless act of courage that morning,” said EpicVue CEO Lance Platt after presenting Zach with a personalized crystal truck during the awards ceremony. EpicVue was the presenting sponsor of the Highway Angel of the Year Award. Yeakley will receive a complimentary EpicVue satellite TV package that includes a 24-inch flat-screen TV, a DVR, and a one-year subscription to over 100 channels of DIRECTV programming, including premium channels such as HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, and the NFL Sunday Ticket. Since 1997, TCA’s Highway Angel program has recognized professional truck drivers who have selflessly helped others while on the job. From each year’s recipients, one is selected as Highway Angel of the Year because he or she best embodies the spirit of the program. This article originally appeared in the May/June 2023 edition of Truckload Authority, the official publication of the Truckload Carriers Association.

Cummins’ Amy Boerger selected to receive this year’s Chairman’s Choice Award

During Truckload 2023: Orlando, Amy Boerger was honored with the Truckload Carriers Association’s (TCA) Chairman’s Choice Award. “I selected this person because they have been a long-time difference maker in the trucking industry. This person has been a role model and inspiration for so many, and always brings a smile and warmth to a room,” said outgoing TCA Chairman John Elliott before announcing Boerger as the award recipient. Boerger retired at the end of March as vice president and general manager of Cummins Inc.’s North America on-highway division after serving the company for nearly four decades. She began her career 39 years ago at the Cummins Engine Plant (CEP) as the first female engineer in product engineering, and continued to forge her own path in field sales as one of the first saleswomen and account executives within the company. In this role, she focused on cultivating customer connections and expanding the business with some of Cummins’ largest OEM customers. In 2002, she was chosen to head up the global retrofit emissions business when the Cummins Emissions Solutions was launched. She returned to the on-highway business in 2014 as the executive director of Cummins’ North America Engine Business. Shortly thereafter, she was appointed as vice president of sales, where she enjoyed continued success, defining a relationship-driven approach to working with customers. A champion for the entire industry, Boerger was a finalist for the Women in Trucking Association’s Influential Women in Trucking award in 2014. She has been significantly involved in the American Trucking Association (ATA), including as a member of the executive board and the Women in Motion Advisory Board, and the Allied Committee for the Trucking Industry (ACT 1), serving as its vice president in 2018 and as president in 2019 and 2020. In addition, Boerger has dedicated extensive service to the Trucking Cares Foundation, served on the research advisory committee for the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), and served on the board of directors for TCA. “An advocate for supporting others, she was influential in fearlessly opening doors to new opportunities for women. She distinguished herself as an effective, successful, and high-profile leader in a once predominantly male-dominated industry,” Elliot said of Boerger. “As she reaches the end of a storied 39-year career as a vice president at Cummins, I can think of no one more deserving of this award,” he concluded. In a statement announcing Boerger’s retirement, Srikanth Padmanabahn, president of Cummins’ engine business segment, shared the following: “During her career, she has left a tremendous impact inside and outside of Cummins and touched countless lives through her leadership and commitment to our values and ability to drive results. She is a trusted partner and advisor and has strengthened many customer relationships that are more important than ever as they look to us for the solutions of today and tomorrow during this period of energy transition.” This article originally appeared in the May/June 2023 edition of Truckload Authority, the official publication of the Truckload Carriers Association.

Capitol Recap | March/April 2023

In Washington — and across the nation — efforts to eliminate greenhouse emissions in the freight industry are ongoing as the departments of Energy, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency work to implement a “blueprint” to decarbonization. In Congress, a new proposal dubbed the SHIP IT Act is being described as a sweeping overhaul to interstate trucking. Read on to find out about these issues, along with other news affecting the trucking industry. Proposed SHIP IT Act focuses on improving trucking, supply chain logistics A new proposal in Congress is designed as a “sweeping overhaul of the interstate trucking supply chain,” according to its sponsors. South Dakota Republican Dusty Johnson and California Democrat Jim Costa introduced the Safer Highways and Increased Performance for Interstate Trucking (SHIP IT) Act January 24. Johnson says the act increases safety and shipping capacity for truckers, provides recruitment and retention incentives for drivers, and includes flexibility during times of emergencies or “black swan” events. “Americans experienced a slew of freight disruptions during and after the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. “Last year we addressed ocean shipping reform, and it’s clear that updates are needed for other parts of the supply chain. The SHIP IT Act will bridge gaps, keep costs down for consumers, and make it easier for shippers to move products across the U.S.” Costa pointed to disruptions in the trucking supply chain, noting that these issues continue to drive up costs and create uncertainty for American consumers and producers. “We need to recruit, train, and retain truck drivers to keep our supply chain moving, while also updating best practices to improve trucking to fit our modern economy,” Costa said. “That is why we introduced this bipartisan legislation to strengthen the workforce and make it easier to move products across the country.” Trucking industry organizations, businesses and manufacturers voiced support for the proposal. Sean Joyce, executive director of the Shippers Coalition, says his organization backs the legislation. “(This is) vital to strengthening our supply chain by increasing shipping capacity, lessening burdens on truck drivers, modernizing the CDL process, and allowing additional flexibilities during times of emergency,” Joyce said. “The 80-plus members of the Shippers Coalition appreciate Congressman Johnson’s steadfast leadership on these issues and look forward to working with him to help this critical legislation become law.” Matt Joy, president and CEO of heavy-duty truck parts manufacturer Hendricks, says making things easier on the trucking industry is vital to the nation’s economy. “Any time we can make the recruitment of qualified truck drivers easier and with greater retention, that is a positive step for the supply chain,” Joy said. “Additionally, addressing the efficiency of moving goods on our roadways aligns well with America’s need to become more environmentally conscience, while keeping safety at the forefront. We are grateful to have Congressmen like Rep. Johnson, lead these significant and important issues.” Michael Dykes, CEO of the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), describes  the SHIP IT Act as “common-sense trucking reform.” “(It) will help dairy companies overcome many of the current supply chain challenges facing our industry,” Dykes said. “The legislation would bring the U.S. supply chain into the 21st century to meet the needs of shippers, reduce regulatory burdens that cost shippers millions of dollars a year, create good paying jobs, and support the ambitious sustainability goals of dairy businesses. IDFA is grateful to Reps. Dusty Johnson and Jim Costa for their leadership on this issue, and we urge swift passage of the SHIP IT Act in both chambers of Congress.” Tom Madrecki, vice president of supply chain and logistics for the Consumer Brands Association, believes the legislation will lead to fewer empty miles driven; a more robust, well-trained workforce; and a stronger national supply chain. “The SHIP IT Act offers tangible solutions that stand to immediately address pressing supply chain challenges,” Madrecki said. “We call on Congress to pass this bipartisan legislation and take meaningful steps to lower consumer costs, enhance efficiency and support safety.” The SHIP IT Act includes provisions designed to: Modernize the authority for certain vehicle waivers during emergencies, allowing waivers in response to disease and supply chain emergencies. Allow truck drivers to apply for Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act grants. Incentivize new truck drivers to enter the workforce through targeted and temporary tax credits. Streamline the CDL process, making it easier for states and third parties to administer CDL tests. Expand access to truck parking and rest facilities for commercial drivers. DOE provides $118 million in funding to accelerate biofuel production in US The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in late January announced $118 million in funding for 17 projects to accelerate the production of sustainable biofuels for America’s transportation and manufacturing needs. Made from widely available domestic feedstocks and advanced refining technologies, energy-dense biofuels provide a pathway for low-carbon fuels that can lower greenhouse gas emissions throughout the transportation sector and accelerate the bioeconomy, according to the DOE. Financing for novel biorefinery process systems can be a barrier to commercializing advanced biofuels, and this funding will reduce technological uncertainties and enable industry deployment. “Biofuels are a versatile tool because they have the immediate potential to power our ships, trains, airlines and heavy-duty vehicles — a huge contributor to total carbon emissions — with a significantly reduced carbon footprint,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. “DOE investments are helping to build out a domestic bioenergy supply chain that increases America’s energy independence, creates jobs, and accelerates the adoption of cleaner fuels for our transportation needs.” The selected projects, located at universities and private companies in nine states across the U.S., include pre-pilot, pilot, and demonstration projects. The DOE says the projects will scale-up existing biomass to fuel technologies that will eventually create millions of gallons low-carbon fuel each year. Plans submitted by the selected projects show intent to collaborate with local school districts to educate and train the bioenergy workforce of tomorrow. Additionally, the funded projects align with renewable fuels goals in the first-ever U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization, a multi-agency framework for reducing emissions, creating a robust transportation workforce, and securing America’s energy independence. The projects also support the U.S. Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge goal of enabling the production of three billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel annually by 2030 and 35 billion gallons annually by 2050. Award amounts range from $500,000 to $80 million, with most projects receiving at least $2 million. Funding will be administered by DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office. CVSA receives $5 million grant to advance CMV enforcement training, support In January, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) awarded the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) a $5 million Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) Enforcement Training and Support Grant/Cooperative Agreement to train and certify law enforcement individuals to conduct commercial motor vehicle safety activities such as inspections, investigations, audits, traffic enforcement, and other duties. Through the funding and cooperative agreement, CVSA plans to develop and deliver motor carrier safety training to its state and local partners. Building on FMCSA’s current instructor pool and course and testing materials, CVSA will expand and deliver a comprehensive suite of certification and non-certification training courses, building on existing content and partnering with issue-specific industry leaders. CVSA currently develops and maintains all non-regulatory elements of the roadside North American Standard Inspection Program and is responsible for developing training, tools, and equipment used in the roadside inspection process. In addition, CVSA is directly involved in the creation and production of training content already used by FMCSA’s National Training Center. According to a statement issued by CVSA, the organization “pursued this grant opportunity because we believe we possess the knowledge and ability to deliver high-quality training that will give jurisdictions assurance and confidence that their inspectors and enforcement personnel have the necessary training they need to effectively enforce the regulations consistently and uniformly — a mission and priority for the Alliance.” Electrifying, charging the nation’s commercial fleets a daunting task Full electrification of the U.S. vehicle fleet would require a large percentage of the country’s present electricity generation. Domestic long-haul trucking would use more than 10% of the electricity generated in the country today, while an all-electric U.S. vehicle fleet would use more than 40%. Some individual states would need to generate as much as 60% more electricity than is presently produced. Those are a few of the findings from a report released by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) in late 2022. The report, which assesses the infrastructure requirements for converting the U.S. vehicle fleet to battery electric, focuses on three critical challenges for nationwide vehicle electrification: U.S. electricity supply and demand; Electric vehicle production; and Truck charging requirements. ATRI’s analysis also quantifies the tens of millions of tons of cobalt, graphite, lithium, and nickel that will be needed to replace the existing U.S. vehicle fleet with battery electric vehicles (BEVs), placing high demand on raw materials. Depending on the material, electrification of the U.S. vehicle fleet will require 6.3 to 34.9 years of current global production — the equivalent of 8.4% to 64.4% of global reserves for the U.S. vehicle fleet alone. The report also shows that charging the nation’s long-haul truck fleet will prove challenging, partially due to the ongoing truck parking crisis. Current technology will necessitate more chargers than there are truck parking spaces in the U.S., with hardware and installation costs of $112,000 per unit. That’s more than $35 billion systemwide. “Carbon-emissions reduction is clearly a top priority of the U.S. trucking industry, and feasible alternatives to internal combustion engines must be identified,” said Srikanth Padmanabhan, president of engine business for Cummins Inc. “ATRI’s research demonstrates that vehicle electrification in the U.S. will be a daunting task that goes well beyond the trucking industry — utilities, truck parking facilities, and the vehicle production supply chain are critical to addressing the challenges identified in this research,” Padmanabhan continued. “Thus, the market will require a variety of decarbonization solutions and other powertrain technologies alongside battery electric.” Beyond BEV automobiles, the report concludes that, while there are certain applications for BEV trucks, a completely new charging infrastructure is critical to increasing BEV truck adoption by the trucking industry. Furthermore, the research documents that existing raw material mining for BEV batteries will likely need to be re-sourced with an emphasis on domestic mining and production. Only 24% of truckers want to go home every night, survey shows Less than one-fourth of truck drivers want to run routes that have them home every night. That’s according to a survey of professional drivers conducted by Trucker Path. The survey, which polled drivers who use the Trucker Path mapping and navigation app, asked, “How often do you prefer to return home?” Participants chose from the following options: Every night; Several times a week; Several times a month; or Always on the road. The survey found only 24% of truck drivers wanted to be home every night. By far, the most popular option for drivers was to be home several times a month, with 36% stating that was their preference. The second most popular option was to be home several times a week, chosen by 25% of truck drivers as their preference. The least popular option was to be always on the road, coming in at only 15%. Further survey questions revealed that a majority of drivers have jobs that allow them to achieve their home time preferences. Eighty-nine percent of drivers who want to be home several times a week reported they are able to do so; 80% of drivers who prefer to be always on the road and 74% of drivers who want to be home several times a week achieve their goals. The lowest number was for drivers who preferred to return home every night, at 63%. FHWA announces first round of Large Bridge Project Grants The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has announced the first round of Large Bridge Project Grants from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s competitive Bridge Investment Program. The program is one piece of the administration’s largest dedicated investment in highway bridges since the construction of the interstate highway system, with nearly $40 billion over five years. The first round of grants funds work on four bridges that connect communities in five states and are vital to commercial transport. According to the FHWA, improving these structures will address significant safety issues for drivers and delays in the movement of freight. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said safe, modern bridges “ensure that first responders can get to calls more quickly, shipments reach businesses on time, and drivers can get to where they need to go. The Biden-Harris Administration is proud to award this historic funding to modernize large bridges that are not only pillars of our economy, but also iconic symbols of their states’ past and future.” These initial projects include: Brent Spence Bridge The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet will receive $1.385 billion to rehabilitate and reconfigure the existing Brent Spence Bridge to improve interstate and local traffic flow between the interconnected Kentucky and Ohio communities on either side of the Ohio River. The current bridge is the second worst truck bottleneck in the nation and carries more than $400 billion in freight per year, according to the FHWA. The project includes construction of a new companion bridge immediately west of the existing bridge to accommodate interstate through traffic on two bridge decks, and complete reconstruction of eight-mile interstate approach corridors both in Ohio and Kentucky, replacing 54 additional bridges. The project will separate Interstate 75 traffic from local traffic, making commutes quicker and improving freight passage along this critical corridor. Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District in California will receive $400 million to replace, retrofit and install critical structural elements on the Golden Gate Bridge to increase resiliency against earthquakes. The Golden Gate Bridge is vital to an estimated 37 million vehicles crossing the bridge per year, including 555,000 freight trucks, as well as waterborne commerce through the Golden Gate Strait connected to the Port of Oakland. The improvements will ensure the structural integrity of a vital transportation link between San Francisco and Marin County. This bridge allows for the movement of people and freight along the California Coast and is a critical link for bicyclist and pedestrian traffic in the region. Gold Star Memorial Bridge The Connecticut Department of Transportation will receive $158 million to rehabilitate the northbound structure of the Gold Star Memorial Bridge, which is part of the Interstate 95 corridor over the Thames River between New London and Groton, Connecticut. The bridge carries five lanes of traffic and 42,600 vehicles per day and is a vital connection on the I-95 corridor for people and goods traveling between New York and New England. The rehabilitation will address structural repairs, increase load capacity and eliminate a load restriction for overweight vehicles. Additionally, the project will add a new multi-use path to foster bike-sharing and pedestrian access to transit services. Chicago bridges The City of Chicago, Illinois, will receive $144 million to rehabilitate four bridges over the Calumet River on the Southside of Chicago. The Calumet River connects Lake Michigan with the Lake Calumet Port District which is further connected to the Illinois River providing access to the Gulf of Mexico. Each bridge lifts an average of 5,000 times per year, providing continuous and safe access for marine traffic to and from the Port and surrounding industry. Rehabilitating these bridges ensures that communities on either side of the river remain connected and the bridges continue to function to allow barge and ship traffic to traverse to the Illinois International Port and beyond. The project will eliminate a load restriction and truck detours. It will also add dedicated bike lanes and improved sidewalks to support community connections. “These first Large Bridge grants will improve bridges that serve as vital connections for millions of Americans to jobs, education, health care and medical care and help move goods from our farms and factories,” said Deputy Transportation Secretary Polly Trottenberg. “And over the next four years we will be able to fund construction for the pipeline of shovel ready projects we are creating through Bridge Planning Grants.” DOT rallies businesses, nonprofits, trade associations, others to help stem road deaths Nearly 50 businesses and nonprofits — including trucking associations, state departments of transportation, law enforcement, and many others — are pledging millions of dollars in initiatives to stem a crisis in road fatalities under a new federal effort announced in early February. It’s part of the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) “Call to Action” campaign, which urges commitments from the private sector, trade groups, and health and safety organizations to reduce serious traffic injuries and deaths. Traffic fatalities are near historic highs after a surge of dangerous driving during the coronavirus pandemic. The public-private effort, part of the DOT’s multiyear strategy that started last year to make roads safer, ranges from investments to improve school crosswalks to enhanced seat belt alerts in Uber vehicles and a partnership between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to promote proven injury prevention strategies, said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. After a record spike in 2021, the number of U.S. traffic deaths dipped slightly during the first nine months of 2022, but pedestrian and cyclist deaths continued to rise. More than 40,000 people are killed in road crashes each year. “It’s still a crisis,” Buttigieg said, stressing a need for a national change in mindset. “We’re looking at road deaths coming in year after year in a similar proportion to gun deaths. The problem is they’re so widespread and so common that I fear as a country we’ve gotten used to it and perhaps fallen into the mistaken sense they’re inevitable. “We can’t solve any of this on our own,” he added. “We also know there isn’t one piece that will get this all down. But if we add all this together it can be enormous.” The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) is among the “first movers” — a group of about 50 organizations, companies and other entities — to take the pledge. TCA has committed to providing its members with a webinar about the benefits of safety improvement technology to help improve the safety performance of motor carriers across North America. Road travelers will see an array of safety measures this year. Uber is donating $500,000 — its single biggest investment in its effort to reduce drunken driving — for free and discounted rides in Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, and Texas as part of the “Decide to Ride” program that’s operated in tandem with MADD and Anheuser-Busch. The world’s largest ride-share company also doubled the availability of its bike lane alerts from 71 cities to 144 for passengers exiting vehicles near cycling routes and providing a safety checklist for Uber Eats bicycle couriers. It also pledged to strengthen its seat belt alerts, such as by increasing their frequency or adding an audio message along with pop-up messages urging riders to “buckle up.” “We were thinking about how we could make an impact more broadly — how we can get people to start making better choices,” said Kristin Smith, head of Uber’s road safety policy. “We know it’s going to take a broad coalition of people to be tackling the crisis on U.S. roadways right now.” Uber’s investment comes along with separate commitments from Lyft, the second-largest rideshare company, which has partnered with the Governors Highway Safety Association in recent years to award tens of thousands of dollars in state grants to help reduce impaired driving and curtail speeding. Other first movers include the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, the American Trucking Associations, UPS, and more. Devices Removed from FMCSA’s list of registered ELDs The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has removed two electronic logging devices (ELDs) from its list of registered ELDs because of the manufacturers’ failure to meet the minimum requirements established in 49 CFR part 395, subpart B, appendix A. Both the ELD ONE, made by TMS ONE, and the ORS ELD,  made by ONE PLUS ELD, were placed on the “revoked” list by the FMCSA, the first effective January 31, 2022, and the second effective February 8, 2023. FMCSA sent out industrywide emails to notify motor carriers that drivers using these ELDS should immediately discontinue use of the revoked devices and revert to paper logs or logging software to record their hours of service. ELD ONE devices must be replaced with compliant ELDs from the Registered Devices list before April 1, 2023; those using the ORS ELD have until April 10, 2023. Until these dates, safety officials are encouraged to not cite drivers using the revoked devices for 395.8(a)(a), “no ELD,” or 395.22(a), “failed to use a registered ELD.” The drivers’ paper logs or logging software should be used to review hours-of-service data; the devices may be used as a back-up method for review. This article originally appeared in the March/April 2023 edition of Truckload Authority, the official publication of the Truckload Carriers Association.

