The California Air Resources Board has launched a $20 million “funding assistance program” aimed at spurring the purchase of hybrid trucks and buses. As usual with most CARB grant programs – the program is restricted to vehicles to be used in-state only.

CARB will hand out vouchers ranging from $10,000 to $45,000. The program is expected to put as many as 800 vehicles on the road. Vouchers will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.

“Regardless of the size of their fleet, (each) is limited to a maximum of 100 vouchers,” a CARB statement read.

“This will accelerate our progress in cleaning up the air we breathe and reaching our climate change reduction goals,” CARB Chairman Mary Nichols stated.

Program participants must agree to register and operate the vehicle in California for three years.

For more information, visit californiahvip.org.

Ernie Howe has grown familiar with his routine.

Running from his home in Parma, ID, to Los Angeles and Phoenix, the OOIDA member spends most nights of the week at truck stops equipped with IdleAire plug-ins. Before bed, Howe will plug in his CPAP machine, strap on a mouth and nose-covering mask, and hit the pillow.

Diagnosed with sleep apnea a year ago, Howe says a relatively low amount of pressure from the CPAP machine helps him obtain a healthy eight hours of sleep each night.

“I can sleep without it, but I’d rather use it,” Howe said about the machine, which provides continuous air pressure through a patient’s breathing faculties.

Since IdleAire ceased operations last week, thousands of truckers who have obstructive sleep apnea and who use CPAP machines have been scrambling to find ways to get a peaceful sleep.

Howe – who has driven truck since 1976, said he was preparing to plug in to IdleAire service at a truck stop in Hesperia, CA, last week when he was told IdleAire was shutting down.

Because Howe’s company hasn’t installed APUs on its trucks, IdleAire’s closing will mean trucks will be idling at night to provide heat and hotel power. The realities of work time spent at loading docks and other trucking factors make battery-usage difficult, he said, especially combined with the power needs for eight hours of CPAP use.

“I’ve got an inverter, but I’d much rather use electric-line power – especially if the company is going to pay for it,” Howe said. “If you leave it plugged to the battery power all night long, it will run your batteries dead.”

For more information on CPAP machines and inverters, read this May 2008 Land Line article, and this 2007 article.

As for Howe, he’ll either bunk indoors to use his CPAP or go without using it at all.

“I’m going to stop at my sister’s house tonight,” he said. “I can get by without it, but I’d rather not do without.”

A lawsuit involving a former Pennsylvania Turnpike employee who claims he was wrongfully terminated for exposing alleged corruption has gotten the attention of a U.S. representative and the state attorney general.

U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-PA, wrote a letter urging state Attorney General Tom Corbett to “investigate the potential for criminal charges” in reference to a lawsuit filed in 2009 by plaintiff Ralph M. Bailets against the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and two of Bailets’ former superiors at the Commission.

Bailets, according to Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania Docket 265-MD-2009, says he was wrongfully terminated after raising issues about waste and alleged corruption within the Turnpike offices. The lawsuit was made public in a Jan. 25 article by Toll Roads News.

In the lawsuit, Bailets accuses his former superiors of perpetuating a “pay to play campaign contribution scheme,” allegedly duplicating billable hours and allegedly exploiting electronic tolling discounts for personal gain.

Rep. Thompson said the seriousness of the claims prompted his letter to Corbett.

“The severity of the accusations made within the complaint are so egregious, that I am compelled to ask that you investigate the criminality of the claims against those named in the complaint, and additionally those in charge of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, for any misuse of Turnpike (taxpayer) funds,” Thompson wrote.

Thompson added that “motorists using the Pennsylvania Turnpike deserve to know that their toll dollars are not being squandered on political patronage and personal gain.”

A spokesman for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission told Land Line that the agency is declining an opportunity to comment because the matter involves pending legal action.

US - Once again the battle lines are drawn up between the environmentally sound principles of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the equally passionate practicalities of the states truckers supporting a mixed group of farmers’ representatives, renewable fuel producers and supporters as the state pushes for a lower carbon fuel standard. The new law will mean that within ten years all fuel sold in the state must produce 10% less carbon than at present. Only military trucks are exempt and feelings run high amongst the California’s freight truck firms who say this is an imposition too far.

The American Trucking Associations yesterday joined in a law suit initiated by the Center for North American Energy Security, Consumer Energy Alliance and National Petrochemical and Refiners Association. The crux of the argument is that a state wide legislation merely transfers the low cost petroleum and diesel available from areas where it is not mandatory with the associated extra costs. The scheme discriminates against companies like POET LLC, which produce ethanol from biomass materials and who it is reported, have filed a separate suit and say there will be no overall gain from implementing a change.

