roanoke.com – Commentary Stories -Increase the gas tax to pay for Interstate 81

“Virginia’s approach to tolling I-81 may need a change because of trucks’ ability to divert to other routes.”

“We will never improve Interstate 81 on the backs of the trucking industry. It’s never going to happen” because Virginia’s own study – and the history of truckers’ practices – shows that even a small fee will encourage trucks to use nontoll roads.

With a truck-only toll, “we run the risk of a failed project” in which there wouldn’t be enough fee revenue to pay off construction bonds. Virginia has no intention of asking its taxpayers to bail out such a project.

He goes on to quote the actual proposal and the numbers for costs and maintenance.

I personally believe that “toll” is the four-letter word for tax, and explicitly a very costly method of collecting the tax. So, to verify assumptions on how costly it would be to collect this tax, I perused Star Solutions’ Sept. 5, 2003, proposal. The following are facts from that document.

From page S-1: “The I-81 tolling concept includes the deployment of an open-lane, fully automated, electronic system of toll collection on heavy commercial vehicles. The conceptual system will facilitate the flow of traffic by eliminating the bottlenecks traditionally associated with manual toll collection systems. An additional benefit of this tolling concept is the reduction in ongoing manpower and maintenance needs and costs associated with staffing manual toll collection lanes.

A fully automated electronic system? All the automated systems I’ve seen require something inside the truck. How are you going to make sure every single truck has that? What about trucks that only go through Virginia once in awhile?

From page S-3: “In addition, the financial analysis assumes that toll rates will increase annually with no reduction in traffic. Rate increases are assumed to be 3.0 percent per year from 2003 to 2018 and 2.5 percent per year thereafter.”

Interesting information – $104 million to set up truck-only electronic collection facilities and $10.52 million in annual operating expense.

They’ve already budgeted a yearly increase. I’m usually passing through on I-81 in Virginia. Trust me, if it’s a toll road, I’ll find another way to go. It won’t be secondary roads, it will be interstates in other states. It may add a 100 miles or so, but it would be worth it.

This guys main point is to increase diesel fuel tax to get the same amount of money instead of building all the toll infrastructure and possibly losing money when trucks don’t use it. I’m not thrilled about either idea, but fuel tax rates are rising everywhere, toll road rates are rising and toll roads are popping up everywhere. Just another expense to deal with and hopefully pass on to the consumer.

Which is something these legislators don’t understand is that all the tax increases and toll roads will get passed on to the consumer. We’re not out here doing this for the fun of it.

Originally posted 2004-10-13 04:00:00.

FRAMINGHAM — When a tractor-trailer is involved in a highway crash, it’s more likely a life will be lost and traffic will be blocked for hours. Big-rig drivers, though, are to blame for fewer than half of those accidents.

What? Fewer than half are the truck drivers fault? There’s a study that CRASH doesn’t like that shows about 75% of the fatal car-truck crashes are the cars fault. Why are we the scapgoats for everyone else’s stupidity?
CRASH and PATT like to quote the stats about crashes and fatalities involving trucks here that are always rising, but no where in all those stats do they show whose fault it was. Crash numbers are going to rise simply because the number of idiots on the roads keep rising.

The problem, state police officials say, is that the average driver doesn’t know how to safely share the road with the large, heavy vehicles.

Then why are PATT, CRASH and PC trying to cut our driving hours and shut us down? Cause they can’t regulate stupid car drivers?

This is the actual study from NHTSA in ‘03, I mentioned earlier, just a few tidbits -

For example, there were 1,696 fatalities in head-on crashes involving a large combination truck and a passenger vehicle where the passenger vehicle was in the combination truck’s lane. There were only 177 fatalities in head-on crashes involving a large combination truck and a passenger vehicle where the combination truck was in the passenger vehicle’s lane

For those that nodded off before you got to the good part (cuz, I did!) Out of 1873 head-on crashes, 1,696 cars were in the truck’s lane. 177 trucks were in the car’s lane. How about these -

For each pair of rows, the highlighted rows are crashes where the passenger vehicle drivers seem to have contributed more to the crash than the driver of the large truck…. These data suggest that a contributing factor of two-vehicle crashes involving a large truck and a passenger vehicle is the poor judgment of the driver of the passenger vehicle…. This suggests that a problem with some two-vehicle large truck crash types may lie with the drivers of the non-large truck vehicles involved in the crash….

