The Nation

ARLINGTON, Va. —The vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax has surfaced as a possible funding mechanism to prop up the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) and potentially contribute to funding for much-needed infrastructure projects. However, a new report from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) has assessed the VMT tax as “complicated” and “costly.” On March 17, ATRI released “A Practical Analysis of a National VMT Tax System,” which examines the technology required, costs and implementation of a fee-based system. “It’s clear that a VMT tax is a far more complicated and costly replacement for the fuel tax than many had anticipated,” said Jim Burg, president and CEO of Michigan-based James Burg Trucking Co. “If a system like this is going to work for everyone, many years of thoughtful planning and federal leadership are needed.” A VMT fee that would impose a widespread tax or per-mile charge for all vehicles has been tossed around as a possible option to help maintain the nation’s highways, along with plans that are swirling around regarding funding an infrastructure package. The HTF is currently the primary source of generating revenue to improve U.S. roadways, with nearly $40 billion acquired from a per-gallon federal tax on motor fuels to power automobiles and trucks. As inflation steadily increases, the HTF, which is forecast to run out in 2022, faces shortfalls as federal fuel tax rates have not been increased since 1993. A VMT tax is being explored by federal officials as an option to generate revenue for transportation and infrastructure. At a briefing in February, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg noted that the federal tax on motor fuels has not been increased since 1993, and the HTF has not been solvent since 2008. “The gas tax is not a long-term solution (for regaining HTF solvency) anyway,” Buttigieg said. “I don’t think that is where energy will be in this administration, especially as there are so many different (funding) possibilities on the table, like user-pay through a VMT (vehicle miles traveled) fee.” The tax could potentially decrease road usage and reduce emissions on the environment. And, depending on the amount of the per-mile rate, the VMT tax could raise any amount to cover infrastructure costs. But it comes with a price. “The federal government spends about $70 million to collect the federal fuel tax of $35 billion. But the new VMT program will probably cost $13 billion or more to manage,” said Dan Murray, senior vice president of ATRI. “There’s a whole bunch of reasons, but mostly, it’s because federal fuel tax today isn’t really paid by you and me; it’s paid by about 270 fuel terminal operators.” The VMT tax program could move fuel tax revenue collection from fewer than 300 federal taxpayers to 272 million vehicle accounts. Each account would have to transfer from individual bank accounts to the federal government. The transfer of funds would come with a cost, too. Forty percent of collection costs for a federal VMT tax would be 300 times more expensive than collection costs for the federal motor fuels tax, according to ATRI’s report. It is expected the annual financial transaction cost could be as high as $4.3 billion. “However much money you want or need, you have to charge users 40% more, because that is the VMT collection cost,” Murray said. “The amount of money that’ll go back to infrastructure will be a relatively small percentage of what the federal fuel tax returns are to infrastructure.” To break it down, the national VMT tax program could face other realities — millions of vehicles or households will be unable to participate in a national VMT tax program due to obsolete vehicles or inaccessibility to bank accounts, internet transactions or cellular coverage, according to the ATRI report. While the government could provide dongles (small plug-in electronic devices) to track mileage, the cost would reach $13.6 billion and does not address other related issues, and any evasion to the VMT would cost $7.87 billion annually. Additionally, urban areas could generate far more revenue than rural systems under the VMT, although rural roadways cover far more miles and provide connectivity between urban areas. Another challenge in the VMT tax program is convincing the public that the tax is “fair, unintrusive and cost-efficient,” according to ATRI’s analysis. So far, state trucking associations are opposing the program. In preparing for President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) urged the U.S. Senate against a truck-only VMT tax. If a