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Having tolls removed from a major route in British Columbia, Canada, has taken some of the sting out of the cost of operating a trucking business in that province, but there’s still plenty of sting to go around. In late September, the government removed a $20 truck toll and $10 passenger vehicle toll from the Coquihalla Highway, which connects the city of Hope to Kamloops, B.C., in the Canadian West. Provincial officials said that truckers were pleased with the move, and they were. “Given the price of fuel, truckers are very happy with this,” Bridgitte Anderson, spokeswoman for British Columbia...

CITRA, Fla. -- A 13-year-old student was killed and eight others injured when a school bus crashed and caught fire, trapping the injured children in their seats. Officials said the bus carrying 21 students from North Marion Middle School and North Marion High School was struck by a big rig Tuesday afternoon on U.S. Highway 301 at 155th Street near Citra. As flames began to overwhelm the bus, four motorists stopped and began pulling the trapped students out of the flames. "They were heroes," Marion County School Superindent Jim Yancey said at the crash scene. "(The motorists) started pulling people...

WASHINGTON — Dismissing a White House veto threat, the House voted Tuesday to end a pilot program giving Mexican trucks access to U.S. highways. The Bush administration stressed that the United States is obligated, under the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, to open up American roads to Mexican truckers, and that terminating the year-old demonstration project would have repercussions for American trucks allowed into Mexico. Passage of the House bill, it said "would pose significant and immediate risks to U.S. interests." But the pilot project, which permits up to 500 trucks from 100 Mexican companies access to U.S. roads,...

A coalition of consumer, immigrant and civil rights groups warned Tuesday that a Port of Long Beach loan program to help thousands of mostly low-income truck drivers replace old, polluting rigs with newer, cleaner-burning vehicles could plunge the truckers into debt. Port officials counter that the loans are a bargain and that truckers would not be able to afford new rigs without them. But the coalition foresees a wave of "foreclosures on wheels."

Infuriated Democrats vowed Monday to kill a pilot program that gives Mexican trucks access to U.S. highways after the Bush administration - acting on the first day of Congress' summer recess - announced that it was extending the test project. Rep. James L. Oberstar, chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said the administration's maneuver was the latest attempt to flout the will of Congress on the matter, and said he will introduce legislation ending the program once and for all. "When Congress reconvenes in September, I intend to have the full House of Representatives approve our bill as quickly...

WASHINGTON – A controversial one-year program allowing Mexican trucks to travel deep into the United States will be extended for two more years, federal officials announced Monday. John H. Hill, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said the extension would allow for the collection of more data to determine whether Mexican trucks can operate safely in the United States. Opponents quickly denounced the move, which some had been expecting despite their protests that the program poses a danger on U.S. highways. Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, accused U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary...

WASHINGTON – Opponents of a pilot project that allows Mexican trucks to travel throughout the United States took another step toward ending the program yesterday, when a House committee approved a bill to bar its continuation next year. The bill could get a vote by the full House when lawmakers return from their summer break in September. “We believe it's time to end the program,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., the chief sponsor of the bill. DeFazio blasted the Bush administration for ignoring a law passed by Congress last year to end the pilot program. He said lax safety standards...

BAGHDAD, July 24, 2008 – In another sign of progress in Iraq, 62 tribes and 68 sheiks have organized four private trucking companies to form the Iraqi Transportation Network. A driver for the Iraqi Transportation Network, an Iraqi-owned and operated logistics network, watches as containers are loaded onto his truck July 15, 2008, at Camp Liberty, Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Andrea Merritt  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The sheiks approached the U.S. military with a proposition for the ITN to haul their cargo throughout Iraq, guaranteeing safe shipment and taking financial responsibility for any loss. They...

Already, some shippers, truckers and others who don't want to make changes are choosing other ports, according to Knatz, who said port traffic could drop 10 percent to 15 percent.