Highway Angels | March/April 2023

Drivers for TCA carriers are making a difference on the roadways, one life at a time. Professional truck drivers Thaddeus Paulson, James “Neil” Chandler, and Angela Crager have been named Highway Angels by the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) for their acts of heroism while on the road. Paulson, who lives in Duluth, Minnesota, and drives for Halvor Lines, Inc., helped rescue a man and his grandfather after their truck crashed into a ditch on a snowy Iowa highway. Chandler, who is from Anniston, Alabama, and drives for Bison USA, provided aid following a fatal head-on collision. Crager, a resident of Oklahoma City who drives for Decker Truck Lines, stopped to help a driver extinguish a fire that had broken out on a load of hay bales. In recognition of these drivers’ willingness to help fellow drivers and motorists, TCA has presented each Highway Angel with a certificate, a lapel pin, patches, and truck decals. Their employers have also received a certificate highlighting their driver as a recipient. Since the inception of the program in 1997, nearly 1,300 professional truck drivers have been recognized as Highway Angels because of the exemplary kindness, courtesy, and courage they have displayed while on the job. TCA extends special thanks to the program’s presenting sponsor, EpicVue, and supporting sponsor, DriverFacts. To nominate a driver or read more about these and other Highway Angel award recipients, visit highwayangel.org.   Thaddeus Paulson — Halvor Lines, Inc., Superior, Wisconsin Just before Christmas 2022 — on December 23, in fact — Thaddeus Paulson was traveling east on U.S. Highway 20 just outside Iowa Falls, Iowa, at around 10 a.m. The ground was blanketed in snow, and there were patches of ice on the road. Suddenly, he saw a Chevrolet Silverado pickup, which was traveling in the opposite direction, hit a patch of black ice, spin out, and slide into a ditch. “The only thing that probably saved their lives, probably, was how deep the snow was,” Paulson said. “Or they would’ve been crushed.” Paulson quickly but safely pulled his rig to the side of the road and approached the vehicle to offer assistance. In the truck, he found a man and his grandfather. The older man was frail, and was unable to exit the vehicle and walk to the roadside. “The old man couldn’t walk — he had injuries,” Paulson said. “He was covered in blood.” The driver told Paulson his grandfather was experiencing heart issues; the two were en route to the hospital when the accident occurred. The two worked together to get the older man safely out of the truck. “I helped carry the 80-year-old man out of the vehicle that was flipped over and up the hill through waist-deep snow to a heated vehicle, and (we) waited for responders to arrive,” Paulson said. Once emergency responders arrived at the scene, Paulson notified the law enforcement officers that he had captured the incident on his dash cam, and that the video would be available if needed. Emergency personnel attended to the injured crash victim, and Paulson continued safely along his route.   Angela Crager — Decker Truck Lines, Fort Dodge, Iowa At about 6:30 p.m. on October 28, 2022, Angela Crager was headed home for the day. She was traveling south on Interstate 35 in Guthrie, Oklahoma, when she saw a truck loaded with hay bales that had caught on fire. “Nobody was stopping to help them,” she said, “I thought, ‘Trucks have fire extinguishers for a reason.’” Crager quickly and safely pulled over, called 911, and proceeded to help extinguish the fire. “I kinda took over the situation,” she said. “I was like, ‘You’re gonna want to disconnect your truck from your trailer, so if (the hay) really ignites you can save your truck and fuel source.’” Crager, who has a professional truck driver for six years, remained on the scene until police and firefighters arrived. At that point, the hay was still on fire. She says that people like herself, from Oklahoma, look for ways to help others. “It’s bred into us or something, to help out,” she said.   James “Neil” Chandler — Bison USA, Amherst, Wisconsin At about 5:30 a.m. on October 12, 2022, James “Neil” Chandler was driving south on Interstate 65 near Cave City, Kentucky. During that dark pre-dawn trip, he encountered a serious accident on the highway. “A quick fog came up, and then everyone slammed on their brakes,” he said. A car crossed the center line, into oncoming traffic, and crashed head-on into another vehicle. Chandler, along with and several other trucks, safely pulled over, called 911, and then tried to help the occupants of the two cars. Having spent 16 years serving in the Army and Navy, Chandler’s training instinctively kicked in, and he went to work at the scene. When he checked the car that had been hit, he found a female driver and two teenage children. All three appeared to be injured, and they wanted to get out of the vehicle. However, Chandler saw that the woman was pinned in the car and might have to be cut out. He worked to keep the three calm before moving on to the second vehicle. As he approached the car that had crossed the center line, Chandler saw that the entire left side of the vehicle was destroyed, and the driver was dead. “I hate that I couldn’t do anything,” Chandler said. He went back to the car with the mother and children in it and kept the family calm until emergency vehicles arrived. This article originally appeared in the March/April 2023 edition of Truckload Authority, the official publication of the Truckload Carriers Association.

