Free Republic

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...

In a letter dated January 3, 2007, written to DOT Secretary Mary Peters, Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) expressed concern that DOT planned to continue the program. “The DOT response is both arrogant and wrong! The provisions included in the omnibus spending bill was clearly written and designed to put the brakes on the current pilot program,” reads the letter. “Failure to end the pilot program, I believe, will put the Department of Transportation in direct violation of federal law,” said Dorgan in the letter.

Bush Administration Defies New Law by Continuing Pilot Program WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Bush administration broke yet another law in continuing to allow long-haul trucks from Mexico to use U.S. highways, according to a letter filed Monday by the Teamsters Union in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Congress passed an omnibus budget, signed into law Dec. 26, that includes a provision banning funds "to establish a cross-border motor carrier demonstration program to allow Mexico-domiciled motor carriers to operate beyond the commercial zones." The Bush administration pretends the law doesn't apply to the existing program....

A constitutional crisis is developing between Congress and the Department of Transportation over the federal government's decision to continue its project allowing Mexican trucks on U.S. roads, in defiance of new legislation. "The DOT response is both arrogant and wrong!" Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., wrote in a letter yesterday to Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration officials told the San Diego Union Tribune the cross-border Mexican truck demonstration project would continue because the program was established in September and the amendment allows programs that have already begun to continue. But Dorgan insisted a provision in the...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is going ahead with a controversial pilot program giving Mexican trucks greater access to U.S. highways despite a new law by Congress against it. The decision to proceed with the four-month-old program, which allows participating Mexican trucking companies to send loads throughout the United States, comes despite language in the recently signed catchall spending bill aimed at blocking it. But the Department of Transportation is taking advantage of a loophole in the new law, which prohibits the government from spending any money to "establish" the program. The government says the new rules don't apply to...

WASHINGTON -- It doesn't look like the pilot project allowing Mexican trucks deep into U.S. territory will be around for much longer. Still, even though a bill to cut funding for the controversial program was signed by President George W. Bush recently, the DOT hasn't made many moves to halt it yet. A $555 billion omnibus appropriations spending bill, which signed into law last week, contained a provision that cuts funding from the cross-border program. "None of the funds made available under this Act may be used to establish a cross-border motor carrier demonstration program to allow Mexico-domiciled motor carriers...

Congress has passed a bill that cuts funding for the controversial Mexican truck program, but lawmakers expect the Bush administration to keep the foreign vehicles rolling on American roads amid safety and security concerns. Joe Kasper, spokesman for Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., told WND that "without federal funding, it will be difficult to continue the program. However, we must expect that the administration will continue looking for ways to do so." The newly passed 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act prohibits the Department of Transportation from using the funds in it "to establish a cross-border motor carrier demonstration program to allow Mexico-domiciled...

Congress has passed a bill that cuts funding for the controversial Mexican truck program, but lawmakers expect the Bush administration to keep the foreign vehicles rolling on American roads amid safety and security concerns. Joe Kasper, spokesman for Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., told WND that "without federal funding, it will be difficult to continue the program. However, we must expect that the administration will continue looking for ways to do so." The newly passed 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act prohibits the Department of Transportation from using the funds in it "to establish a cross-border motor carrier demonstration program to allow Mexico-domiciled...

Retaliation is expected by the Mexican government in response to a decision this week by the U.S. Congress to stop the cross-border trucking pilot program for long-haul Mexican transport companies.A provision included in the all-inclusive omnibus spending bill passed Wednesday cuts funding for the pilot program that began in September. It was an attempt to test a stipulation that is required by the North American Free Trade Agreement that has not yet been implemented. The year-long program planned to allow up to 100 Mexican trucking companies to travel throughout the United States instead of being limited to the 20- to...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 --Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa today praised Congress for banning funds for the Bush administration's reckless pilot program to let trucks from Mexico travel freely on U.S. highways. The ban was part of the omnibus spending bill that Congress passed Wednesday. The Teamsters opposed the pilot project from the start because of real concerns that trucks from Mexico aren't safe. "Congress just made driving safer in the United States by ensuring that dangerous trucks from Mexico aren't lurching along our highways like unguided missiles," Hoffa said. "We expect the Bush administration to obey the law and put...