truck-only VMT charge was proposed, only truck drivers would pay the tax. “We believe it makes no sense to single out an industry that already has a stable funding mechanism in place,” wrote Todd Spencer, CEO of OOIDA, in a letter to the Senate. “If Congress would like to properly address diminishing HTF returns, it must be honest about the driving force behind them. Rather than singling out trucks, you should start by ensuring passenger vehicles are also providing stable and reliable revenue for our highway infrastructure.” Spencer also noted that a truck-only VMT tax might require additional mandatory legislation on electronic logging devices (ELD) to track miles. Several state trucking associations have also expressed disinterest in supporting a truck-only VMT fee. “We are against a VMT on trucks only. It’s discriminatory; it’s an unfair business practice,” said Allen Hodges, president of the Idaho Trucking Association. “Idaho is the fifth highest registration state in the nation for trucks. Out of all the annual highway numbers driven in Idaho, trucking represents only 12% of those miles, but we pay over 40% of the state annual highway budget.” According to 2019 figures from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, out of 276.4 million registered motor vehicles in the U.S., only 1% are commercial trucks. According to ATRI, applying the VMT charge to one vehicle type “would apply to a small subsection of the overall vehicle population.” “Trucking believes in good roads and wants good roads,” Hodges said. “We just believe that whatever the fee structure is needs to be fair and equitable and cost-effective. A VMT would take five to 10 years just to recoup all the expenses of studying up the system. You could go five to 10 years without any money towards the roads because it all went to new staff, new computers and technology.” Hodges said increasing the fuel tax, including electric car taxes, might supplement the expiration of the Highway Trust Fund. However, ATRI reports that fuel tax receipts measured in dollars per mile of travel have dropped steeply in recent decades, with “insufficient revenue to maintain, let alone expand, the road network.” The fuel tax has fallen due to inflation without the tax being increased. In addition, fuel-economy improvements and electric cars that are exempt from the fuel tax have impacted the decline. “This VMT concept is appealing to people in a theoretical standpoint, but from a practical viewpoint, doesn’t work well,” said Gregory Fulton, president of the Colorado Motor Carriers Association. “It’s in a situation where the cost of collecting is much greater than something like that of a fuel tax. The difficulties in collecting this information and setting up a system like that is extremely challenging.” Fulton’s biggest concerns are about tax evasion and privacy — meaning, the public may refuse to report mileage due to privacy issues — or the information could be vulnerable to hackers. In a Mileage-Based User Fee report from the New York Department of Transportation, privacy was considered the “largest impediment to implementing a VMT tax.” “It’s not ready for primetime,” Fulton said. “When you look at trucking, we have probably one of the more efficient and effective type systems when it comes to fuel tax collection, as well as registration fees. It’s almost a model out there for exchanging fees and funds. It’s auditable, it doesn’t involve substantial infrastructure like this (VMT) would involve. It doesn’t involve (issues like) privacy.”

LITCHFIELD, Maine — A tractor-trailer hauling bottles of wine along the Maine Turnpike Thursday, March 18, overturned after sideswiping a parked turnpike truck. According to a report from the Maine State Police, the incident occurred at 9:45 a.m. at mile marker 92 North in Litchfield. A turnpike truck, with amber lights flashing, was parked in the breakdown lane while the driver and a passenger retrieved construction signs along the turnpike. The northbound tractor-trailer, driven by William Rodney Harrington, 59, of Hartford, Connecticut, drifted into the breakdown lane, hitting the rumble strip. The noise alerted the workers, who moved to the ditch to avoid the oncoming truck. The tractor-trailer sideswiped the pickup and then continued into the ditch where the truck rolled over, spilling its load into the ditch. Michael Robinson, a 43-year-old Maine Turnpike worker, was hit in the leg from debris flying from the crash. He was treated at the hospital. Harrington was also treated for minor injuries at the hospital; he received a summons for a logbook violation and failure to move over.

