Industry News

House appropriators on Tuesday advanced a transportation spending bill, after beating back a Democratic amendment that would have stripped controversial trucking policy riders from the measure.

The House Appropriations Committee endorsed the fiscal 2017 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development spending bill by voice vote, sending the legislation to the floor.

The legislation would provide $58.2 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and other related agencies.

With more large trucks on U.S. roads, traveling more miles and transporting more, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is working to measure the size of the industry.

Last week, the agency issued its 2016 Pocket Guide to Large Truck and Bus Statistics, which provides a snapshot on the state of the trucking and transport industries. The FMSCA believe the data can be used to devise policies that might help reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities involving large trucks and buses.

Here are the highlights:

Registered Large Trucks:

The number of large trucks registered in the U.S. increased 3 percent in 2014 to nearly 11 million from the previous year.

A total of 30 truck drivers are receiving tickets for their involvement in a 193-vehicle crash that occurred Jan. 9 on I-94 in southwestern Michigan killing a Canadian trucker.

Michigan State Police (MSP) today announced it has concluded its investigation and says a total of 58 people, including the drivers of commercial vehicles, will be ticketed for what it calls “violation of basic speed law.”

The two related pileups — one in the westbound lanes and the other opposite it in the eastbound lanes — closed I-94 for two days. The crashes began at 9:20 a.m. on Jan. 9 during a period of heavy snow near east of Kalamazoo.

The trucking industry is still a growing industry.  With more trucks on the road than any time in history, safety is more important than ever.  JLS Express has experienced drivers that ensure your load will arrive safely.

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By MONICA SPEESmspees@bgdailynews.com |0 comments

Chris Bortz has seen the cost of gasoline for his car drop by almost half since June. The price of diesel used by his construction business has lagged behind.

That’s about to change as sliding farm demand after the U.S. harvest and milder weather brings diesel, nearly identical to heating oil, more in line with gasoline. Government forecasts show the fuel dropping to $2.73 a gallon by June. The average retail price slipped below $3 this week for the first time in four years.

Diesel’s drop will aid everyone from truckers to industrial users such as Bortz, CEO of Batavia, Ohio-based Towne Construction Services, which uses 300,000 gallons of diesel a year. Haulers have cut fuel surcharges to shippers, lowering the cost of delivering two-thirds of retail goods in the United States.

Highway regulators have failed to act on more than 100 recommendations to improve truck safety at a time when fatalities have risen for four straight years, according to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.

Priorities must change in 2015, with more anti-collision technology, better limits on driver hours and tighter regulation of trucking companies with high accident rates, the NTSB said Tuesday in at a news conference.

“There’s a whole suite of technology that’s ready for prime time now that would reduce crashes,” Donald Karol, NTSB’s director of highway safety investigations, said in an interview.

The NTSB is pushing the use of sensors to warn truck drivers when they’re about to strike someone from behind or to alert when a vehicle changes lanes.