February 5, 2010

Labor Director to Speak at
CMCA Board Meeting

Don Mares, the Executive Director for the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, along with his Deputy Director will be our featured speaker at our Board of Directors meeting on February 17th at 10 AM at CMCA’s offices. We have asked Mr. Mares to discuss the issues and problems that have arisen relating to independent contractors in trucking.

CMCA has been very engaged on this issue and has been working with DOLE on possible strategies to address our concerns. We appreciate Mr. Mares joining us and also working with us on this important matter. In addition we have asked Mr. Mares to discuss the current economic and job outlook for Colorado and what we may be able to expect. Please note that our Board meetings are open to any of our members and we welcome you to join us. We do ask that you email Jessica of our staff if you plan on joining us.

Bill Advances to Address Late Fees for Vehicle Registration

HB 1212, sponsored by Rep. Joe Rice, passed the Colorado House Transportation Committee yesterday on a unanimous vote. The bill would require the Department of Revenue to develop rules as to circumstances for which a vehicle owner would be exempted from a paying a late fee for late registration on a vehicle. As an amendment to this measure CMCA sought a provision which would allow for conditions, which would be specified within the rules, whereby a companyor business would be able to be exempt from the late fees for commercial trailers.

In his testimony Greg Fulton with CMCA noted that many fleets within the state have parked their vehicles due to the poor economy. He noted that subjecting fleets to late registration penalties when the vehicle was effectively out of service due to economic conditions is not fair to business owners and also could hamper economic recovery. This amendment was incorporated in the bill. CMCA wishes to express our appreciation to Rep. Rice on his efforts on this measure.

2010 Safety Nominations Available

2010 Safety Nominations have been posted on the CMCA website.   The Banquet will be held March 26th.

 

Registration forms are available for:

Driver of the Month / Driver of the Year
Safety Supervisor of the Year
Fleet Safety
President’s Trophy
Grand Fleet Award.

Applications are on-line, or you can email Patti at patti@cmca.com.

ATA Challenges California Low-Carbon Fuel Standard

The American Trucking Associations has joined petroleum refiners and other endusers in a legal challenge to California's recently enacted low-carbon fuel standard. 

The new standard will count all the emissions required to deliver gasoline and diesel to California consumers, reports the Associated Press, including activities such as drilling new oil wells, planting corn, and delivering fuel to retail locations.  The regulation requires providers, refiners, importers and blenders to ensure that the fuels they provide for the California market meet an average declining standard of "carbon intensity."

The regulation requires annual reductions in the carbon intensity of gasoline and diesel over the next ten years. The regulation falls directly upon fuel providers (refiners, importers and blenders of fuel), but will impact end-users because of associated fuel price increases.  CMCA Hot Sheet Page 3 of 3 2/5/2010 The legal challenge is largely based on the Commerce Clause with assertions that the "shuffling" of low-carbon fuel to California and away from other states will significantly burden fuel providers and consumers without any net change in fuel's carbon-intensity on a global scale, resulting in no reduction (and a likely increase) in greenhouse gas emissions.

The complaint, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in California, also challenges the regulatory scheme as discriminating in favor of California -produced fuels by assigning them lower carbon-intensity ratings because of shorter transportation distances to users. Courtesy of ATA Truckline

DOT Proposes Changes to Drug Testing Procedures

The U.S. Department of Transportation is proposing to amend certain provisions of its drug testing procedures, to create consistency with new requirements established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Mandatory Guidelines. The proposed changes deal with laboratory testing of urine specimens. Some of the proposed changes will also affect the roles and standards applying to collectors and Medical Review Officers. DOT is required by the Omnibus Transportation Employees Testing Act to follow the HHS requirements for the testing procedures/protocols and drugs that are tested for. Primary laboratory proposals include:

• Testing for MDMA (aka Ecstasy);
• Lowering cutoff levels for cocaine and amphetamines;
• Conducting mandatory initial testing for heroin; and
• Authorizing employers to use HHS-Certified Instrumented Initial Test Facilities to
conduct initial drug testing.

The proposal also would bring a number of testing definitions in-line with those of HHS. You can read the entire Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register. Courtesy of TruckingInfo.com

Speeding in Wyoming Costly For Truckers

If you haven’t trucked in Wyoming in a while, here’s a heads up.  State law now says the drivers of heavy trucks caught exceeding the speed limit by more than 5 mph will be hit with a $300 surcharge on their speeding tickets.  State law raised the amount from $100 to $300 in July 2009, according to the Wyoming Department of Transportation.

WYDOT says the higher fine applies only to large commercial trucks and not delivery vans, recreational vehicles or pickups pulling trailers. Courtesy of Landline

Consider CMCA's Cooperative Health Insurance Program

• Has your insurance premium risen by over 15% in the past year?
• Is your insurance program costing you more while providing you less in benefits?
• Are you finding that your employees can no longer afford to participate in your health insurance plan?

If you answered YES to any of these questions, now is the time to consider CMCA's Health Insurance Program.

For more information, contact Stan Linnertz at 303 33-3375, ext 107 or stan@cmca.com