News of a jury award in a wrongful death lawsuit in Santa Fe, NM, that awarded the family of a crash victim $58.5 million dollars comes as no surprise to me. In essence the jury said that the driver of a tanker truck that made a left turn in the path of the victim’s oncoming vehicle did not have adequate training. The Jury also decided that the bulk of the responsibility for the crash lied with the management company that contracted with the trucking company.... Read More

Does your company have a policy that prohibits dispatchers from assigning drivers a load that cannot be completed without speeding? Take a look at the SMC on the FMCSA website for the Unsafe Driving BASIC and make sure all necessary processes, management, and controls are in place to prevent and address unsafe driving practices. ... Read More

In America our federal government works to implement laws that regulate our states and our people. Our Congress and Senate work to pass these laws to assure that all Americans are treated equally, and in accordance to our Bill of Rights.

But what happened when our Federal bodies passed the bill that contained CSA? According to the FMCSA when Congress passed the Transportation Bill that created CSA it gave the FMCSA the power to create rules to govern the transportation industry. These rules would not be subject to our judicial system or our nations Constitution or Bill of Rights.... Read More

Last week, I talked about substantial changes MAP -21 will have on the transportation industry. We looked at 10 of the 20 most significant regulations that will be implemented through September 20, 2014. Here’s a look at the remaining most impactful regulations and implementations:... Read More

MAP-21,, also known as the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (P.L. 112-141), was signed into law by President Obama on July 6, 2012. This legislation will go into full effect through September 20, 2014, and will bring a wave of changes to the transportation industry.... Read More

Enforcement today has a downside, and that is some officers take the written word and fail to apply common sense. Not all officers mind you, but enough to make today’s law enforcement different than in years past.

If ever there were a reason to make sure you have qualified Human Resources professionals working on your personnel problems, managing the complicated overlap between worker’s compensation, the FMLA, DOT regulations and the ADA is certainly one of them. The “Leave it to Beaver” days of the 1950s-60s are over. It is no longer a safe practice to require that sick or hurt employees stay out of work until they are “100%” or able to return to “full duties.” Nor is it safe to assume that once an employee has been out for 12 full weeks, he may be automatically discharged.... Read More

Truck Driver Ordered OOS Because Of Undisclosed Medical Condition, recently, this headline raised the sound of alarm in the trucking industry when a driver struck a police officer killing him. When the driver was questioned he told the officer that he had lost consciousness. The driver was on a medication that disqualified him from driving a commercial vehicle.... Read More

NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) TV-

A Channel 4 I-Team investigation found 900 large trucks have been pulled off of interstates in middle Tennessee, just 8 of 96 counties, in a two year time period for serious mechanical problems that should have prevented them from being on the road in the first place.... Read More

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration appears to be getting serious about putting chronically noncompliant motor carriers out of business and closing the door on chameleon carriers upon first perusal of a new policy set to publish in the Federal Register on Aug. 2.... Read More