Reminder: Chains Required on I-70

Colorado State law requires that trucks traveling on I-70 through the mountains between Dotsero (MP 133) and Morrison (MP 259) must  carry chains beginning on September  1.  CMCA strongly encourages all commercial carriers to comply with this law.   

The State maintains several chain up areas and Autosock is legal as an alternative to chains in Colorado.

New Combined CDL-Medical Card Rule to Start on January 30, 2012

Starting at the end of this month a new Federal rule will tie DOT Medical Certificates to Commercial Driver Licenses (CDL).  Drivers must make susre that the Colorado Department of Motor Vehicles has a copy of a current and valid DOT Medical Certificate.  there will be a Motor Vehicle Record (MVR) that will show the new information although there will be no changes to the actual license.

If drivers allow their DOT Medical Certification to expire they will no longer hae a valid CDL so it is critical for carriers and drivers to track when the medical certificates will expire.

Carriers will be required to keep a copy of a “CDLIS MVR” for each driver, and include that in their Driver Qualification files.  This must be done each time your driver renews his / her DOT Medical Certificate.  This is in addition to your annual MVR review.  Eventually, companies will no longer need to keep DOT Medical Certificates in Driver Qualification files.  However, it is highly recommended that you continue to do so and at least review each driver’s DOT Medical Report (long form).

To get the needed records to DMV, the carrier may send them all in batches or require their driver's to handle it themselves.  there is a new form for the CDLIS MVR.

Attached are two Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) sheets.

The New Year Brings a Freight Business Seminar to CMCA

A new seminar on finance business for trucking will be offered on January 24, 2012 at the CMCA training center in Denver. This half day seminar starts at 8 a.m. with a free breakfast sponsored by Freight Capital. Topics to be included are: accounts receivable financing, strategies to improve cash flow, fuel card program and discounts, and goal setting strategies.

Please RSVP to CMCA by January 20, 2012 at 303 477-6977. You may call or use the attached fax form.

HOS Final Rule Announced

On December 22, 2011, FMCSA publicly announced controversial Hours of Service rule changes. The key elements of this rule are described below. This rule will be published in the Federal Register on or around December 30, 2011.

Key Elements of the December 2011 HOS Rule:
Maximum Driving Hours – FMCSA retained the current 11 hour driving time limit, but placed a limit on the number of consecutive driving hours. No driving may occur if more than 8 consecutive hours have passed since the last break of 30 minutes or more.

Restart – Any restart period must include two consecutive nighttime periods (from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m.), and must be at least 34 consecutive hours long. Drivers are permitted to use the restart provision only once in any seven calendar days.

14 Consecutive Hour Day (now called Driving Window) – The rule retains a 14 consecutive hour driving window. With 30 minute rest break, maximum on-duty time within the 14 hour window is 13.5 hours. No driving may occur after 14 consecutive hours since coming on duty; non-driving work is allowed past the 14 hour driving window.

Mandatory Rest Break – Drivers will not be permitted to drive if 8 hours have passed since their last break of 30 minutes or more. (Only 1 break may be required depending upon timing).

Off-Duty in A Parked CMV or In Passenger Seat – The rule allow drivers to record time spent in a parked CMV as off-duty time. Also, team drivers would be permitted to record up to 2 hours of time spent in the passenger seat of a CMV in operation as offduty time, if it is just before or after an 8 hour sleeper berth period.

Oilfield Exemption – Waiting time at an oil well or natural gas site will not count toward calculation of the 14 hour window but must be recorded as off-duty on a paper or electronic log.

Egregious Violations – A driver who exceeds, and/or a motor carrier that allows a driver to exceed, the driving time limit by 3 hours or more be considered to have committed an egregious violation and be subject to the maximum civil penalties of $2,700 for drivers and $11,000 for motor carriers – for each offense.

Effective Date & Compliance Date – This rule will be effective in late February 2012, and the oilfield exemption change must be implemented by then. However, interstate motor carriers and drivers will not be required to comply with the remainder of the new rules (restart change, rest break requirement, etc.) until July 1, 2013.

CMCA staff will be reviewing the changes and putting together information for our members.  Please check our website and you email.  Courtesy of ATA / FMCSA

ATA Press Release on HOS

Today, leaders of the American Trucking Associations expressed their frustration and disappointment that the Obama administration issued an unjustified final rule governing hours-of-service that will do nothing to improve highway safety, but will very likely increase the risk of truck-involved crashes.

“Today’s announcement of a new rule on the hours-of-service is completely unsurprising. What is surprising and new to us is that for the first time in the agency’s history, FMCSA has chosen to eschew a stream of positive safety data and cave in to a vocal anti-truck minority and issue a rule that will have no positive impact on safety,” ATA President and CEO Bill Graves said. “From the beginning of this process in October 2009, the agency set itself on a course to fix a rule that’s not only not broken, but by all objective accounts is working to improve highway safety.  Unfortunately, along the way, FMCSA twisted data and, as part of this final rule, is using unjustified causal estimates to justify unnecessary changes.”

“Even with an uptick in truck-involved fatalities in 2010, since the current rules went into effect in 2004, fatalities have fallen 29.9%, even as overall miles traveled for trucks has risen by tens of billions of miles,” said ATA Chairman Dan England, chairman of C.R. England, Salt Lake City. “No one can dispute these facts.

“By forcing through these changes FMCSA has created a situation that will ultimately please no one, with the likely exception of organized labor,” England said. “Both the trucking industry and consumers will suffer the impact of reduced productivity and higher costs.  Also, groups that have historically been critical of the current hours of service rules won’t be happy since they will have once again failed to obtain an unjustified reduction in allowable daily driving time. Further, it is entirely possible that these changes may actually increase truck-involved crashes by forcing trucks to have more interaction with passenger vehicles and increasing the risk to all drivers.”

“This rule will put more truck traffic onto the roadways during morning rush hour, frustrate other motorists and increase the risk of crashes,” Graves said. “By mandating drivers include two periods between 1 a.m. And 5 a.m. as part of a 'restart' period, FMCSA is assuring that every day as America is commuting to work, thousands of truck drivers will be joining them, creating additional and unnecessary congestion and putting motorists and those professional drivers at greater risk. The largest percentage of truck-involved crashes occur between 6 a.m. and noon, so this change not only effectively destroys the provision of the current rule most cited by professional drivers as beneficial, but it will put more trucks on the road during the statistically riskiest time of the day.

“If there is a positive in this rule, it is the lengthy period of time before it becomes effective,” Graves said of the 18-month delay in the rule’s compliance date. “This will give ATA time to consider legal options. And, by delaying implementation of this rule, the agency is acknowledging there is no safety crisis on our highways.”