Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/748284
Logbook 12 | Overdrive | November 2016 App helps drivers find available parking spots A new resource was made available for truck drivers looking for available park- ing. With the Park My Truck mobile app, public and private truck parking providers can update the number of available parking spaces at any time to help drivers determine if there are open spaces at a given location. The app includes the parking spaces at more than 5,000 U.S. truck stops, along with some rest areas. Independent and chain truck stops representing more than 150,000 truck parking spaces are participating in reporting available spaces. The app is free to download on both iPhone and Google Play. It's the result of an initiative between the National Association of Truck Stop Operators, NATSO Foundation, American Trucking Associations and American Transportation Research Institute. – Matt Cole A user can search for parking spaces within a certain distance of a location, up to 250 miles, or search by state or along an interstate. SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE7 smartphone owners should turn the phones off and keep them unplugged while in a commercial vehicle, according to a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administra- tion safety advisory issued last month. Recalls have been issued on the phones because of incidents involving their lithium-ion batteries overheating and catching fire. A DAIMLER TRUCKS recall affects 156 Freightliners and Western Stars equipped with Conmet aluminum non-high-capacity front axle hubs manufactured between March 15, 2013, and July 29, 2016. The trucks specify a front axle weight limit that could be higher than the hub's capacity, causing the hub to fail and the wheel to separate from the axle. NEW JERSEY'S LEGISLATURE last month passed a pair of bills to provide tax cuts to residents and fund the state's Transportation Trust Fund with $2 billion per year for the next eight years through an increase in fuel taxes. A federal mandate requiring nearly all U.S. truck operators to use elec- tronic logging devices to track duty status has been upheld in court. That means the Dec. 18, 2017, compliance date remains effective. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals voted unanimously to keep the man- date in place. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association had filed a lawsuit on behalf of two truckers in March in an attempt to have the mandate overturned. OOIDA President and CEO Jim Johnston said the group is "review- ing our next steps to continue our challenge against this regulation." OOIDA has the option of appealing the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. The decision does not change the rule's exemption for pre-2000 year-model trucks, which are allowed to operate without an ELD. The appeals court decision was issued Oct. 31, securing a victory for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and its ELD rule. OOIDA was unable to convince the court of its arguments that the rule violates truckers' Fourth Amend- ment rights to privacy. OOIDA also claimed the rule didn't meet stan- dards set by Congress for an ELD mandate — an argument the court also rejected. The rule "is not arbitrary or capri- cious, nor does it violate the Fourth Amendment," the 7th circuit judges wrote in their decision. This is the same court that tossed out FMCSA's 2010-published ELD mandate on the grounds that the rule didn't do enough to protect truckers from ha- rassment by carriers via the devices. – James Jaillet OOIDA mulls further ELD appeal