HM Compliance Date
Effective January 1, 2013, you can no longer send ORMD shipments by air. Items that formerly used the ORMD classification must be packaged, marked and labeled as a Limited Quantity. Effective 2014 the ORMD classification will be entirely phased out. Most shippers have already made the change but ORMD can still be shipped by ground until January 1, 2014. This change is part of the ongoing harmonization with the UN Dangerous Goods regulations.
Operation Air Brake
During the fall CVSA sponsored a week long enforcement event focused on brakes. Unlike their annual Roadcheck, this week-long blitz targets brakes and brake components in inspections conducted throughout North America. Here are some of the results:
- 21,255 vehicles were inspected – fewer than the record 30,872 vehicles in 2011.
- 9.4% of vehicles were placed OOS for brake adjustment
- 8.4% in 2011, 8.9% in 2010).
- 15.3% of vehicles were placed OOS for brakes overall
- Canadian OOS rates were lower than the US:
- 5.5% for brake adjustment
- 10.8% overall OOS rate
.
During recent years the overall out-of-service rate has been rising:
- 2012 – 15.3%
- 2011 – 14.2%
- 2010 – 13.5%
The Operation Airbrake campaign was first developed in 1998 in Canada and over 2.6 million brakes have been inspected. The fact that the out-of-service rate has been rising should be of concern to all of us. Keep in mind out-of-adjustment brakes increase stopping distance and that rear end accidents are among the most costly.
Brakes were cited as an associated factor in nearly three of ten CMV crashes,
according to the most recent Large Crash Causation study.
Medical & Recreational Marijuana
In November voters in some states passed initiatives that permit the use of marijuana for recreational or medicinal purposes. The following statement from the DOT sums up their reaction to these events:
“We want to make it perfectly clear that the state initiatives will have no bearing on the Department of Transportation’s regulated drug testing program. The Department of Transportation’s Drug and Alcohol Testing Regulation — 49 CFR Part 40 — does not authorize the use of Schedule I drugs, including marijuana, for any reason. Therefore, Medical Review Officers (MROs) will not verify a drug test as negative based upon learning that the employee used “recreational marijuana” […or that…] a physician recommended that the employee use “medical marijuana”.”
NHTSA Releases 2011 Data
In 2011, 32,367 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in the United States — the lowest number of fatalities since 1949 when there were 30,246 fatalities. This represents a 1.9-percent decline as compared to 2010 (32,999), according to NHTSA’s (National Highway Transportation Safety Administration) 2011 Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). An even more dramatic statistic is that in 1949 the death rate per 100 million miles traveled was around 7 and in 2011 it stood at an all-time low of 1.10. Most observers credit this decline to vehicle safety features and improved highway design.
Alcohol impaired crashes accounted for 31% of the deaths. The rate declined for all vehicles except motorcycles which increased 8.6%. The large truck category decreased 16%.
The number of people killed in large truck crashes increased by 1.9%. Included in that number are several sharp increases for large truck occupants:
– Deaths up 20%
– Injuries up 15%
You can view the entire report at:https://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811701.pdf
Trucker Sentenced
In November we published a story about GPS navigation and how it can lead trucks into bad situations. An Illinois trucker, following GPS directions, had tried to cross a 12’6″ three ton weight limit wooden covered bridge causing major structural damage. This took place in north east Indiana and just before Christmas the trucker plead guilty to a felony charge of criminal mischief and was sentenced to 180 days in jail. That’s the first we’ve heard of a jail sentence as a result of a bridge strike, but then again trying to cross a low clearance wooden covered bridge with a tractor trailer is a fairly egregious violation.
In a related story, an enterprising person in Durham, NC, set up a camera to record the numerous trucks that hit a railroad bridge clearly marked 11′ 8″ with signs and flashing lights. The majority of the offenders were driving rental straight trucks, but this video shows a tractor trailer challenging the bridge and losing: https://11foot8.com/can-not-truck-hits-11foot8-bridge/
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