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Safe and Efficient Transportation Act Update
Here’s a quick link to click on https://mercertownblog.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/safe-and-efficient-transportation-act-of-2009/.
Now that you are caught up on the Safe and Efficient Transportation Act, and what it means, check this link out: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bipartisan-senate-bill-gives-states-option-to-raise-interstate-weight-limits-100035029.html.
Looks like they are going to get away with passing this bill, and if you read that first link…you know how I feel about it. Please share your concerns in the comment section.
PILOT / FLYING J UPDATE #?
Pilot / Flying J Update
Mercer has just completed negotiations with Pilot & Flying J on new cost plus pricing. Mercer contractors now receive cost plus 5 or retail minus 5 cents pricing from Pilot / Flying J locations. Libby is in the process of updating the Mercertown website to include this new agreement. In order to receive this pricing, you must purchase the fuel with the TCH card.
The TCH card now works at all the major truckstops (Flying J, Loves, Petro, Pilot & Travel Centers of America), many of the smaller chains and independent truckstops also accept the TCH card. To see a complete listing of sites that accept the TCH card, go to http://www.tch.com.
You can also view a history of all your TCH card transactions by clicking on the E-Manager Log-in, entering your card & pin number and then clicking on the Cash Advance Report.
Loves / Pilot Travel Centers
TCH has assured me the problems have been corrected at the Pilots & Loves Travel Centers. If you have any issues using your TCH at these locations, please let me know.
CASH ADVANCES
It was brought to my attention today that Flying J is now charging customers for a Cash Advance when not purchasing fuel. This applies to all fuel cards (ComData and TCH).
TCH UPDATE
TCH Update
TCH has joined the Star Debit Card Network. Mercer contractors can now use their TCH card at places like Wal-Mart or any other retail outlet that accepts the Star debit card. TCH will not charge a transaction fee for the feature.
In order to help prevent fraud and theft, Mercer has requested TCH to place limits on your TCH cards. The limits are as follows:
Daily Transaction limits 10 swipes of the card $5,000 per day
Weekly Transaction limits: 20 swipes of the card $10,000 per week
Monthly Transaction limits: 40 swipes of the card $20,000 per month
I can change the limits on an individual card basis, at your request. The purpose of these limits is not to limit your purchases but to eliminate the possibility of theft.
PILOT / FLYING J MERGER
Effective July 1st, the merger of Pilot & Flying J was completed. The Mercer discount is now Retail minus 10 cents per gallon at both the Pilot & Flying J.
In order to receive this point of sale discount, you must purchase the fuel with the Mercer issued TCH card.
Unfortunately, discounts are only available at Flying J / Pilot if you are using your TCH card. We do not know when Flying J / Pilot will allow us to receive a discount with the ComData card.
TCH UPDATE
All Love’s Truck Stop locations are now accepting the TCH fuel card. The following chains that accept the TCH card are: T/A, Petro, Love’s, and Flying J. Pilot is the only major chain that does not accept the TCH card.
There is still no final word on the Flying J/Pilot merger, but I am hearing rumors that Flying J may start to accept the ComData fuel card in the near future. Stay tuned!
CROSS BORDER TRUCKING PROGRAM, PART 2
If you have followed my posts on the Cross-Border Trucking Program, which allows Mexican trucks to enter the United States, then this link is a must read. Click on the link below to see why quite a few congressmen are against the program. It is definitely a step in the right direction.
http://www.defazio.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=573
CROSS BORDER TRUCKING PROGRAM
Looks like we are one step closer to seeing Mexican trucks cross the border into the U.S. again. Ray LaHood, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, met with top Mexican transportation officials on Monday. Their goal is to establish a working group to consider the next steps of the controversial and long-delayed cross-border trucking program.
According to a press release, the groups are focusing on the importance of cooperating in areas of mutual interest to ensure the safety, reliability, efficiency and sustainability of the two transportation systems.
You can read more on this topic from my previous posts: https://mercertownblog.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/mexican-truckers-sue-the-u-s-for-6-billion/
https://mercertownblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/19/random-friday/
CSA 2010 DELAYED
Hot off the presses…CSA 2010 launch will be delayed.
http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/news-detail.asp?news_id=69999
FMCSA WILL REQUIRE EOBRS
Some big news today, as I read that the FMCSA is working on a plan, that will require companies to equip all trucks in their fleet with Electronic On Board Recorders (EOBRs, or Black Box). This plan will go into effect on June 1st, 2012.
