Truck crashes

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

Trucking, safety groups line up against anti-speed limiter bill

WASHINGTON — An owner-operator-backed bill aimed at preventing a speed mandate for trucks is getting heavy pushback from safety groups aligning with small-business trucking’s big-business competition.

A coalition that includes Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Truck Safety Coalition, the National Safety Council (NSC) and Road Safe America are lobbying lawmakers to oppose the Deregulating Restrictions on Interstate Vehicles and Eighteen Wheelers Act, known as the DRIVE Act, which was...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/trucking-safety-groups-line-up-against-anti-speed-limiter-bill

Report finds higher hours-of-service violation rates since 2020 revisions

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WASHINGTON — Adding flexibility to truck driver hours-of-service regulations in 2020 may have...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/report-finds-higher-hours-of-service-violation-rates-since-2020-revisions

FMCSA data shows rise in crash rates among new-entrant carriers

WASHINGTON — Preliminary data compiled by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reveals a steady rise in crashes involving large trucks among companies that entered the industry since 2018.

The data was presented by FMCSA statistician Dan Burrill during the agency’s annual Analysis, Research, and Technology Forum on Wednesday.

The data was presented as a supplement to an analysis of the surge in new common-carrier registrations since just before and during the pandemic. In 2021, for...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/fmcsa-data-shows-rise-in-crash-rates-aomng-new-entrant-carriers

NHTSA truck brake rule under review at OMB

WASHINGTON — The White House is reviewing a proposed rule to establish a safety standard to require and/or standardize the performance of automatic emergency braking systems (AEB) on heavy trucks.

According to a “statement of need” received by the Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday, the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration believes there is potential for AEB “to improve safety by reducing the likelihood of rear-end crashes involving heavy vehicles and the severity of crashes,”...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/nhtsa-truck-brake-rule-under-review-at-omb

FMCSA’s Hutcheson: Revised guidelines by summer for drug hair testing

ORLANDO, Fla. — A long-awaited revamp of mandatory guidelines for using hair to test truck drivers for drugs will be out this summer, according to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator Robin Hutcheson.

Hutcheson updated the trucking industry on the progress being made by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the new guidelines at the Truckload Carriers Association annual meeting on Monday.

“We know that hair testing as part of drug testing is a big issue for you,”...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/fmcsas-hutcheson-revised-guidelines-by-summer-for-drug-hair-testing

FMCSA changing how it identifies unsafe carriers

WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration plans to change the way it evaluates trucking company safety by upgrading its current ranking model as opposed to installing a new one.

In a notice to be published Wednesday, FMCSA announced it has determined that an advanced statistical model known as Item Response Theory (IRT) — a model touted by the National Academy of Sciences — is “overly complex,” and therefore the agency would not be using it to regulate carrier safety.

Instead,...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/fmcsa-changing-how-it-identifies-unsafe-carriers

ATRI: A trucker who crashes once is at high risk for another

Acar track crash with police

With near record-setting truck crashes, research shows that the handful of drivers convicted of failing to obey warning lights are 243% more likely to crash in the future. 

Other forms of reckless driving more than doubled the likelihood of another accident. That’s according to the American Transportation Research Institute’s “Predicting Truck Crash Involvement: 2022 Update” released Tuesday.

A total of 4,965 people died in large-truck crashes in 2020, according to the National Safety Council....

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/atri-a-trucker-who-crashes-once-is-at-high-risk-for-another

TuSimple sees no change in business model in wake of safety probe

TuSimple truck on road

TuSimple co-founder and CEO Xiaodi Hou on Tuesday responded to concerns from financial analysts on potential repercussions of a safety investigation following an April 6 crash involving one of its driverless trucks.

“This was an incident with a correctable flaw, not a material change to our business model,” Hou asserted during the company’s second-quarter analyst call. “As the CEO of TuSimple, I take responsibility for it.”

The accident and resulting potential safety setback for autonomous trucks...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/tusimple-sees-no-change-in-business-model-in-wake-of-safety-probe

DC appeals court denies driver hours-of-service challenge

Electronic logging device in truck cab

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration successfully defended changes to the trucking hours-of-service (HOS) regulations enacted two years ago against a challenge from safety groups and the Teamsters union alleging the changes increase crash risks and make the roads less safe.

In a petition filed in December last year, the union and the three safety groups — Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (Advocates), Parents Against Tired Truckers, and Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways —...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/dc-appeals-court-denies-driver-hours-of-service-challenge

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