Trucking Calls on Washington to Have a Productive 2014
Sean McNally - American Trucking Associations

With Congress returning to Washington this week, leaders of American Trucking Associations called on lawmakers and policymakers in Washington to take several steps to improve the nation’s economy and make our highways safer.

“This time of year is a good one for self-reflection and analysis,” said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves. “We hope our leaders in Washington will take the necessary steps to make our roads safer and improve the flow of goods in our economy.”

ATA’s list includes:

• Identify sustainable, efficient and reliable funding for our nation’s roads and bridges rather than seeking out the “easy money” of tolls and privatization;
• Advance important safety technology rules, including ones that limit the speed of commercial vehicles and electronically record drivers’ hours-of-service;
• Be more precise in defining “large trucks” and in looking at crash accountability so the trucking industry’s safety record can be more accurately measured and understood;
• Analyze the first phase of the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards for large trucks before hastily moving ahead with a second phase;
• Review and reconsider the recently changed hours-of-service rules – particularly the restart provision;
• Use data and science, rather than emotions, when reviewing and establishing truck size and weight regulations;
• Create a long-overdue clearinghouse for drug and alcohol test results;
• Improve government data and databases, from CSA to security screenings and background checks to completing the long-overdue Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey;
• Work with state agencies to place far greater focus on commercial and noncommercial vehicle traffic enforcement rather than the current trend of more roadside vehicle inspections. 

"January is a time when we take stock of where we stand and set goals for the coming year,” said ATA Chairman Phil Byrd, president of Bulldog Hiway Express, “and we sincerely hope that our government leaders will take some time to reflect and to take these common sense, and in some cases, long delayed actions to improve highway safety, the environment and the efficiency of our economy.”

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Carrier of the Month
Federal Logistics

Founded in Peoria, Illinois in 1913, Federal steadily built its reputation by providing the highest quality service available in the moving and storage business. As Federal grew, they identified other related transportation needs for a high quality service provider in the marketplace. To service those needs, Federal diversified into a number of businesses primarily centered on the transportation of household goods, high-value equipment/displays and logistics services. All of these wholly owned subsidiaries focus on providing a more complete line of services to their customers while maintaining the strategy that Federal was built upon—to be the high quality service provider in the industry. Now the fourth generation of the founding family, the Federal Companies has grown from a single location in Peoria, its corporate headquarters, to one of the largest privately owned moving, storage and logistics companies in the country.

Drivers for Federal can expect a personal touch by being called by their name and not by a number. Federal has positions available to Class A & B drivers at all locations.

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Truckload Carriers Association Announces Division Winners
in 2013 National Fleet Safety Awards

Eighteen fleets are being recognized for their excellent safety records;
two will now advance to win grand prizes in March.

Since the mid-1970s, the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) has been recognizing the safest fleets in North America through its National Fleet Safety Awards. Sponsored by Great West Casualty Company, the awards honor trucking companies that demonstrate a superior commitment to safety and accident reduction. Eighteen companies have been selected as division winners for the 2013 competition and will now attempt to capture one of two grand prizes.

“In addition to focusing the spotlight on companies that work hard to achieve stellar safety records, these awards give us a glimpse of how well the industry is performing as a whole, said Jerry Waddell, CDS, chairman of TCA’s Safety & Security Division and the safety director for Cargo Transporters, Inc., of Claremont, North Carolina. “With the continued decrease in the total contest fleet vehicle accident ratio, it demonstrates the forward safety thinking that our carrier members exhibit on a daily basis when it comes to their day-to-day operations.”

Companies applying for the National Fleet Safety Awards have completed the first of a two-step process. First, their accident frequency per million miles driven was calculated for each of six mileage-based divisions (listed below). The top three division winners were selected and have been audited by an independent expert to verify their accident frequency numbers.

The division winners will be recognized at an awards ceremony to be held during TCA’s Annual Convention, March 23-26, 2014, at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, Texas. They will also be recognized during TCA’s Safety & Security Division Annual Meeting, May 18-20, 2014, at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.

All division winners are now eligible to compete for two grand prizes, one in the “less than 25 million annual miles” category and one in the “25 million or more annual miles” category. To win the grand prize, companies will be judged on their overall safety programs, both on- and off-highway, including employee driver/independent contractor selection procedures, training, supervision, accident investigation, inspection and maintenance of equipment, and outside activities including general highway safety.

As with the division winners, the two grand prize winning companies will be honored at an awards ceremony to be held first during TCA’s Annual Convention and then again during TCA’s Safety & Security Division Annual Meeting.

Below are the names of the 2013 top divisional winners based on low accident frequency ratios per million miles. Companies are listed according to the order that they placed within each category.

Division I Winners (Under 5 million miles)
1. FTC Transportation, Inc., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
2. Specialty Transport, Inc., Knoxville, Tennessee
3. Art Pape Transfer, Inc., Dubuque, Iowa

Division II Winners (5-14.99 million miles)
1. Brian Kurtz Trucking Ltd, Breslau, Ontario
2. MacKinnon Transport Inc, Guelph, Ontario
3. Diamond Transportation System, Inc., Racine, Wisconsin

Division III Winners (15-24.99 million miles)
1. A&A Express, LLC, Brandon, South Dakota
2. Convoy Systems, LLC, Kansas City, Kansas
3. Jet Express Inc, Dayton, Ohio

Division IV Winners (25-49.99 million miles)
1. N.Yanke Transfer, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
2. Erb International, Inc., New Hamburg, Ontario
3. Hill Brothers Transportation, Inc., Omaha, Nebraska

Division V Winners (50-99.99 million miles)
1. Groupe Robert Inc., Rougemont, Québec
2. May Trucking Company, Salem, Oregon
3. J & R Schugel Trucking, Inc., New Ulm, Minnesota

Division VI Winners (100+ million miles)
1. Bison Transport Inc, Winnipeg, Manitoba
2. Gordon Trucking Inc, Pacific, Washington
3. Roehl Transport Inc., Marshfield, Wisconsin

TCA is the only national trade association whose collective sole focus is the truckload segment of the motor carrier industry.  The association represents dry van, refrigerated, flatbed, and intermodal container carriers operating in the 48 contiguous states, as well as Alaska, Mexico, and Canada.  Representing operators of more than 200,000 trucks, which collectively produce annual revenue of more than $20 billion, TCA is an organization tailored to specific truckload carrier needs.

Here are the results of the The TruckDriver.com Resolution Survey:

Did you keep your New Year’s Resolution for 2013?

Yes - 28%
No - 18%
Didn't make one -  54%

To the Yes’s, we say, Yay!  To the No’s, we say, Good Luck this year! And, to the Didn’t make one’s, we say, Good Call!

Speaking of Good Calls, how are you calling Super Bowl XLVIII? Take the TruckDriver.com Super Bowl Call Survey and let us know.

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