WASHINGTON — California-licensed commercial driver’s license holder Daniel Tobon (aka Daniel Moran, Daniel Tabon), has been declared an imminent hazard to public safety by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), and has been ordered not to operate any commercial motor vehicle in interstate commerce. Tobon was served the federal order March 9. On December 31, 2020, Tobon was at the wheel of a tractor-trailer that crashed into a house in Mesa, Arizona, killing one person and seriously injured two others. A commercial driver’s license (CDL) holder, Tobon was exiting U.S. 60 at Crismon Road when the vehicle failed to stop at the off-ramp intersection, crossed over a center curb, struck a signal pole and crashed through a masonry block wall before smashing into the front entrance of the residence and destroying the structure. According to a crash report by the Mesa Police Department, it appeared Tobon made no attempt to avoid the crash. Local news reports also quoted police as saying Tobon did not recall the crash when questioned afterward. “Illness or physical impairment” were cited as possible influencing conditions for the crash. During the subsequent investigation, FMCSA discovered Tobon had fraudulently certified his DOT/FMCSA medical examination report form in both September 2020 and September 2018. The DOT medical certification process is designed to ensure CDL holders are physically qualified to safely operate commercial vehicles. Each driver is required to complete a health history section and certify that the responses are complete and true. The driver further certifies that he/she understands that inaccurate, false or misleading information may invalidate the examination and medical examiner’s certificate. Deliberate omission or falsification of information concealing a disqualifying medical condition may also result in civil penalties. FMCSA’s imminent hazard out-of-service order states that Tobon’s “… continued operation of a commercial motor vehicle while medically unqualified poses a significant danger to you and the motoring public … if not discontinued immediately.” Failing to comply with the provisions of the federal imminent hazard order may result in civil penalties of up to $1,928 for each violation. Knowing and/or willful violations may result in criminal penalties. Tobon may not operate a commercial motor vehicle until such time he is successfully completes a return-to-duty process, including obtaining a valid medical certification issued by a certified medical examiner.

WASHINGTON — Alabama-based carrier Woods Dependable Towing LLC has been declared an imminent hazard to public safety by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). The company was served the federal order March 8. A separate imminent hazard order was also served by FMCSA to Woods Dependable Towing truck driver Samuel Lee Wren, who holds an Alabama-issued commercial driver’s license (CDL). The order prohibits Wren from operating any commercial motor vehicle in interstate commerce. Wren was served the federal order March 3. During a compliance investigation conducted by the FMCSA on Woods Dependable Towing, numerous serious violations of federal safety statutes and regulations were discovered, including: Failing to have a systematic inspection, repair and maintenance program for its vehicles. In the past 24 months ending January 2021, Woods Dependable Towing’s vehicles were subject to 31 unannounced roadside inspections; on 16 occasions (a rate greater than 50%) Woods Dependable Towing trucks were immediately ordered out of service for serious safety violations. The national average for commercial vehicles ordered out of service following roadside inspections is 20.7%. The safety violations listed against Woods Dependable Towing included inoperable lights, deficient braking systems, and flat and/or worn tires with exposed fabric, ply or structural belt material. In reviewing the carrier’s maintenance records, FMCSA investigators found no evidence that vehicles were periodically inspected as required. In two instances, annual periodic inspection forms were found to be falsified. Failing to systematically monitor its drivers as required to ensure compliance with federal hours-of-service regulations to prevent