Transport Topics

A so-called spotter who participated in at least two staged accidents against trucks in the New Orleans area has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for his part in the wire fraud conspiracy. Mario Solomon, 48, of New Orleans, also will be on three years supervised release after serving his sentence and will be required to pay restitution of nearly $72,000 to the victims in the case. Federal cou...

In the early days of President Joe Biden’s administration, a new Department of Transportation is starting to take shape. Yesterday, Transportation Secretary-nominee Pete Buttigieg made his case to the Senate Commerce Committee, touting a goal of transformative infrastructure legislation. Additionally, DOT announced that Biden had tapped Meera Joshi to serve as deputy administrator of the Federal M...

The Labor Department issued an opinion letter ruling that motor carriers can supply independent contractors safety equipment such as dash cams, speed limiters and driver monitoring systems, and also require that they take safety training, without jeopardizing their independent contractor status. The letter was written in response to two requests, one made by American Trucking Associations, and was...

Trucking closed a tumultuous 2020 on an upswing, as truck tonnage in December rose a seasonally adjusted 2.3% year-over-year and jumped 7.4% compared with November in the strongest month-over-month gain in American Trucking Associations’ freight index since the summer. ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said, “Freight continues to be helped by strong consumption, retail inventory restocking and robu...

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s 2018 determination that interstate motor carriers are exempt from California’s stringent meal-and-rest-break rules. The California law requires employers to provide a “duty-free” 30-minute meal break for employees who work more than five hours a day, as well as a second duty-free, 30-minute meal brea...

The North American Council for Freight Efficiency has announced plans for a technology demonstration of a variety of battery-electric trucks in everyday operation. The event, Run on Less - Electric, will begin in September and last for three weeks. NACFE Executive Director Mike Roeth told Transport Topics that this 2021 edition of Run on Less would feature up to 10 trucks, drivers and charging inf...

WardsAuto.com reported Jan. 13 that sales for U.S. Class 8 trucks in December reached 21,402, the high mark for 2020. However, this figure was down 7.4% compared with December 2019, when sales were more than 23,000. Year-to-date sales were 191,900, down about 30% compared with 276,348 a year earlier. All truck makers posted double-digit percentage declines for all of 2020 compared with 2019. In te...

Almost half of all commercial motor vehicle drivers could be at risk for obstructive sleep apnea, according to a new study. Prior studies have estimated only 7-30% of drivers were at risk, but this new study by researchers at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute used a more comprehensive screening evaluation method. The new method concluded that drivers recruited for the study with undiagnos...

ArcBest announced yesterday that the president of its less-than-truckload subsidiary fleet ABF Freight will retire later this year. Tim Thorne spent more than three decades with the carrier, joining first as a supervisor assistant in 1990 and becoming president in October 2014. Thorne will retire June 30, and he will be succeeded by Seth Runser, who currently works as the vice president of linehau...

The U.S. labor market lost jobs in December for the first time in eight months, even though transportation-related businesses showed solid growth, the Labor Department said Jan. 8. While for-hire trucking gained 7,300 jobs, nonfarm payrolls overall decreased by 140,000 from the prior month. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.7%. Transportation and warehousing jobs rose by 47,000 from the pre...

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced her resignation yesterday via her Twitter account. The news came a day after a mob of President Donald Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol Building, temporarily delaying the certification of electoral votes. Chao said in the release, “As I’m sure is the case with many of you, it has deeply troubled me in a way that I simply cannot set aside.” Sh...

The U.S. Labor Department issued a final rule Wednesday revising its interpretation of independent contractor status under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The final rule explains that independent contractors are workers who are in business for themselves as opposed to being economically dependent on the potential employer for work. The agency said, “The rule sharpens this inquiry into five distinct...

Daseke Inc. announced that Chris Easter has retired as CEO and as a member of the board of directors. Jonathan Shepko has been appointed interim CEO until a permanent successor is named. Shepko currently works as director for Daseke, a specialized transportation and logistics solutions company that ranks No. 23 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America....

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is proposing to revise regulatory guidance related to how truck drivers record yard moves as part of their hours of service. According to a notice published in the Federal Register yesterday, FMCSA is looking to clarify when a driver may record time completing yard moves as on-duty, not driving time by offering examples of properties that qualify as...

With 2020 squarely in the rearview, trucking experts are now looking to 2021. And, in large part, they’re feeling optimistic. Analysts believe the industry stands poised for a solid start in the new year, building on a challenging 2020 that saw the U.S. economy rely heavily on truckers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Sectors that are likely to see the biggest gains in 2021 include final-mile delivery,...

American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear said he believes the trucking industry has performed beyond expectations in a year defined by monumental challenges. In an interview with Transport Topics Radio that will air Jan. 2, Spear said that the industry’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in a boost in public perception that will endure for years to come. And that improved o...

Nikola and Republic Services have discontinued their collaboration on refuse truck development and canceled Republic’s August order for at least 2,500 trucks. The deal had previously been viewed as the waste industry’s first large-scale commitment to fleet electrification. The cancellation marked the latest in a series of stumbling blocks Nikola has encountered as it expands from its startup roots...

Truck tonnage in November declined a seasonally adjusted 3.8%, according to an American Trucking Associations report published yesterday. That marks the eighth consecutive month of year-over-year declines. Still, the report wasn’t all bad. When measured month-to-month, the index increased 3.7% in November after falling 5% in October. ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said the month-over-month incre...

Pete Buttigieg, President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for transportation secretary, explained Sunday that his agenda would focus on climate change initiatives, expanding the workforce and maintaining safety. Speaking with CNN, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., emphasized the need to act urgently to ensure the country’s infrastructure is resilient to severe-weather events. That’s good news for the t...

Trucking is responsible for 83% of the nation’s agricultural freight movement by tonnage, according to a report published this month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Trucks also accounted for 56% of agricultural freight ton-miles. Truck transportation is especially high for meat, poultry, fish and seafood, with each greater than 95%. The findings, presented in “The Importance of Highways to...

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has published a final rule to increase flexibility in the commercial driver license skills test process. The final rule allows states to permit third-party test examiners to administer the CDL skills test to applicants they have trained. U.S. Department of Transportation leaders announced the final rule Dec. 17 as truckers were helping to transport i...

The distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. hit its first speed bumps, officials said Dec. 16. First, four delivery trays of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were pulled back from delivery to California and Alabama this week and sent back to the company because they were colder than anticipated. Each of the trays likely can be used to vaccinate 975 people, so four trays equals 3,900 people. And...

Pete Buttigieg, the former Democratic presidential candidate as well as former mayor of South Bend, Ind., will be nominated to lead the U.S. Department of Transportation under the Biden administration, according to sources familiar with the transition and published reports. The Biden-Harris transition team has yet to make an official announcement. As secretary, Buttigieg would be tasked with imple...

Toyota is developing a second-generation fuel cell system that it says is nearly ready for heavy-duty truck builders who are looking to build hydrogen-powered tractors. The new fuel cell stack is based on the system built for a new Toyota passenger sedan. Toyota says it is double the size required to handle the power needs of a Class 8 truck. The company says the new system will go into trucks dri...

Daimler Trucks North America announced that its truck manufacturing plant in Portland, Ore., will be the first to achieve carbon-neutral production in the global Daimler Trucks network. The plant will meet green production this year through reduced energy consumption and the offset of on-site emissions. DTNA plans to incorporate CO2-neutral production at all of its remaining truck manufacturing pl...