This is a really extensive study, it breaks fatal wrecks involving trucks down into the time of day, type of road, State and several other stats. There’s a lot there. Back to the original article

A press event at state police headquarters on Rte. 9 yesterday followed several recent tractor-trailer accidents.
“This is something we take very seriously,” said Trooper Scott Range. “This isn’t a knee-jerk reaction.”
Lt. Charles Hanafin, head of the commercial vehicle enforcement section, said not only does his team conduct inspections on tractor-trailers on the roadways, they also go to schools to educate the drivers of tomorrow.
Hanafin said he goes to drivers’ education courses around the state to discuss tractor-trailer safety.
“This program has a tangible effect,” said Hanafin. “I can’t go anywhere with my family — I’m very recognizable with my bald head — without someone coming up to me who saw me in driver’s ed.”
Hanafin said he tells students about the difficulties a tractor-trailer has in stopping. A fully loaded tractor-trailer with good brakes, tires, suspension and road conditions will need more than 100 yards — a full football field — to come to a stop.
“Trucks pose a huge risk to you just based on physics and their size,” he said.
In addition, tractor-trailers have several blind spots where cars cannot be seen, including close to the driver’s side door.
“I show what can happen at these events, and I have these kids crying,” said Hanafin. “I have some of the students come back and bring their parents. If they bring their parents to this, it must be working.”
Anne Lynch of the Massachusetts Motor Transportation Agency said there were 416,000 accidents involving commercial vehicles in 2002, the most recent numbers available. In total, there were 6.5 million accidents.
About 54 percent of truck accidents were not the fault of truck drivers, Lynch said.

There it is again!

“Many of the fatalities that occur are the truck driver,” said Lynch. “Trucks need safe roads because truckers die on unsafe roads.”

Wrecks are mostly the cars fault, but many of the fatalities are the truck drivers? What’s wrong with that picture? Wish they would have said what percentage to make that stat more clear.

In a demonstration, a trooper simulated a roadside inspection of a tractor trailer. A trooper will look at all the paperwork and then at a truck’s decals.
The next step is to look at lights, tires, brakes, suspension, gas tanks — everything.
If something serious is wrong, the truck cannot be on the road until it’s fixed, Hanafin said.
Yesterday’s demonstration lasted about five minutes, but an actual inspection can take an hour or more, Hanafin said.
“We blazed through it today,” he said. “I did an inspection that took eight hours. One truck took eight hours. It was terrible.”

An inspection that took eight hours? Sucks to be that driver!

Finally some decent perspective (besides mine!) that shows it’s not totally our fault and enforcement isn’t only on the trucks but in the schools educating new drivers.

Originally posted 2004-10-11 04:00:00.

For one, it’s not my taste in music, they play mostly old style country and old trucking songs. Between songs most of them take callers. This is usually the part I can’t stand, people that call in use their CB handles and it’s mostly just a late night redneck chit-chat / bitch session.

That was probably fine back when most listeners could only listen late at night on a hand full of super AM stations that broadcast throughout most of the country. Back then the trucker population was different then it is today.

Now there are a lot of immigrants from all over the world, there are more women and the age group has gotten younger as the truckers from yesterday have aged and are close to retirement. More drivers are driving school graduates and not from the generation that learned how to drive on their daddy’s knee. Personally, I would have loved it if my dad was a trucker, but he wasn’t and I had no other choice than to go to school. Driving school graduates in general are looked down upon by the ‘old timers’, but that’s another blog.

All three are on XM satellite radio and are on all times throughout the day, not just late at night. I feel that someone should change their format to relate to more drivers. Cut out the music and the free-for-all chit-chat format and have a more technically and industry oriented talk show. I understand it would be difficult for the late night shows to have industry type guests, but the times that I have heard Bozo have an occasional guest, they have been excellent shows.

I will listen once in a while just to hear the commercials for the trucking products. All three are fine shows, but trucking has changed and someone needs to step up to the plate make a change in their format. If nothing else, keep people on one topic at a time, have an information filled discussion then go on to the next topic. And cut down on the chit-chat.

Originally posted 2008-05-20 08:37:09.

At The Wheel With Sleep Apnea! – Sleep Disorders including, Sleep Apnea, Narcolepsy, Insomnia, Snoring and Nightmares

They also noted that the prevalence of obstructed sleep apnea in drivers is estimated at 3%, or 4.7 million drivers. A recent study of 1,391 commercial truck drivers found that 28% had obstructive sleep apnea, with more than one-third characterized as moderate to severe.

3% of the driving public but 28% of truck drivers. If PATT was really concerned with ‘Tired Truckers’ they would be focused on trying to solve this problem and help drivers in this situation. Instead they are on a personal vendetta against the entire industry. But that’s a seperate post.