fatigued driving. Investigators found evidence that drivers had submitted falsified records-of-duty-status. In the instance of driver Samuel Lee Wren, evidence was found that he routinely disabled his mandatory electronic logging device (ELD). While driving for Woods Dependable Towing, within a span of approximately three weeks in the fall of 2020, Wren had two separate single-vehicle crashes, one in Tennessee and the other in Ohio. In both instances, Wren received driving citations from state law-enforcement officers. FMCSA investigators found that prior to and on the day of the Tennessee crash, Wren had exceeded the allowable on-duty driving hours and that he had falsified his records-of-duty-status. Failing to ensure its CDL drivers are qualified. During its compliance investigation of Woods Dependable Towing, FMCSA investigators found that in May 2020, even though driver Samuel Lee Wren had been informed that he tested positive for a controlled substance, which prohibits him from operating a commercial motor vehicle, the carrier permitted Wren to continue to drive its trucks. The FMCSA imminent hazard out-of-service order to Woods Dependable Towing states that the carrier’s “complete and utter disregard for ensuring compliance with (federal safety regulations) substantially increases the likelihood of serious injury or death for your drivers and the motoring public if your operations are not discontinued immediately.” Woods Dependable Towing may be assessed civil penalties of up to $27,813 for each violation of the out-of-service order. The carrier may be assessed civil penalties of not less than $11,125 for providing transportation requiring federal operating authority registration and up to $15,691 for operating a commercial vehicle in interstate commerce without necessary DOT registration. If violations are determined to be willful, criminal penalties may be imposed, including a fine of up to $25,000 and imprisonment for a term not to exceed one year. Wren may not operate a commercial vehicle until such time as he successfully completes the statutorily required return-to-duty process overseen by a substance abuse professional. Wren may be assessed civil penalties of up to $1,895 for each violation of his federal imminent hazard order. Knowing and/or willful violation of the order may also result in criminal penalties. A copy of the imminent hazard order to Woods Dependable Towing can be viewed here.

LAKE COUNTY, Ind. — Two Indiana residents have been arrested after allegedly crashing a car into a tractor-trailer and then leaving the scene on foot. On Saturday, March 13, a trooper with the Indiana State Police responded to a report of a crash involving a car and a semi truck on eastbound Interstate 80/94. When the trooper arrived at the scene, she observed a Buick Regal on the inside shoulder, abandoned, with extensive, disabling damage to the passenger side and multiple broken windows. There was a tractor-trailer on the outside shoulder. The investigation would later show the truck and trailer had been struck by the Buick. The driver of the truck was not injured in the crash. A male and female, reported to have been in a passenger car involved in the crash, were later found walking eastbound on the westbound side of the highway. The male was identified as Anthony Hampton, 21, of Michigan City, Indiana; the female was identified as Mersadis Schroder, 24, also of Michigan City. It was determined that Schroder was driving the Buick at the time of the crash. Investigation by troopers showed that the two fled the scene of the crash carrying bags. Further investigation resulted in the subjects denying any knowledge of whose bags they were carrying or what was in the bags. The backpack Schroder was carrying contained a scale, plastic bags, paraphernalia and multiple butane lighters. Both Schroder and Hampton were transported to the Lake County Jail for processing. Hampton was preliminarily charged with Possession of Methamphetamine, a Level 6 felony, and False Informing, a Class A Misdemeanor. Schroder is preliminarily charged with Possession of a Synthetic Drug or Lookalike, False Informing, Leaving the Scene of a Property Damage Crash, Operator Never Licensed and Possession of Paraphernalia, all misdemeanor offenses.

