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Trucker News

FMCSA proposes intermodal defect report rule

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has proposed to delete a requirement for drivers operating intermodal equipment to submit and intermodal equipment providers to retain driver-vehicle inspection reports when the driver has neither found nor been made aware of any defects on the intermodal equipment used.

FMCSA’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking responds to a joint petition for a rule from the Ocean Carrier Equipment Management Association and the Institute of International Container Lessors. FMCSA previously had extended until June 30, 2012, the compliance date of the requirement for drivers and motor carriers to prepare a no-defect DVIR while it considered the groups’ joint petition.


FMCSA said that all other requirements concerning drivers’ preparation of DVIRs to report damage, defects or deficiencies to intermodal equipment providers remain in effect, as well as for intermodal equipment providers to take action in addressing the safety issues identified by such reports.

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Trucker News

FMCSA extends intermodal inspection

Intermodal Equipment Providers (IEPs) are required to register an Intermodal Equipment Provider Identification Report (form MCS-150C) with the FMCSA. The intermodal equipment (IME) must then establish a systematic inspection and a repair and maintenance program to assure the safe operating condition of each intermodal chassis. The IME must also maintain documentation of the maintenance program.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has extended until June 30, 2012, the compliance date of the requirement for drivers and motor carriers to prepare a driver-vehicle inspection report on intermodal equipment when no damage, defects or deficiencies are discovered by, or reported to, the driver.

The previous compliance date was June 30, as a result of the agency’s amended final rule of Aug. 20, 2010, which extended the compliance date of the same provision of the Dec. 17, 2008, final rule concerning maintenance responsibilities for intermodal equipment. FMCSA said this action is being taken to provide it sufficient time to address a petition from both the Ocean Carrier Equipment Management Association and the Institute of International Container Lessors to rescind the requirement for no-defect DVIRs.

FMCSA said all other requirements concerning drivers’ preparation of DVIRs to report damage, defects or deficiencies to intermodal equipment providers remain in effect, as well as requirements for intermodal equipment providers to take appropriate action in addressing these safety issues.

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Trucker News

Ports react to Japan quake tsunami

The massive earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan has pushed down the price of oil today and may affect traffic at the West Coast intermodal ports.

Ocean shipments going in and out of Japan, including those going through U.S. West Coast ports, have come to a standstill. The quake could disrupt shipments of Japanese vehicles to the U.S., which some trucking operations haul to dealers. Longer term, the disaster may translate into more shipments headed toward Japan as the country rebuilds from this disaster.

Meanwhile, truckers along some West Coast routes today are reportedly running into additional traffic congestion following a tsunami warning that was issued earlier, causing people to evacuate some coastal areas The Port of Los Angeles has suspended the transfer of hazardous materials at the facility, but normal cargo operations have not been affected. A similar move was made at the Port of San Francisco.

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Trucker News

CSA 2010: Resentment by the Trucking Associations

The United States three main Trucking Association: the Expedited Alliance of North America (TEANA), the National Association of Small Trucking Companies (NASTC) and the Air and Expedited Motor Carrier Association (AEMCA), who own fleets more than 3,000 in number has filed a lawsuit in the court to review the rules and regulations as imposed and stated in the FMCSA’s CSA2010 legislation. The suit has been filed in the United States Court of Appeals. The association wants that the FMCSA release of these safety regulations should be permanently rejected by the court as they do not approve of the safety methods laid down by the FMCSA’s CSA 2010 release.
The court has previously rejected the Trucking Association’s plea to release a temporary hold order so that they could avoid the release of the CSA2010 safety regulations before time. This injunction was filed by the association earlier this month. Due to the fast movement of actions the Federal Court has agreed to hear both parties on the issue to release an order against FMCSA’s Comprehensive Safety Analysis initiatives. In their appeal the trucking associations emphasized that the FMCSA fails to understand the impact that this legislation will have on the small trucking companies and owner operator jobs.
The monitoring and the records will be open to public on the CSA website. This will enable all the reports for any carrier or truck driver available for the public to ponder on it. All warnings, accidents, safety implications and others will be updated online for every incident. This measure is beneficial for shipping company as they can use the data to judge on who should be employed to carry their available loads. The FMCSA and other government authorities would work in close compliance to report the statistics on Behavioral Analysis and the Safety Improvement Categories.
The trucking companies who are renting over their trucks to other carries and freight brokers were worrying on the issue of the secondary liability for past so many years The FMCSA regulates the actions of the logistics and trucking company’s so as to check their vicarious liability and the rules are set so that the freight brokers and the shippers do correct hiring of the truck driver or the freight carrier company. Now the selection of the service provider will have to be very accurate. This is one of the major causes of resentment among the Trucking association as they will be obligated to select the freight brokers, intermodal drivers, logistics and trucking companies with a high score on CSA safety rules. They are bound to implement this measure as they would not want any extra liability on them because of the poor scores of the service providers. To avoid the liability as a third party logistics the rules set by the FMCSA has to be taken into consideration. You can obviously find a pool of competent truck drivers and related companies on the load boards meant for finding the perfect load and driver match.
For the meantime the court has overruled the trucking association plea as being ‘forecasted’ and ‘predicted’ damages by the CSA 2010 legislation by FMCSA.

