Bill would place rail yardmasters under hours-of-service law

This story originally appeared on Trains.com

WASHINGTON — Two members of Congress have introduced legislation to place railroad yardmasters under the same hours-of-service regulations that cover workers such as train crew members and dispatchers.

U.S. Reps. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., and Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., on Tuesday introduced the Railroad Yardmaster Protection Act, which would limit a yardmaster to 12 hours of duty, after which the individual must receive at least 10 hours off.

“Yardmasters...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/bill-would-place-rail-yardmasters-under-hours-of-service-law

Top 4 hours-of-service areas carriers should be concerned about

Carriers and drivers are governed by federal hours-of-service (HOS) regulations on a day-to-day basis. These rules dictate schedules and often determine whether a shipment will be delayed. Despite the regulations’ outsize impact on operations, confusion surrounding the rules continues to plague the industry. 

Hours of service is consistently one of the topics carriers ask about most often, according to Richard Malchow, a transportation industry business adviser with J. J. Keller.

There are four...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/top-4-hours-of-service-areas-carriers-should-be-concerned-about

FMCSA told to strengthen ELD requirements

WASHNGTON — Safety investigators have warned the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to tighten electronic logging device (ELD) requirements to prevent trucking companies and their drivers from creating fake driver hours-of-service (HOS) logs.

The recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board was included in a crash report issued on Wednesday concluding that truck driver fatigue, due to excessive driving time and limited opportunity to sleep, was the probable cause of a...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/fmcsa-told-to-strengthen-eld-requirements

TCA’s Heller: Trucking has adjusted to route diversions post-Baltimore

Members of the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) have adjusted smoothly enough to the disruptions at the Port of Baltimore that a conference call among its members scheduled for Thursday — the latest in a series — was canceled because a great deal of initial concern among TCA members has disappeared.

“A lot of the shock we had was in the first two calls,” David Heller, the TCA’s senior vice president of government affairs, told FreightWaves when asked about the scheduled meeting. “We want to...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/tcas-heller-trucking-has-adjusted-to-route-diversions-post-baltimore

Baltimore gets FMCSA waiver, timeline for first reopening is suggested

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has issued a waiver for trucking impacted by the collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge in Maryland. Meanwhile, the outlines of a possible return to at least partial service at the port of Baltimore has been sketched out by the state’s Department of Transportation. 

The FMCSA issued the waiver late Thursday night. Most prominent among the changes is adding two hours to the allowed hours of daily driving under the 14-hour on-duty limit. That...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/baltimore-gets-fmcsa-waiver-timeline-for-first-reopening-is-suggested

Kodiak Robotics, Forward Air begin Dallas-Atlanta autonomous runs

Kodiak Robotics and Forward Air Corp. are beginning thrice-weekly autonomous freight round-trip runs between Dallas and Atlanta using teams of safety drivers to comply with hours-of-service regulations that likely won’t apply to driverless trucks.

Mountain View, California-based Kodiak expects to pull the driver on specific routes in 2024. But for now, the biggest cost of moving freight — the driver — is still part of the picture. Kodiak uses four drivers rotating between local and long-haul...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/kodiak-robotics-and-forward-air-begin-dallas-atlanta-autonomous-runs

The building blocks of a compliant safety program

For all motor carriers, safety compliance is one of the most basic necessities for success, but navigating the ins and outs is far from simple due to the extensive nature of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations.

Each carrier needs a safety program that allows them to withstand Department of Transportation (DOT) roadside inspections and carrier investigations. Last year alone, over 85,000 federal roadside inspections took place, which is the most since 2019, and there...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/the-building-blocks-of-a-compliant-safety-program

ELD transfer violation could cause snowball effect on CSA scores

Up until December, motor carriers’ Compliance, Safety and Accountability (CSA) scores weren’t impacted by a common hours-of-service violation: A driver not being able to transfer logs to a law enforcement officer during roadside inspections.

But now, the once zero-point violation could cost carriers at least three points and potentially more.

“This is pretty significant because what happens here is not only can we get hit with that one violation, but that could lead to several other violations,...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/eld-transfer-violation-could-cause-snowball-effect-on-csa-scores

Borderlands: Mexico proposes to modify truck drivers hours-of-service rule

Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of U.S.-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: Mexico proposes to modify its truck driver hours-of-service rule; two logistics providers expand operations into New Mexico; an auto parts supplier expands in Mexico, creating 600 jobs; and $8.3 million worth of meth was seized from a truck at the Laredo port of entry.

Mexico proposes to modify truck driver hours-of-service rule

The Mexican government is considering a proposal...

Autonomous freight grows as source of 3rd-party capacity

Red Kodiak robotics truck in front of row of Werner Enterprises trucks

Kodiak Robotics and Werner Enterprises hauled autonomous freight four times round-trip between Dallas and Lake City, Florida, over 152 consecutive hours, the latest evidence that robots could replace human drivers on unpopular long-haul routes. 

With commercialization of driverless trucks still years away, Kodiak slipped its trained safety drivers in and out of the Peterbilt 579 cabs as the hours-of-service clock ticked down to the 11-hour limit of operation. The trucks didn’t need a break....

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/as-autonomous-trucking-routes-get-longer-who-does-the-supervising