The FMCSA has gone back to the drawing board following the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in the case of OOIDA vs. FMCSA (August, 2011). The court found that the Agency said nothing about the requirement that any regulation about the use of monitoring devices in commercial vehicles must “ensure that the devices are not used to harass vehicle operators.” 49 U.S.C. § 31137(a). Subsequently OOIDA, filed a motion with the court claiming that any voluntary use of EOBR’s violated the court’s order. Fortunately, the court rejected this assertion.... Read More

I am sitting in my office writing this blog on St. Patrick’s Day. Interesting and unexpected things happen on social media. It is more powerful than one would think at first blush. The first time I posted a question on Linked In, I received several hundred comments. I became a blogger on BigTruckTV as a result of a Linked In connection. One trucking industry group I joined now has over 15,000 members. Think about that. One question or comment is instantly broadcasted to over 15,000 shippers, brokers and truckers at all levels in the instant click of a button.... Read More

“The trouble with government regulation of the market is that it prevents capitalist acts between consenting adults.” Robert Nozick

The new HOS rules published recently by the FMCSA, and now in litigation, oddly tinker with the existing rules. This officious meddling changes the HOS rules to require a nap (a 30 minute break, which in reality will take an hour, prior to the completion of 8 hours of driving) concludes that more than one resting reset per week is bad for you (thus restricting the 34 hour restart to one use per week) and ends the night shift for many (by extending the restart to require two consecutive nights of rest). The result is negligible gains for safety and large costs in productivity. Why?... Read More

“There is a time to laugh, and a time not to laugh, and this is not one of them.” Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Pink Panther)

2011 was a much needed and deserved recovery year for well-managed trucking companies. 2012 looks like growth will continue moderately and capacity will continue to tighten. This bodes well for those trucking companies, which survived the Great Recession. ... Read More

Cliff got out of his truck at the shipper’s dock. He had been there for two days turning down load offerings and was frustrated that he was not getting any miles. He was paid by the mile. Why wouldn’t the company give him a load to Dallas? During that time, he had idled his truck to keep warm, but this was costing him about one gallon per hour. His dispatcher was refusing to give him any more advances and he was about out of money. Even though his income had stopped, his truck payment and insurance bills didn’t. His settlements showed he was running in the hole the past three weeks.... Read More