Highway Angels | January/February 2023

Professional truck drivers Rich DiFronzo, Tony Doughty, William Hancock, Michael Lee, Tony Medina, Marty Smith, and Eric Weed have been named Highway Angels by the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) for their acts of heroism while on the road. In recognition of these drivers’ willingness to help fellow drivers and motorists, TCA has presented each Highway Angel with a certificate, a lapel pin, patches, and truck decals. Their employers have also received a certificate highlighting their driver as a recipient. TCA extends special thanks to the program’s presenting sponsor, EpicVue, and supporting sponsor, DriverFacts. To nominate a driver or read more about these and other Highway Angel award recipients, visit highwayangel.org.   Rich DiFronzo Barnhart Transportation – North East, Pennsylvania When truck driver Rich DiFronzo of Dallas, Pennsylvania, stopped at a New Jersey truck stop last year, he spotted a pitiful scene: A female puppy had been tied to a tree and abandoned. DiFronzo, who drives for North East, Pennsylvania-based Barnhart Transportation, stopped to investigate. “I fed her cheeseburgers because I asked everybody around whose dog it was and no one said anything,” he said. “They said a guy was trying to sell the dog over the weekend. I got there on Thursday — so to me, that’s five, six days that the dog had been there, tied to the tree.” DiFronzo freed the puppy from the tree and took her home with him. Although she was skittish when he first approached her, he said, she seemed relieved to be rescued. “She stayed with me the whole week in the truck,” he said. “She couldn’t get enough cheeseburgers. She was starving.” As soon as he got home to Pennsylvania, DiFronzo took the puppy to a veterinarian. He discovered she was malnourished and needed several rounds of antibiotics. He spent more than $500 to nurse the puppy, now named Roxy Lynn, back to health. On October 18, 2022, Roxy Lynn moved to her forever home, with a friend of DiFronzo’s. “I’d do it again tomorrow,” he said of the time and money he spent. “I love animals and you just don’t do that to animals.”   Tony Doughty Bay & Bay Transportation – Eagan, Minnesota At about 10 a.m. October 27, 2022, Tony Doughty was driving east on Interstate 40 near Albuquerque, New Mexico, when he witnessed an accident on the opposite side of the highway. A red Chevrolet car, which was driving about 70 mph, struck a white Jeep and then crashed into a concrete barrier. The Jeep flipped following the impact. Doughty, who lives in Greenville, Texas, and drives for Bay & Bay Transportation out of Eagan, Michigan, quickly and safely pulled over and prepared to help. “I jumped out of the truck and grabbed my EMT bag,” Doughty said. “I’ve been a volunteer firefighter for a long time.” Just as Doughty was about to cross the highway on foot to reach the crash site, a passing police officer also stopped. Upon discovering Doughty’s background as a first responder, the officer said, “You’re coming with me, buddy!” and the two men ran to the scene. The driver of the Chevrolet, a man in his 30s, had a broken leg, so Doughty — who has been a volunteer firefighter for 12 years — put on a splint to keep the limb in position until emergency personnel arrived. The driver told Doughty he was either withdrawing or overdosing on fentanyl and methadone. “I got him kind of stable,” Doughty said, adding that he then went to check on the driver of the Jeep, an 18-year-old girl who did not sustain serious injury but was visibly shaken. “She was still flipped over on the road,” he said. “I ran over to the Jeep and got the young lady out.” Doughty partnered with the police to relay vitals of the crash victims to local dispatch and stayed on the scene until the ambulance departed. As a 15-year driver with over 2 million safe driving miles under his belt, Doughty says he is always ready to offer aid during accidents. “I wear two hats,” Doughty explained, “I’m wired to stop and help in situations like this.”   William Hancock Ashley Distribution – Ecru, Mississippi William Hancock of Thaxton, Mississippi, who drives for Ecru, Mississippi-based Ashley Distribution, has been honored for helping at the scene of an early-morning crash. At about 3:15 a.m. June 23, 2022, Hancock was driving on Interstate 22 near Fulton, Mississippi, when he saw another tractor-trailer veer off the road ahead of him and overturn. Immediately afterward, a Dodge Challenger approached from behind, the driver unaware of the accident, and crashed into the toppled rig. Hancock immediately pulled over to help. “I jumped out of my truck,” Hancock said, noting that there seemed to be smoke coming from the crashed Dodge. “It looked like the inside of the car was on fire. The biggest concern was getting them out of the car.” There were four passengers in the car, and Hancock proceeded to extract them from the vehicle. He was able to help three passengers out of the car, but says he had trouble with the fourth. “I went around to open the passenger-side door — and it wouldn’t open at all,” he said. Hancock said the woman sitting in the passenger seat was disoriented after being struck by the vehicle’s inflated airbag. He quickly got into the vehicle’s back seat, pulled the woman over the seat, and helped her exit out the back door. Miraculously, there were no serious injuries in the accident. A trucker for 24 years, Hancock had recently completed cancer treatments. However, he said, he didn’t hesitate to stop and help. “If it was my family in that car, I’d hope somebody would stop to help them,” he said.   Michael Lee Melton Truck Lines – Tulsa, Oklahoma On September 17, 2022, trucker Michael Lee of Madison, Alabama, was traveling along Interstate 95 North in Florida. Just before exit 337, he came upon a multi-vehicle accident. “The traffic started to part ways like the holy waters,” described Lee, who drives for Melton Truck Lines out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. “When I got up there, I saw more and more of it.” Lee described the accident as a “chain reaction” involving five cars, all swerving to avoid one another but crashing and stopping in the middle of the highway. “When I got up there, there’s a whole bunch of people around the white Buick (involved in the accident),” Lee said. “The door was caved in. I asked if the lady was trapped in there, and they said, ‘Yes, she is.’” Lee jumped into action and tried to rescue the trapped, injured woman using the binder bar from his truck, but was unable to free her. As a former member of the U.S. Air Force and a volunteer firefighter, Lee had received training that helped him assess the situation. He quickly realized that moving her from the vehicle would only risk further injury. “The best that I could do was just to try to keep her comfortable and keep her still,” he said. “I did what I could to keep her awake and calm until the paramedics and rescue arrived.” Police asked Lee, who has been a trucker for 10 years, to use his CB to help get other truck drivers, who were backed up at the scene, to shift their rigs to make room for the emergency vehicles. Three people were taken to the hospital for treatment following the accident. According to paramedics, the trapped woman Lee comforted faced a long hospital stay, but she was expected to recover. “I don’t feel like a hero, mainly because that would entail being more involved in the process than what I was,” Lee said humbly.   Tony Medina National Carriers – Liberal, Kansas Jose “Tony” Medina of Perryton, Texas, who drives for National Carriers out of Liberal, Kansas, is honored for helping rescue two children from a burning truck. It happened July 6, 2022, at about 3 p.m. Medina had stopped at National Beef Packers in Liberal, Kansas. He was parked behind another truck, which had its back doors open for inspection. While Medina was checking in the office for his delivery, he noticed flames coming from the other truck. The driver was in the truck, but Medina says he believes the other driver didn’t realize his truck was on fire. “There were three things that really got me to spring into action,” Medina said. “One of them was I didn’t see anybody coming out of the truck, so I thought that maybe there was someone who needed help getting out.” Secondly, there was a strong wind that day, which Medina said he knew would spread the fire quickly. He knew he needed to act fast. The third — and possibly most important — factor was that Medina spotted two small children inside the truck. “I told the trucker, and I told the little boy that the truck was on fire, and they needed to get out,” he said. As the other driver worked to unbuckle a baby from a car seat, Medina pulled the other child out of the truck. At this point, Medina said, the flames were intense, so he hurried to move his truck to keep it from also catching fire. In the end, the other truck was completely destroyed by the fire. Oddly enough, Medina wasn’t even supposed to be at that location that day, but he had moved his schedule around due to a family vacation. “Luck of the draw, destiny, whatever you want to call it,” he said. “God working — whatever — I happened to be there at the right time.”   Marty Smith Melton Truck Lines – Tulsa, Oklahoma On a dreary day in early September 2022, truck driver Marty Smith was driving along Interstate 70 in Colorado. Around 2 p.m., he encountered heavy rain. As he adjusted his speed to match conditions, a Jeep SUV passed him, hydroplaned and rocketed into the center median, where it flipped multiple times. “It was raining like crazy,” said Smith, who lives in Orlando, Florida, and drives for Melton Truck Lines out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Smith immediately pulled over to help the other driver. “I put on my hazards, and I ran across the road. That was the dangerous part, because nobody was slowing down,” he recalled Upon reaching the crashed Jeep, Smith found the vehicle on its side, with the driver trapped in the front seat. While Smith worked to pry the front windshield open, the other driver kicked the glass from the inside. Between the efforts of the two, the windshield finally popped free. Smith quickly helped the driver out of the crashed vehicle. Smith describe the other driver as “dazed and confused,” but says he didn’t appear to sustain any significant injuries. Just as Smith extricated the driver, police arrived on the scene.   Eric Weed Melton Truck Lines – Tulsa, Oklahoma Truck driver Eric Weed of Oklahoma City is recognized for coming to the aid of his driver-trainer, Scott, who was having a severe allergic reaction to coconut while the two were running a training route. In October 2022, Weed, who drives for Melton Truck Lines of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was training with Scott. While at a restaurant in Orlando Scott somehow ingested coconut, to which he is severely allergic. “He just starts sweating bad and starts turning purple and blue,” Weed said. “He started shaking and said, ‘I think I was exposed to coconut.’” Weed’s trainer normally carries an EpiPen to counteract allergic reactions, but this time, he had left it in his backpack in his hotel room. Weed rushed to order a rideshare service to get them back to the hotel as Scott became progressively more ill. “He was still sweating like crazy. I was ready to call 911,” Weed said, adding that Scott insisted he would be OK once they got the EpiPen. Upon returning to the hotel, Weed made a mad dash for Scott’s hotel room and quickly retrieved the EpiPen. After injecting a dose of allergy-counteracting epinephrine, Scott seemed to get better. “I got him some water, and hung out and watched him for two hours until he was good,” Weed said. “I’m glad I was there and glad it all worked out.” Scott made a quick recovery, and the two men were able to complete training. Scott believes Weed’s quick response helped save him from being thrust into a more severe — or even life-threatening — situation. This article originally appeared in the January/February 2023 edition of Truckload Authority, the official publication of the Truckload Carriers Association.