The EOBRs will only be required by the FMCSA if the carrier violates the H.O.S. rules more than 10 percent of the time. It is believed that carriers that frequently violate H.O.S. rules have a much higher risk of causing a crash. Along with CSA 2010, the FMCSA will use this to crack down on unsafe drivers, and carriers.
I know that most of you have very strong opinions about this issue. I expect the comment section to be hopping today. Keep in mind that I do not know how this plan is going to effect us as an Owner-Operator company, or you as an Owner-Operator. The big question would first be, where do O/O’s find the money to put an EOBR in their truck? As soon as we can gather some more info, we will update you all. Stay safe, and go Mercer!
Here are some related links:
http://www.trucknews.com/issues/story.aspx?aid=1000366347
http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/news-detail.asp?news_id=69964
STAYING UNDER THE CSA 2010 RADAR
Judging from the calls I get and the large number of drivers who have stopped by my office, more folks are taking the time to educate themselves about CSA 2010 and adjust their driving habits to effectively operate within this new reality. Those who don’t, or won’t, will be out of the industry. I think everyone is starting to figure that out. Here are a few more thoughts to share:
First, CSA 2010 will have absolutely no effect on 42% of Mercer drivers. These ladies and gentlemen go about their business every day without tickets, accidents or DOT violation writeups. Talk about low profile, these drivers have it figured out and are already dealing with it effectively. They are going to be fine.
For everybody else, there are some common sense things that can be done to minimize the likelihood of having a bad encounter with CSA 2010 on the roadside. First, don’t speed. The majority of our inspections come from a driver being pulled over for speeding. Under CSA 2010, 55mph doesn’t mean 59mph, or 62mph. It means 55mph. The same with 65mph. It is not 68mph, or 73mph. It means 65mph. You don’t “get” 5mph anymore, or 7mph, or 1mph. The speed limit means what it says as far as commercial drivers are concerned. Going “with the flow of traffic” no longer cuts it. If you just can’t keep your foot out of it, I strongly suggest you go by your dealer and have it speed-governed at 65mph. That’s how important not getting a “speeding” writeup is going to be. Remember, it’s the writeup, not whether or not you get a ticket.
Wear your seatbelt. Cops look for that. Under CSA 2010, it also counts. If the officer can’t see that it is being worn properly, the unit has just become an inspection target. I’d stick an orange piece of reflective tape on it so there wouldn’t be any doubt. Seriously. Get the dark tint off your windows. That counts on CSA 2010 scores. Trucks with dark window tint aren’t cool, they are targets for law enforcement. We don’t need targets at Mercer. That’s a hint. Keep your log current to the last duty change. That means start your day. Don’t count on getting a green on PrePass. They shut them off to keep drivers honest. If you can’t resist the temptation to gamble with it, I suggest you turn in your PrePass.
On a sunny day, the dirty truck always gets looked at first. Especially the wheels. Dirty engines get more attention than clean engines. Dirty straps get added attention. Clean straps don’t. Dunnage across the landing gear always gets a special look, as does the first pallet or bundle on the load. No matter how legal you think you got it, my advice is to put one more on the front. Always. No matter what. At night, a burnt out or non-functioning light is screaming, “Please inspect me!” Straps with cuts are junk. Missing retroreflective tape is a cop magnet.
The three most frequent writeups at Mercer are speeding, defective or missing load securement, and logs not current. Law enforcement knows this about our fleet because they have access to it just like we do. When they see a Mercer unit, they know that statistically there is a good chance that they can write one of those violations. Avoid those three, don’t draw attention with window tint, no seatbelt use or defective lighting, and the odds of having a good day increase significantly. Remember, 42% of our drivers have already figured that out. It is not impossible. We have folks that do it every day.