MICHIGAN (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - Truck drivers maneuver several tons of cargo down Michigan highways every minute. A new study shows that hundreds of thousands of them shouldn't even be behind the wheel. Right now about 600,000 commercial drivers suffer from conditions like diabetes and narcolepsy. They are conditions that qualify them for full disability benefits, because they can lead to serious issues like heart attacks, seizures and unconscious spells. Some truck drivers say the reason so many of their peers slip through the cracks is that they find doctors who overlook those medical conditions so they can stay on the...

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Manuel Castillo was driving a truck through Alabama hauling onions and left with a $500 ticket for something he didn't think he was doing: speaking English poorly. Castillo, who was stopped on his way back to California, said he knows federal law requires him to be able to converse in English with an officer but he thought his language skills were good enough to avoid a ticket. Still, Castillo said he plans to pay the maximum fine of $500 rather than return to Alabama to fight the ticket. "It just doesn't seem fair to be ticketed if...

Subject: Learning Over the Years How to Balance Family and Work in an Industry Not Even Their Own Company Executives Understand By Renee E. Taylor (ATAW/AR) To you, my husband is a truck number, just a large, blue or red metal object that mysteriously gets your freight from point A to point B. One of thousands of tiny dots that appear on your computer screen as you sit in your air conditioned office which you leave each night to return to your wife, children and pets. A large, blue or red metal object that dispatchers and planners seen as an...

Regulating Trucks by: Melinda Zosh, July 08, 2008 When Atlanta residents Stephen and Susan Owings ate breakfast, prayed and said good-bye to their two college-age sons after Thanksgiving, they had no idea that only one of their sons would return for Christmas. Nearly six years ago, on Dec. 1, 2002, 22-year-old Washington and Lee student Cullum Owings, a business major, died when a 70,000-pound tractor-railer driving 72 m.p.h., the equivalent of a car driving more than 300 m.p.h., slammed into his door. “My rear-view mirror has turned into a time machine,” said Stephen Owings. “Every now and then when I...

The most recent outbreak of salmonella poisoning of produce caused much alarm across the country and cost American tomato growers millions in lost revenue. As of this writing, over 900 salmonella cases have been diagnosed in 40 states. While American farmers struggled as the CDC did their best to pin the tainted tomatoes on them, their crops rotted on docks and in warehouses as consumers refused to buy potentially contaminated goods. For those of us in Arkansas, it was a relief when our famous Bradley County pink tomatoes were cleared; harvesting had not begun when the outbreak occurred.

Truckers in Albany protested at the New York Capitol amidst concerns their industry would be hit hard by skyrocketing fuel prices and climate change legislation. About 100 truckers attended the demonstration, where they paraded big rigs past the Capitol building and blasted their horns. They’re specifically directing their anger at Democrat-controlled State Assembly for refusing a vote on a proposed gas tax holiday bill to suspend New York’s fuel tax through Labor Day. The truckers even invited Democratic Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno for a ride on one of their big rigs to lobby him.

AUSTIN — Truckers who smuggle drugs or people into the United States are now risking not only prison time but the loss of their commercial drivers' licenses as Texas uses a long-standing law in a new border-crime crackdown. “Up until today, when those lawbreakers had their trucks apprehended, they were convicted in federal court, they typically paid a small fine or served a brief sentence, then it was back to business as usual. Well, starting today, that all changes, ” Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday at the Texas Capitol with U.S. Border Patrol sector chiefs. “If you are a commercial...

More info and contact info here: http://www.wrow.com/pages/pages.php?page=16

Imagine if your state, local and/or Federal government issued the following statement: "In an effort to cut ‘greenhouse gases', all homes must turn off their air conditioning, heat, refrigerators and freezers each time the occupant leaves the premises.Except in a timeframe mandated by your elected officials, all lights, coffee pots and televisions must be turned off and unplugged under penalty of hefty fines.All businesses must turn off their main circuit breaker at the end of each workday as their employees depart and such can only be turned back on when the last employee arrives the following morning." Now imagine the...