Capitol Recap | January/February 2023

As 2022 wound down, things seemed to be winding up at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). First, the agency announced it is set to roll out the final rule on the often-controversial speed limiter rule. Second, a request for public comments on the FMCSA’s proposal to require electronic logging devices (ELDs) on pre-2000 tractors drew both ire and support. Next, the agency set interim guidelines aimed at defining the differences among brokers, bona fide agents, and dispatch services as required in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Finally, the FMCSA says it has pledged to get better at removing dangerous carriers from service. FMCSA set to roll out final speed limiter proposal The FMCSA is planning to unveil its final proposal regarding commercial motor vehicle speed limiters this year. The agency wrote in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) September rulemaking report that June 2023 is the target date. In May 2022, the FMCSA sought comments on the proposal, which will affect vehicles with a gross weight of 26,001 pounds or more, which would be equipped with an electronic control unit that’s capable of being governed. A governed speed has not yet been determined, according to the FMCSA. The move is a follow-up to a 2016 joint proposal between the FMCSA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for CMV speed limiters that didn’t gain traction. The newest proposal garnered about 15,000 comments in its initial reveal on the Federal Register as part of a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking. Many comments pointed to the possibility of slower-moving trucks actually impeding traffic and creating hazards. A representative of Beyond Dirt LLC wrote on the comment page: “… all it will do is impede traffic in places where the … speed limit is higher, making driving a truck more dangerous for the truck driver because the cars around it will be making aggressive maneuvers to get around it.” Karl Wendtand wrote: “This is a stupid idea, the danger of more accidents from cars hitting trucks will go up more if you do this. … Punishing me and other professional drivers for actions by car drivers is not only unfair and discriminating to those of us that do the hard work of delivering everything you buy. If you really want to lose the older and safer drivers then pass this regulation. The driver shortage will increase by over 50% and you will destroy this industry.” The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) also opposes the proposal. The OOIDA Foundation points to research that states the frequency of interactions with other vehicles increases 227% when traveling 10 mph below the speed of traffic. “Considering that the United States has highways with speed limits posted at 80 mph or more, a truck that is speed limited at 60 mph may have to travel 20-25 mph slower than the flow of traffic,” according to an article on Land Line, the news magazine for OOIDA. A study by University of Arkansas researchers in 2006 found that speed limit differentials compromise highway safety. OOIDA also points out that regulating a truck’s top speed does not stop it from speeding. “Although a speed limiter mandate set at 60 mph would force trucks to drive well below the posted speed limit on most highways, it would not prevent them speeding through city traffic, construction zones or in inclement weather,” OOIDA officials stated. The OOIDA Foundation says “research shows that forcing truckers to lose time during high-speed zones can encourage them to driver faster than they should through slower zones so that they can make their deliveries on time.” There is some support for the proposal, however. Chris Spear, president of the American Trucking Associations (ATA), said his organization approves of speed limiters. “ATA is pleased that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is pursuing a constructive, data-driven approach to the issue of truck speed limiters in its latest proposal,” Spear said. “We intend to thoroughly review FMCSA’s proposal, and we look forward to working with the agency to shape a final rule that is consistent with our policy supporting the use of speed limiters in conjunction with numerous other safety technologies.” There are some companies that have been using speed limiters on their rigs for years. Walmart, for example, sets the top speed of its rigs at 65 mph. The Truckload Carriers Association also supports the proposal, saying it views the decision to mandate speed limiters “as a sensible next step in the ongoing effort to reduce accidents on our roadways and improve safety in the industry.” The association supports “a policy with a maximum speed of 65 miles per hour, or 70 miles per hour if there is adaptive cruise control or automatic emergency braking. In addition, carriers should be allowed to utilize measured flexibility to ensure drivers can safely react to speed differentials.” ELD requirement could be extended to pre-2000 tractors The comment period on the FMCSA proposal to require trucks with pre-2000 engines to comply with the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate ended on November 15 with a variety of opinions. Among them was the Truckload Carriers Association, which wrote that ELDs “should be required on as many trucks as possible, including rebuilt or remanufactured engines or glider kits that can accommodate ELD technology. FMCSA should push for expanded ELD adoption, because it is an important tool to track compliance for the hours-of-service regulations, which were designed to improve safety.” On the other side, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) wrote against the measure. “CVSA was and continues to be a strong supporter of the ELD requirement,” according to CVSA’s comment. “While expanding the ELD requirement to include these types of vehicles would bring more vehicles under the ELD requirement and help improve hours-of-service compliance and roadway safety for those vehicles, this change would be difficult to enforce, eroding any intended safety benefit. “It is very difficult to verify roadside whether or not a vehicle is subject to the ELD regulations based on the engine manufacture date. Expanding the ELD requirements to include these vehicles will result in confusion and inconsistencies in enforcement of the regulations.” The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) also opposes the proposed measure. “The agency lacks data confirming the ELD mandate has improved highway safety and has failed to demonstrate how the expansion of existing requirements to vehicles operating on pre-2000 and rebuilt pre-2000 engines would enhance safety,” the association wrote. “OOIDA is unaware of any research that demonstrates vehicles operating under the pre-2000 exemption fail to meet the same level of safety as vehicles with ELDs.” Many professional truck drivers are also against the proposal. The FMCSA’s advance notice of proposed rulemaking considers changes to the ELD mandate in five areas: Applicability to pre-2000 engines; Addressing ELD malfunctions; The process for removing an ELD from FMCSA’s list of certified devices; Technical specifications; and ELD certification. In 2012, Congress acted to require the use of ELDs by law. As a part of a highway funding bill, MAP-21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century), the FMCSA was required by law to mandate ELDs. After conducting a number of studies, the rule was published in December 2015. December 18, 2017, was the deadline for most carriers to implement ELDs. Interim guidance governs brokers, dispatchers The FMCSA is working to stop companies that engage in truck brokering without proper authority. FMCSA officials on November 15 released interim guidelines that are aimed at defining the differences between brokers, bona fide agents and dispatch services. The new guidance was required as part of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. Dispatchers need broker authority if they: Interact or negotiate a shipment of freight directly with the shipper or a representative of the shipper. Accept or take compensation for a load from the broker or factoring company or are involved in any part of the monetary transaction between any of those entities. Arrange for a shipment of freight for a motor carrier, with which there is no written legal contract with the motor carrier that meets the aforementioned criteria. Accept a shipment without a truck/carrier then attempt to find a truck/carrier to move the shipment. Are a named party on the shipping contract. Are soliciting the open market of carriers for the purposes of transporting a freight shipment. Dispatchers operating as unauthorized brokers can face a fine of up to $10,000 for each violation. Related to bona fide agents, FMCSA officials stated that representing more than one motor carrier does not necessarily mean one is a broker rather than a bona fide agent. “Motor carriers, or persons who are employees or bona fide agents of carriers, are not brokers within the meaning of this section when they arrange or offer to arrange the transportation of shipments which they are authorized to transport and which they have accepted and legally bound themselves to transport,” according to the FMCSA. “In that same section, bona fide agents are defined as persons who are part of the normal organization of a motor carrier and perform duties under the carrier’s directions pursuant to a preexisting agreement which provides for a continuing relationship, precluding the exercise of discretion on the part of the agent in allocating traffic between the carrier and others.” FMCSA officials said they do not believe it is the intent of Congress to eliminate the services that dispatchers provide. “It is clear based on feedback from industry that there is a need and desire for dispatch services, among large and small motor carriers,” according to FMCSA officials. “A beneficial role that a dispatch service may provide is the outsourcing of resources for small motor carriers who cannot afford a full-time employee to perform these functions. The dispatch service can help to ensure the motor carrier has a steady stream of shipments while allowing the motor carrier to focus on its core business of safely transporting freight.” In response, John Elliott, Chairman of the Truckload Carriers Association, said “Unfortunately, the guidance issued by FMCSA does not provide firm enough definitions to result in meaningful disruption of improper practices. The legal descriptions of these roles are ambiguous at best. Carriers need to be able to know who is operating legitimately and who to avoid.” FMCSA rethinking carrier rating structure Officials at the FMCSA say they want to be more effective at getting miscreant motor carriers off of America’s highways. “FMCSA is seeking information on how the agency might use data and resources more effectively to identify unfit motor carriers and to remove them from the nation’s roadways,” according to a statement published in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Significant Rulemaking Report in late 2022. “FMCSA would seek public comment about the use of available safety data, including inspection data, in determining carrier fitness to operate.” The FMCSA plans to publish an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on the issue in January, and a notice on safety fitness procedures is expected January 30, 2023. The public will have a chance to make comments once the rulemaking draft is published on the Federal Register. FMCSA officials also want public input on possible changes to the current three-tier safety fitness rating structure of satisfactory, conditional and unsatisfactory. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations that FMCSA uses in its safety fitness rating methodology are also expected to receive a thorough review. The FMCSA may place an interstate commercial motor carrier out of service for the following reasons: Imminent hazard: Whenever it is determined that a violation of 49 USC 31502 or the Motor Carrier Safety Act of 1984, as amended, or the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986, as amended, or a regulation issued under such section or acts, or a combination of such violations, poses an imminent hazard to safety. Failure to pay civil penalty: Whenever a CMV owner or operator fails to pay a civil penalty in full within 90 days of the date specified for payment by the FMCSA final agency order. “Unsatisfactory” rated motor carriers: Generally, a motor carrier that is rated “unsatisfactory” is prohibited from operating a CMV. Since December 2021, the FMCSA has declared eight carriers to be imminent hazards to public safety. Trucking industry image ‘stronger than ever,’ poll says Most Americans believe the trucking industry plays a vital role in the nation’s economy and have a “favorable impression” of trucking, according to a national poll conducted by Trucking Moves America Forward (TMAF). The organization released the results of its latest survey. “Our latest polling shows that the image of the trucking industry is stronger than ever,” said Kevin Burch, co-chairman of TMAF and vice president of government affairs and sales for Martin Transportation Systems. “The public perception of the trucking (industry) is at an all-time high, with our poll finding that the majority of Americans — 87% of voters — have a favorable impression of trucking, which is the highest public opinion has been since TMAF began tracking industry views in 2014,” he said. The national poll, conducted September 7-14 by Public Opinion Strategies on behalf of TMAF, surveyed 1,000 registered voters. Some key findings of the survey, along with comparisons to the 2019 poll, include the following: 87% of voters have a favorable impression of the trucking industry (up from 67% in the 2019 poll). 97% of Americans believe the trucking industry plays a “very important” role in the country’s economy (unchanged from 2019). Nearly three-fourths — 72% — of respondents rate the industry’s safety record as “excellent” or “good” (up slightly from 70% in 2019). When asked about truck drivers, 96% of Americans stated they are essential to keeping the country’s economy moving; 85% consider truck drivers to be professionals; and 78% believe truck drivers have higher standards for safety than other drivers. Voters have generally heard people say more positive than negative things about the trucking industry, with comments like “keeping stores stocked,” “critical for the success of the country” and “keeping the country moving” as top responses. When voters were asked which group of workers should be considered “essential or critical” to the country in times of crisis, trucking ranked among the top three, along with grocery store workers and health care workers. “More and more Americans continue to realize the essential role that trucking plays in the nation’s economy and in all of our lives, thanks to industry-wide education efforts. TMAF will continue our mission to tell the positive story of trucking to shift public perception even higher,” Burch said. Gloria Shepherd named new executive director at FHWA Gloria Shepherd will be the 11th executive director of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), according to an announcement by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). Shepherd will be the first woman, and the first African American, to lead the agency. “It does not fall short on me the enormous responsibility that comes with the position,” Shepherd said. “I am grateful that history has allowed me to fulfill the dreams of my parents and relatives who have gone on and bent their shoulders low, so I could stand on them in this position of public service. I am confident with the help of all the talented people in FHWA, we will not only fulfill our mission but reach new horizons.” Shepherd has more than 23 years of experience with the agency. FHWA officials say she has “produced a track record of success and a proven ability to produce results, develop effective national partnerships and coalitions, and open doors through her mentorship for future leaders within DOT.” “From her work at the Maryland and New York departments of transportation, to more than two decades at FHWA, Gloria has dedicated her extraordinary career to serving the traveling public,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “We are lucky to have her expertise, insight, and dedication as we work to modernize our nation’s roads, bridges, and highways to serve the American people now and for generations to come.” Since 2007, Shepherd has served as the associate administrator for planning, environment and realty at FHWA. Before becoming an associate administrator, Shepherd served for eight years as the director of office of planning, where she was the principal advocate for metropolitan and statewide planning and programs. Before joining FHWA, she served in executive level positions with the Maryland State Highway Administration and the New York Department of Transportation. “Our nation’s street and highway infrastructure is changing in real time and there is no one with more experience and dedication to this work to help guide that transition than Gloria,” said FHWA Acting Administrator Stephanie Pollack. This article originally appeared in the January/February 2023 edition of Truckload Authority, the official publication of the Truckload Carriers Association.

Highway Angels | November/December 2022

Professional truck drivers Robert Coats, Augustine “Gus” Corona, Craig Gay, Harrison Harville, Phil Jackson, Mike Noack, and Robert Simpson have been named Highway Angels by the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) for their acts of heroism while on the road. In recognition of these drivers’ willingness to help fellow drivers and motorists, TCA has presented each Highway Angel with a certificate, a lapel pin, patches, and truck decals. Their employers have also received a certificate highlighting their drivers’ acknowledging their driver as a recipient. TCA extends special thanks to the program’s presenting sponsor, EpicVue, and supporting sponsor, DriverFacts. To nominate a driver or read more about these and other Highway Angels award recipients, visit highwayangel.org. ROBERT COATS Hogan Transport, St. Louis, Missouri On March 24, Robert Coats was traveling south on Interstate 65 in Kentucky when he approached an accident involving two CMVs and a car. All three vehicles were on fire. “I saw a big plume of smoke, and then flames,” said Coats, a resident of Stow, Ohio. “Something just said, ‘pull over.’” When he reached the scene, Coats found a woman trapped in the car. The driver’s-side door was engulfed in 4-foot-high flames, but Coats was able to climb into the back seat on the driver’s side. “As she was stuck in there, I reached in,” he said, “I said, ‘Ma’am! Ma’am! We’ve gotta get out! We’ve gotta get out!’” Without a moment to spare, Coats coaxed the woman to climb over the seat of the burning car into the back seat; he then proceeded to pull her out safety. “Shortly thereafter, the car exploded,” he recalled. The woman suffered multiple injuries and was airlifted for medical treatment. Three weeks later, the woman contacted Coats to thank him. Since then, he has met with the woman and her family, who are very grateful for his help during the accident. “Mr. Coats used his fire extinguisher to stave off the fire that had ignited the victim’s car,” said Kentucky State Police Officer Kelly Anderson. “He entered into a funnel of two CMVs that were on fire, as well as the surrounding area. Witnesses stated he was holding back the fire until he was able to remove her and pull her to safety moments before the car exploded.” Coats said it was a miracle neither he nor the crash victim suffered any burns, despite being in a car engulfed in flames. Many have asked Coats: Why jump into a burning car? “There wasn’t a second thought about it,” he said. “I just did it. I saw, and I went — that was it. Everything worked out in God’s favor; that’s how he wanted it.” AUGUSTINE “GUS” CORONA Melton Truck Lines, Tulsa, Oklahoma On June 11, Gus Corona of Corpus Christi, Texas, was driving along Highway 26 in South Carolina when a commercial truck ahead of him began bobbing back and forth. The stretch of road was narrow and had cement barriers. Corona watched as the truck suddenly shifted and flipped onto its passenger side. “The container (on the back of the truck) must have hit the median,” Corona explained. He quickly pulled over and ran to the overturned truck, where he found the driver, a woman, inside. “I see a lady in there and I told her, ‘We have to get you out of here,’” he shared. Within moments, he had helped pull her from the truck and to safety. To his amazement, the woman suffered only minor injuries like scrapes, cuts, and bruises. Once the driver was safe, Corona realized three fires had ignited because of sparks flying from the truck crash. He quickly grabbed his fire extinguisher and combatted the fires before they grew out of control. A member of the U.S. Air Force for 24 years, Gus credits his quick thinking and efforts to his military and medical training. “My instincts kicked over,” he said, explaining that he received extensive preparation in the Air Force for accidents and unexpected situations. After the accident scene was cleared by police and emergency personnel, Corona drove the other driver to meet her family. Since the accident, the drivers have stayed in touch. To show her gratitude, the truck driver whose rig crashed plans to name her new dog “Gus” in honor of Corona. CRAIG GAY Quickway Transportation, Indianapolis Driver Craig Gay was on his way home from work about 1 a.m. July 6 when he came upon a crashed vehicle near the 96-mile marker of Interstate 74 near Indianapolis. The vehicle, a Jeep, was engulfed in flames, so Gay pulled over to help. Using a flashlight to check the scene, he realized the driver, a woman, was still inside the vehicle. He quickly called 911. “I went over to the driver’s side, and I was like, ‘Hey, you gotta get out! Your car is on fire!’” Gay recalled. The woman was not coherent, and Gay was unable to pull her from the car because she couldn’t get out of her seatbelt. Gay began flagging down vehicles to help. Finally, a truck with two men stopped and gave Gay a pair of scissors to cut the seatbelt. Another trucker also stopped, and used his fire extinguisher to subdue the flames so Gay could climb into the back seat of the car and cut the woman’s seatbelt. “We tried to get her to come out to us, but she was just out of it,” he said. Gay pulled the woman from the driver’s seat into the back seat, and the other bystanders pulled them both from the burning vehicle. Gay later discovered the woman was suffering a diabetic emergency, which caused the accident. “If it wasn’t for these two men we could be investigating a fatal crash this morning. Their heroic actions and selfless response saved a life,” said Indiana State Police Sergeant Jon Caddell. Gay, who is a former Marine, was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation. “When you’re presented with a situation, the best thing is to take action and do something,” he said. “Not just standing back and not doing anything — what’s a few burns to save somebody’s life?” HARRISON HARVILLE Covenant Logistics, Chattanooga, Tennessee At about noon on June 30, Harrison Harville was driving on Interstate 81 in Marion, Virginia, when he noticed a U-Haul truck on the side of the road, engulfed in flames. The U-Haul was hooked to a trailer, carrying a car. “Everybody was just driving by. I applied my brakes and pulled off the side of the road,” recalled Harville. He quickly jumped out of his truck, with a fire extinguisher in hand. “The trailer was on fire. The axle locked up on the trailer — it blew out the right-side tire and the left-side tire,” he said. Harville worked quickly to extinguish the fire, and was able to save the U-Haul and the vehicle towing the trailer. “I couldn’t believe all the people driving by,” he said in disbelief. “I did the right thing. If you live right, you do right.” Harville, a resident of Morristown, Tennessee, has been driving a truck for 27 years. He says the driver of the U-Haul tried to pay him $100 for his help, but he turned down the offer. “I’ll be rewarded in heaven,” Harville said with a smile. PHIL JACKSON Bay & Bay Transportation, Eagan, Minnesota On July 2, Phil Jackson of Tyler, Texas, was driving on Highway 287 South in Moore County, Texas, when he noticed an RV on fire on the side of the road. The RV’s driver and passengers were trying to extinguish the fire. The RV was also pulling a trailer with a car. “I realized it was a motor home on fire,” Jackson shared. “So, I pulled off on the shoulder and grabbed my fire extinguisher.” Jackson ran across the divided highway with his fire extinguisher in hand to put the fire out, but realized the fire was too large for just his extinguisher. “It looked like they had ruptured a fuel line,” he recalled. “There was a pretty good little fire going down in there.” To save the trailer and car, Jackson worked quickly to unhook the trailer from the RV. He then remained at the scene until emergency personnel arrived. “I felt really bad for the people,” he said, adding that the RV “was pretty much gone.” Fortunately, the trailer and car were saved. Jackson has been driving trucks since 1975. In addition, he has been a volunteer firefighter and first responder over the years, which helped him know how to act quickly in an emergency situation. MIKE NOACK Stevens Transport, Dallas, Texas At about 1 a.m. on July 27, Mike Noack, a resident of Greenville, Texas, was driving on Interstate 10 in Port Allen, Louisiana, when the tanker truck he was following crashed into a ditch. Noack quickly pulled over and called 911, and then went to the truck to see if he could help. “His windshield was blown off, for the most part,” Noack said. “He was pretty much pinned behind the dashboard — nice, big old gaping gash on his head, and arm completely snapped right at the elbow.” Because of the position of the truck cab and the driver, Noack wasn’t able to pull him out of the vehicle, but he stayed with the driver until emergency personnel arrived about 10 minutes later. The driver was conscious the entire time, and Noack, who has been a truck driver for eight years, was able to keep him calm while they waited. “I just stayed with him and reassured him that everything would be all right,” Noack said. “I hope if that were ever to happen to me, somebody stops for me.” ROBERT SIMPSON Meiborg Brothers Trucking, Rockford, Illinois Small acts of kindness can often make a big impression. That’s the case with Robert Simpson of Salt Lick, Kentucky. On June 17, Simpson, along with countless other drivers, was stuck for more than two hours in a traffic jam on Interstate 65 near Franklin, Kentucky. The temperature was well above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Simpson noticed a passenger van on the side of the road that appeared to be having mechanical issues, and he immediately considered that the vehicle’s air conditioning might not be working. “It looked like it might be one of those military shuttles for the VA (Veterans Administration),” Simpson shared. “I’m a retired veteran, my wife’s a retired veteran. So, I got to thinking while I’m sitting there in traffic — maybe they could use a water.” Simpson got out of his truck, approached the vehicle carrying four bottles of cold water, and offered them to the van’s passengers. This simple act of kindness was noticed by other motorists stuck in the traffic, who then posted it on social media. “This driver deserves a gold star and a big raise!” said one Facebook post. “We sat on the road for almost two hours … he sees a van disability … he stops and gets out and gets water out of his truck … and walks it over to them! What a fantastic employee you have!” As it turned out, the van was not connected with veterans and its passengers were not in need of water, but nonetheless, Simpson’s kindness struck a chord with witnesses to the gesture. “I didn’t want to see a veteran sitting on the side of the road without water,” said Simpson.

