Trucking news and briefs for Friday, July 26, 2024:
Funding bill out of the Senate skips speed limiter block, addresses autonomous limitations
The U.S. Senate’s Committee on Appropriations on Thursday approved a funding bill for the Department of Transportation and other agencies by a 28-1 vote.
The bill, providing Fiscal Year 2025 funding for the departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD), includes several provisions similar to those that are included in the House’s THUD appropriations bill that passed earlier this month. Notably absent from the Senate appropriations bill is a provision that would block FMCSA from mandating speed limiters on heavy trucks. The Senate version also lacks a provision included in the House bill that would bar states from implementing trucking hours of service requirements that are more stringent than the federal standards, such as California’s meal and rest break rules.
[Related: Sleeper berth: Should more truckers be able to split as they see fit?]
Among similarities between the two chambers’ bills, both would:
- Expand truck parking by directing the DOT to continue to use existing discretionary grant programs to fund truck parking projects.
- Prohibit funds from being used to require livestock and insect haulers to use electronic logging devices. Such operations are currently running under a statutory exemption from ELD requirements.
- Prohibit funds from being used to require inward-facing cameras or registration of an apprenticeship program through the Department of Labor as a condition to participate in the Safe Driver Apprenticeship Program.
- Require the DOT to work with the FBI, Department of Justice and others to provide a report on cargo theft trends in the supply chain, along with a strategy to combat cargo theft.
- Address predatory towing by directing FMCSA to facilitate discussions with local, state and private sector stakeholders to develop guidelines for towing and recovery regulation and fees.
[Related: Funding bill says no to truck speed limiters, yes to truck parking]
In addition to these provisions, all also included in the House appropriations bill, the Senate version adds a measure emphasizing the need for safety-warning devices, such as warning triangles or flares, with autonomous trucks, to protect the public. The bill states that the deployment and operation of autonomous trucks are inhibited by regulations that require the human deployment of such warning devices. The bill, if passed, would require FMCSA to review existing research and information on the safety impacts of alternative safety warning device systems or signs that can be placed on the roadway, on or around a stopped truck, without human deployment, and report back to the House and Senate appropriations committees with its findings.
Both the House and Senate versions of the appropriations bills are awaiting votes by their full respective chamber. If both bills pass as currently written, a conference committee with members of both chambers could convene to resolve differences between the bills.
[Related: Speed limiter block still alive in Congress]
Love’s opens new Northwest Ohio location
Love’s Travel Stops has opened a new truck stop with 86 truck parking spaces in Delphos, Ohio, off of U.S. Highway 30.
The new location features a Hardee’s restaurant, eight diesel lanes, five showers and more.
Delphos is about 47 miles southeast of Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Driver named Highway Angel for helping fellow trucker after crash
The Truckload Carriers Association has named Joseph Carroll, an Elgin Motor Freight driver from London, Ontario, Canada, a Highway Angel for rescuing a trucker after his vehicle crashed and he had been trapped beneath debris.
Joseph CarrollTCA
“In just a matter of seconds there was gravel all over the highway,” Carroll said. “The transport truck was lying on its side, the lights were dim, and there was no roof on the truck.”
Carroll immediately took action, bringing his truck to a stop and rushing back to the scene. A young woman also stopped and was calling 911 as Carroll descended into the ditch to assist the truck driver.
“I told her to stay at the top of the ditch because I did not expect to find somebody living,” Carroll said.
Down in the embankment, he called out, asking if the driver was okay, and the driver responded, “I’m over here.” The crash had torn off the truck’s roof, leaving the driver trapped outside the cab and beneath the wreckage.
“The truck and trailer were lying on the driver’s side,” Carroll said. “I was floored that someone actually made it through something like that.”
Carroll managed to push the heavy roof off the driver, who was covered with the scattered contents from inside the truck. To Carroll‘s amazement and relief, the driver was unhurt, though visibly shaken and confused by the traumatic event.
“I walked him up to the shoulder of the road -- he could walk, he did not have a scratch,” Carroll said. “He was ejected from the truck.”
Carroll and the driver he assisted are still in contact, demonstrating the lasting impact of his heroic efforts.
“I have to help,” he said. “It’s who I am -- I don’t care if I’m late for anything!”
