Articles Posted in Trucking regulations

I’m a trucking safety lawyer in Atlanta, not a futurist or a psychic. However, I’m going to go out on a limb and post my top five predictions for motor carrier safety in 2010. 1. Accident and fatality rates in interstate commercial trucking will continue to decline. 2. In addition to a ban on text…

A prominent highway safety organization, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, has petitioned the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to evaluate risks posed by drivers of commercial vehicles using electronic devices and to then issue regulations to limit such distractions. Electronic distractions that cause concern include cell phones, text messaging, CB radios, email, on-board computers…

As a trucking accident trial attorney in Atlanta, I see all the time how regulatory decisions in Washington impact safety on the roads throughout the U.S. A Senate committee hearing today on the nomination of Ann Ferro as administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration brought that into focus. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, chair of…

One of the things I do as a trucking trial attorney in Atlanta, Georgia, is monitor what’s happening with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in Washington, DC. Ultimately the political and bureaucratic decisions about truck safety regulations in Washington affect the safety of your family and mine on the highways of Georgia. To say…

As an Atlanta trucking safety lawyer, I find trucking companies trying to disown their driver’s safety violations. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, which are intended to protect safety of the public, require trucking companies to see to it that their employees to obey the driver regulations. 49 C.F.R. § 390.11 requires: “Whenever . .…

Safety advocates, led by Stephen Owings, an Atlanta financial planner, are joined by the American Trucking Association in seeking rules requiring speed governors on interstate commercial trucks. They say the devices will save both lives and money. Owings started Road Safe America after his son, Cullum, was killed on a Virginia interstate in 2002. Stuck…

As long as truck drivers for interstate motor carriers have been required to log their driving, on duty and off duty time, falsification of logs has been common. Some drivers — though certainly not all — have regarded their logs as “comic books.” We have unraveled webs of deception to show that driver logs in…

If you stand on River Street in Savannah for more than a few minutes, you will see a huge ocean-going container ship gliding up the Savannah River, stacked high with hundreds of freight containers. Then if you drive along our Interstate highways you will see those shipping containers bolted to trailer chassis (referred to as…

The Obama administration has announced that Anne Ferro will be nominated to head the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. She is currently president of the Maryland Motor Truck Association, a trucking industry organization. Previously she ran the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration, administering drivers licenses. Her nomination drew immediate praise from trucking industry officials. But the…

The hard questions are not between good and bad, but between good and good, and between bad and bad. That maxim is illustrated in a New York Times article by Josh Voorhees about Charles Hurley, the nominee to become administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The conflict is between CAFE standards on fuel…