TCA, CarriersEdge open nominations for 15th annual Best Fleets to Drive For contest

ALEXANDRIA, Va., and MARKHAM, Ontario, Canada — The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) and CarriersEdge are now accepting nominations for the annual Best Fleets to Drive For competition, launching the 15th iteration of the contest. The nomination period continues through October 31. “The Best Fleets to Drive For program started fifteen years ago during the 2008 recession, surprising us with the unique ways fleets addressed the needs of their drivers during times of uncertainty,” said TCA President Jim Ward. “I look forward to seeing what new standards carriers have implemented since last year’s program to better working conditions for professional drivers, and the industry as a whole.” Professional truck drivers and independent contractors can nominate the company for which they work to earn the title of a Best Fleet to Drive For. Companies operating 10 or more tractor-trailers in the U.S. or Canada are eligible for the contest; TCA membership is not required to participate. By nominating a fleet, drivers are formally recognizing its company’s culture, programs, and working environment as outstanding. If the carrier chooses to participate in the contest, members of its senior management will be asked to take part in a questionnaire and interview, and a selection of the carrier’s drivers will participate in surveys, all of which dig deeper into the company’s policies and practices. At the end of the evaluation process, the Top 20 highest-scoring fleets will be identified as Best Fleets to Drive For. Winners will be announced at the end of January 2023. These 20 carriers will will be divided into small and large carrier categories. Two overall winners will be then recognized alongside fleets who will be entering the program’s Hall of Fame at TCA’s Annual Convention, scheduled for March 4-7, 2023, in Kissimmee, Florida. “The program evolves every season to match what is happening in the industry,” said Jane Jazrawy, CEO of CarriersEdge. “Over the past two years, we watched carriers work hard to meet the unprecedented challenges that arose during COVID. Now, we are excited to see what new ideas fleets have come up with to transition from the pandemic and meet the challenges of a fluctuating economy.” Drivers can nominate their carrier and view a list of companies that have already been nominated at www.bestfleetstodrivefor.com. Follow along with the contest on social media by searching the hashtag #BestFleets23, or visit the program’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BestFleetsToDriveFor. The Best Fleets to Drive For contest is sponsored by EpicVue, Eleos, and TruckRight.

Bringing About Change: Members have a chance to help shape the future of TCA

The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) Board of Directors and committees will meet during the association’s annual Fall Business Meetings September 12 in Washington to discuss association policies and industry issues prior to heading to TCA’s Call on Washington September 13. FALL BUSINESS MEETINGS Committees will convene to discuss and act on many current industry issues including speed limiters, AB5, young driver programs, driver recruiting and retention, trucking image programs, membership campaigns, and much more. New this year, TCA is encouraging participants to attend a reception at the Swedish Embassy, sponsored by Volvo. It is not necessary to be a member of a committee to attend the Fall Business Meetings. To find out more about TCA’s committees or about opportunities to serve on a committee, visit truckload.org/committee-program-leadership. CALL ON WASHINGTON The Call on Washington is one of TCA’s most important efforts to increase truckload’s visibility with legislators and regulators in the nation’s capital. There is no better way to advance these efforts than to attend the 2022 event on September 13, meet face-to-face with policymakers and their staff, and help tell truckload’s unique story. Attendees will also receive updates from key congressmen and senators who are leaders of transportation-focused committees, as well as from expert Hill committee staff. Through these discussions, TCA members will learn what the future holds for trucking legislation, particularly potential congressional movement on infrastructure proposals. There is no doubt that the insight and statistics TCA and its members have provided has helped the association gain credibility among the men and women who hold influence over the agencies which regulate the trucking industry. By converging on Capitol Hill, previous visits have granted TCA the opportunity to build the relationships necessary to further the cause of truckload in America. “Call on Washington gives the truckload industry the chance to meet firsthand with our congressional members and their staffs to directly discuss the issues that most affect our industry both on a national and local level,” said TCA Chairman and Load One LLC CEO John Elliott. “Direct engagement has shown to have an impactful outcome for the trucking industry.” American Central Transport Inc. Senior Vice President Bob Kretsinger echoed Elliott’s thoughts. “This event is a fantastic way to get our industry’s voice heard,” Kretsinger shared. “To meet with our representatives — who don’t necessarily ever hear from our folks, to tell them a little about trucking, what we see as important, and how it affects our country — is a great opportunity to advance our cause.” Participation in the Call on Washington is reserved for TCA members. Learn more or register at tcafallcall.com. TCA’s Call on Washington is sponsored by DriverFacts.

Champions Club: TCA launches revamped membership referral program

The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) has announced the launch of the Champions Club, a new membership referral program with the help of program sponsor Peterson Manufacturing, Inc. “We receive many member referrals throughout the year and this new program will officially highlight and celebrate these ‘Champions’ that refer and help build TCA’s membership base,” said Zander Gambill, TCA Vice President of Membership Outreach. TCA members that refer at least three new members between now and Truckload 2023: Orlando, TCA’s annual convention in March 2023, will be recognized as Champions during the event, and will receive a token of TCA’s appreciation. Champions will also be recognized at the time of referral. “We are thrilled to launch this new referral program and further engage our members. Their efforts to champion TCA deserve to be celebrated, and I look forward to recognizing all our new Champions Club members,” Gambill said. TCA Membership Committee Chairman and Garner Trucking’s Chief Operations Officer Tim Chrulski is also elated about the new program. “It’s an exciting time to be a part of TCA,” Chrulski said. “Adding new members to the association is a benefit to all members by enhancing the networking opportunities, growing our educational offerings, and amplifying our efforts on Capitol Hill. Together, we can continue to unite our industry.” Gambill urged members who know a carrier, service provider, or driver-training school that might be interested in joining TCA to refer them to TCA. Members can access the referral form at truckload.org or reach out directly to Zander Gambill at [email protected] or (571) 444-0301.

Member Resources: TCA, NITL place renewed focus on Voluntary Guide to Business Relations

Recently, Congress and the Biden administration, through their bipartisan support of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, have recognized the need for more balanced coordination to better facilitate relations between shippers, receivers, motor carriers, and professional truck drivers. The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) and The National Industrial Transportation League (NITL) are contributing to this effort with a revised version of the Voluntary Guide to Good Business Relations for Shippers, Receivers, Carriers, and Drivers. The guide, originally written in September 2000, first revised in 2013 and most recently revised in 2022 to better reflect a more complex operating environment, emphasizes reasonable and common-sense treatment of the four primary parties involved in truck transportation, and outlines mutually desirable business practices that TCA and NITL believe responsible shippers, receivers, carriers, and drivers should adopt. As supply chains face increased disruptions, TCA believes this guide is more relevant now than ever. The guide has been endorsed by the Food Shippers of America (FSA) and the American Trucking Associations (ATA), highlighting industry confidence in these best practices. To develop this guide, TCA and NITL relied on the expertise and experience within their memberships to ensure the recommendations were impactful, feasible, and based on real challenges across all operational levels. “This guide can serve as an effective blueprint for those within trucking and in government to collectively improve the driver experience to strengthen efforts to recruit and retain professional truck drivers more effectively,” said TCA President Jim Ward. Ward, who was formerly the president of D.M. Bowman, Inc., based in Williamsport, Maryland, served as the co-chairman of TCA’s Carrier/Shipper Relations Committee in 2000 when the guide was written. “With so many disruptions in the supply chain, whether it be rail, ocean or highway, the League is very pleased to continue to work alongside the TCA to update this best practices guide,” said NITL Executive Director Nancy O’Liddy. “League members have long embraced these recommended practices, which enhance working relationships between shippers, brokers and carriers as they work to meet their mutual goals.” Although the guide was initially developed by TCA and NITL for their respective members, both organizations believe it is applicable to many, if not all, segments of the truck transportation industry and their customers. The organizations encourage other entities, such as food shippers, warehousing organizations, and the retail industry, to adopt these voluntary guidelines. The guide will be discussed during TCA’s Fall Business Meetings and Call on Washington, set for September 12-13, 2022. To learn more about the event or to register, visit tcafallcall.com. For questions or copies of the guide, contact [email protected] or call (703) 838-1950, or contact [email protected] or call (703) 524-5011.

