What’s up everyone! It is time for your Wednesday Daily Trucker news update! I’m Carlin Stafford.
And I’m Niki Snyder. We have a lot of news to cover today, including:
- A letter to the White House
- Bill to bail out multiemployer pension plan
- And March and April Highway Angels
So, let’s get trucking!
Niki: A letter from the American Trucking Associations and Road Safe America to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg calls for the implementation of speed-limiting technology on heavy-duty trucks. In the letter this week, the organizations said they support the December 2019-proposed Cullum Owings Large Truck Safe Operating Speed Act, which called for all new commercial trucks to be equipped with speed limiters and to require existing speed-limiting technology already installed on trucks manufactured after 1992 to be used while in operation. The bill called for maximum speeds to be set at 65 mph, or 70 mph if certain safety technologies, such as an adaptive cruise control system and an automatic emergency braking system, were also in use. The bill also called for DOT to review every five years the safety technology available for trucks and recommend any improvements to speed-governing regulations.
Carlin: The American Trucking Associations (ATA) has canceled the 2021 National Truck Driving Championships and National Step Van Driving Championships for the second consecutive year, citing COVID-related issues. The event had been planned for Minneapolis in August. The organizations still however plan to have their Technology & Maintenance Council Spring Meeting Virtually on April 12 through the 16 and April 19-23.
Niki: The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported seasonally adjusted jobs in the trucking sector totaled 1.5 Million in February, a decline from a month earlier. That is a decline of 4,000 jobs from the revised January figure. But the January revision was significant as that month’s trucking jobs had been originally reported at a little over 1.4 Million. The end result is that jobs in trucking in February were mostly flat to where the industry thought they were in January, but the January number turned out to be higher than first reported.
Carlin: Legislation bailing out financially troubled multiemployer pension plans – including a plan covering thousands of employees and retirees from LTL carriers Yellow and ABF Freight – could be signed into law by President Joe Biden as early as this week. The Butch Lewis Pension Plan Relief Act of 2021 was included in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue package that was approved on Saturday by the U.S. Senate along party lines, 50-49. The package is expected to be taken up by the U.S. House of Representatives this week for final approval before being sent to the White House for Biden’s signature. Under the legislation, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), an independent federal agency that provides financial assistance to pension plans that become insolvent, would provide plans with grants that would not need to be repaid, rather than money from the existing multiemployer revolving fund.
Niki: Over this last weekend, a driver was rescued from his rig that was driven into the Jordan River Surplus Canal in Salt Lake City. The driver was uninjured and fire fighters were able to get him to safety. No word on how and why the driver ended up in the canal in the first place.
Carlin: Professional truck drivers Royford Burris, Joseph Brown, Christina Castillo, Phil Cicero, Clayvon Daniels, William and Becky Gregory, Ken Lukomski, and Earl Morgan-Heft have been named Highway Angels by the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) for their acts of heroism while on the road. A big congrats from everyone here at the Truck Boss Show. Keep it up!
That does it for today’s update!
Tune in tomorrow for more trucking news you need!
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