The long list of opponents to the cross-border trucking program isn’t exclusively made up of groups and truckers in the United States. Motor carriers in Mexico are waging their own fight to shut down the program. In fact, the Mexican National Truck Drivers Federation is planning to block the border between Mexico and the United States in January 2008 if the program doesn’t come to an end. The threat to block the border was reported in the Mexican newspaper El Financiero. The union of truckers is upset with the Mexican government for allowing U.S. trucks and truckers into their country....

It's been a few weeks since our highways were opened to Mexican trucks. I'm on hwy 85 occasionally and I've been looking for Mexican plates. Haven't seen any. Anyone out there, closer to the border roads, noticing traffic? Do Mexican trucks have to have identifying plates, or are the plates changed after they cross the border?

FMCSA's website lists 10 Mexican carriers with a total of 55 trucks that are approved to transport goods throughout the U.S. The FMCSA was asked to comment but did not reply to phone calls or e-mails. About 40 more Mexican carriers will soon join the 10 already approved. The agency, according to its website, said it "has notified an additional 37 Mexico-domiciled motor carriers that they have successfully passed a Pre-Authorization Safety Audit." The FMCSA says there are four U.S. carriers participating in the cross-border program. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., continues to show frustration with the Bush administration. His spokesman,...

SAN DIEGO – Saying he was here to fight for the safety of America's roads, Teamsters union General President Jim Hoffa led a rally Wednesday morning at the Otay Mesa border crossing to protest a pilot program that allows long-haul trucking across the U.S.-Mexico border. “The big money boys want to have trucks coming through here that are dangerous,” Hoffa said over cheers from dozens of Teamsters and the roar from Mexican trucks leaving the U.S. inspection station on Enrico Fermi Drive. “Wake up America, fight back,” Hoffa told supporters. The pilot project, which has been up and running since...

Economic retaliation from Mexico is a real threat if U.S. lawmakers repeal a provision that allows Mexican truckers access to the U.S. interior, according to former U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe. "If Congress succeeds in blocking (the program) I believe Mexico could retaliate, as they are entitled to do," the Arizona Republican told members of the Southern Arizona Logistics Education Organization in Tucson on Thursday. Kolbe, who retired at the beginning of the year after 11 terms in Congress, is the new chairman of the Canamex Corridor Task Force and part of a three-member committee appointed to monitor the cross-border truck...

Mexican trucks crossing into the U.S. as part of a controversial pilot project will monitored by GPS satellite technology beginning this month. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced the plan to track the trucks as they pick up and deliver their loads. The decision to require the installation of satellite tracking -- to be provided by Qualcomm -- was made after members of Congress expressed a desire to know whether Mexican participants in the demonstration program are complying with U.S. federal safety and trade laws. FMCSA says it will initially spend approximately $367,000 to outfit all trucks from...

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has announced that U.S. taxpayers will be footing the startup costs of a program to install satellite tracking technology on vehicles taking part in the Mexican Truck Demonstration Program. The announcement confirmed the U.S. government would "initially spend approximately $367,000 to outfit all trucks from the United States and Mexico that take part in the program." According to the administration, "the decision to require the installation of satellite tracking technology on trucks in the program was made after members of Congress expressed a desire to know whether participants are complying with federal safety and...

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has announced that U.S. taxpayers will be footing the startup costs of a program to install satellite tracking technology on vehicles taking part in the Mexican Truck Demonstration Program. The announcement confirmed the U.S. government would "initially spend approximately $367,000 to outfit all trucks from the United States and Mexico that take part in the program."