Highway Angels | September/October 2022

Professional truck drivers Michael Maines, Daniel Worm, Scott Nowell, Binyam Tadele, Mike Rivera, Grant Quinton, Larry Williams, Zach Yeakley, Stephen Carlin, Mike Pagel, Christopher Hight, Tony Barton, Kenichi Tanisaki, Royford Burris and Shawna Lewis have been named Highway Angels by the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) for their acts of heroism while on the road. In recognition of these drivers’ willingness to help fellow drivers and motorists, TCA has presented each Highway Angel with a certificate, a lapel pin, patches, and truck decals. Their employers have also received a certificate highlighting their drivers’ acknowledging their driver as a recipient. TCA extends special thanks to the program’s presenting sponsor, EpicVue, and supporting sponsor, DriverFacts. To nominate a driver or read more about these and other Highway Angels award recipients, visit highwayangel.org. MICHAEL MAINES & DANIEL WORM Michael Maines and Daniel Worm were recognized for using their medical backgrounds to assist seriously injured passengers during a car crash last September in Louisville, Kentucky. On September 24, 2021, Maines and Worm, both drivers for Melton Truck Lines, had just left a truck stop, driving their respective trucks, and were heading toward Louisville. At one point, traffic was slowed because of road construction. Approaching the slowdown, Maines saw a white van swerve out of the way to avoid hitting a semitruck; however, this maneuver caused a third vehicle, a Jeep, to run off the road and flip over onto the guard rails. Behind the van was a car, which proceeded to crash full speed into the semitruck. An elementary school-age girl was thrown from the passenger window in the crash. Maines stopped his truck and raced to help. “I was in the military and so I knew how to do triage,” said Maines, referring to his eight years in the Air Force. “I ran out and checked everybody real quick. The young girl that was laying on the street … she had a major head injury.” Another passerby pulled a boy, the girl’s brother, out of the back of the car, Maines shared with TCA. The boy was conscious and talking. The vehicle’s driver, the father of the two children, regained consciousness, Maines added, and was eventually pulled from the wreckage by first responders using the jaws of life. Without hesitation, Worm, who was behind Maines in traffic, also stopped to assist. After gaining years of experience with a Michigan fire department and EMS team, Worm has extensive training on how to respond during a medical emergency. He quickly focused on the seriously injured girl who was lying on the road. “I went to work and started treating that girl,” Worm recalled. “She was in critical condition. I stayed right with her until the EMS got there.” Meanwhile, Maines was communicating with law enforcement at the scene. Both truck drivers stayed at the accident site to assist the police and paramedics. SCOTT NOWELL Scott Nowell, who drives for Melton Truck Lines, is being recognized for rescuing several people who were injured in a three-car collision and staying with the victims until help arrived. Nowell was driving along Route 235 in Ozark, Alabama, last fall when he saw a driver run a red traffic light, causing a three-vehicle collision. A truck was involved, as well as a cargo van that flipped during the accident, rolling off to the right. The first car, driven by a teenage boy, was pushed off the road and down a ravine. Nowell and another passerby, a nurse, first went to the van and broke the windshield to rescue the victims. “I was right there and pulled the two guys out of the van, and then went over to the car and did first aid and CPR on the kid in the car,” recalled Nowell, adding that the boy’s car was “mangled up pretty bad.” A former volunteer first responder in his hometown, Nowell had received first aid training. The severely injured young driver was life-flighted from the scene but survived, Nowell said, as did the other drivers and passengers. Nowell stayed at the scene to assist the EMTs and police, giving his account of the accident. At the time of the incident, Nowell was still a “newbie” to the trucking industry. He began his truck driving career in May 2021 after leaving work in the hospitality industry. He has also been recognized by his company after helping crash victims at an accident scene in Louisiana earlier in 2021. “How I look at it is, what if that was somebody I knew — my mom, my dad, my brother, a close friend of mine?” said Nowell. “I would hope someone would stop to help them.” BINYAM TADELE Binyam Tadele, who lives in Baltimore, Maryland, is being recognized for spotting a fire under a car, extinguishing it, and getting the driver safely out of the vehicle. He has been driving for Schofield Transport, an independent affiliate of Quality Carriers, for more than four years. Recently he was driving from Baltimore to Shippensburg on Interstate 70. It was a weekday, between 7 and 8 a.m., and he was moving slowly through fog when he noticed a car that appeared to have flames coming from beneath it. “As I’m passing, the flame started getting bigger,” Tadele shared. He continued to watch the car, which was pulled over, in his mirror. “The flame got worse, and the people were not coming out.” Without a moment to spare, Tadele safely pulled over, grabbed a fire extinguisher, and ran back to the smoldering car. A woman, wearing hospital scrubs, was alone in the car. He yelled at her, “Hey! Your car’s on fire! You gotta get out!” The woman, unaware of the fire, exited the vehicle and called 911, and Tadele proceeded to extinguish the fire. He says he’s glad he saw the fire when it was “still small — it could have been worse for her.” Tadele stayed with the woman until emergency crews arrived to assist. MIKE RIVERA Mike Rivera of Newport, Tennessee, who drives for R.E. Garrison Trucking, is being recognized for stopping to rescue a fellow truck driver after his tanker truck flipped. One night last fall, Rivera was driving his truck north on Route 301 just outside Gainesville, Florida, with his 12-year-old son, Nathan as a passenger. A tanker truck was approaching them in the opposite lane, heading south. As the tanker passed through an intersection, a car ran a red traffic light into the path of the tanker. The tanker truck driver swerved in an effort to avoid hitting the car, but despite the driver’s efforts, the car was struck. “(The tanker driver) rolled his truck, and he came and slid across in front of our truck,” recalled Rivera. “I hit the brakes and the truck came to a stop. I jumped out and went and mule-kicked the windshield — broke it — and we got the driver out.” Rivera said the driver had bumps and bruises but walked away from the accident. Once the driver was extracted from the truck, Rivera and other bystanders ran to the car the truck had hit to check on the driver, a young woman. Rivera said she was not seriously injured. Once police arrived, Rivera said, “we even helped to block in some of the traffic for the Sheriff’s Department.” Rivera is no stranger to putting himself in harm’s way to help others. He has been a volunteer firefighter in Grassy Fork, Tennessee, since he was 16, and received medical training when he was in the Army. “It was no big deal,” shared Rivera. “This is what we’re supposed to do as drivers. We’re the unsung heroes out here.” GRANT QUINTON Grant Quinton, who lives in Noble, Oklahoma, and drives for Decker Truck Line, is being recognized for rescuing a man and his 10-year-old grandson from their overturned vehicle and keeping them safe until authorities arrived. On Sunday, February 6, 2022, at about 7 a.m., Quinton was sitting in the passenger seat of his truck while training another Decker Truck Line driver. A snowstorm had just passed through that area of Oklahoma, and the pair were driving north on Interstate 35 near Tonkawa when they came upon an overturned Dodge Ram pickup truck. Apparently, the pickup truck had a blowout, the vehicle rolled, and no other vehicles had stopped to help. Quinton’s trainee safely pulled the truck over to the shoulder of the road, and Quinton got out to help. As he approached the overturned vehicle, he heard thumping, so he quickly ran back to his truck to retrieve a rubber mallet. Moments later, he returned to the accident scene while calling 911. “I was able to help get them out of the truck,” he shared. “It was a 10-year-old boy and a grandpa, and I got them across the street behind my semi.” Quinton’s goal was to get the accident victims to the safest place possible. He offered them water and blankets, and kept checking on the welfare of the child, who appeared to have a concussion. Emergency crews arrived and took over. “Just do what’s right,” Quinton said regarding why he stopped at the accident scene. “I’m gonna stay on the road for the rest of my life. If I have the chance to do a job that I really like, see a bunch of places, and I also have a chance where somebody’s in trouble and nobody’s there and I can help them, that’s worth being gone and doing this job.” LARRY WILLIAMS Larry Williams of Linden, Alberta, Canada, who drives for Bison Transport, is being recognized for stopping to help a driver whose vehicle had flipped twice in 6-degree weather. On March 8, 2022, Williams was driving on Highway 1 just west of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, when he saw a Dodge Ram pickup truck fishtail on the road and flip twice before landing in a ditch. Williams safely pulled his truck over about three-quarters of a mile past the accident. It was just his luck that he had no cellphone reception, Williams recalls, but he was able to flag down a passing motorist who called 911 and then gave Williams their phone. Williams ran back to the scene of the accident while talking to the 911 dispatch, who transferred him to the ambulance dispatch. Once he arrived at the accident scene, Williams discovered that all the vehicle airbags had been deployed and the windows blown out. The driver, a 56-year-old man, was trying to climb out of the truck. “He just looked at me and said, ‘What the heck happened?’ He was in shock and shaking and whatnot,” recalled Williams. “I asked him to sit down and relax; then I ran back to the truck and I grabbed a wool sleeping bag.” Williams then returned to the accident scene and wrapped the dazed driver to shield him from the elements. Emergency personnel arrived soon afterward and tended to the driver. ZACH YEAKLEY Zach Yeakley, who lives in Batesville, Arkansas, and drives for CFI, is being recognized for rescuing six crash victims from a deadly chain-reaction crash that occurred in dense fog and involved nearly 50 vehicles. On March 17, 2022, around 8:15 a.m., Yeakley was driving on Interstate 57 and had just crossed the state border into Charleston, Missouri. He heard on his CB radio that there was an accident up ahead; then he noticed smoke and saw a man wearing a safety vest flagging down drivers to alert them to the accident. When Yeakley arrived at the scene, he discovered a fire-filled, chain-reaction crash, in dense fog, that involved more than 45 vehicles. He immediately pulled over and jumped into action. “I went up there; they already had a couple people out,” he recalled. “Some people had some broken arms, one had a collapsed lung, a few broken ribs from the impact.” Yeakley, a 15-year member of the Army National Guard, is trained as a combat lifesaver and quickly assessed the severity of the scene, surveying the situation so he could share information with the paramedics when they arrived. He recalls that fire was spreading in the crashed vehicles, and tires were exploding all around them because of the fire. “There was one guy trapped in his truck,” he said. “So, me, a sheriff, a state trooper, and a FedEx driver, we did what we could to get him out.” Yeakley and the group was able to pry the dashboard off of another trapped crash victim and rescue him from his vehicle. The flames, he said, were surrounding them. Once the crash victim was rescued from his truck, Yeakley and a sheriff ran back to the scene to try to rescue the driver of a car trapped between a truck and a trailer, also surrounded by flames. “By the time we got there, the fire had gotten into the car,” he said. In total that day, Yeakley helped rescue six crash victims from several vehicles. Police reported at least six fatalities from the fiery crash. Yeakley, who has been driving a truck for four years, says he wouldn’t hesitate to jump back into the fire again to rescue drivers, crediting his military training for preparing him for the experience. STEPHEN CARLIN Stephen Carlin of Clayton, North Carolina, is being recognized for rescuing a couple from an overturned truck. Carlin drives for Melton Truck Lines based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. On February 8, 2022, around 7 a.m., Carlin was driving east on Interstate 10 near Benton, Mississippi. As he approached the end of a construction zone, Carlin saw the steer tire of a truck directly in front of him suddenly veer off the roadway and into some dirt. Soon after, the driver overcorrected and rolled the truck. Carlin quickly sprang into action. “I blocked all lanes of traffic, jumped out, got up to the truck — of course it was on its side,” he said. “[The man] had a head injury and his wife had been sleeping in the back.” Shortly thereafter, another driver stopped to help. Carlin shared that, as the couple was trapped in the overturned truck, he and the other bystander smashed open the windshield to help extract them. As a former police officer, Carlin is no stranger to accident scenes. He noticed the man was going into shock and seemed dazed, so he quickly ran to his truck to retrieve foil blankets to keep both the man and woman warm until emergency personnel could assist. It took almost 30 minutes for responders to arrive. When the accident occurred, Carlin had been driving a truck less than a year. A former member of the U.S. Marine Corps, he had been trained in basic first aid. As to why Carlin stopped at the accident scene, he said, “Somebody’s gotta stop. It’s just in my nature.” MIKE PAGEL Mike Pagel of Boca Raton, Florida, who drives for Koleaseco, Inc., is being recognized for coming to the aid of a young motorist who sustained injuries following a vehicle rollover. On the afternoon of March 24, 2022, Pagel was driving on Interstate 80 near the village of Potter, Nebraska, when he saw a pickup truck veer off the side of the road, overcompensate, and swerve back across traffic. Seconds later, Pagel watched as the vehicle rolled several times before landing off the roadway, coming to a rest on its passenger side. Pagel safely pulled to the shoulder, dialed 911, and then ran to the mangled truck. “He didn’t know what happened,” Pagel said of the pickup’s driver. “He wasn’t moving at all when I first got to him.” Pagel crawled into the truck with the man, and noticed he had bad gashes on his head and neck and was bleeding from his mouth. Though Pagel has no formal medical training, he attempted to hold the driver still because he wasn’t certain whether the man had suffered a spinal injury. “I was kind of in an awkward position because a lot of the windows were smashed out and the roof was kind of compromised, so I was just trying to keep him from hurting himself even more,” he said. Nearly 30 minutes later, emergency responders arrived, but Pagel continued to help, holding the driver steady as the rescuers worked to cut the roof from the vehicle. “I had my arm resting underneath his head, holding his head off some metal that had been torn — it was sharp,” Pagel recalled. The emergency personnel were impressed with Mike’s efforts to help others at the scene. “I’ve been in EMS for 21 years, and Mike is one of only a handful of people I’ve witnessed help as much as he did. We could definitely use more people like him,” said Jason Teters, a first responder at the scene. The driver was eventually pulled from the vehicle and is recovering. CHRISTOPHER HIGHT Christopher Hight of Mesa, Arizona, is being recognized for rescuing a trapped mother and her baby following an accident with an 18-wheeler. Hight drives for Melton Truck Lines based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In the fall of 2021, Hight was driving late one afternoon on Highway 35 in Texas, between Laredo and Dallas, when suddenly, he saw a truck strike the back of a car ahead of him. There was a tire in the road, and Hight believes the car swerved to miss the tire but unsafely veered into the truck’s lane. “I saw a big ball of dust, and when it cleared, I saw a car that was smashed completely,” Hight shared. He safely and quickly pulled his truck over to the shoulder to offer assistance. The truck that hit the car also stopped. Hight recalled that the fellow truck driver was able to safely exit of his cab, as he suffered no injuries. “The trunk (of the car) was actually pushed up against the driver’s seat,” said Hight. “Inside all that, there was a baby in there.” Hight said the driver, the baby’s mother, suffered some injuries but was able to climb out of the car once Hight peeled back pieces of metal. She was screaming, worried about the safety of her baby boy in the back seat. “I jumped over there and started trying to get the baby out,” said Hight. “We started peeling the metal back and stuff off the roof and all around.” After what seemed like hours, Hight said, he and another bystander were able to retrieve the baby from the car and place it into the arms of his mother. The only visible injury to the child was a bloody lip. Once the mother was reunited with her baby boy, she held up the child to show the driver of the truck that had struck her that he was okay. “The driver fell down on his knees and started crying, and I started crying,” shared Hight. “When it comes to kids getting hurt, I just can’t deal with it.” Thankfully, neither the mother nor child suffered serious injuries. Hight is the father of six children, and he had been driving a truck for around eight months when the accident took place. “They needed help,” Hight said about why he stopped. “I hope someone helps me if something happens with me.” TONY BARTON Tony Barton, who lives in Blountville, Tennessee, is being recognized for using his truck to shield and protect a vehicle and driver that had crashed during a late-afternoon accident. Barton drives for FTC Transportation, Inc., based in Oklahoma City. On April 21, 2022, at 4:45 p.m., Barton was driving through Nashville, Tennessee, on Interstate 440 when he noticed a black BMW SUV fishtailing. Within moments, the driver lost control and ran head-on into a concrete barrier. Barton watched as the vehicle rolled over completely, landing back on its wheels, and coming to a rest right next to his truck. Barton immediately stopped. “I didn’t want to T-bone this woman that just rolled her car,” he shared. “It was right in the middle of the road.” He quickly dialed 911 and rushed to check on the motorist. Once Barton reached the crashed vehicle, he found the woman conscious and talking, but she was in pain and seemed confused. He kept his rig parked in the middle of the interstate to block and protect the vehicle from being hit by oncoming traffic until emergency responders arrived. “I wanted to block the lane so nobody else could hit her,” he recalled. “My first instinct in any kind of accident like that is to help do whatever I can for somebody that’s injured. It’s not the worst wreck I’ve seen, but it’s not the smallest either.” Shortly thereafter, emergency personnel arrived on scene and tended to the shaken motorist, thanks to Barton’s efforts. He shared with TCA that he has been a volunteer firefighter for decades and knew how to respond in a situation like this. KENICHI TANISAKI Kenichi Tanisaki, who lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is being recognized for getting help for his driver-trainer when she suffered a medical emergency while driving from California to Canada. Tanisaki drives for Bison Transport based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. On the evening of May 26, 2021, he was driving on Interstate 5 with his trainer, Julie. Tanisaki had only been driving for two months. The two were in northern California, heading toward Langley, British Colombia, when Tanisaki noticed Julie was in distress and not acting normally. “She looked like she was sick,” he said. “I asked her if she was OK, but she said she was fine.” He continued to be concerned, however, because she looked like she was getting worse. “I asked her a couple of times if she wants me to call 911, but she kept saying no,” he shared. Tanisaki pondered what to do; he was in the U.S. still and wasn’t sure how insurance, payment, and family might play a role if Julie was hospitalized outside Canada — plus, she insisted that he not call 911. When they approached to the Canadian border, he recalled, Julie woke up and seemed confused; she didn’t know where she was and was talking to herself. “I realized that something was wrong and I really had to take action,” recalled Tanisaki. “I decided to go back to my company yard and ask for help.” At Tanisaki’s request, Bison Transport staff called an ambulance, and Julie received urgent medical attention for a kidney infection. The paramedics told Julie that had she not gotten help, she most likely would have died within the hour. She was in a coma for seven weeks and had to have a kidney removed, which left other organs damaged. Recently she returned to work and says she is very grateful to Tanisaki for saving her life. “I am so happy that it was not too late to call the ambulance,” he shared. “Now she is recovered from her kidney infection. I did not do anything special; I just did the right thing.” ROYFORD BURRIS Royford Burris of Lauderhill, Florida, is being recognized for rescuing several victims during an early-morning crash involving an alleged drunk driver. Burris, a driver for Stevens Transport based in Dallas, is no stranger to the Highway Angel program, as he was named TCA’s 2020 Highway Angel of the Year during the association’s annual convention in September 2021. On Saturday, April 16, 2022, around 3 a.m., he was driving through Cockeysville, Maryland, on Interstate 83. Burris shared that he noticed a white Acura RLX quickly approaching behind him. Moments later, to his surprise, the vehicle almost sideswiped the left side of his truck and then sped past. About 2 miles down the road, Burris watched as that same Acura, still driving erratically, rear-ended a Kia Sportage. “I saw it right in front of me, less than a quarter-mile away,” recalled Burris. “I was like, ‘Oh my god.’” News reports said investigators claimed the initial crash led to multiple secondary crashes. A GMC Envoy crashed into the Kia and a Nissan Altima. The driver of the Kia had exited the vehicle and was standing near the passenger-side door when the vehicle was struck by a Ford Mustang. The driver of a Chrysler Voyager was trying to avoid the crash and struck a guardrail as well as the Kia, police said. After watching the pileup of vehicles unfold before his eyes, Burris knew he had to stop and help. He slowly maneuvered his truck and trailer to the shoulder, a safe distance past the accident scene. Once safely stopped, he worked to help victims out of their crashed vehicles, for fear that a fire could erupt at any moment. Burris stayed on the scene until emergency services arrived and provided information to police regarding the driver of the Acura, who was allegedly under the influence. SHAWNA LEWIS Shawna Lewis, who lives in Gun Barrel City, Texas, is recognized for stopping to care for a fellow truck driver who was experiencing a medical emergency while driving. Lewis drives for Artur Express in Hazelwood, Missouri. On May 8, 2022, at 3:30 p.m., Lewis was driving on Interstate 20 in Ruston, Louisiana, when she heard via the CB radio that another truck driver had stopped suddenly in the middle of the highway ahead. Other truck drivers were suggesting there was a medical emergency. Lewis is no stranger to stopping to help those in need; during her three-year trucking career, she has used her medical training to help two motorists in distress, to date. She safely pulled over, hopped out of her cab, and went to assist the fellow truck driver. “It didn’t appear to me to be a seizure,” she shared. “He had a strong pulse; CPR didn’t appear to be necessary.” Shawna recalled that the driver wasn’t able to speak and was sweating profusely. She called 911, kept the man still, talked to him, and tried to find out his name. She wanted to comfort him in what had to be a frightening experience. “The only thing I knew to do was check his vitals and look for medication,” she said. Emergency personnel arrived within 10 minutes and Lewis left the scene, never knowing the real issue or the status of the driver. She shared with TCA that her father was a trucker and her son is a trucker, and she said it was a childhood dream for her to also become a trucker. Stopping to help someone in need comes naturally to her, she added. “Sometimes we even put ourselves in a dangerous situation,” said Lewis. “It’s just what you do.”