SAN BENITO - Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Inspector Patricia Baez reclined on a mechanical dolly and rolled herself under a parked tractor-trailer rig. Baez, a state trooper, was checking the 18-wheeler Thursday to see if it had any mechanical problems that could make it a safety hazard for other drivers on the road. She found "quite a few" violations on this vehicle, Baez said. Baez is one of dozens of Texas Department of Public Safety trooper-inspectors across the state participating in Roadcheck 2008, a 72-hour operation where troopers inspect all commercial vehicles to ensure the trucks meet safety requirements. The nationwide...

As Congress continues to badger oil companies, placing the blame of high gas prices squarely on the executives' shoulders while ignoring their own liability, the trucking industry saw the demise of Jevic Transportation. Jevic, based in Delanco, New Jersey, announced on May 19th it was parking its trucks and shutting its doors due to increased diesel fuel costs, economic downturn and increasing insurance rates.Founded in 1981 and employing 1,230 truck drivers, the company has filed for Chapter 11.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a warning Thursday on the anti-smoking drug Chantix, advising medical examiners "to not qualify anyone currently using this medication for commercial motor vehicle licenses." The FMCSA oversees the interstate trucking and bus industry. Chantix, made by Pfizer, Inc., was attacked in a study by a non-profit group on Wednesday for possible links to seizures, dizziness, heart irregularity, diabetes and more than 100 accidents. The Department of Transportation alerted its agencies about the study, asking the office directors be aware of the report's warnings and recommendations. The Federal Aviation Administration banned the drug for...

  The Library of Congress > THOMAS Home > Bills, Resolutions > Search Results THIS SEARCH THIS DOCUMENT GO TO Next Hit Forward New Bills Search Prev Hit Back HomePage Hit List Best Sections Help Contents Display GPO's PDF Display Congressional Record References Bill Summary & Status Printer Friendly Display - 2,526 bytes.[Help] TRUCC Act (Introduced in Senate) S 2910 IS 110th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 2910To require brokers to disclose and pay independent truckers for any fuel surcharges received from shippers that relate to fuel costs paid for by the truckers. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES April 24, 2008 Ms. SNOWE (for herself...

If you think gas is expensive, be thankful you're not a trucker. Filling up their 18-wheel, 80,000-pound leviathans can cost more than $1,300 these days. Because of short supply, the price of diesel has gone up more than twice as much as gasoline in the last year, reaching a U.S. all-time high this week of an average of $4.33 a gallon. With little hope of a near-term decline -- oil futures rose $2.17 to settle at a record $126.29 a barrel Friday -- the run-up is causing panic and prompting radical cultural and technological shifts in the struggling trucking industry....

Almost every week, a new damaging story emerges about Barack Obama. Lucky for this wounded "messiah" that his disciples in the mainstream media neglect, until the last possible minute, their duty to investigate these reports. This week, there's a brand-new one, which has surfaced too late to affect the critically important Indiana and North Carolina primaries, but demands scrutiny nonetheless. The Wall Street Journal -- admittedly a mainstream media outlet, save the editorial page -- has started the ball rolling on this one with a May 5 article examining the possible reasons behind the International Brotherhood of Teamsters' endorsement of...

Sen. Barack Obama won the endorsement of the Teamsters earlier this year after privately telling the union he supported ending the strict federal oversight imposed to root out corruption, according to officials from the union and the Obama campaign. It's an unusual stance for a presidential candidate. Policy makers have largely treated monitoring of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters as a legal matter left to the Justice Department since an independent review board was set up in 1992 to eliminate mob influence in the union.

A tractor-trailer careened into a busy local train station here during the evening rush hour on Friday, killing two people and injuring nearly two dozen others just south of downtown in Chinatown. Witnesses described hearing a deafening screech then the tremendous roar of the truck slamming into the street-level waiting area of the elevated train station, a bustling stop on the Red Line which runs a north-south route through the downtown Loop. The truck crashed through the glass front of the station, Cermak-Chinatown, and caused the escalators to collapse. Eleven people, four of them children, were in critical condition...