RANDOM TUESDAY
We should see an announcement today from the Department of Transportation, about banning texting while driving for all commercial drivers. We talked about this on the blog previously, and I think that most of you are in favor of this ban. In fact, I know that the majority of you don’t even text at all anyway. The only concern I have is if you are driving past a D.O.T. officer on the highway, and you are dialing someone on your phone, how will the officer be able to tell the difference between dialing and texting. Best bet to not do either. With the wonderful new rules of CSA 2010, you really don’t need to give an officer another reason to pull you over. I’m sure that they will really be enforcing this at first, just to prove a point. It wouldn’t hurt to use a bluetooth headset, and also use voice activated dialing on your cell phone if it’s capable. It’s official – http://blog.fleetowner.com/trucks_at_work/2010/01/26/banning-trucker-texting/
We have had several issues with the contractor web lately. The problem occurs when you try to search for freight by an individual state. The site will either be really slow in displaying the freight available, or it will be completely unresponsive. We are addressing this issue, and hopefully it will be back to normal very soon.
I know that there has been some confusion about the drayage/flip service in California. We do have drayage/flip service for our non-compliant trucks in Southern Cal. We are using a couple of different services out there so I don’t know the exact rate to the driver. It may be different on each load, depending on which company performs the service for us. Best I can tell you for now, is talk to your coordinator about the container freight that is available, and they will be able to look in the order comments of the load to see what the charge will be. I would imagine that it will be in the $100-$125 range, but it could change. I will probably post more on this later, so stay tuned!
News released today that 2009 saw the biggest decrease in goods shipped by truck since 1982! On the good side of that is that Truck Tonnage reached it’s highest peak in December. Hopefully, we will continue on the uphill climb!
CONTAINER DRAYAGE/FLIP SERVICE
Port of Long Beach/Port of Los Angeles
Truck Restrictions
The Port of Los Angeles, and the Port of Long Beach’s Clean Truck Program is completely changing the way we do business, and how we move freight in and out of these ports. This year, these ports have continued with their truck banning schedule, by denying entry to tractors that have a 2003 or older engine. There is a modification, that drivers can have performed on their engine, that will allow access to the ports. That retrofit is for 1994-2003 engines, and I have not seen it any cheaper than $10,000 for the change. I can’t see many of our contractors willing to spend that much money. Below is a list of the Clean Truck Program truck banning schedule:
Truck Banning Schedule
October 1, 2008 – All pre-1989 engines were banned from entering ports
January 1, 2010 – All 1989-1993 engines are banned, and 1994-2003 non-retrofitted engines are banned as well.
January 1, 2012 – All engines must be 2007 or newer to access ports.
As of January 1, 2010, we only have about 22% of our entire fleet that have compliant trucks to enter the ports. We have come up with a solution for our Owner-Operators that no longer have compliant equipment. We interviewed several drayage companies that could go into the port for us, load our containers on a chassis, bring them back to their facility, and then flip the cans onto our trailers. We have decided on a company to provide us with this service.
All coordinators need to be aware of what units on their board are compliant or not. Speak with your coordinator and tell them what year engine you have in your tractor. We can’t just go by what year of tractor that we have in the computer, because it is not uncommon for the model year of a tractor, and it’s engine to be different. For example: A 2004 truck may be equipped with a 2003 engine, which would make it non-compliant. Or a 1999 truck could have had an engine replaced, and it may have a 2006 engine, which would make it compliant.
If your truck is compliant (2004 or newer), then you are free to accept anything that loads/unloads in these ports. The truck will be able to enter the port, same as it always has.
If your truck is not compliant (2003 or older), then you can still accept freight the same as always. If you do accept a load that loads out of the port, then the we will have to deduct a portion of the charge from the rate of the load for the drayage, and flip service. ATO will continue to enter these loads into the computer at the normal rate, because they will not know until the load is accepted, if they will have a compliant truck, or a non-compliant truck picking it up. It will say in the order “NONCOMPLIANT TRUCK WILL HAVE TO PAY DRAY FEE OF $??? FOR PICKUP”. The $??? is part of the drayage/flip charge that Mercer is splitting with the driver. Once you accept the load, call ATO office, and let them know that the truck you accepted on the load is a non-compliant truck. You will notice that ATO will put a “D” at the end of the trip number, indicating that we have to “dray” the container. The drayage service will then go pick up the container, and take it to their facility. You will go to the drayage service, and have the container flipped onto your trailer.
A TWIC card will no longer be needed for pickup on these loads if they are picking up at the drayage facility, unless the TWIC is needed at the delivery end.