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday, March 14, pledged swift work by Congress on a job and infrastructure package that will be “fiscally sound,” but said she isn’t sure whether the next major item on President Joe Biden’s agenda will attract Republican backing. Fresh off a major legislative victory on the $1.9 trillion virus relief package that passed on near-party lines, Democrats face long and tough battles ahead in winning GOP endorsement of the administration’s plans. Road- and bridge-building legislation has a long history of support from both parties as lawmakers aim to deliver on projects back home. But Republicans disagree with Biden’s focus on the environment and the possibility of financing any program with debt after the government borrowed heavily to address the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. “Building roads and bridges and water supply systems and the rest has always been bipartisan, always been bipartisan, except when they oppose it with a Democratic president, as they did under President Obama, and we had to shrink the package,” Pelosi said. “But, nonetheless, hopefully, we will have bipartisanship,” she said. Pelosi has directed key Democratic lawmakers to begin working with Republicans on a “big, bold and transformational infrastructure package.” During the presidential campaign, Biden laid the groundwork by proposing $2 trillion in “accelerated” investments to shift to cleaner energy, build half a million charging stations for electric vehicles, support public transit, and repair roads and bridges. The plan emphasizes the importance of creating unionized jobs and addressing climate change. The White House originally planned to come out with a plan in February, but more recently hasn’t committed to a timeline. A rollout is likely to slide into April as the administration embarks on a nationwide push over the coming weeks to sell Americans on the benefits of the COVID-19 relief bill. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), chairman of House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, hope to pass a bill out of their committees in May. The package could include policy changes — on green energy and immigration — and even try to make permanent some of the just-passed COVID-19 assistance such as child tax credits. “It is going to be green and it is going to be big,” DeFazio told The Associated Press. Democrats used a fast-track budget process known as reconciliation to approve Biden’s COVID-19 relief plan without Republican support, a strategy that succeeded despite the reservations of some moderates. But work on passing infrastructure legislation in a Senate split 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris providing a tiebreaking vote will probably prove more difficult. Moderate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) recently made clear he will block infrastructure legislation if Republicans aren’t included. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 3 Senate Republican, said he wants to see bipartisan support for an infrastructure legislation. But he said the House in the last Congress refused to embrace a $287 billion bill unanimously passed by a Senate committee and changed it in a way that Republicans could not accept. “What did the House do? They replaced our highway bill with the Green New Deal,” Barrasso said. “So they ignored what we have done in a bipartisan way. If they would take the model that we came up with in the committee in the Senate for highway and transportation, I think that’s a very good start. I talked with the secretary of transportation, Pete Buttigieg, about it, and I think that is the model on which we should move forward on transportation and infrastructure.” On Sunday, Pelosi declined to say whether tax increases would be required for the House legislation, stressing that Congress would explore all options, including generating revenue with something similar to the Obama administration’s Build America bonds. Cost will be a major hurdle in passing an infrastructure plan. There’s little political interest in increasing the 18.3-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax, which generates revenue for the Highway Trust Fund, even though the rate has not increased since 1993. Biden promised during the campaign he would not increase taxes on people making less than $400,000 a year. “This is about broadband. It’s about water systems. It’s about mass transit, it’s about good paying jobs all over the country,” Pelosi said. “It’s also about schools and housing and the rest. … So the goal is to promote good growth, creating good-paying jobs as we protect our planet and are fiscally sound.” Pelosi and Barrasso spoke on ABC’s “This Week.” By Hope Yen, The Associated Press. Associated Press writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Amid a deepening stalemate over financing highways and public transit, Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday, March 12, proposed phasing out Pennsylvania’s gasoline tax and appointed a commission to recommend alternative ways to pay for the state’s needs. Wolf ordered a commission of lawmakers, transportation industry representatives, transportation planners, government officials and others to deliver recommendations by Aug. 1 of funding alternatives to foot the extra billions of dollars deemed to be necessary. The gas tax that Wolf calls “burdensome” isn’t keeping pace with transportation and safety needs as vehicles become more fuel-efficient and more motorists buy electric vehicles, state officials say. PennDOT has said its current highway and bridge budget for construction and maintenance is about $6.9 billion per year, less than half of the $15 billion that is needed to keep Pennsylvania’s highways and bridges in good condition and ease major traffic bottlenecks. PennDOT is seeking to add tolls to nine major bridge reconstruction projects, drawing objections from Republican lawmakers. Meanwhile, the legislature’s efforts to fund transportation over the last two decades have plunged the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission deep into debt, jacked up turnpike tolls and elevated the gas tax to No. 2 in the nation. By Marc Levy, The Associated Press