April 28 convoy to Washington, DC, will protest fuel prices As a rocky economy continues to beat up the trucking industry, many truckers around the country are banding together to show their outrage at high fuel prices and how they are struggling to just break even.OOIDA members Michael “JB” Schaffner of Nocona, TX, is one of the organizers of a national truck convoy and rally scheduled for Monday, April 28, in Washington, DC. The group is protesting rising fuel costs and how they are negatively affecting the entire economy. Click here for rally and route information.“People need to wake up...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., April 18 (UPI) -- A Florida lawmaker is proposing a $60 fine for motorists who display "Trucknutz" -- plastic and chrome replicas of testicles -- on their vehicles. State Sen. Carey Baker of Eustis says the ornaments are offensive to many drivers who wind up driving behind them. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel said Friday that Baker tucked the fine proposal into a larger transportation bill. A Virginia state legislator sponsored a bill several months ago to ban the decorations after a constituent called to complain his 6-year-old daughter had spotted a pair on the back of a pickup...

Cleans out the tailpipe and the wallet Will Americans finally warm to diesel cars? EARLY last year, this column predicted that a new generation of lean and clean diesel cars would soon be heading for American shores (“Rudolf’s revenge”, February 9th, 2007). On cue, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volkswagen have started to introduce American versions of their latest diesel models that are clean enough to be sold even in environmentally conscious California. Japanese and American carmakers aren’t far behind. Diesels are seen as an answer to soaring oil prices. While ludicrously low by European and Japanese standards, pump prices across...

This week, American truckers staged protests against the rising cost of diesel fuel while members of the U.S. House of Representatives competed to see who could do the best job of hectoring oil-company executives - on-camera - about the high price of gasoline. Also this week, the House voted to double the size of two national marine sanctuaries off of the Northern California coast, which now are permanently protected from offshore-oil drilling. This is the same House that has supported a ban on new offshore drilling off the entire California coast and opposes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge...

TRENTON, N.J. - Independent truckers around the country pulled their rigs off the road and others slowed to a crawl on major highways in a loosely organized protest of high fuel prices. Some truckers, on CB radios and trucking Web sites, had called for a strike Tuesday to protest the high cost of diesel fuel, saying the action might pressure President Bush to stabilize prices by using the nation's oil reserves. But the protests were scattered because major trucking companies were not on board and there did not appear to be any central coordination. On New Jersey's Turnpike, southbound rigs...

Crude oil is running $100 a barrel and it costs $50 instead of $35 to fill your car, but you carpool occasionally and watch the number of trips across town so you're doing all right so far. But what happens when, in addition to the $50 fillup, your groceries go from $80 to $120 and you hunt for new jeans but the shelves don't even have your size? That's the very real possibility that is triggering an unofficial nationwide call for a shutdown by thousands of independent truck operators who deliver those supplies – all sparked by the rising costs...

What started as a small, online grassroots effort now appears to have the potential for something bigger. Dan Little, the owner/operator of a livestock hauling company in Carrollton, Mo., estimated Tuesday that at least 1,000 other truckers from across the United States have committed so far to joining him in a strike on April 1. At issue is the rising cost of diesel fuel, which has reached or exceeded $4 per gallon in at least 17 states. But Little does not expect his strike to bring down the per-gallon price of gas, nor does he expect to have any effect...

The Fed is bailing out banks that irresponsibly loaned money to home buyers (that the home buyers could not afford to pay back). Meanwhile, many Americans are blithely waiting for their IRS “rebate” checks – a feel-good, election year tactic to “stimulate the economy.” Yet the United States is facing a different – and serious – economic crisis. If this crisis is left unchecked, it could leave grocery stores with empty shelves and the local mall with fewer gadgets and gizmos. In 1987, I purchased my first truck for $50,000 and my first trailer for $9,000. Fuel was 67 cents...

