Articles Posted in Trucking regulations

Effective 12/19/08, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rescinded a 1997 policy in order to permit motor carriers to use electronic systems in lieu of paper logs. The change of policy recognizes the reality that most motor carriers now use some sort of technology to trace, route and manage their business. This is good in…

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, at 49 CFR 391.11, requires that in order to get a Commercial Driver’s License, an applicant must be able to “read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries, and…

Ray LaHood, the new US Secretary of Transportation, is apparently focused on infrastructure and air traffic control, but not so much on trucking safety. According to an Associated Press article by Michael Tarm, LaHood is preparing to meet with the state DOT chiefs from all 50 states about plans for road and mass transit projects…

On inauguration day, President Obama’s office issued a directive to agency heads directing a 60 day hold on newly issued regulations that had not yet become final. Regarding the trucking industry, three new regulations were published in the Federal Register during the last days of the Bush administration but had not yet become final. Those…

One of the first official acts of the new Obama administration was to put a hold on newly proposed or recently adopted federal regulations until the new team can review them. However, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s controversial hours of service regulations, which became final the day before the inauguration, was not on the…

A tractor trailer accident on an icy interstate highway in Indiana underscores the importance of the rule requiring drivers of commercial vehicles to exercise “extreme caution” in hazardous weather conditions. On I-74 in Indiana, a firefighter was suffered a crushed pelvis, broken leg, and multiple internal injuries when he was struck and pinned under the…

Truck driver fatigue as a cause of major tractor trailer accidents is an old story. As a trucking trial lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia, I have seen it too many times. In today’s Baltimore Sun, there is an editorial, “Yawning Danger,” urging the incoming Obama administration to overturn the hours of service rule that is set…

Trucking safety lawyers as well as everyone else concerned about transportation issues needs to pay attention to personnel choices in the US Department of Transportation. You remember the old cliche that “personnel is policy.” Even an humble personal injury trial attorney handling trucking accident cases in Atlanta should be attentive. President-elect Obama has picked Ray…

A truck wreck in New Hampshire sounds similar to the the first interstate trucking personal injury case I handled as a “puppy lawyer” about 25 years ago, before I learned the basics of anything as fundamental as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. In the New Hampshire accident this morning, a state snow plow truck…

As a trucking safety trial lawyer, I’ve been bemused at the reluctance to fully utilize widely available GPS technology for trucking regulatory enforcement. Under a policy issued in 1997, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration limited the use of technology data and electronically produced records, such as GPS, during reviews and for regulatory enforcement purposes.…