People at risk seem to be men over 40 and overweight. A lot of the trucking population. Here’s a pretty long list of symptoms to look for here. Have your wife call 1-888-35-SNORE, let them listen to the examples to see if that’s the way you snore. There’s the American Sleep Apnea Association, FMCSA has done a study on it. Just ‘google’ sleep apnea for thousands of resources and information. Call your doctor, make an appointment.

After being diagnosed with sleep apnea from people that were around me, it took me two years to get officially diagnosed and treated. Like many drivers, I was afraid that if diagnosed I would be fired and not be able to drive. I finally gave in. Went to a doctor for a referral to a sleep center. Turned it in to the insurance, and had everything pre-approved. If the company was going to fire me, that was something I had to face. It was either that or fall asleep out on the road and hurt myself, or worse, someone else.

My condition was pretty bad, I would sleep for 8-10 hours, get up and drive and need a nap after a couple of hours. The slightest thing made me drowsy, from a big meal, driving into the sun, reading a couple of pages from a book or magazine, I would either need a nap, or be extremely drowsy. I was getting up two or three times a night to urinate. At the time I didn’t know that was a symptom. I thought I was having prostrate problems or just drinking too much during the day. I was drinking a lot during the day. Coffee, energy drinks, energy pills, I tried it all. Most of the time I was in a haze and a constant battle trying to stay awake.

Sleep Apnea Information – American Sleep Apnea Association ASAA

Untreated, sleep apnea can cause high blood pressure and other cardiovascular disease, memory problems, weight gain, impotency, and headaches. Moreover, untreated sleep apnea may be responsible for job impairment and motor vehicle crashes. Fortunately, sleep apnea can be diagnosed and treated. Several treatment options exist, and research into additional options continues.

When you read about a crash at 3 or 4 in the morning you can pretty much guess that it was from one of the drivers falling asleep. When you read about a crash in the afternoon, falling asleep doesn’t sound like a possibility. My own personal opinion is that some of these day time crashes when the driver says he was distracted, spilled his coffee or something just as lame, I would bet that it was because he was drowsy or falling asleep.

I’ve read several letters to the editors of the major trucking magazines where drivers are afraid to be diagnosed. Even though everything is paid by insurance, there is still the fear of being fired. I didn’t go to my Safety officer and tell them I was drowsy all day. I took it upon myself and went to a doctor and sleep center and got my CPAP machine. All covered by insurance. If it got back to the company fine. My argument was going to be that it was better that I was treated then not being treated. It never came to that and I haven’t had a problem going to other companies. I don’t advertise (till now!) that I have a problem, because it’s not a problem when I use my machine. And I always use my machine. Always. I can honestly say that it has saved my life. I feel great. I don’t get tired or drowsy during the day at all. I wake up after 8 hours without an alarm and drive all day without a nap and without caffeine. I can function on less, because the sleep I do get is deep and restorative.

It’s been about 3 years since I was diagnosed and received my CPAP machine. There are a couple different remedies but the best one is a CPAP or biPAP machine depending on your condition. There is a surgery available that cuts the soft tissue away that causes the blockage. I’ve read that the recovery is long and extremely painful and only has a 50% chance on complete success.

I’m not doing this just to fill space. I’m ‘cured’. I don’t have a problem. I do know there are a lot of undiagnosed cases out there. And those drivers may be afraid of being diagnosed. First, don’t be. If you get fired there are plenty of reasonably minded companies out there. Save yourself, protect the people around you. If you wake up several times at night, if you’ve ever woken up choking and you need a nap during the day after sleeping all night, please, please get tested. It’s such a common situation nowadays, there are sleep centers everywhere. Most require a referral from a doctor (usually just your family doctor), but all doctors are aware of this. Tell the doctor you’re a truck driver and you will get a referral. You won’t regret it. If the small minded company you drive for fires you, you’re probably better off anyway.

Originally posted 2008-08-22 03:45:00.

Opinion: There’s a Bad Moon on the Rise

If trucking companies, owner-operators and shippers did not like the hours-of-service regulations that went into effect Jan. 4, they could hate what the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration comes up with following the decision in Public Citizen v. FMCSA.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit struck down the new HOS regulations because, it said, FMCSA failed to consider the effect of these regulations on the health of the driver, as required by statute.

There are many who think this is an easy problem to fix. Simply have FMCSA issue additional findings that say it has considered the health effects of the regulations and they have no adverse effect on driver health.

However, this approach ignores the bulk of the court’s opinion, in which the judges pointed out all the other problems they saw with the new rules and why they considered them to be arbitrary and capricious. Any one of these other problems would have been sufficient to declare the regulations void.