TCA among associations urging passage of TSA legislation

The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) has joined numerous associations representing trucking, rail, energy, organized labor, agriculture, third-party logistics providers, and other key supply chain stakeholders in urging Congress to pass the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Security Threat Assessment Application Modernization Act. “Despite our unique perspectives on challenges facing America’s supply chains, we share the common burden of redundant background checks and duplicative fees that make it challenging and onerous for our members to obtain the security credentials they need to do their jobs,” the coalition said in a letter to Congressional leaders involved with committee charged with the responsibility of the handling of transportation. The act would create efficiencies for both the government and supply chain workers by harmonizing programs that require the same background check, including the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC), Hazardous Materials Endorsement (HME), and TSA PreCheck programs. The TSA Security Threat Assessment Application Modernization Act is a bipartisan bill that would codify formal recommendations dating back to 2007 for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to eliminate these redundancies. In 2007, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended that DHS coordinate its background check programs and harmonize programs that require the same background check, such as TWIC and HME. In 2019, DHS tasked the Homeland Security Operational Transportation Security: DHS Efforts to Eliminate Redundant Background Check Investigations with assessing the security value of the TWIC program. The Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center recommended that DHS allow applicants to apply valid background checks to multiple TSA-managed credentialing programs to reduce costs and hassle for users. “The TSA Security Threat Assessment Application Modernization Act is a long overdue solution for essential workers like truck drivers, pipeline operators, longshore workers, and warehouse managers, among many others, who must obtain these credentials as a condition of employment,” the coalition said. “The people who keep our supply chain running deserve a federal credentialing process that respects their time and money, and the TSA Security Threat Assessment Application Modernization Act directs the implementation of streamlined system that supports America’s workers.” The coalition urged swift consideration and passage of the legislation. Among the other organizations that signed the letter are the American Trucking Associations and the Owner-Operator Independent Driver Association.

