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​ NPTC 2017 Addresses Regulations, Focuses on Private Fleet Retention

by Michelle Nati - Published: 5/03/2017

National Private Truck Council's (NPTC) Annual Conference attendees were informed of regulation decisions carriers now need to be aware of concerning safety fitness determination, driver training standards, and proposed speed limiters for heavy trucks.

According to NPTC President Gary Petty, the conference was not intended solely to focus on regulatory issues, rather, it was to inform private trucking companies of successful practices to retain drivers and to recruit drivers for fleets.

Nonetheless, Petty noted, the NPTC could not sidestep the regulatory issues impacting the industry as a whole.

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The final regulation concerning training standards for entry-level drivers addresses curricula over a three-year phase-in period. Any Class A, B, and CDL applicant, or anyone seeking a HAZMAT, passenger, or school bus endorsement will have to complete both a behind-the-wheel and knowledge training program that meets FMCSA standards. Training establishments, including motor carriers, driver schools, or vocational tech schools, have requirements that they now must meet to certify drivers and be listed in the FMCSA training registry. There is no minimum as to how many hours would be needed complete the training programs, but overall compliance will be mandatory by February 2020.

Speed limiting technology has been available in Class 7 and 8 vehicles since the early 1990s, but its use hasn’t yet been required. The Department of Transportation (DOT) has proposed setting speed limits of 60, 65 or 68 mph. The rule only applies to new vehicles, but would not require existing ones to be retrofitted, despite some U.S. senators requesting those also be included.

Richard P. Schweitzer, PLLC, a Washington, D.C.-based transportation law and policy attorney, doesn’t believe the proposal will fly. “I think a number of carriers looked at it and said it doesn't really make sense to have a single, nationwide upper limit for [commercial motor vehicle] speed," he said. "What would apply on I-95 in Connecticut with the traffic you have there at 5 o'clock on a Friday afternoon really doesn't apply to someone who's hauling across Montana or Wyoming.”

Finally, the Obama administration’s proposed rule determining safety fitness standards on whether a carrier is unfit to operate a commercial motor vehicle is currently dead the water.

The rule, based on a combination of compliance investigations and on-road safety data, would have established a system with two rating levels (fit or unfit) replacing the three rating levels—satisfactory, conditional and unsatisfactory—currently in place. It was shot down by FMCSA in March. Schweitzer stands by that decision, stating “you wouldn't have known whether a carrier had actually been rated or not," and cited the example of a carrier that without enough compliance reviews and roadside inspections to provide sufficient data for a rating.

Congress is currently behind a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) study of the safety methods used in Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (CSA) scores, which discounts the Obama administration's safety fitness rating system.

The NPTC also covered rules on the ELD mandate and hours of service, both ongoing issues within the industry