It’s time for your Tuesday Daily Trucker News Update!
We have a lot of news to cover today, including:
- How much it could cost the US to have a vehicle miles traveled tax
- Why an Alabama based carrier has been listed as a hazard to public safety
- And we have images of an incredible rescue in Idaho you have to see to believe
So, let’s get trucking!
Carlin: A study shows the proposed national vehicle – miles – traveled fee system would not only be complicated but extremely expensive. On March 17 – the American Transportation Research Institute released “A Practical Analysis of a National VMT Tax System” – a look into the requirements, costs, and benefits of the proposed plan. In the study, it showed it’s much more complicated and expensive to track and collect money from the millions of vehicles instead of collecting a fuel tax. The costs of installing an electronic monitoring system to track miles of the more than 2-hundred-70 million private vehicles registered in US is more than 13-billion dollars… That’s just the hardware… That doesn’t include the enforcement and administration fees – it could easily exceed 7-and-a-half billion dollars. According to ATRI, the US would go from 70-million dollars a year… To over 20 billion. The full report is on ATRI’s website – go check it out.
Isela: Demand surged for goods during the pandemic – but experts expect it to remain high even as things return to normal. The Consumer Brands Association says the rate of purchases is expected to grow anywhere from 7-and-a-half to 8-and-a-half percent from 2019. And as we all know, the more products are in demand, the more demand for truckers who move them.
Carlin: Well we all know Covid changed everything… And one of those things was the number of audits the FMCSA conducted. Though they ramped up offsite audits of trucking companies in 2020, the overall reviews dropped by about 8-percent from 2019. FMCSA enforcement Chief Joe DeLorenzo says that while 2020 was kind of a surprise, the administration already had plans to implement off-site audits, just on a much smaller scale at first. However, experts say, the lower number of inspections could show inspectors aren’t ready to go fully off-site just yet.
Isela: Speaking of inspections, Alabama-based Woods Dependable Towing LLC has been declared it was a hazard to public safety by the FMCSA. An order was also handed out to Woods Dependable Towing driver Samuel Lee Wren, which keeps him from operating any CMV for interstate commerce. The investigation by the FMCSA found the company had several violations including:
- Failing 16 of the 31 roadside inspection
- Falsifying records of duty status.
- And failing to make sure drivers were qualified.
Isela: As the saying goes, don’t cry over spilled milk! A semi hauling nearly 8-thousand gallons of milk crashed in North Dakota, spilling it all on the road near the town of Wing. According to the North Dakota Highway Patrol the truck went into a ditch, overturned, and came to rest on its wheels… But the trailer didn’t and spilled almost all of its contents. The driver, 38-year-old Orlando Nieves was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries.
Carlin: A rescue in Idaho is being called a miracle… A couple hanging off a bridge was rescued by a truck driver who was at the right place at the right time. Look at some of these photos posted to social media… Rod Drury was driving a rig that he says he doesn’t normally take out – when he saw a pickup truck hauling a camper go off the edge of a bridge. The camper caught the barrier and left the truck dangling above the gorge. When the Idaho State Police arrived, they hatched a plan to use Drury’s rig and some chains to help keep the truck secure until rescue crews arrived. The couple and their dogs were rescued and amazingly had no serious injuries.
That does it for today’s update!
Tune in tomorrow for all the trucking news you need!
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