BUSINESS
December 2014 |
Overdrive
| 23
The health-insurance exchanges set
up under the Affordable Care Act last
year are back under an open enroll-
ment period that will last through
Feb. 15. To begin coverage Jan. 1,
enrollees are encouraged to apply for
a health plan through the exchanges
by Dec. 15.
Now is also the time to revise cov-
erages or change plans for those who
purchased a plan last year through the
federal exchange at HealthCare.gov or
one of the state exchanges. The same
Dec. 15 deadline applies for such
changes to be effective Jan. 1.
For Owner-Operator Independent
Drivers Association members, the
organization has established its pri-
vate OOIDA Members Healthcare
Exchange (ooida.com; 800-715-9369 )
to assist members with plan selection
through the enrollment period.
Likewise, the National Association
of Independent Truckers, partner-
ing with Connected Health, hosts a
Truckers Insurance Exchange (tie.
connectedhealth.com; 877-270-
8417) geared toward owner-opera-
tors and able to help in navigating
the public exchanges.
CON-WAY TRUCKLOAD
announced a partnership with the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce Foundation's
Hiring Our Heroes program and its truck-
ing industry technology partner, Fastport,
to increase its veteran hires throughout
2015. About 16 percent of Con-way
Truckload's employees are military ser-
vice veterans, including members of the
National Guard and Reserve.
LOVE'S opened a new stop in
Columbus, Miss., at the intersection of
U.S. Highway 82 and State Highway 50.
The stop, open 24 hours a day, has a
Chester's Chicken, RFID cardless fueling
technology, CAT scales and more.
CAT SCALE'S Weigh My Truck applica-
tion now is available on iOS and Android plat-
forms. The app is designed to allow drivers
to weigh their truck, pay for the transaction
via PayPal and get the weights displayed on
a smartphone without leaving the cab. The
app also will e-mail a PDF-copy scale ticket or
weight information via text file.
INTERNET TRUCKSTOP released
a rebuilt version of its ITS Trucker app,
available on iOS and Android platforms.
App users will be able to set preferences
for searching and posting. A new "Get me
Home" feature finds loads near a user's
current location that need to be hauled to
their home base.
PARTNERS IN
BUSINESS TIP:
LENGTH OF
TRUCK LOANS
The ideal loan term for a three-
year depreciable asset like a
heavy-duty truck is three or four
years. During that time, you can
reap the tax benefits of deprecia-
tion to maximize the affordability
of the monthly payments on a
stable basis. However, the shorter
the term, the less you'll pay in
interest over the loan's life.
The Partners in
Business program
is produced by
Overdrive and the
consultants at ATBS, the nation's
largest owner-operator business ser-
vices firm. It is sponsored by Ryder
and Goodyear Smart Fleet.
States operating their own exchanges
California: CoveredCA.com, (800) 300-1506
Colorado: ConnectforHealthCO.com,
(855) 752-6749
Connecticut: AccessHealthCT.com,
(855) 805-4325
District of Columbia: DCHealthLink.com,
(855) 532-5465
Idaho: YourHealthIdaho.org, (855) 944-3246
Kentucky: KYEnroll.KY.gov, (855) 326-4650
Maryland: MarylandHealthConnection.gov,
(855) 642-8572
Massachusetts: MAHealthConnector.org,
(877) 623-6765
Minnesota: MNSure.org, (855) 366-7873
New Mexico: MyNMHC.org, (877) 769-6642
New York: NYStateofHealth.NY.gov,
(855) 355-5777
Rhode Island: HealthSourceRI.com,
(855) 840-4774
Vermont: HealthConnect.Vermont.gov,
(855) 899-9600
Washington: WAHBExchange.org, (855) 923-4633
Federal exchange states
HealthCare.gov, (800) 318-2596
IN BRIEF
OBAMACARE DEADLINES AT HAND