Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/506679
Logbook 14 | Overdrive | May 2015 U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in late March resubmitted to Con- gress his and the White House's six-year highway funding plan, the Grow Amer- ica Act. The $478 billion transportation reauthorization package ups the length and the price tag from last year's more modest version. In mid-April, the U.S. House intro- duced a bill that would tie the current flat-rate fuel tax to inflation as a long- term highway funding measure and appropriate an immediate $12 billion to the Highway Trust Fund to ensure short- term solvency. Meanwhile, Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) intro- duced their Investment in Transporta- tion Act highway funding bill. To shore up the struggling HTF, it would use a 6.5 percent repatriation tax, meant to incentivize companies to bring previous- ly untaxed foreign earnings back to the United States. The three highway plans are among several long-term ideas floated in recent months. Congress has until May 31 to produce legislation to continue funding. If Congress fails to pass a long-term bill, it might need to clear another short- term patch to prop up the struggling HTF. It passed a stopgap measure last year when faced with the end of the two- year MAP-21 highway funding law. Chief among the Grow America Act's highlights for the trucking industry is a measure of driver pay reform. It would require drivers to be compensated at least at minimum wage for detention and all other on-duty hours not spent driving. The legislation also designated $18 billion to planning multimodal freight networks. It would award money to proj- ects that shippers, transportation compa- nies and other stakeholders deem would improve U.S. freight flow efficiency. The bill relies on a 14 percent repa- triation tax, with estimated revenue of nearly $250 billion. One provision struck a nerve with some in the trucking industry and out- side of it: Removing the current ban on tolling existing interstate lanes. The Alliance for Toll-Free Interstates said the measure is "the worst possi- ble approach to raising transportation revenue." The plan would also let states redirect toll revenues to completely unre- lated projects. "Tolls also divert heavy highway traffic onto secondary streets, which leads to premature road breakdown that costs lo- cal taxpayers, and they endanger public safety when rescue workers are delayed in responding to emergencies," said Julian Walker, ATFI spokesperson. – James Jaillet Lawmakers scramble to fund highways Congress has until May 31 to produce legislation to continue highway funding. The White House proposal includes a mandate to pay minimum wage for non-driv- ing hours. DRIVERS STILL ARE NEEDED by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and Virginia Tech Trans- portation Institute to participate in a study on the 2013 hours of service rule changes. VTTI said it needs 250 drivers, all of whom could be compensated up to $2,000. Research- ers will study schedules, crashes, fatigue and other factors. Go to restartstudy.com. A HANDCRAFTED Johnny Cash com- memorative Martin & Co. D-35 guitar was won by Ashley Stroud in the Mack Trucks Guitar Giveaway at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky. Cash played a black D-35 onstage for nearly 20 years, and Martin & Co. recently released a replica edition. Stroud, of Wilmington, N.C., is a heavy-duty truck mechanic. ROADCHECK, the annual truck and bus inspection blitz conducted jointly by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance and other agencies, is set for June 2-4. This year's emphasis will be on cargo securement. Last year's Roadcheck resulted in a vehicle out-of-service rate of 18.7 percent and a driv- er out-of-service rate of 4.8 percent.