What started as a small, online grassroots effort now appears to have the potential for something bigger. Dan Little, the owner/operator of a livestock hauling company in Carrollton, Mo., estimated Tuesday that at least 1,000 other truckers from across the United States have committed so far to joining him in a strike on April 1. Although none of the truckers interviewed Tuesday at the Iowa 80 Truck Stop, Walcott, which is just off Interstate 80 west of Davenport, has heard of the intended strike, some said they would shut down, too. Weldon Kinnison, a Virginia trucker who was hauling soft...

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- Coast-to-coast trucker Lorraine Dawson says fellow drivers used to call her "Lead Foot Lorraine." But with diesel fuel around $4 a gallon, she and other big-rig drivers have backed off their accelerators to conserve fuel. "I used to be a speed demon, but no more," said Dawson, based at Tacoma, Wash. "Most drivers have cut their speed considerably." Dawson said she's cut her speed by five to 10 miles per hour to save money for her company. Many independent owner-operators have slowed even more, she said. "My fiance is an owner-operator and he's been crying a...

WASHINGTON – A senator wants Congress' investigative arm to determine whether the Transportation Department has broken the law by spending federal money on a program allowing Mexican trucks on U.S. roads. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., called for the investigation by the General Accountability Office a few hours after Transportation Secretary Mary Peters warned of economic losses if Mexican trucks are prohibited from driving deep into the U.S. Peters has been fighting in court to prevent the program's end. But Dorgan and others say Congress prohibited spending money on the program last year. “When Congress passes a law that says no...

Some Central Georgia truck drivers say they could face bankruptcy due to higher diesel fuel costs. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, this week's average price-per-gallon of diesel fuel in the Southeast is at $3.64. That's up 10 cents from last week and more than $1 from a year ago. "The days of truckers getting good long hauls and making good money are over with," said trucker Danny Ashley, a Laurens County native. "The price of diesel fuel is... eating us alive now." As a result, Ashley says he and others in the trucking industry around Central Georgia have...

Trucker Robert Griffith is on the road three weeks out of four, pulling oversize loads like crane booms, railroad ties and air conditioning ducts. One of his biggest worries: How he'll find the money to buy his daughter a prom dress. As the cost of diesel doubled over the last four years, his take-home pay has plummeted, from $50,000 to $11,000 last year. He's literally burning money; he spent $64,000 on diesel in the last eight months. Since he canceled his satellite radio, he's on citizens band radio constantly (handle: Instigator) talking about what needs to change so truckers like...

Reported by: Joyce Peterson Email: jpeterson@myeyewitnessnews.com Last Update: 2/26 6:29 am Trucking Company Says It Is Not The Focus of Federal Investigation Documents seized during a raid on two truck driving schools and a Driver’s License Bureau. Memphis, TN - Federal and state agents raided two Mid-South truck driving schools and a Memphis driver's license center on February 25, 2008. Both schools, one on Brooks Road in Memphis, and the other on Veterans Parkway in Millington, are operated by Swift Transportation. The state run license center on Shelby Drive in Whitehaven was also targeted in the investigation. The FBI confirms...

The FBI is investigating a Tennessee trucking company. Agents from the FBI, Secret Service, Bureau of Immigration and Customs and several other agencies searched the Swift Transportation trucking company in Memphis on Monday. Swift Transportation dispatches more than 500 trucks per day, transporting mainly for the United Parcel Service. Employees said agents seized computers but authorities have not released what they were looking for. "I haven't a clue,” said training driver James Richardson. “All I know is all of the training activities have been put on hold right now until an investigation is over...

About an hour and a half ago Fox News ran a report about an FBI raid on a trucking company in Millington TN. A reporter with WREC in Memphis was talking, said the FBI came in with copies of two drivers licenses. I caught some of it, then haven't seen another word on FOX, on FOX website, nor can I find a word about this on the WREC site. Now that Naomi Campbell is sick and in the news, this will probably go down the memory hole. Just wondering if any other freepers heard this report? I searched FR and...