Even though the official ruling was about driver’s health, there’s more to the picture.

The appellate court gave FMCSA a road map that will lead it safely to judicial approval of new hours-of-service regulations. However, as I read that map, it leads to only one place: fewer hours of both driving and total work time for truck drivers. The whole point of changing the old regulations was to address the problem of driver fatigue and in the court’s view, the new rules did not come close to solving that problem.

But if you ask drivers, a lot of them will tell you (me included) that we are able to get more rest. If you cut the number of hours to below what they call for now and if they fall below what they used to be, they’re going to have more than a few more problems to solve. How about a very real driver shortage. The only truck that will be able to make money and work will be teams. If they cut hours short enough so that teams can’t keep a truck rolling 24 hours, they are going to shut down this industry. Which will shut this country down two days after the new rules take affect. Local warehouses don’t stock a weeks worth of inventory.

After their victory in court when the judges and Public Citizen and the rest of the insane go to the store and the shelves are empty, whose fault will it be? Not their’s, that’s for sure.

The unanimous three-judge panel did not believe that the justifications presented by FMCSA for increasing the number of driving hours to 11 from 10 were legally sufficient. The studies cited by FMCSA showed that driver performance begins to degrade between the eighth and 10th hours and degrades “geometrically between hours 10 and 11.”

FMCSA had no data to show that decreasing the total number of work hours somehow offsets the adverse effects of increasing driving hours.

Another concern for the court was the “sleeper berth exception.” The studies used by the agency did not support the conclusion it reached to allow time in sleeper berths to count as off duty. The studies reached the opposite conclusion. Sleeping in a berth is less restorative than sleeping in a bed, and solo drivers do not use sleeper berths effectively.

It’s going to be bad enough if teams are the only drivers allowed. Companies will have to force drivers to team up. But shut teams down all together because sleeping in a berth is “less restorative”. It’s not, every try sleeping in a moving truck? If the interstates were smooth as glass, maybe. But they’re not. Teams do it all the time though. Guess who’s getting a co-driver next month? Not because of HOS either. It’s for all the right reasons that you bring someone into your life like that.

However, none of these excuses resonated with the court. It is FMCSA’s job to test the many available EOBR systems and find one that works because that is what the statute requires.

Whatever, Black Boxes are coming sooner or later anyway.

Now, the agency cannot go back to the old rules, for it was directed by Congress to make changes. Keeping the new rules is out, even if it could come up with some “health of the driver” justification. Anything it produces would certainly be suspect in the eyes of the court, and would not solve all the other problems identified by the judges.

Even if the Supreme Court overturns the Court of Appeals, the only issue before the Supreme Court would be the “health of the driver.” There is little doubt that the D.C. Circuit would invalidate the new regulations if all the other problems were not corrected. In other words, the only option left to FMCSA is to come up with yet another new regulation.

Can’t go back to the old, can’t keep the new. Come up with something completely different and hope no one sues. That also means everyone is going to have to change their log auditing software, again and re-educate drivers, companies and law enforcement, again.

The rest of the article doesn’t get any better:

The appellate court has given FMCSA the perfect political and legal cover. It can now ignore all outside interests and promulgate a rule based solely on the science of fatigue. If I were a betting man, I would say that the number of driving hours will be reduced to nine, the total number of working hours will be reduced to 12, and the total number of rest hours increased to 12 — at least 10 of which have to be taken in a single block.

I think the 34-hour restart provision will be dropped, and possibly the 60- and 70-hour rules replaced by a requirement that all drivers get at least 24 hours off duty after every six days of work.

Drivers will be allowed to use the sleeper berths for the rest periods, but electronic recorders will also be required. All protestations from motor carriers and shippers will be met with the response: “If you don’t like it, blame the D.C. Circuit.

We can read between the lines just as well as anyone, and the only regulations that will pass muster are those that reduce driving and work time and increase rest time, so that is what the regulations are going to do.” In this FMCSA is probably right.

A lawyer in Evansville, Ind., the author is a member of the Transportation Lawyers Association and the founder and past president of the Trucking Industry Defense Association.

I hope he’s wrong. You can’t keep a truck rolling with a team driving 9 hours and resting 12. That’s 3 hours that the truck is sitting still. Teams will be in big demand. There will be a driver shortage of biblical proportions that will stop this economic growth spurt to a standstill if not an absolute fallback. Thanks to the Group of Insane along with their insane judges. Wonder if that’s their plan? To shut down the economy in time for the election? Nah, Public Citizen isn’t political, they’re only looking after the public’s welfare. Yeah, right! And PATT, that’s just a personal vendetta, nothing political about them.