The ATA legal challenge is largely based on the Commerce Clause with assertions that the "shuffling" of low-carbon fuel to California and away from other states will significantly burden fuel providers and consumers without any net change in fuel's carbon-intensity on a global scale.

The scheme, say the ATA, will effectively ban the sale of fuels derived from unconventional sources such as converted domestic coal and oil from sands or shale in Canada and the western USA. The rule will also apply it seems to sales not use and therefore out of state truckers might continue to pass through parts of the state with impunity. If that is the case we may possibly have the situation which existed in Ireland some years ago when truckers close to the border would cross, fill bulk tanks with cheaper fuel and then cross back to use up their reserves on their own fleets.

CARB have reacted strongly to the challenge. In a statement the chairman Mary Nichols said of the objectors:

"Their actions are shameful. This is a critical tool to help us break our dependence on fossil fuels. It will protect us from volatile oil prices and provide consumers with cleaner fuels and provide the nation with greater energy security. Our analysis shows that producing alternative fuels under this standard can save consumers as much as $11 billion over the next decade, and that's in California alone. Instead of fighting us in court, they should be working with us to provide consumers in California and the rest of the nation with the next generation of cleaner fuels."

Source: Handy Shipping Guide

What exactly are “livable communities,” and how much do they cost? If you’re a highway user, you could begin paying soon for livable communities even if it’s not clear where the money would go.

The Obama administration is proposing to create a new Office of Livable Communities and fund it with $500 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The administration included the concept as part of a $3.8 trillion federal budget request issued Monday, Feb. 1. The budget request includes $78.8 billion for the U.S. Department of Transportation of which $500 million would be used to fund and staff the new office.

Truckers who operate just 4 percent of the registered vehicles on the roadways – but who pay a 36 percent share of the bill for highways and transportation through taxes and fees – deserve to know where the money for “livable communities” will go, OOIDA leadership says.

“We certainly have some concern with it because we believe there could be a serious diversion of highway user dollars to these so-called livable communities and this Office of Livable Communities,” OOIDA Director of Legislative Affairs Mike Joyce told Land Line Now on Sirius XM.

“We’re not sure what the benefits truly will be for America’s highway users and America’s truckers.”

Without a clear intention for the money, the government is leaving no choice but for the highway user to be skeptical, Joyce says.

“I don’t think anybody at DOT or from the Congress has clearly defined what livable communities are,” Joyce said.

“The fear is that there is no definition, that there are no true parameters to what livable communities are and how money can be spent on livable communities. … And so it ends up at the discretion of the secretary of transportation and the folks that are running that office as to how they want to spend that money. That’s a very serious concern.”

The topic of traffic cameras is a hot issue this year at the Tennessee statehouse. In the months leading up to the start of the regular session a panel of lawmakers hammered out a proposal to rein in the use of the enforcement tool. Since then, many more bills have been offered that cover an array of concerns about camera use.

Many communities throughout Tennessee permit the use of red-light and speed cameras to help with enforcement efforts. Supporters say the devices are about safety and using technology in a helpful way. Others say the devices free up police to address bigger issues.

Opponents, including the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, question the claim that cameras are intended solely to keep people safe. The Association says the motivation of the local jurisdiction and the manufacturer is economics.

Concern about using the cameras as a revenue enhancer has spurred lawmakers to pursue legislation that is intended to either limit use of the technology or outright ban it.

The main bill on traffic cameras is the result of months of work by the House Transportation Committee. Among the provisions included in HB3024 is a two-year moratorium on putting new cameras in place and renewals of existing contracts. In the meantime, a study would be done on their effectiveness and usage.>>>>>>>>>>>>..........................

Truck drivers who use CB radios to communicate are able to continue to use those radios for at least another three years, despite the new distracted driving legislation.

The legislation, which came into effect in October, bans talki

ng, texting or using an MP3 player or GPS unit while driving. As of Monday, violators face $155 tickets.

Stephen Conners, a dispatcher with Glenn Windrem Trucking on Whittington Dr. in Lindsay, said the legislation allows professional truck drivers use of CB sets.

After about three years, he said, those sets will be replaced by hands-free CB sets.

Police are advising amateur CB and ham radio users to adhere to the new driver distraction legislation, saying a microphone is no different than a cellphone. The Ministry of Transportation says if those radios are being used to assist in an emergency situation, users are covered under three-year exemption until January 1, 2013.

City of Kawartha Lakes Police Service Acting Staff Sgt. Kirk Robertson told QMI Agency that in non-emergency situations "they should be pulling over to the side of the road."