Mexican rigs, sometimes with hundreds of safety violations, are headed your way, according to those who are challenging the legality of a Bush administration program to let those trucks, and their drivers, roam the U.S. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has heard arguments in a pair of lawsuits over the administration program that is supposed to be "testing" the procedures that eventually could be used to let thousands of Mexican rigs cruise U.S. roads. The cases have been brought by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and a coalition of the Sierra Club, International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Public...

A federal appeals court considered Tuesday whether the Bush administration can go ahead with a pilot program that allows a small number of Mexican trucks to travel freely on U.S. highways, despite a new law by Congress against it. Members of the Teamsters Union and their supporters packed a courtroom at 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where an apparently divided three-judge panel heard arguments in the case, which may boil down to the meaning of "establish." Several tractor trailers also were parked outside the courthouse and union members and their supporters carried signs opposing the program, which allows participating...

A conspicuous shortage of truck drivers is creating a Catch-22 of sorts for the trucking industry, according to recent comments by carrier executives. On the one hand, a lack of drivers is restricting the ability of trucking companies to expand and meet current freight volumes. Yet that same lack of drivers results in tight capacity, which is allowing fleets in many cases to get higher rates from customers and reject unprofitable business. "Our results for the quarter were assisted by a favorable relationship between freight demand and truckload capacity," said Steve Russell, chairman & CEO of Indianapolis-based truckload carrier Celadon...

In what could be perceived as a brilliant move by an elected official in an election year, and in a rare instance where common sense beats voter pandering, South Carolina State Senate Republican leader, Harvey Peeler, has filed a bill requiring drug testing for all candidates for public office. Senator Peeler, your ingenious bill should be both a starting point and a blueprint for elections and candidates nationwide. As American truckers, we are required to take a drug test before we are hired by an employer, and we are subject to random testing throughout our employment. It is a reasonable...

The Ohio Department of Development (ODOD) is requesting applications for its Diesel Emissions Reduction Grant Programme (DERG), which will offer US$19.8m towards retrofitting cleaner diesel engines in the state. Grants will be offered for the retrofit of all public and private diesel engine fleets (with public sponsor) that have at least 20% matching funds. Grant applicants must operate their updated equipment in Ohio non-attainment-and-maintenance counties at least 65% of the time. Public fleets include school buses, mass transit vehicles, trash trucks, and government fleets. Private fleets include long and short haul trucks, switcher locomotives and non-road construction equipment. Non-road vehicles...

Today, a Chesapeake lawmaker plans to introduce a bill that will ban "truck nuts" from your truck or SUV. The nutty idea is the brainchild of Delegate Lionell Spruill. We're talking about the fake testicles people hang on the backs of their vehicles. Spruill's bill would ban anything on a car or truck that looked like human genitalia. "Yeah, I definitely think those should be outlawed. I don't approve of that," says one local woman we talked to. But others think its no big deal. "Nah, that's not vulgar, that's funny," says one man. Spruill says these types of dangling...

Recent thefts of fuel tanker trucks should serve as a grim reminder that our country – and the trucking industry in particular – has become a dangerous place, and we must continually make ourselves aware of our surroundings. Whether it is terrorists who could boldly steal a gasoline tanker with the intent to demolish a major target, or common thugs who might steal freight for resale on the black market, solving many cases is contingent upon professional drivers and average citizens and their ability to recognize and report suspicious activity. Whether driving eighteen wheels or four, you must train yourself...

Like it or not, Mexican trucks will continue making deliveries into the United States interior despite congressional efforts to block their passage. Congress voted last year to stop funding for a cross-border trucking pilot program, however, last week, the Bush administration argued that while the congressional action bans funding for a new program it does nothing to stop the current one. “The current cross-border trucking demonstration project will continue to operate in a manner that puts safety first, with participating Mexican carriers subject to all safety standards required by the 2008 omnibus bill and the department, while giving U.S. trucking...