Attention! The United Carrier Registration (UCR) Board of Directors is canceling until further notice the start of the 2018 registration period though FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) finishes the rulemaking process for 2018 payments.   UCR is recommending to all states that the implementation period for 2018 compliance not begin until 90 days after the final rulemaking is published because of this unanticipated further delay. The fee levels being…

A trucker has been charged in federal court with threatening to kill President Donald Trump in numerous phone calls to Secret Service field offices. Matthew Lariviere a Special Agent wrote in a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday that James Anthony Jackson repetitively called the Secret Service field office in Chicago on Oct. 12-13 and made more phone calls on Oct. 18 to the field office in Detroit threatening to “blow Trump’s…

  President Donald Trump plans to nominate Raymond P. Martinez to run the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, according to an update posted to the White House’s website. Martinez is the current chief administrator of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission.   Martinez must be confirmed by the Senate, to become the official head of the FMCSA.   Martinez was serving as the head of New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle Commission…

Elaine L. Chao the Secretary of U.S. Department of Transportation has directed FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) to provide the following states with Regional Emergency Declaration before Hurricane Irma: Georgia Florida Alabama North and South Carolina Mississipi Tennessee the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico,  and the territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands   Emergency Declarations will cause the temporary postponement of certain Federal safety regulations for drivers and motor carriers…

December 18 was set a deadline for ELD (the Electronic Logging Device) mandate. It requires that all vehicles that were produced after 2000 should be equipped by ELDs. Nevertheless, OOIDA (Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association) is not in favor of the rule.   The OODIA justifies its opposition by saying that 26 states failed to include the ELD regulations into their rules and should not be enforced to implement the…

On Monday, Aug. 21, with the first total solar eclipse visible to the continental U. S. in nearly 40 years happening. Therefore, many states in the path of the total eclipse have supplied restrictions to truckers. The eclipse will be noticeable in almost every state of the contiguous U.S., however, at least portions of 14 states will see a total eclipse where the sun will be fully blocked out by…

On Aug 9, an agency official remained law executing officials that ELDs (electronic logging devices) should be registered at FMCSA in order to be valid.   Danielle Smith, a transportation specialist with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s passenger carrier division said: “It’s not an ELD unless it’s listed on our website. That’s going to be part of what you do during an inspection; you’re going to verify that it…

More than 21 U.S. House members signed the bill to cancel ELD (electronic logging device) mandate by two years. Nevertheless, it should be noted that currently, the Congress is busy with sorting out larger reforms that is why the bill cannot become the law.   The only opportunity that the bill will become a law would be to include it as part of a larger bill like Department of Transportation…

Two new rules that seek to make CDL licensing more efficient and cut its costs were proposed on June 9 by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. “Taken together, these two proposals will help ease the entry for thousands of qualified individuals into career opportunities as professional truck and bus drivers – a critical occupation facing an acute labor shortage in our country,” said FMCSA Deputy Administrator Daphne Jefferson. “We…