He said there is a three-year phase out on the use of handheld two-way radios for police, fire, emergency medical services, the public service and commercial vehicles, such as transport trucks -- to allow for the development of hands-free solutions -- but that does not extend to amateur radio users who are simply communicating.

Ernie Roylance, treasurer of the Victoria Haliburton Amateur Radio Association, said that was his understanding as well.

"It's the same as a cellphone. A microphone is a hand-held device," he said.

He said ham radio and CB operators will also have to wait until hands-free solutions are developed for their older radios.

In addition to honoring Celadon through the Carrier Merit Program, Transplace recognized Celadon driver Alan Bruns for his professionalism, safety, and service. Mr. Bruns, who retired from the United States Army after 28 years of service, has been an over-the-road driver for 18 years. During that time, he has driven over two million accident free miles. He has obtained an endorsement from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to transport hazardous materials (HAZMAT) and a certification from U.S. Customs and Border Protection to transport international freight through the Free and Secure Trade (FAST) program. Mr. Bruns' other achievements include receiving the Indiana Motor Truck Association (IMTA) "Master Truck Driver Award" in 2008, three Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) "Highway Angel" awards for good deeds performed to assist fellow motorists, and recognition as "Trainer of the Year" in 1995 while working for Burlington Motor Carriers, Inc. Celadon acquired Burlington Motor Carriers, Inc. in 2002.

"We're fortunate to have drivers like Alan Bruns," said Celadon President and Chief Operating Officer Chris Hines. "Qualities exhibited by Mr. Bruns are essential in maintaining Celadon's status as one of the top fleets in the industry."

Celadon Group Inc. (www.celadongroup.com), through its subsidiaries, primarily provides long haul, full-truckload freight service across the United States, Canada and Mexico. The company also owns Celadon Logistics Services, which provides freight brokerage; Celadon Dedicated Services, which provides supply chain management solutions, such as warehousing and dedicated fleet services; and TruckersB2B (www.truckersb2b.com) which provides cost savings to member fleets.

TruckstopUSA

Everything that could go wrong probably has gone wrong for Larry Cook.

A former driver for Tulsa-based Arrow Trucking, Cook said he stands to lose everything if his luck doesn’t turn around soon since being hurt on the job in October 2009.

Cook said his “nightmare” started back on October 29, 2009, when he was instructed by his former company, Arrow Trucking, to pick up a load of empty trailers in Los Angeles and haul them to a terminal in Phoenix.

He said a wrecker service was stacking the trailers when Cook noticed that one wasn’t lining up quite right. He told the wrecker operator to stop so he could climb up and fix the problem.

“Once I got it situated, I hollered down to the wrecker operator to ease it down and something either slipped or broke, I don’t know which. But the trailer hit me in the head and the next thing I know I am on the ground and medics are working on me and I am being taken by ambulance to the hospital,” Cook told Land Line recently.

After about 20 hours in the emergency room, Cook, who suffered a head wound and two bulging discs in his neck, was released from the hospital. He took a cab back to his truck, where he then set out on his six and-a-half hour trek back to his home near Phoenix.

“Arrow (Trucking) had someone pick up my load, but I had to drive myself back – in a neck brace – to my home in Arizona,” he said.

Cook said once home, he called Arrow Trucking, who was self-insured and had an in-house workers compensation department.

The news he received was not good. Cook said a claims adjuster told him he needed to hop on a Greyhound bus and head back to Tulsa for treatment. The company would not pay for out-of-state treatment.

“At that time I could barely sit in the car to and from my doctor’s office and they wanted me to sit on a bus for 1,100 miles back to Tulsa – I just couldn’t imagine doing that,” Cook said.

His doctor in Arizona also sent a statement to Arrow Trucking that he was in no condition to travel until further tests were done to determine the full extent of his injuries.

“The adjuster kept telling me the only way we can pay the claim is to go to a Tulsa doctor, which I couldn’t do, so they kept jacking me around on not paying for anything up until the day they closed their doors,” he said.

Arrow Trucking shuttered operations just before Christmas, stranding drivers and equipment out on the highways without notice.

He has received some support from a trucker assistance group known as Trucker Charity Inc. Currently, Cook said he is receiving government assistance from the state of Arizona. But he has had no other income since October 2009 and is behind on his rent, car payment and medical bills from the accident in California. To make matters worse, his wife had two heart attacks in August 2009 and has no income coming in at the present time.

On Tuesday, Feb. 2, Cook said he was referred to a surgeon who may have to remove one of the bulging discs in his neck.

