trucking regulations

Can You Pass This Trucking Speed Quiz?

By: Steve Vaughn, senior vice president of field operations, PrePass Safety Alliance Commercial law enforcement in North America focuses on unsafe behavior by car and truck drivers. The most frequent reason enforcement pulls drivers over? Speeding. As a fleet manager or truck driver, you know that speeding can lead to

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FMCSA Finalizes Guidance on Freight Brokerage Definitions

Are you working with a broker, a bona fide agent, or a dispatch service? As a motor carrier, who you choose as a business partner can have legal and financial repercussions. That, in part, motivated the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to issue its final guidance on the definitions

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Trucking Things to Know Now, Part 10: Federal Regulatory Updates

Whatever the political headlines of the day, federal agencies continue to add new trucking regulations, adopt new forms, and extend or discontinue previous waivers and exemptions. In this series, “Trucking Things to Know Now,” PrePass provides quick updates on regulatory developments, often with links to more information. FMCSA Finalizes UCR

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NLRB Tightens Independent Contractor Standards

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued a decision that many observers believe further complicates life for independent contractors, including those in trucking. In The Atlanta Opera, Inc. decision, the NLRB classifies theatrical production make-up artists and hair stylists as employees, allowing them to join a union. Federal law

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Underrides and Undercounts: The PBS “Frontline” Report on Trucking

Recently, the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) aired a “Frontline” report on “America’s Dangerous Trucks.” The television program focused on an investigation by ProPublica into car-truck accidents where the passenger vehicle underrides the truck chassis, often resulting in fatalities. ProPublica indicated the simple requirement that truck trailers have side underride guards

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PrePass Insider Newsletter – June 2023

The PrePass Insider newsletter is your monthly digest of trucking news and everything PrePass. Not subscribed to this newsletter? Subscribe now. The Beginning of the End for Trucks Waiting at Red Lights? How many times have you or one of your trucks been making great time for a pickup or delivery

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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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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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Truck Speed Limiter Rulemaking Hits a Speed Bump

The Federal Motor Carrier Administration (FMCSA) is delaying the next step in the truck speed limiter rulemaking by postponing the release of a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (SNPRM). Originally targeted for June, FMCSA Administrator Robin Hutcheson recently said in an interview with Land Line, that the agency won’t release

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California Approves Advanced Clean Fleet Rules for Trucks

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) unanimously approved its Advanced Clean Fleet (ACF) rules in late April, setting the stage for the state to completely ban the use of diesel-powered trucks. The CARB goal is that all fleets operating in that state will be 100% electric by 2035, 2040 or

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Feds OK Rules for Oral Fluids Drug Testing of Truck Drivers

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has issued a Final Rule on oral fluids testing. The new drug testing method will apply to safety-sensitive employees subject to federal drug and alcohol testing rules. The notice makes corresponding changes in the modal regulations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA),

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