Capitol Recap | September/October

This Capitol Recap describes the efforts throughout Washington to foster change. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants Americans to speed less. The Department of Transportation wants to make it easier to get money to build and repair big bridges. The Governors Highway Safety Association wants to change a culture of distracted drivers. The federal government wants to utilize a newly developed framework to help drivers cut back on greenhouse gases. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wants to improve racial equity across our infrastructure, and a House committee wants to increase the number of truck parking spaces in the U.S. Details about these initiatives and more follow. Biden’s Trucking Action Plan progresses The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has announced that the Biden administration is following through on its Trucking Action Plan by awarding more than $44 million in grants that will enhance road safety and make the process to obtain a commercial driver’s license (CDL) more efficient. The administration, in a news release, stated that “states and other entities will be able to improve their CDL programs by reducing wait times, ensuring conviction and disqualification data is electronically exchanged, implementing regulatory requirements, and combatting human trafficking. These grants, awarded through the Commercial Driver’s License Program Implementation (CDLPI), will help get more qualified drivers on the road who can help meet supply chain demands.” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the administration has made the trucking industry a top priority. The Biden administration’s plan is designed to retain truck drivers and improve recruitment. “Now, using funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we are helping states bring safe, well-trained truck drivers into the workforce and ease pandemic-driven supply chain disruptions,” Buttigieg said. The infrastructure law included a 74% increase in CDLPI program funds which, the administration says, will also help address the rising number of roadway fatalities, “FMCSA’s core mission is safety, and we’re proud to make investments that support the U.S. Department of Transportation’s ambitious goal of zero fatalities on our roadways,” said FMCSA Deputy Administrator Robin Hutcheson. “The grants we are announcing today are an important tool for reducing large truck crashes and supporting critical safety programs in every state.” In total, nearly 60% of FMCSA’s annual budget provides states and local communities with grant funding to enhance commercial vehicle safety. “In addition to improving the process for CDLs, Secretary Buttigieg and President Biden’s Supply Chain Disruption Task Force have also been focused on the issue of truck driver retention as part of the Trucking Action Plan,” the news release stated. “Due to pay, parking shortages, and other challenges in the profession, retaining truck drivers has been a major challenge. As part of that effort, the Department has announced that it will undertake a driver compensation study and form a truck leasing task force, and also has clarified what programs in President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law can be used to address truck parking.” Applications open for bridge investment plan The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has opened a call for applications for the competitive Bridge Investment Program, highlighting what it calls President Joe Biden’s commitment to the nation’s infrastructure. The program was established by the president’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which includes the single largest dedicated investment in bridges since the construction of the Interstate Highway System. The program will provide $12.5 billion over five years. Nearly $2.4 billion is available during Fiscal Year 2022 to help plan, replace, rehabilitate, protect, and preserve some of the nation’s largest bridges. This competitive grant program comes on top of more than $27 billion in formula bridge funding that the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) announced earlier this year. This investment will help ensure some of the nation’s most important bridges remain operational; in turn, it will bolster local economies, strengthen supply chains, improve safety, and create good-paying jobs. “With resources from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we’re thrilled to begin accepting applications for one of the most significant investments in our bridges in decades, fixing everything from America’s most economically significant bridges to smaller bridges that mean everything to a local community,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “When these bridges are repaired, the American people will benefit from greater safety, lower shipping costs for consumers and maintenance costs for drivers, faster movement of goods across our supply chains, fuel savings, and precious time being returned to their day,” he said. The Bridge Investment Program is a competitive, discretionary program that focuses on the repair, rehabilitation, or replacement of existing bridges across the country to reduce the overall number of bridges that are rated either as “poor condition” or “fair condition at risk of declining into poor condition.” It also expands applicant eligibilities to create opportunity for all levels of government to be direct recipients of program funds. In addition to states and federal lands management agencies, metropolitan planning organizations and local and tribal governments can also apply directly to the FHWA, making it easier to advance bridge projects at the local level. The Bridge Investment Program provides an additional $12.5 billion in funding to the more than $27 billion provided to states by the Bridge Formula Program that was announced earlier this year. Combined, this $40 billion investment provided by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law gives the Department the ability to fund numerous bridge improvement projects in communities across all 50 states. “These funds will make a significant contribution to improving the condition of our nation’s aging bridges, both large, signature bridge projects that are important for our national economy as well as smaller structures that provide benefits at the regional and local levels and are critical for communities across the country,” said Deputy Federal Highway Administrator Stephanie Pollack. “FHWA has designed this program to meet the needs of communities and bridges of all sizes, including those that are still in the planning stage.” Pollack says the Bridge Investment Program funding is unique in three key areas because it: Allows multi-year grant agreements to fund large projects by making it possible to take a project through pre-construction activities and into construction. Offers grants that help fund the planning process, including planning, feasibility analysis and revenue forecasting associated with the development of a project that would subsequently be eligible to apply for the Bridge Investment Program. Offers two types of construction grants, divided into “large” projects (over $100 million) and “bridge projects” (up to $100 million). The FHWA plans to conduct extensive community outreach and public engagement throughout the application process. Technical assistance is also available to recipients who receive Bridge Investment Program grants. The FHWA will have made available $8.8 billion for bridge improvements under the Bridge Formula Program, the Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation Program, and the Bridge Investment Program with the publication of the NOFO. House committee passes bill to boost truck parking availability The U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has approved legislation, dubbed the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act, designed to expand truck parking infrastructure across the nation. The legislation has now advanced to the House floor for further debate. The legislation was introduced in March 2021 by U.S. Reps. Mike Bost (R-IL) and Angie Craig (D-MN). “This is long overdue,” said committee chairman Peter DeFazio (D-OR). “It’s one solution to try to make the lives of drivers safer and less stressful and perhaps allow for more (driver) retention. This will really help improve the efficiency of trucking.” DeFazio added that he hopes the bill is well received in the Senate. “It may be something that goes into the year-end omnibus (spending bill,” he said. “I hope we can pass it out of the House unanimously when we come back after the August break.” The legislation would authorize the creation of a competitive grant program for states to spend $755 million over a four-year period on new truck parking projects including capacity expansion and enhancements like lighting, restrooms, and other security features. Access to truck parking is routinely highlighted in the American Transportation Research Institute’s (ATRI) annual list of top issues facing trucking, and ATRI research has found that on average drivers spend nearly an hour — 56 minutes — per day looking for parking, time that reduces their wages, adds undo delays to the supply chain and raises stress on an already taxed workforce. Government offers framework to slash greenhouse gas emissions in transportation industry The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for states and municipalities to track and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including decreasing idle time for big rigs at America’s ports. President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law makes available more than $27 billion in federal funding to help state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations meet their declining GHG targets. The new rule would take two steps to combat climate change: Establish a national framework for tracking state-by-state progress by adding a new GHG performance management measure to the existing FHWA national performance measures to help states track performance and make more informed investment decisions. Creating a flexible system under which state DOTs and metropolitan planning organizations would set their own declining targets for on-road GHG from roadway travel on the National Highway System. “With (this) announcement, we are taking an important step forward in tackling transportation’s share of the climate challenge, and we don’t have a moment to waste,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “Our approach gives states the flexibility they need to set their own emission reduction targets, while providing them with resources from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to meet those targets and protect their communities.” The proposed rule builds upon — and would add greater transparency to — the work that 24 states and the District of Columbia are already doing under state GHG target-setting legal requirements, a news release stated. “Transportation is the leading source of GHGs in the U.S., and the Biden-Harris administration has put forward an integrated approach to reducing emissions from the sector while ensuring our economy works for all Americans,” according to the news release. “This entails the use of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to help state and local governments meet their GHG reduction targets, in addition to efforts to help reduce transportation costs for the American people through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, which are in place to make driving more affordable by increasing fuel efficiency.” Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding is available through various programs over five years, including but not limited to: The Carbon Reduction Program will provide $6.4 billion in formula funding to states and local governments to develop carbon reduction strategies and fund a range of projects designed to reduce carbon emissions from on-road highway sources. The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program will provide $5 billion to states primarily through a statutory formula to build out a national electric vehicle charging network, an important step toward making electric vehicle charging accessible to all Americans. A Discretionary Grant Program for Charging and Fueling Infrastructure will provide $2.5 billion in competitive funding to states and local governments to deploy electric vehicle charging and hydrogen, propane, and natural gas fueling infrastructure along designated alternative fuel corridors and in communities. The Congestion Relief Program will provide $250 million in competitive funding to advance innovative, multimodal solutions to reduce congestion and related economic and environmental costs in the most congested metropolitan areas of the U.S. The Reduction of Truck Emissions at Port Facilities Program will provide $400 million in competitive funding to reduce truck idling and emissions at ports, including through the advancement of port electrification. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law “includes more than $5 billion for the Federal Transit Administration’s Low or No Emission Vehicle Program, which will help ensure the nation’s transit systems are tackling the climate crisis and working better for all of us,” the news release stated. The law also includes $7.2 billion for the Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside that can help state and local governments carry out environmentally friendly pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure projects. NHTSA conducts campaign to remind drivers that speeding wrecks lives As part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) comprehensive safety strategy to prevent traffic deaths, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducted a public education campaign across the country that addressed one of America’s most dangerous driving behaviors — speeding. The agency says the Speeding Wrecks Lives campaign is aimed at changing general attitudes toward speeding and reminding drivers of the deadly consequences. The campaign, which ran in July and August, was supported by an $8 million national media buy featuring ads, in both English and Spanish, that were run on television, radio, and digital platforms. The ads targeted drivers ages 18 to 44, the drivers who are most likely to be involved in speeding-related fatal crashes, data shows. According to the NHTSA data, 11,258 people died in speeding-related crashes in 2020, and speeding was a contributing factor in 29% of all fatal crashes. Even with fewer cars on the road during the pandemic, 2020 saw a dramatic increase (17%) in speeding-related deaths compared to 2019. The data also showed additional concerning statistics in 2020: Local roads saw the most speeding, with 87% of all speeding-related traffic fatalities occurring on non-interstate roads. Speeding contributed to 37% of the fatal crashes in work zones. Speeding was a factor in more fatal crashes on wet roads than dry roads. Drinking and speeding is the deadliest combination. Of the drivers involved in fatal crashes, 37% were speeding and had a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher. “Much like impaired driving, speeding can steal the lives of everyone using our roads: drivers, passengers, pedestrians and cyclists,” said NHTSA Administrator Steven Cliff. “We cannot accept the status quo. Speed-related deaths aren’t inevitable. They’re preventable, and everyone has a role in addressing this crisis on our nation’s roadways.” To help spread this message at the state level, NHTSA has developed a toolkit of resources for its partners, including a media work plan, a sample press release, and enforcement-themed materials/deliverables. Ending speeding-related deaths is a top priority for the Biden-Harris administration, Cliff said. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, makes significant investments in highway safety. In January, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg unveiled the National Roadway Safety Strategy, which includes a special focus on safer speeds. The long-term plan aims to save lives by leveraging road design and other infrastructure interventions, and focusing on safer speed limit setting, education, and equitable traffic enforcement. GHSA, GM call for ‘culture change’ about acceptability of distracted driving The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) and General Motors (GM) have released a new report with a singular goal: Change the social norm around distracted driving to make it completely unacceptable so all road users get home safely. The report, which is one of the most comprehensive examinations to date of how to reduce driver distraction, examines the extent of the problem and provides more than two dozen recommendations to help state highway safety offices and their partners combat this deadly driving behavior. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), an estimated 3,142 people died in distraction-related crashes in the U.S. in 2020, the most current year for which data is available. Another estimated 400,000 people are injured each year in distracted driving crashes. However, the true numbers are likely much higher due to underreporting. The most visible form of driver distraction is the use of electronic devices, but distracted driving can take many forms, including grooming, eating, and even daydreaming. Despite the proven risks, distracted driving remains widespread on U.S. roads, GHSA and GM officials noted. A 2021 survey by AAA found that more than half of drivers (51%) admitted they text and/or email on their phone while alone in the vehicle. Multiple national and state surveys indicate that distracted driving is a top road safety concern, but observational studies find that wireless device use behind the wheel is commonplace. “Distraction is rampant on our roads. Watch the passing cars the next time you’re waiting at a crosswalk or riding in a vehicle — odds are you’ll see someone not paying full attention to the road,” said GHSA Executive Director Jonathan Adkins. “Too many drivers are quick to point the finger at others driving distracted but refuse to look in the mirror and improve their own behavior behind the wheel,” he said. “Everyone must do their part to help make distracted driving socially unacceptable or inattentive drivers will continue to kill people on U.S. roads.” The 50-page report, “Directing Drivers’ Attention: A State Highway Safety Office Roadmap for Combating Distracted Driving,” examines data shortcomings and other obstacles impacting efforts to reduce distracted driving, and reviews initiatives by state highway safety offices and the challenges impacting those efforts. The report outlines 29 recommendations for the state highway safety offices that cover a wide range of factors that affect distracted driving including state laws, data collection, education and public outreach, enforcement, infrastructure, safety funding sources, partnerships, and leadership. Some of the report’s key recommendations include: Invest more heavily in efforts to change the traffic safety culture around distracted driving, including public education, community programs, and youth engagement. Encourage more leadership at the federal, state, and local levels to prioritize distracted driving as a safety challenge, frame distracted driving within the Safe System approach, and provide more resources to combat the problem. Collaborate to create a new national distracted driving advocacy organization to give voice to distracted driving crash survivors and focus anti-distracted driving efforts. Expand partnerships with insurers, technology companies, safety advocates, employers, state and local infrastructure authorities, and others to expand the breadth of distracted driving programs. Promote the improvement of distracted driving laws to send a clear message to drivers that distraction is unlawful and deadly, and to empower police to stop dangerous driving when they see it. “General Motors is proud to have supported the Governors Highway Safety Association throughout the development of this action-oriented report,” said GM Vice President of Global Product Safety and Systems Regina Carto. “We encourage state highway safety offices around the country to put some of these key recommendations into action in their communities as we work to reduce distracted driving and other unsafe behavior on the road.” NHTSA approves driverless ‘Pod’ truck The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has approved a request from Einride, the maker of a remote-driven truck, known as a “Pod,” to operate on U.S. public roadways. Einride will use the approval to operate a pilot program for its customer General Electric, a news release stated. The Einride Pod has no space for a driver and is instead controlled by a remote operator. According to Einride, NHTSA’s approval is an industry-first pilot program for this type of vehicle. The pilot program will allow the company to move goods and coordinate with teams at various warehouses for loading and unloading. “This is a type of vehicle that has never before been seen on U.S. roads and marks a major milestone as a turning point for the future of the freight industry,” said Einride CEO and Founder Robert Falck. “We know the autonomous and electric technology of our Pod will not only revolutionize transportation but also create thousands of jobs and help America stay competitive.” Each Pod will be remotely monitored at all times by an Einride remote operator. According to the company, this type of remote monitoring is “a first-of-its-kind that Einride sees critical in safely scaling autonomous vehicles by keeping humans in the loop and creating jobs to fulfill a future way of shipping.” The Einride Pod public road pilot will begin in the third quarter of this year. Although an exact location has not been announced, Einride said the pilot program will be done at a GE Appliances manufacturing facility. Stockholm, Sweden-based Einride, founded in 2016, is a freight technology company providing digital, electric, and autonomous shipping. Einride became the first company to deploy an autonomous, electric freight vehicle on a public road in 2019. Buttigieg launches $1 billion pilot to build racial equity in roads U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has launched a $1 billion first-of-its-kind pilot program aimed at helping reconnect cities and neighborhoods racially segregated or divided by road projects, pledging wide-ranging help to dozens of communities despite the program’s limited dollars. Under the Reconnecting Communities program, cities and states can now apply for the federal aid over five years to rectify harm caused by roadways that were built primarily through lower-income, Black communities after the creation of the interstate highway system in the 1950s. New projects could include rapid bus transit lines to link disadvantaged neighborhoods to jobs; caps built on top of highways featuring green spaces, bike lanes and pedestrian walkways to allow for safe crossings over the roadways; repurposing former rail lines; and partial removal of highways. Still, the grants, being made available under President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law, are considerably less than the $20 billion the Democratic president originally envisioned. Advocacy groups say the money isn’t nearly enough to have a major impact on capital construction for more than 50 citizen-led efforts nationwide aimed at dismantling or redesigning highways — from Portland, Oregon, to New Orleans; St. Paul, Minnesota; Houston; Tampa, Florida; and Syracuse, New York. Meanwhile, some Republicans, including possible 2024 presidential contender Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have derided the effort as the “woke-ification” of federal policy, suggesting political crosswinds ahead in an election season. Flanked by Black leaders at the site of a soon-to-start rapid bus line in Birmingham, Alabama, Buttigieg highlighted the potential of federal infrastructure money to boost communities. Close to half of Birmingham’s population lives within a half a mile of planned stations along the new 15-mile bus corridor. City leaders say the line will open up access around Interstate 65 — which cuts through the city’s Black neighborhoods — providing connections to jobs in the corridor as well as to the University of Alabama at Birmingham and other schools. “Transportation can connect us to jobs, services, and loved ones, but we’ve also seen countless cases around the country where a piece of infrastructure cuts off a neighborhood or a community because of how it was built,” Buttigieg said. “We can’t ignore the basic truth: that some of the planners and politicians behind those projects built them directly through the heart of vibrant populated communities,” he said. “Sometimes as an effort to reinforce segregation. Sometimes because the people there have less power to resist. And sometimes as part of a direct effort to replace or eliminate Black neighborhoods.” He described Reconnecting Communities as a broad “principle” of his department — not just a single program — to help remake infrastructure, with many efforts underway. The U.S. Department of Transportation has aimed to help communities that feel harmed by highway expansions, with the Federal Highway Administration last year taking a rare step to pause a proposed $9 billion widening project in Houston, partly over civil rights concerns. That move likely spurred action in other places such as Austin, Texas, where environmental and racial justice groups recently filed a lawsuit to force the Texas transportation agency to better lay out the impacts of a proposed highway expansion there. Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2020, drew fire from some Republicans earlier this year when he said the federal government had an obligation to address the harms of racist design in highways. “There’s trees they’re putting in, they’re saying that highways are racially discriminatory. I don’t know how a road can be that,” DeSantis said in February. In his remarks during the announcement of the plan, Buttigieg pushed back at critics, noting that “there is nothing sacred about the status quo” with roads and bridges. “They are not divinely ordained; they are decisions,” Buttigieg said. “And we can make better decisions than what came before.” Under the program, $195 million in competitive grants will be awarded this year, of which $50 million will be devoted for communities to conduct planning studies.

Jeremy Stickling named chairman of Safety & Security Division Committee

Nussbaum Transportation Chief Administration Officer Jeremy Stickling will serve as chairman for the Truckload Carriers Association’s (TCA) 2022-2023 Safety and Security Division Committee. In this capacity, Stickling will oversee TCA’s Safety and Security Division, which helps shape TCA safety policy and plans the annual meeting. His appointment was announced June 7 during the annual Safety and Security Division meeting in Nashville, Tennessee. TCA Chairman and CEO of Load One LLC John Elliott said of the appointment, “TCA is thrilled to have Jeremy take on this leadership position within our safety committee. He is an exemplary addition to a long line of excellent, hardworking safety professionals who have served in this role.” Elliott says Stickling has proven himself a leader within the association, lending his industry expertise to the Safety and Security Committee since 2018 and serving as an active professional among members before that. Since starting his tenure at Nussbaum in 2007, the company has experienced low driver turnover and strong safety results while more than tripling the fleet size. Stickling has contributed to eight consecutive Best Fleets to Drive For awards from 2015-2022, including Best Overall-Small Fleets (2019) and Best Overall-Large Fleets (2020), in addition to a Hall of Fame recipient (2021). “Serving as the TCA safety chairman is a true honor,” Stickling said. “Those who have held this role before me have set a high standard. I will be blessed to work with an organization like Truckload Carriers Association that is at the forefront, working on behalf of the industry. I look forward to doing my part and contributing.” More than 300 safety and human-resource professionals gathered in downtown Nashville in June to discuss shared problems and find solutions. In his new role, Stickling will oversee the work by safety committee members to plan the annual event, in an effort to best engage and serve the truckload safety community. The following individuals will assist Stickling as TCA’s Safety and Security Division Committee officers: Mehdi Arradizadeh, Anderson Trucking Service, Inc. Angie Buchanan, Melton Truck Lines, Inc. Michael Lasko, Boyle Transportation Scott Manthey, Ashley Distribution Services, Inc. Jill Maschmeier, National Carriers, Inc. Lucas Mowrey, Grand Island Express, Inc. Dean Newell, Maverick USA Misti Olszewski, Covenant Transport Services Garth Pitzel, Bison Transport Shelly Seaton, Landstar Transportation Logistics, Inc. Raul Soria, Hill Brothers Transportation To learn more about TCA’s safety program and upcoming events, visit truckload.org.