Government

SAN DIEGO — Leaders of American Trucking Associations meeting here said they have put themselves in the best position to successfully see long overdue highway funding and other legislation passed, while preventing what they view as an explosion of burdensome regulations.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is scheduled to publish a proposed rule in April that would drop a current requirement that insulin-treated interstate truck drivers with diabetes apply for a special exemption to be issued a medical certification card.

Diesel fuel’s national average retail price fell 2.2 cents to $3.733 a gallon, the 14th straight week without an increase and 25th drop in the past 30 weeks, the Department of Energy reported.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s advisory committee and medical review board will meet later this month to “identify concepts” the regulatory agency should consider in updating its policy regarding the risks of truck drivers’ legal use of stimulants, depressants and opioids.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has asked an appeals court to review a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency waiver allowing California regulators to proceed with enforcement of the state’s strict greenhouse gas-emissions reduction rule for heavy-duty trucks based or doing business in California.

In his first interview since being named acting administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in August, Scott Darling III said he is committed to keeping the agency’s hours-of-service rule intact.

We strive to interact directly with those who have the most influence on the trucking and freight transportation industry, so we thank Scott Darling III, acting chief of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, for speaking with Transport Topics last week.

The gleaming old trucks housed in transportation museums across the country do more than offer visitors something pretty to see; they can provide a history lesson in how far the trucking industry has come.