This is the TDMST Weekly Round-Up of news affecting professional truck drivers, written by Vicki Simons for the week ending February 25, 2017.
1. If the trucker was only hauling raisins and figs, why did he appear “very nervous … when [he was] stopped … for routine questioning as he tried to cross the Ambassador Bridge to get to Ontario”?
Because his load contained cocaine, the trucker “now faces a federal charge of Possession with Intent to Deliver Controlled Substance.”
Hauling illegal drugs isn’t worth your trucking career.
2. We would like to know how much trucking companies in Illinois have had to pay out in “distribution fees” in order to do business with the state.
If the trucking fee is repealed, how do Illinois-based trucking companies play to spend the money that would have gone to pay the fee?
What other “neighboring states” have this fee, where does it go and how is it spent?
3. A “truck driver [who] had been driving under the influence of alcohol” killed a 31-year-old motorcyclist.(1)
Don’t drink alcoholic beverages before or during your work as a truck driver.
According to this source, “Most states have adopted the FMCSA regulations for commercial drivers and alcohol, which set a 0.04 percent blood-alcohol concentration limit.
This is half the BAC limit for non-commercial drivers in most states.
The FMCSA rules also stipulate that commercial drivers may not operate a commercial vehicle within four hours of using alcohol.”
4. Use proper loading and unloading procedures so that you don’t get fatally crushed by your load, as this trucker was.
If you are unsure how to go about loading or unloading freight from your truck, get answers from a supervisor.
5. Truckers, if you have been delayed at the Port of Baltimore, how much money have you lost as a result?(2)
Who would pay your detention fee?
Have you ever been successful in being paid for your waiting time?
Please contact us.
6. How can you avoid accidents such as the one where a large bird flew through the windshield of a truck?
patch.com/maryland/havredegrace/bird-through-windshield-sends-truck-driver-hospital-officials (no longer online)
(Photo source.)
7. Congestion in Kentucky costs drivers billions annually and the “cost of traffic congestion increased in 2016 to an average of $1,400 for U.S. drivers” (link).
Truckers, how do you deal with the costs of traffic congestion?
8. “The nation’s three largest banks … collected more than $6.4 billion in” ATM and overdraft fees.
That averages out to be “more than $25 in fees for every American adult.”
Professional drivers, how do you guard your finances against fees like this?
Please share on our budgeting page.
Return from TDMST Weekly Round-Up: 2017.02.25 to our TDMST Weekly Round-Up Trucking Commentary or our Truck Drivers Money Saving Tips home page.
Reference
1. kron4.com/2017/02/21/truck-driver-determined-drunk-in-fatal-collision/ (no longer online)
2. www.abc2news.com/news/region/baltimore-county/truck-drivers-upset-over-long-wait-times-at-port-of-baltimore022017 (no longer online)
