Heavy Duty Trucking, October 2019

WASHINGTON WATCH HDT OCTOBER 2019 14 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM Date 09 09 19Client CMAJob 2821File Name 2821 CMA HeavyDutyTrucking Oct HP iRAccount Director Keith CarhillEditor Designer Revised jamProduction jamColor Page 1 of 1Allow to lower your cost per mile Mission Excellence is a philosophy that shapes the way you are treated as a customer This led us to increase tari free tire output in our Thailand factory Learn more at www DoubleCoinTires com 2019 CMA LLC CVSA lobbying Congress to fund truck crash causation study In a letter to the U S Senate Appropriations Committee the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance urged Congress to fund a new commercial vehicle crash causation study which would be conducted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration CVSA said it strongly supports the appropriation of funds for a new study in 2020 since the last one was conducted back in the 2001 to 2003 period The requested funding would have to be included in the 2020 Transportation Housing and Urban Development THUD appropriations bill CVSA contends that with nearly 20 years between studies changes to technology drug usage and passenger and commercial vehicle safety features have drastically altered highway safety and potentially the root causes of commercial vehicle crashes For this reason the group is asking for a new study to reexamine commercial vehicle crash causes Such a study would be used to inform commercial vehicle safety enforcement programs and identify current trends and problem areas That data could be used to craft enforcement and education initiatives to target specific safety problems Understanding root causes of commercial motor vehicle crashes is crucial to the development of effective safety programs wrote CVSA Executive Director Collin Mooney A crash causation study identifying root factors contributing to crashes not just the incident that caused the crash is necessary to improve safety Shippers catch most of blame for higher detention times Delays experienced by truck drivers at customer facilities have increased in both frequency and time over the past four years costing fleets and drivers time and productivity according to recent analysis by the American Transportation Research Institute The ATRI analysis was based on over 1900 truck driver and carrier surveys conducted between 2014 and 2018 Responses indicate the detention problem is only getting worse and more frustrating with fleets and drivers feeling that shippers and receivers are either not aware of the impact the delays are causing or are simply unwilling to address it Also with the transition from paper logs to mandatory electronic logging devices drivers are feeling extra pressure to remain productive despite the delays The delays were also found to have a cascading effect impacting subsequent pickups and deliveries according to ATRI Over the course of ATRIs four year study drivers reported a 274 increase in delays lasting six or more hours Likewise delays of two to four hours and four to six hours increased from 2014 to 2018 In terms of frequency drivers reported an increasing percentage of deliveries that included an excessive delay