A bill requiring underride guards on certain new trucks and trailers would bring reassurance to families who have lost loved ones in underride accidents, but trucking groups have voiced opposition, citing safety hazards for truck drivers and the industry. The term “underride” refers to an accident in which one vehicle partially slides underneath another, particularly when a passenger vehicle slides beneath a large truck. U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) reintroduced the Stop Underrides Act to the Senate on March 8. The Stop Underrides Act would strengthen requirements for rear underride guards and add the requirement for single unit trucks. Specifically, the bill would require the installation of rear, side and front underride guards on trailers and tractor-trailers weighing more than 10,000 pounds, as well as on single-unit trucks that have a carriage more than 22 inches above the ground and weigh more than 10,000 pounds. Under current law, underride guards are not required on the sides or front of trucks. Underride guards are already required on the back of a trailer. If the bill is passed, a committee would be formed to monitor the underride rulemaking process. Identical legislation has been referred to the U.S. House of Representatives by Reps. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) and Mark DeSaulnier (D-Ca.). The bipartisan Stop Underrides Act is being referred to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. This is the third time the bill has been introduced. Previous versions of the bill, which proposed retrofitting existing trailers and trucks, never got out of the committee. The bill was drafted by Marianne Karth and Lois Durso Hawkins, who started advocating for underride protection after their children died following separate underride crashes. Karth and her children were traveling on Interstate 20 in Georgia on May 4, 2013, when a semi-truck hit the back of their vehicle, spinning the car around and forcing it underneath a second semi-truck. Karth and her son survived, but her daughters, AnnaLeah and Mary, were killed. “I learned that it wasn’t the crash that killed them, because I was in the crash and sitting in the front seat,” Karth said in a Truck Safety News Conference on Monday, March 8. “We survived because our part of the car did not go under the truck. It was the underride.” Hawkins, who lost her daughter, Roya, in a 2013 underride collision, agrees that it was the underride rather than the collision that led to her daughter’s death. “If [underride protection] had happened, I wouldn’t be here today,” Hawkins said. “Many other families would not have suffered that loss either.” The distance from the undercarriage of a semi-truck and the pavement is 41 inches, while the height from a car’s hood is about 33 inches, according to Karth. “When there’s a collision, the car can easily slide under,” she said. The March 8 news conference highlighted other deaths and injuries associated with underrides. Eric Hein lost his son, Riley, to an underride collision on Nov. 13, 2015 in New Mexico. Hein challenged the trucking company in court and was awarded $42 million as a result of negligence. “They were aware that side underride guards were not on the semi-trailer that they had produced,” Hein said. “The lack of underride guards contributed to Riley’s death.” Roy Crawford, a crash reconstruction specialist, lost his son, Guy, in an underride crash. “Even with a really good underride guard, the main problem we need to work on is avoiding these crashes in the first place,” Crawford said. “Vehicles should not be stopped or traveling slowly on high-speed highways. They should be conspicuous enough that people can see them in time. Even with a good underride guard, if you hit it at a high enough speed and it works, you can still be killed because the human body can only take so much of an impact.” The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), a nonprofit advocating to reduce motor vehicle crashes, has conducted crash tests to understand the impact of underride guards on a vehicle. The result, according to a video shown during the news conference, is that underride guards can help prevent severe injuries. However, groups such as the American Trucking Associations (ATA) and the Owner-Operator Independent Driving Association (OOIDA), are against the bill moving forward. ATA released a letter of opposition to the Senate and House Committees on Thursday, March 11. “ATA has raised strong concerns about the Stop Underrides Act over the past few years because the legislation promotes a solution that is neither data-driven nor proven to be effective in real-world highway settings,” wrote Daniel Horvath, vice president of safety policy for ATA. “While we remain committed to the goal of zero fatalities on our nation’s highways, we cannot ignore the serious and