I know that I have talked to some drivers that think that the charge to the driver is not the best deal. I agree. It is costly. Keep in mind that we talked to several different drayage companies, and this was the best deal we could work out for our contractors. Mercer and the ATO office are also eating some of the total cost as well. We could have had no solution at all, and just not given anyone an option to load container freight. Looking at the ATO screen today, shows me that there is a lot of container freight in the system out there. I think that we will get an increase in container freight because the other companies that move long-haul cans out of the ports didn’t pursue this option. We will now get their freight, because they can’t cover it.
The downside is the charge. I think that Mercer is providing a good solution for contractors that just can’t afford to spend thousands of dollars to upgrade their equipment. Also, I know a lot of drivers that will be happy not to have to go into the ports to wait on a container anymore. Have a great day everyone!
CARB SCANDAL
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is in some hot water right now. You all are aware of the changes in the ports of California that are taking place soon. There are also statewide restrictions that are similar to the port restrictions that will take place in the future. CARB is behind all of these changes.
The scandal is that author of “Methodology for Estimating Premature Death Associated with Fine Airborne Particulate Matter in California”, and also CARB project manager, Hien T. Tran, lied about his educational background.
Here’s a couple of articles on the issue:
http://www.cunninghamreport.com/news_item.php?id=1130
http://www.landlinemag.com/Special_Reports/2009/Dec09/120409-ooida-calls-suspension.htm
I’ll keep you all posted on this as much as I can. Be safe.
CSA 2010 DRIVER RATINGS DEPEND ON GOOD ROADSIDE INSPECTIONS
A lot of folks have been stopping in to discuss CSA 2010, which will replace the current audit-based carrier safety rating system. I’ve written about it a lot and talked to a bunch our drivers about it, both in Louisville and at every field inspection location I’ve visited this year. It is important to understand that not only will carriers be rated, but drivers will also receive a rating, also based on their roadside performance. Data collection for that process began this year and the data will be on each driver’s record for three years. Not only will a driver’s current carrier have access to it (beginning in December) but any prospective carrier to which a driver applies will also have access to it. It will add a fourth element to the driver’s background check. Carriers will look at experience, MVR, criminal history and CSA 2010 driver fitness rating in making a lease or hire decision. Anything written up on a roadside inspection will affect both the carrier’s and the driver’s fitness rating. Anything. The point weights of the various violations vary, but everything is assigned a value. Everything counts.
Most of our folks are getting the message about this and I’m seeing more and more clean inspections. Some need to do better….quickly. Here’s what I see:
Speeding. If you don’t want to be inspected, don’t speed. Not a nickel over, not a penny over. Most of our inspections are the result of getting pulled over for speeding. Remember, under CSA 2010, if “speeding” is written on the inspection report, you just got burnt for it, regardless of whether or not you were issued a ticket. Any problem with logs, any, will be a big problem for you and will be on your record for three years, starting in 2009. Most log problems show up on the roadside when a driver is stopped for speeding. Remember, running hard doesn’t make you a “hero”, it just shows that you are in a hurry to find another line of work.
Load Securement. Not putting an extra strap or chain on the first bundle or item of your cargo causes more securement OOS write ups than anything else, closely followed by defective straps. Smart drivers make it a habit to put one extra securement device on the front no matter what and no matter if they think they have it right or not. Always secure your load as if your career depends on it, because with CSA 2010, it does. I strongly recommend every driver become a member of the “strap of the month club”. That is, make it a habit every month to replace one strap. You simply can no longer risk being written up for cut or torn straps. Toss the bad ones. No matter what you’re told, my truck would have twenty good 4 inch straps on it at all times. 20, viente.
Brakes. Have someone look at your brakes and adjust them monthly. Check them daily. They have got to pass a Level 1 every week. You will see increased roadside activity under CSA 2010 and that is a biggie.
Industry observers predict that as many as 30% of the current driver workforce will be out of a job after the first year of CSA 2010 due to deficient driver ratings. Remember, since all carriers can see them, if one carrier can’t handle a driver due to bad inspections, it is unlikely any other carrier will want him or her, either. And if the FMCSA says a driver is unsatisfactory, neither Mercer nor anyone else will be able to ignore it and use him or her anyway.
Several drivers have asked about training for CSA 2010. Here it is: Log legal, over secure your load, don’t speed and religiously maintain your truck. I can’t overstate how important this stuff is. Everyone has got to get it right. The time to break bad habits is now. Drive carefully. Be safe.
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Wounded Warrior Project
Jason Schaftlein
jschaftlein@mercer-trans.com
Mercertown Blog 