Up until a few days ago, Cook said still had hope that he would receive some compensation from Arrow Trucking stemming from being hurt on the job. That’s because his former company had a $2.35 million bond and former Arrow Trucking attorney Jay McAtee was hired by the state to pay Arrow Trucking’s outstanding workers compensation claims.

Cook said his Tulsa-based attorney called him with the news that there were “at least 90 claims ahead of us and money was going fast.”

The Tulsa World interviewed one former claims worker who said “there was a closet that had a waist-high stack of bills and claims in it.” However, another former employee stated it was “more like a file room” than a closet.

“I don’t know what to do anymore,” Cook said. “I told the wife that this latest news is just another stab in the gut with a knife from Arrow (Trucking) and every day they keep twisting it in a little harder,” he said.

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.”  – Sir Walter Scott

Attorneys and forensic accountants, along with some former Arrow Trucking employees, are still sifting through the financial nightmare nearly two months after the Tulsa-based company’s abrupt collapse.

In December 2009, the Tulsa, OK-based motor carrier unexpectedly shuttered its doors and left several hundred drivers stranded all over the country, some under loads with no fuel, no way to get home, and no guidance from company executives. Instead, the trucking community banded together to get these drivers home.>>>>>>>>>.....................

Small trucking businesses from Minnesota have an opportunity to obtain a low-interest loan for specific equipment purchases that will cut emissions.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s Small Business Environmental Improvement Loan Program provides loans of between $1,000 and $50,000 at an interest rate of either 4 percent or half the prime rate – whichever is higher. The repayment term is a maximum of seven years.

Applications will be evaluated based on the applicant’s financial need and ability to secure and repay the loan, as well as the projects’ expected environmental benefits.

“Benefits include reduced worker exposures … and reduced regulatory burdens,” the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency stated on its Web site. “Frequently, these benefits also have a positive impact on the businesses’ bottom line.”

The loan program will accept applications based on quarterly deadlines, including by April 1, July 1 and Oct. 1. For more information, contact Mike Nelson at 800-985-4247 or e-mail michael.nelson@pca.state.mn.us.

Joe Rajkovacz, OOIDA director of regulatory affairs, said the Association will continue to make truckers aware of local, state and federal grant programs. OOIDA informs members through its Web sites, Land Line Magazine and daily satellite radio show Land Line Now on Sirius XM.

“It’s important that small-business truckers know this money is out there,” Rajkovacz said. “We’ve helped to put literally millions of dollars into the hands of our members.”

OOIDA’s Guide to Free Money is available here.

The speed and maneuverability of the new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles transform it "from simply a means of transportation to an offensive capability," Brig. Gen. Michael Brogan said.

There are about 300 of the all-terrain MRAPs being used in combat, Brogan said. Military leaders seek 6,000 more of the vehicles to protect troops from improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Last year, the number of IEDs planted by insurgents more than doubled to nearly 8,000.

The ability to travel off-road is critical in Afghanistan. The country is about the size of Texas and has rugged terrain and few paved routes. Standard MRAP trucks, which have a high center of gravity and weigh more than 30,000 pounds, have been confined mostly to the roads that do exist.

Lack of mobility makes MRAPs and other heavier vehicles easier to target for insurgents, Brogan says. Better mobility was a key requirement for the new truck.

"This vehicle offers the ability that the baseline MRAPs didn't, namely the ability to get off-road and maneuver," Brogan said. "That makes the targeting exponentially more difficult for the bad guys."

The vehicle enables troops to stay unpredictable and confound insurgents, says Dakota Wood, a military analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

"As long as you have to travel on roads, you make yourself an easier target," Wood said. "If you broaden your options on where you can go, that's good for you."

MRAPs have proved far safer in bomb blasts in Afghanistan than any other vehicle. Troops are "tens of times" more likely to be wounded or killed in other vehicles in an IED attack, according to the Pentagon's Joint IED Defeat Organization.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a Senate panel Tuesday that IEDs are "absolutely the worst killer and maimer of our troops." He said MRAPs made "a huge difference" in limiting the carnage from IEDs.

Starting this month, 500 to 1,000 new MRAPs will begin arriving per month in Afghanistan, Gates told senators.

There are more than 70,000 U.S. servicemembers in Afghanistan, and about 100,000 will be there later this year as part of the escalation ordered by President Obama. There may be the need for 4,000 more MRAPs, Brogan said. The final number will be determined by the Pentagon and combat commanders.

It takes about 14 hours for Oshkosh Defense, the truck's maker, to produce the vehicle on its assembly lines in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Brogan said. The company is about 300 trucks ahead of schedule, he said.