potentially dangerous consequences of this legislation. The bill disregards proven safety technologies, such as automatic emergency braking, camera monitoring systems and active lane-keep assist.” While Harvoth acknowledged that crash tests have proven underride guards will stop a vehicle traveling about 40 miles per hour, he pointed out that the tests have not been conducted in a realistic highway scenario. The letter also notes that the Stop Underrides Act does not consider that the guards would be a safety concern for every trucking company and its operations and “engineering tradeoffs involving weight, strength and effectiveness of side guards.” “We have yet to see evidence that side underride guards would be an effective safety countermeasure,” said Sean McNally, vice president of public affairs for ATA. “Until these devices can be shown to be reliable outside the test track, we believe Congress and regulators should focus on reducing crashes by addressing aggressive and distracted driving and investing in existing, proven safety technologies, including emerging connected vehicle technology.” OOIDA expressed similar concerns about requiring underride guards on trucks. “There is no real-world testing for typical navigation of trucks. Little consideration has been given to the impact underride guards would have on daily operations, such as the challenges of navigating grade crossings, high curbs, steep loading bays and other road conditions,” said Norita Taylor, public relations practitioner for OOIDA. “There is no front underride equipment currently on the market because the concept lacks any practicality.” According to OOIDA, spread axle trailers are used to improve the distribution of weight on a truck and provide a safer loading option. Side underride guards could restrict the movements required, and potentially hinder the operational efficiency and safety. In addition, side underride guards could limit a driver’s ability to inspect safety equipment located under the trailer. “People usually think of van trailers when they think of trucking,” said Mike Matousek, manager of government affairs for OOIDA. “That’s what they see most often, but that’s not an accurate reflection of trucking. Think about side dumps, end dumps, tankers, car haulers, flat beds and dozens — or hundreds — of other specialized trailers that aren’t van trailers. It just doesn’t work on some of this.” Like Taylor, Matousek noted that trucking involves high centering, and steep loading docks and high curbs could be hazardous for a truck with underride guards. “We don’t enjoy opposing this,” Matousek said. “I’m a parent. Truckers are parents. But the reality is that some of it just won’t work for large segments of the industry. We take these issues very seriously and we will try to work through our concerns as much as possible, but sometimes there just isn’t a path forward.”

WASHINGTON — Minnesota-licensed commercial truck driver Jordan Andrew Bane has been declared an imminent hazard to public safety by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Bane, who was served the federal order March 5, has been ordered not to operate any commercial motor vehicle in interstate commerce. On Feb. 17, 2021, while driving a tractor-trailer in Fair Haven, Vermont, underwent a roadside safety inspection conducted by a Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles enforcement officer. While asking for Bane’s license and other documentation, the officer detected a strong odor of marijuana. She asked for and received permission to search the truck cab and sleeper berth compartment. During the search, the enforcement officer discovered multiple containers labeled to suggest they contained marijuana. A field test conducted on one of the containers was positive for marijuana. The officer also found an unlabeled pill bottle containing three different types of pills. Using an online identifier, she found all the pills to be Schedule II controlled substances for which Bane did not possess a prescription. The enforcement officer also found two synthetic urine kits, which are commonly used to avoid a positive controlled substances test. One kit had been opened and used; the other was unopened. Following the roadside inspection, Bane was issued a citation for possession of a narcotic drug in violation of Vermont State law. In accordance with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s North American Standard enforcement criteria, he was ordered out of service for 24 hours. Despite the out-of-service order, Bane was stopped by the same Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles enforcement officer less than 24 hours later, this time in Barre, Vermont (about two hours from Fair Haven). Bane has been previously convicted by the State of Minnesota, twice for driving under the influence of alcohol, and once for driving under the influence of drugs. FMCSA’s imminent hazard out-of-service order states that Bane’s “blatant and egregious violations of the [federal safety regulations] and disregard for the safety of the motoring public … substantially increases the likelihood of serious injury or death to you and/or to the motoring public.” Failing to comply with the provisions of the federal imminent hazard order may result in civil penalties of up to $1,895 for each violation. Knowing and/or willful violations could result in criminal penalties. Bane may not operate a commercial motor vehicle until he undergoes evaluation by a certified medical examiner and provides evidence he is qualified to return to driving duties.