P.M. Executive Briefing - August 5
This Afternoon's Headlines:
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Border Trade Alliance Backs Hiring Agents
The industry interest group Border Trade Alliance is backing a federal appropriations-bill amendment that would give Customs $500 million to hire 500 more border agents. The Kyl-Hutchinson Customs Amendment to the Treasury Appropriations bill for fiscal 2000 is intended to help uncover drug shipments and quicken border trade. Journal of Commerce (08/05/99) P. 4Ports Blast Proposal to Blame Terminals
A proposal led by American Trucking Associations’ Intermodal Conference to make terminal operators or intermodal chassis and equipment owners responsible for the equipment's "roadworthiness" is being opposed by the American Association of Port Authorities.
Truck carriers are often disinclined to refuse intermodal loads because that means taking a cut in pay. However, the AAPA says that while this may be true, "most ... decline to accept substandard equipment."
AAPA officials add that service would become inefficient if the FHWA came into terminals to do inspections, further asserting that FHWA data does not clearly depict that substandard intermodal equipment is a real problem.
But ATA Intermodal Conference chief Tom Malloy says inspection reports released by the FHWA at the ATA's repeated demand indicate that 45% of the equipment in intermodal use by the 100 truck carriers had to be pulled from service for failing to meet standards. A little more than 50% of the problems were with carrier or owner-operator tractors. The rest were with containers, chassis and trailers. Journal of Commerce (08/05/99) P. 14; Watson, Rip
Insurers Work with Feds on Truck Safety
At the behest of Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater, the National Association of Independent Insurers is participating in Department of Transportation workshops aimed at cutting truck-crash fatalities in half or more by 2009. Trucking firms, safety advocates and labor unions are also participating in the workshops.NAII Assistant Vice President Jerry Bell points to 1997 statistics showing 5,400 truck-crash deaths out of 42,000 people killed in highway crashes overall.
About 33% of large trucks in the United States are insured by companies belonging to the NAII, making the association acutely interested in the problem of road safety.
Bell speculates that the DOT initiated the workshops in response to attacks on the efforts of the department — and in particular the Office of Motor Carrier and Highway Safety — to solve the problem.
The initial two-day workshop in mid-July was mostly harmonious, as participants simply had to forecast what things will affect truck safety in the next decade. However, Bell expected this week's two-day workshop, about ways to cut crash fatalities, to be more fractious.
One dispute he identified is that many carriers think raising size and weight limits would be a good strategy, while the NAII and safety groups worry that truck brakes and aging highway bridges will both have trouble withstanding heavier loads.
The NAII also argues against more roads allowing double- and triple-trailer trucks, while supporting drivers that are better trained, in shape, and not too fatigued from long hours of service.
Bell adds that NAII wrote to President Clinton asking him to retain a current provision in the North American Free Trade Agreement that keeps Mexican trucks off roads in the United States until Mexican safety standards are up to par with federal regulations. National Underwriter (08/02/99) Vol. 103, No. 31; P. 7; Brostoff, Steven
Briefs
Gov. Gray Davis of California signed a bill that will cut licensing fees by 25% for heavy trucks covered under the International Registration Plan, which did not meet the criteria for a 1998 cut. The California Trucking Association predicts that $12.5 million in trucking tax relief will result from the cut.In other news, Colorado voters will probably vote in November on a referendum that would let the state speed up road construction by borrowing $1.7 million against its prospective funding from the federal government. State trucking-industry supporters of the bond measure are collecting $1 million to fund a TV ad campaign.
Finally, Sherrie L. Kaneaster was sentenced to six months' imprisonment, to be followed by probation for three years, after she plead guilty to falsifying federally-mandated drug-test results for truckers. Kaneaster owned a testing lab approved by the Transportation Department. Traffic World (08/02/99) Vol. 259, No. 5; P. 30
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