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When Congress left Washington for the Fourth of July recess they did so with major transportation legislation yet to be enacted. As a result, the pending fiscal cliff for the Highway Trust Fund draws perilously closer. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) tried to push through a six-month funding extension before the recess but got no traction…

Bob Costello, chief economist for the American Trucking Associations (ATA), sees the rest of 2014 as mix of good and bad. Costello says he believes the U.S. economy will accelerate during the rest of the year after a tough first quarter but operating costs will continue to limit profits for U.S. trucking fleets. Costello said…

A New Jersey highway crash that injured comedian Tracy Morgan and killed another comedian has shined a spotlight on the issue of fatigued truckers behind the wheel on American highways. Wal-Mart truck driver Kevin Roper had had no sleep for more than 24 hours before he plowed into the back of Morgan’s limo bus about…

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) successfully pushed through an amendment in the Senate Appropriations Committee last week that would delay for one year the restart provisions of the hours-of-service restart rules regulating American truckers. The amendment was championed by the American Trucking Associations (ATA), which has lobbied to get the rules changed. “Since these rules were…

Missouri transportation officials have shelved a project using “sound cannons” to warn distracted drivers to slow down in work zones but remain interested in how the devices could enhance traffic safety. Missouri DOT tested the long-range acoustic devices or LRADs last fall on MDOT vehicles traveling Interstate 435 in Kansas City and Interstate 70 near…

Lower costs for natural gas-powered highway tractors compared to diesel could make it more profitable for trucking companies to look at longer hauls for intermodal shipments, according to an analyst with transportation/railroad consultant Oliver Wyman. Jason Kuehn, a 20-year veteran of transportation/railroad industry, recently participated in a conference call sponsored by Wall Street investment firm…

A study conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) found that trucks operated with electronic hours-of-service recorders (EHSRs) had an 11.7 percent lower crash rate than those not so equipped and 5.1 percent lower crash rates for preventable crashes. The study, conducted by VTTI’s Center for…

Peloton Technology of Menlo Park, California recently demonstrated its Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communications and driver assistance technology designed to solve the two biggest challenges facing the $650 billion trucking industry: Crashes and fuel economy. Using a stretch of Interstate 80 east of Reno, Nevada, the company demonstrated with a two-truck platoon. Nevada DOT (NDOT), Nevada Department…

Across the United States, flashing your headlights at another vehicle can mean different things. For some it is a way to tell an oncoming driver that they have their high beams on. Truckers often flash high beams to let a driver know they have reached a safe distance to complete a passing movement. However, the…

The winter of 2013-14 was one of the coldest on record and dropped the 10th largest snow cover on the U.S. since 1966, according to the Rutgers University Snow Lab. The wintry weather disrupted much of the nation’s freight transportation network and created a “target rich” environment for cargo theft, according to insurance industry officials. Trucks…