It's an expensive effort. The trucks cost about $1 million apiece. Demand for them requires that each is flown in by cargo jet. It costs more than $150,000 to fly each one aboard an Air Force C-17 cargo jet or $140,000 aboard a commercial flight. By spring, the Pentagon hopes to have enough of the trucks in Afghanistan to begin sending them by ship, a slower but cheaper alternative to flying, Brogan said.

Source: USA TODAY

The class action lawsuit was first filed in 2002 and went to trial in federal court in 2006. The takeaway for OOIDA and trucker plaintiffs was a benchmark truth-in-leasing victory for truckers.

Following the decision in Salt Lake City, U.S. District Court Judge Ted Stewart referred the case to Magistrate Judge David Nuffer to oversee the disposition of individual class members’ escrow claims.

One issue before Judge Nuffer was whether Utah-based motor carrier C.R. England could assert set-offs for alleged repair and maintenance costs against individual class members’ escrow accounts in the damages phase of the case. OOIDA and the truckers had moved to exclude these set-offs from consideration on the ground that the court required C.R. England to deduct any repair and maintenance charges from class members’ escrow funds when the motor carrier filed its final accounting in November 2008. The company opposed OOIDA’s motion on the ground that these repair and maintenance charges were “newly discovered” and were “legitimate set-offs.”

The magistrate judge rejected C.R. England’s arguments and ruled that it could not assert any claim for repair or maintenance charges against class members during the current damages phase of the case.

He said that the plain language of the court’s ruling prohibited the consideration of these set-offs during the damages phase.

“Essentially, Judge Nuffer said that C.R. England missed the boat by not identifying these set-offs in its final accounting,” said David A. Cohen, attorney for The Cullen Law Firm, OOIDA’s litigation counsel. “The judge also said that letting C.R. England assert these claims at this late date would only serve to prolong a case that has been pending for many years.”

Cohen called this latest ruling another big win for OOIDA and members of the class action.

“It takes over $600,000 in alleged set-offs against individual class members off the table. Many of the affected class members (roughly half) are entitled to 18 percent interest per year on their unlawfully retained escrow funds. My preliminary calculations are that, based on this ruling and the 18 percent ruling, C.R. England will owe the class roughly $1 million just on these repair and maintenance set-offs.”

Cohen said the $1 million does not include additional damages owed to class members based on the court’s prior exclusion of refurbishment claims. 

Cohen said C.R. England may appeal Judge Nuffer’s ruling.

– By Land Line staff

Virginia lawmakers are moving full speed ahead with legislation to allow vehicles to travel faster along some highways throughout the state.

The Virginia Senate voted 29-11 Tuesday, Feb. 2, to approve a bill that would increase the 65 mph speed limit to 70 mph for all vehicles on rural sections of interstates where engineers deemed it safe. The change would also apply to other multilane, divided, limited-access highways and high-occupancy vehicle lanes.

The bill – SB537 – now moves to the House where an identical measure was approved Tuesday on a 71-26 vote. The House bill – HB856 – is on its way to the Senate for further consideration.

One version of the legislation must gain approval from both chambers before it can advance to Gov. Bob McDonnell’s desk for his signature.

The pursuit of higher speeds has the backing of McDonnell. He pledged during his run for governor to pursue faster travel on rural stretches of highway statewide. During his recent State of the Commonwealth Address, he reiterated his desire to see 70 mph speeds implemented on stretches of I-95, I-64, I-77 and I-81. McDonnell pointed out that 32 states already have 70 mph speed limits, and 13 states have speeds set at 75 mph.>>>>>>>>>>>>>..........................

The warning period is over and fines have begun for distracted drivers in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia.

Police began handing out fines starting Monday, Feb. 1, for those caught using hand-held communications devices while behind the wheel. Fines are $155 in Ontario and $167 in B.C. Those caught texting in B.C. while on graduated licensing could receive three penalty points.

“The distracted driving law makes it illegal for drivers to talk, text, type, dial or e-mail using hand-held cell phones and other hand-held communications and entertainment devices,” Ontario Ministry of Transportation officials stated. The ban also applies to laptop computers and DVD players.

Pressing one button to answer a call is permitted, while hands-free technology and the use of communications for emergency purposes are exempt.

According to Ontario’s posted regulations, some commercial applications are exempt from the law until Jan. 1, 2013. Commercial exemptions apply to drivers engaged in work duties using two-way radio communications in the following: courier delivery vehicles, tow trucks, roadside assistance, taxicabs, limousines, street cars and road-building machines.

The B.C. law allows the use of two-way radios for commercial purposes.