TDMST Weekly Round-Up 2025.11.29

TDMST Weekly Round-Up 2025.11.29 is the trucking commentary on news affecting professional truck drivers for the week ending November 29, 2025, written by Vicki Simons.

I welcome your comments, thoughts and feedback on the items of your choice below.

TDMST Weekly Round-Up

1. Regarding holiday, language:

Holiday

Even though the official 2025 Thanksgiving weekend includes Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, November 27) and Black Friday (November 28), some people may include the Saturday (Small Business Saturday), Sunday, and Monday (Cyber Monday) that follow.

Thieves will be looking for cargo to steal, so it behooves every professional truck driver — no matter how long he/she parks his/her truck — to keep one’s tractor and trailer securely locked.

For your convenience, I am listing here resources for your consideration:

What are your best tips for reducing/eliminating truck/trailer/cargo theft?

Please comment through the form below.

Language

Articles in this section have to do with English language proficiency.

This is part of “General qualifications of drivers [who drive a commercial motor vehicle]” 49 C.F.R. 391.11(b)(2):

Can read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries, and to make entries on reports and records;

Here are at least some of this week’s articles on this topic:

2. Regarding ban, weather:

Ban

Please pay attention to all truck bans, where roads have been closed to commercial motor vehicles.

Fines for ignoring truck bans can be substantial.

Furthermore, if a trucker wrecks his/her truck on a road that has been closed due to an official ban, being rescued may take a considerable amount of time.

I would like to know if CMV-specific GPS units automatically update road closures based on weather conditions.

If you know, please comment through the form below.

Weather

Pay attention to weather conditions and drive accordingly.

3. Regarding alcohol, crashes, death, drugs, fatalities, fraud, road rage, scam, theft, violence:

Alcohol

Never ever consume alcohol — or use an alcohol-containing product (such as mouthwash) — before beginning to drive a commercial motor vehicle!

Crashes

Please look through these articles to see if there is anything you can learn to help you prevent being involved in a similar crash.

Death

I express my deep sympathy — and offer my condolences — to the families of those whose loved ones died in these crashes.

Please pay attention to one-way-only signs.

Wrong-way driver dies after head-on crash with big rig in Oregon

Drugs

Never ever haul or take illegal drugs.

Fatalities

I express my deep sympathy — and offer my condolences — to the families of those whose loved ones died in these crashes.

Can you learn anything from the articles below that would help prevent being involved in a fatal large truck crash?

Fraud

Never attempt to deceive, misrepresent something, intentionally pervert the truth, or pretend to be someone else for the purpose of trying to get something valuable.

Road rage

Seek to avoid road rage incidents.

Wyoming cops arrest semi truck driver after road rage event

Scam

Please be aware of and speak out against these and other types of scams that can impact truckers and trucking companies.

Theft

Never take something that doesn’t belong to you unless you have permission from the owner.

With as much surveillance equipment as is in place in the 21st century, it’s only a matter of time before the thieves are apprehended.

Violence

It is never right to perpetrate violence upon someone in an unprovoked manner.

All perpetrators of violence must be dealt with in a just legal manner.

4. Regarding Amazon, border, business, capacity, insurance, leasing, recalls:

Amazon

Border

Business

Capacity

Tis the season for the annual capacity purge

Insurance

Motive Partners with Geico to Offer Insurance Savings for Fleets

Leasing

There are numerous mentions regarding truck leasing on this site.

One article is entitled:

Commercial Truck Leasing: Beware of Designed-to-Fail Schemes

Pay: Leased-owner, company-driver preferences v. reality

Recalls

If your tractor or trailer is under a recall, please have the work attended to as soon as possible.

5. Regarding autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles, emissions, fuel:

Autonomous vehicles

I totally oppose the operation of driverless, autonomous, or self-driving commercial motor vehicles on the same roads as the motoring public — but I share articles on this topic with our readers to help us stay current on the topic.

Electric vehicles

Before you buy an all-electric Commercial Motor Vehicle, please do your due diligence by asking some questions and getting answers.

Proterra Upbeat on Battery-Electric Demand Prospects

Emissions

Range Zero Emissions becomes first Rizon dealer in Washington

Fuel

6. Regarding bypass, CDLs, ELDs, parts:

Bypass

PrePass, Vermont Launch App in State to Speed Truck Travel

CDLs

ELDs

How many times will the FMCSA reject the use of certain ELDs after they once previously required only self-certification of the products?

Others within the trucking industry were speaking out against the Electronic Logging Devices “mandate” long before December 4, 2017, but you may read my commentary on the mandate.

In TDMST Weekly Round-Up: 2017.12.09, I quoted Indiana’s Attorney General, Curtis Hill, regarding the self-certification provision regarding ELDs.

I also asked, “In what other industry besides trucking has the government ever mandated the purchase of a ‘self-certification’ product?”

So, I’m truly distressed for every trucker who invested in a “self-certified” ELD that used to be on the approved list, only to later have that certification revoked!

If you are such a trucker, I want to hear from you about how expensive this was for you.

Parts

7. Regarding congestion, inspections, legal, regulations:

Congestion

Toronto’s Hwy. 401 congestion costs truck drivers 216 hours a year

Inspections

If you keep yourself and your rig in perpetual readiness for an inspection, you’ll never be caught off-guard.

Legal

Regulations

8. Regarding economy, employment, fines:

Economy

Employment

Fines

A section of this article reads:

Commercial vehicle fines for distracted driving would double to $1,000–$2,000 for a first offence, rising to $1,000–$4,000 for a second and $1,000–$6,000 for third and subsequent offences. The suspensions tied to those offences would escalate to seven, 14 and 60 days respectively. Minimum fines for speed limiter violations would rise from $250 to $1,000, including operating a commercial vehicle without a functioning limiter.

Ouch!

Please avoid the behavior that would prompt these fines.

Ontario proposes tougher fines, suspensions for commercial vehicle drivers

9. Regarding parking, securement, snow chains:

Parking

Securement

No matter what commodities you haul, make sure that your load is properly secured!

Group files suit after tanker truck leak in Oklahoma

Snow chains

For your convenience, here are posts about snow chains on this site:

Please be aware of which jurisdictions require snow traction devices and when.

Colorado cops hand out the most tickets for mandatory chain carry violations at these five locations

10. Regarding politics, protest, towing:

Politics

Protest

Widespread blockades snarl highways across Mexico, threatening freight flows

Towing

The article in this section says:

North Carolina is hitting the brakes on predatory towing, rolling out new protections for truckers and motorists alike on Dec. 1.

The Tar Heel State joins Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, and Indiana as states that have acted this year on nonconsensual towing.

Have you had an experience with a predatory towing company?