Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/596928
Logbook 14 | Overdrive | November 2015 A highway bill introduced last month in the U.S. House of Representatives would remove carrier safety rankings from public view, set up a pilot program for under-21 commercial driver's license holders and address use of hair sample drug testing. Those provisions are part of a six-year $325 bil- lion highway funding bill passed by the U.S. House Transportation and Infra- structure Committee. The House bill is similar to the Senate's $275 billion Drive Act passed in July, which includes many of the same regulatory reforms. The legislation is being billed as a bipartisan effort that could land the United States its longest-lasting highway bill in more than a decade. Funding for the House bill still must be deter- mined by the House Ways and Means Committee. If the House can pass its bill, the House and Senate still would need to resolve differences in their bills before a final bill can be sent to the White House. To allow time for that, the House on Oct. 27 ex- tended highway appropri- ations beyond the Oct. 29 expiration date to Nov. 20. A day after the House vote, the Senate echoed the low- er chamber's approval. On Oct. 29, President Obama signed the 22-day extension into law. It was the third short-term patch cleared this calendar year and the 35th in the last decade. The House bill would require the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Adminis- tration to remove from public view crash records, violation history and analysis and percentile rankings in the Safety Measurement System, part of its Compliance, Safety, Accountability program. It also requires a "corrective action plan" for FMCSA to pursue prior to reimple- menting CSA. Other regulatory reforms include: • A study on allowing CDL holders between ages 19½ and 21 to operate interstate. The bill dictates a pilot program based on the report's recommenda- tions on hours of service for these younger truck op- erators, mandatory training standards and use of poten- tial safety technologies. • Use of hair samples instead of urine samples for driver drug testing. • Agencywide FMCSA reform to further study rules and better consider trucking industry input in the rulemaking process. – James Jaillet Highway bill proposes big changes The National Highway Traffic Safety Adminis- tration has begun work to determine whether it will pursue a federal rule to require new trucks to be equipped with crash avoid- ance systems that brake automatically without driver input. NHTSA's announce- ment came in response to a petition filed in February by several pro-regulatory agencies. The mandate also has been recommend- ed by the National Trans- portation Safety Board. The systems employ sensors, radar and cameras to scan the road ahead and can brake automatically to prevent rear-end crashes when they detect a threat. NHTSA this year also published a final rule to re- quire all new trucks weigh- ing 26,000 pounds or more to be equipped with stability control systems. That rule took effect Aug. 17. – James Jaillet DOT to consider auto-braking mandate The House bill proposes corrective measures for CSA, including the removal from public view of all crash records, violation history and analysis, and percentile rankings. Crash avoidance systems such as those from Bendix and Meritor Wabco have been spec op- tions for all major heavy-duty truck makers for years. Todd Dills