WASHINGTON — The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), working with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, has updated, improved and re-released its emergency declarations website.
In addition to the up-to-date content previously available on the site, the emergency declarations website now also provides:
- Information on changes to allowable weights through a standard set of pertinent information, which includes contact information for each state’s overweight permitting office;
- An interactive map of declarations throughout Canada, Mexico and the U.S.;
- The ability to subscribe to notices of new declarations;
- Information on the issuer of the relief, the type of relief granted, and emergency declarations’ beginning and end dates;
- Comprehensive exemption details, including all relevant information for vehicle permits for size, overweight restrictions on interstates, waivers for overweight restrictions on state roads, and marking and lighting relief; and
- Contact information for the jurisdiction’s issuer.
Previously, the emergency declarations website focused just on emergency relief of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations Title 49 Code of Federal Regulations § 390-399 provided to motor carriers through the states or the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. CVSA has expanded the site’s offerings and capabilities and improved the user experience, according to a news release.
“During an emergency, moving relief supplies efficiently to an affected area may require shippers to route through multiple jurisdictions,” the news release stated.
“To facilitate speedy delivery of such supplies, jurisdictions may use emergency declarations to temporarily alter certain requirements for shippers and motor carriers. There may be multiple sources of information about waivers, amendments, extensions, exemptions, executive orders, etc., as well as changes to allowable vehicle weights issued during emergencies, which results in confusion among drivers, shippers, motor carriers and state departments of transportation. The emergency declarations website aims to eliminate that confusion by offering one easy-to-access, up-to-date public online repository that the commercial motor vehicle enforcement community and the motor carrier industry may reference at any time.”
CVSA Executive Director Collin Mooney said that “providing necessary regulatory relief during emergencies is crucial to preventing loss of life and preserving critical transportation infrastructure. CVSA’s emergency declarations website is a reliable online source for emergency information, resulting in improved movement of critical relief supplies during national, regional and local emergencies.”
CVSA will be offering a webinar on Friday, June 24, about the enhanced CVSA emergency declarations website and its new features.
Drivers are urged to check out the CVSA emergency declarations website and bookmark it for quick and easy access to the site whenever you need it.
The CVSA notes that “if the president should provide a major disaster declaration for any state, that state and any others may choose to issue special permits for trucks carrying divisible loads of emergency relief supplies in excess of federal weight limits to (or hauling debris from) the affected area on the interstate highway system up to the end of the 120-day period of availability of that declaration.”
Permits are eligible for travel to and through a state for which a current declaration is active from any other state. View presidential declarations
The Trucker News Staff produces engaging content for not only TheTrucker.com, but also The Trucker Newspaper, which has been serving the trucking industry for more than 30 years. With a focus on drivers, the Trucker News Staff aims to provide relevant, objective content pertaining to the trucking segment of the transportation industry. The Trucker News Staff is based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
