truck safety

FMCSA Study Dives Deep into Truck Crash Causes

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is undertaking a new study of the causes behind commercial motor vehicle (CMV) crashes. The agency released the last such study in 2006, based on data from 2001-2003. In the Infrastructure Bill signed into law in late 2021, Congress directed FMCSA to conduct

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Why Truckers Need to Be Alert for Roadway Flooding

By: Steve Vaughn, senior vice president of field operations, PrePass Safety Alliance We will all remember the winter of 2022/2023. Snow fell in sunny Southern California. Yosemite National Park recorded 15 feet of the white stuff. Storms labeled “atmospheric rivers” pummeled large portions of the country. Tornadoes hit the South

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New FMCSA Hours of Service Data Muddled by COVID-19

About three years ago, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) published final rules that contained four modifications to federal hours of service (HOS) rules for truck drivers: Short-haul exception – Expanded the short-haul exception from 100 air-miles to 150 air-miles for commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders and allowed a

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FMCSA Updates Crash Preventability Determination Program

The mission statement of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is to “reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities involving large trucks and buses.” FMCSA undertakes that mission largely by identifying motor carriers and commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers with safety records that indicate they need attention or even intervention. FMCSA determines

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PrePass Insider Newsletter – April 2023

The PrePass Insider newsletter is your monthly digest of trucking news and everything PrePass. Not subscribed to this newsletter? Subscribe now. Trucking Faced with ‘Weighty’ Issues Truck net weights are coming under assault. And the threat comes not from an economic competitor, but from state and federal regulators. In this two-part

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Trucking Faced with ‘Weighty’ Issues, Part 2

In this two-part series, we look at the state and federal trucking regulations from a weight standpoint. The first installment discussed state efforts to mandate electric vehicles (EVs), specifically electric trucks. In this second part, we examine the impending federal rulemaking on side underride guards. Whatever the purpose of a

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Trucking Faced with ‘Weighty’ Issues, Part 1

Truck weights are under attack. No, we are not witnessing a return to the trucking vs. railroad battles of the 1970s and 1980s. That’s when the standard maximum truck weight rose from 73,280 pounds to today’s 80,000 pounds and when twin 28-foot trailer combinations and 53-foot semitrailers became legal nationwide,

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