Originally posted 2008-11-23 03:00:00.

A Mexico-U.S.-Canada highway? Roll it out | ajc.com.
By ROBERT P. CADY

Published on: 06/23/06

Reading
recently on a conservative Web site about the Bush administration’s
quiet support for a major highway from Mexico through the heart of the
United States to join Canada — a so-called NAFTA superhighway — I
couldn’t help but think the timing may be right to form the
controversial North American Union. There has been talk of this for
years. Support has grown since the successful formation of the European
Union.

The EU is a success? Everyone in Europe is living better than they were before? Even if they are what makes this a good idea for US? If it was just us and Canada maybe. But why drag us down to Mexico’s level. So between the two of us we can bring them inline with the us? At what cost?

The idea is simple; create an
open federation of the three countries, with a common set of trade
rules. In so doing, allow the free flow of citizens within the Union.
Finally, create a new currency that would combine the economic
strengths of each country and compete against the Euro, the common
currency of the European union.

Sounds so simple. But so far the only country benefiting is Mexico.

The NAFTA superhighway is
a good example of this. Building it would allow container ships to land
at Mexico’s new "Smart Port" at Lazaro Cardenas, travel in Mexican
trucks up through the center of the United States, drop loads at
designated depots and deliver containers all the way through to Canada,
all under the watchful eye of a common security system.

We haven’t heard about this from the administration but the plans
are reportedly in place, with custom centers being built and the road
ready to start in Texas next year. Perhaps it’s been kept quiet until
it is a fait accompli because such a plan bypasses the dockworkers’
unions in the U.S ports, and the Teamsters truckers until after the
offloads. It also becomes fodder for the jingoists.

You think? Maybe we need a few more Jingoists to balance out the nuts that want to destroy our way of life. Like I said, the only benefactor here is Mexico. Oh yeah, companies in the US and Canada get cheap labor and their cheap crap from China even cheaper.

I know this gets a little long, the really scary part is on the next page!

Tags:nafta superhighway

The idea, however,
illustrates how closely our three countries are intertwined. Mexico,
with its 107 million people, is already informally joined at the hip
with the United States as a supplier of low-wage workers. Its democracy
would be moved forward, with more open, closer ties to the United
States. Also, Mexico is a leading supplier of oil to the United States.
Open entry to Mexican markets by U.S. firms would likely boost the
Mexican economy and create new jobs. In turn, Mexico’s lower wage rates
would aid expanding U.S. and Canadian businesses, transforming outcries
over outsourcing jobs to Mexico into a new frontier for North American
business, aiding its ability to compete on the global market. Yes,
Mexicans would pour across our borders until the free market settled
the supply and demand needs of our labor force. The difference is, it
would be legal. On the other hand, as more American business partnered
with Mexican businessmen, more jobs in Mexico would keep many of those
workers there.

So, if Mexico is a leading supplier of oil to the US why does their economy still suck? Maybe it’s the corruption. The political corruption, the economic corruption, the criminal justice corruption. Corruption is so engrained in their culture it’s a way of life, expected and built into their system. Why is this going to be good for the US and Canada? Oh yeah, cheap labor and cheap crap. All I hear is that it’s going to be good for Mexico.

Over time, the free market would regulate traffic and economic
movement. In truth, there may be more economic movement into Mexico and
Canada rather than the other way around, stabilizing immigration. Money
and brainpower would flow to where it can be best utilized. The free
market would also create business interests in all three countries that
don’t exist now. Finally, the new North American Union would present a
much stronger economic and political face to an increasingly more
powerful Europe and Asia.

We are already seeing the results of a global economy that flows
over borders. As more people of the world get to know each other
through mass communication, new markets are being created and major
shifts are taking place. Just as the world’s corporations are merging
to meet this global competition, it may be time to seriously consider a
North American Union. And if it’s already being planned for secretly,
bring it out in the open. It’s a good idea.

• Robert P. Cady is a writer and businessman living in Kennesaw.

At the moment Mexico is so anti-foreigner I don’t see how they are going to allow anything or anyone into their country unless they have complete control over that company. The initial shock of Mexico overrunning us and Canada is only going to drag us down to their level. The lower common denominator and it will take us forever to get back to the level where we’re at now.

I guess we all need to start companies that depend on cheap labor and cheap crap to be the only ones that prosper in this economic suicide plan.

Originally posted 2006-07-01 03:00:00.