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Freight Factors

A Trusted Name in Freight Factoring

With the economic uncertainty today, getting the payment for the work you have done is really important. The easiest and the safest way to get the payment in the trucking industry today is through factoring. When considering freight factoring let us discuss the factoring services by 1st Commercial Credit LLC. This is the most reliable and best factoring services providing company in the United States.

A brief on what freight factoring is? Freight factoring is basically for the truckers or the trucking business. These truckers can immediately get the payment after completing their work through freight factoring even if the shippers who are using the trucking facilities have not paid the shipment charges. The freight factoring company releases funds for the carriers by purchasing invoices of the shipping company. Therefore, the interruption of cash flow is avoided for the survival and growth of the trucking business.

Choosing 1st Commercial Credit LLC as the Freight Factoring Company for You

Logistics and Freight Factoring have become so popular that you can easily get a good factoring service online. Online freight factoring company provides fast and efficient processing with minimum paper work. This way you save both time and money.

1st Commercial Credit is an online freight factoring company providing financial assistance to many owner operators, small and medium fleet businesses. The company is the largest of its kind providing varied asset based financial services such as equipment leasing, freight factoring, inventory financing and purchase order funding for new as well as old businesses.

1st Commercial Credit is expert in judging the capacity of your business and the long haul charges according to it. The company will provide funding for the fuel, maintenance, repair and other related charges of the trucks being used. This will avoid taking loans for such issues by the small businesses and owner operators. With the factoring and financial services by 1st Commercial Credit, the truckers will not suffer loss when the payment is delayed by the shippers.

1st Commercial Credit doesn’t require any financials and provides the factoring facility at a very affordable rate of 1.59% for 30 days for all sized trucking companies. The company provides free credit checks and facilitates the credit checking with in 15 minutes for new loads. There are no administration charges and application fees when you transact with 1st Commercial Credit. Broker and customer references are also provided on request. The initial funding is set up by the company in just 3 to 5 working days. The company would provide same day funding to the shippers and brokers who are already credit approved. Containerized freight and Intermodal hauling is also factored by the company.

Thus we see that 1st Commercial Credit is the company that knows in and out of the trucking industry and can assist in providing cash flow to your business instantly. Your long stuck freight bills can now be cleared within 24 hours and you can also indulge to haul more loads with increased cash flow. The factoring service of this company can be availed for businesses with just 1 truck to the one with more than 2000 trucks. The factoring amount per month ranges from $5000 to $10 million.

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Business Lifestyle

Owner Operator Jobs and Its Impact on the Economy!

The trucking system has been playing an obvious and vital role in the economies of the countries because it is the most important mode of transport of goods in any country. The nation’s progress and trucking system go hand in hand as the profitable trucking system generates high revenues for the country. An efficient owner operator would be able to cater to the requirements of the country both in the case of material delivery and monetary benefits. For any economy to flourish supply chain plays the major role. And if the supply chain is strong and available at the right time then it will prove as a great asset for the country to survive and progress in this competitive world. Trucking system is directly and indirectly affecting the economy of every country at a much deeper level. “The logistic of any country can suggest the future progress of any country”. stright truck freight is the most popular mode of transferring goods from one place to another.

Therefore, it is expanding enormously in every developing and the developed country. With the growing trucking industry there are ample of jobs generated within the country everyday. People looking out for the jobs of drivers, helpers, cleaners and loaders can be easily adopted by this advancing industry. Such large scale job opportunities generated will help share the load of the country fighting against unemployment. Increased employment in turn will surely enhance the economy of any country. A normal truck transport service may require a bundle of other industry and services to come together to accomplish the final task of freight transfer. Packaging company will do the packaging of goods to be transferred. Loading people will load the truck. Driver will drive the vehicle to the required destination. Mechanics and engineers will take out the fault if any occurs on the road. Petrol stations will fill and earn from the fuel needed to drive the truck.

Thus we see how many individuals and companies are benefited from the single task of freight transportation. The demand and supply chain of trucking industry will widely affect the demand and supply chain of other industries related to it. But to maintain an effective transport system in the country, the government of the country has to actively participate to improvise the trucking industry. This can be achieved by developing good road networks and safety regulations on the road. This step will make the trucking industry deliver more timely and profitable business for themselves and the country as a whole.

However to maintain such a system the country requires fund which are raised in the form of income taxes, sales taxes, Fuels taxes etc. Other way to generate funds can be toll taxes and fares taken from the ones who use the road networks. Thus we see that at every step country’s economy and the trucking industry are very much dependent on each other. If one flourishes it will make the other one strong too.