Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., continues to press for action on a highway bill this year, writing a letter last week to Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
A three-year pilot program testing the safety of cross-border trucking between the U.S. and Mexico is ending, and the Mexican truck lines that have been providing long-distance, cross-border service under that pilot program will move to normal operating status. HDT Washington Editor Oliver Patton has the details.
Two congressmen have told the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that some of the organizations providing sleep apnea training to medical examiners are teaching the wrong material.
Following a finding by investigators that Rep. Tom Petri, R-Wisc., may have violated House rules, the Committee on Ethics decided to continue its review of charges that Petri improperly acted on behalf of companies in which he had a financial interest.
Undaunted by the conventional political view that Congress will accomplish nothing in the upcoming lame duck session, Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., insists there is a chance to pass and fund a six-year highway program.
Truck and rail traffic are expected to grow, good news for the economy as well as the carriers -- but with growth comes congestion, and transportation planners need more information and better direction from Congress on how to manage the problem. That’s the message from the Government Accountability Office.
A highway bill is “in the realm of the doable” in the next two years, said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, in remarks on ABC’s This Week on Sunday. In a conversation with host George Stephanopoulos Boehner said that both he and President Obama came to Washington to get something done rather than butt heads.
The industry’s effort to shut off public access to truck safety data continues with a proposal by Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., to temporarily shield the information. The Safer Trucks and Buses Act says CSA data should not be available to the public.
Safety advocates and the Teamsters union are suing to force the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to issue truck driver training rules. The suit comes just a month after the agency launched an attempt to negotiate a rule because it has not been able to draft a rule that would be accepted by all the parties.
Private investment can work well as a funding source for some infrastructure projects, particularly those that are very expensive and complex, but it is not useful for most projects.
That’s the message from a House study on the benefits and risks of using public-private partnerships to pay for highways and other transportation projects.
A bid by conservatives in the House and Senate to effectively eliminate the federal highway program is drawing fire from American Trucking Associations and other transportation interests.
The House is working on a temporary appropriations measure that does not include a suspension of the 34-hour restart provision of the hours of service rule.
Freight interests are staking ground for the next highway program, asserting the need for sustainable funding, systematic planning and improved efficiency. The Freight Stakeholders Coalition, representing 18 carrier and shipper organizations including American Trucking Associations, published a 9-point platform for the upcoming debate over reauthorization of the program.
UPDATED -- A coalition of industry groups is putting pressure on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to remove CSA safety scores from public view. In an August 22 letter to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, American Trucking Associations and 10 other groups said the scores are not likely to provide an accurate assessment of a carrier’s safety.
The electronic logging device mandate has sparked a variety of responses with some questioning and others embracing the change.