TDMST Weekly Roundup: 2020.06.27

This is the TDMST Weekly Round-Up of news affecting professional truck drivers, written by Vicki Simons for the week ending June 27, 2020.

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

TDMST Weekly Round-Up

1. Regarding California, CARB and electric trucks:

Did you hear about the “clean truck” or “clean air” mandate in California?

By the year 2045, every new truck sold in California must be “zero-emission.”

Goodbye, diesel!

This news makes me wonder:

what will eventually happen to trucks that travel into California; and
how many Californians will be going out-of-state to buy their trucks.

According to one article, “Fleet owners with 50 or more trucks are required to report about their existing fleet operations.”

And there are more regulations coming!

Wow!

Here are the recent news articles about this:

One other thought: If something happened that would wipe out the ability of totally electric vehicles to operate, wouldn’t there be a lot of people stranded on the roads without transportation?

Hmm…

2. Regarding things legal and illegal:

We cover the topic of truck cams on our site.

One of the aspects of in-truck camcorders that we do not cover is “cab-facing” or “driver-facing” units.

One article this week covered the topic:

Are driver-facing cameras legal?

The following items cover marijuana in different respects:

Don’t try to smuggle drugs in a fuel tank (or anywhere else on a truck)!

Don’t try to smuggle people in a truck, even if they are hidden!

Agents intercept three smuggling attempts at border, 94 illegal immigrants found in trucks

3. Regarding the economy:

There’s so much going on with the economies in the USA and Canada.

Here are some of the most recent articles:

4. Regarding activists and protesters:

We were saddened to learn that an “animal activist” was killed while attempting to show “compassion” for the livestock on board one truck.

It doesn’t ease the pain of her death, but she was violating an “anti-trespassing” rule.

I wish that anti-trespassing rules were passed to protect all trucks and truckers, not just livestock haulers.

If there were, perhaps we wouldn’t be hearing about the problems of protesters and rioters swarming trucks and truckers.

There have been quite a number of articles lately about protests either being planned or taking place in various places.

One thing that I’ve observed is that there are different kinds of state “Stand Your Ground Laws” around the USA.

My home state of South Carolina has a “Castle Doctrine” that basically says that “there is no duty to retreat [from] an attacker in any place in which one is lawfully present.”

Upon researching this within the South Carolina Code of Laws, in Title 16, Chapter 11, Article 6:

SECTION 16-11-420. Intent and findings of General Assembly.

(A) It is the intent of the General Assembly to codify the common law Castle Doctrine which recognizes that a person’s home is his castle and to extend the doctrine to include an occupied vehicle and the person’s place of business.

(B) The General Assembly finds that it is proper for law-abiding citizens to protect themselves, their families, and others from intruders and attackers without fear of prosecution or civil action for acting in defense of themselves and others.

(C) The General Assembly finds that Section 20, Article I of the South Carolina Constitution guarantees the right of the people to bear arms, and this right shall not be infringed.

(D) The General Assembly finds that persons residing in or visiting this State have a right to expect to remain unmolested and safe within their homes, businesses, and vehicles.

(E) The General Assembly finds that no person or victim of crime should be required to surrender his personal safety to a criminal, nor should a person or victim be required to needlessly retreat in the face of intrusion or attack.

Again, laws vary by state.

Please stay safe.

The following are recent articles about protests (planned or actual):

5. Regarding nuclear verdicts:

You may be aware that a “nuclear verdict” is a jury award in which the penalty exceeds $10 million.

Recent articles about nuclear verdicts include:

You may also wish to read the information these pages on our site:

6. Regarding trucking numbers:

There were numerous articles published this week that addressed different kinds of numbers in or from the trucking industry:

Of the two articles about cargo theft spiking in the Memphis, Tennessee area (here and here), the latter article recommends:

“Place a heavy-gauge wire seal at the top of the trailer that is inaccessible from the street level”

I’ve never heard of this before.

Do you have any experience with this — and if so, would you please contact us through the form below?

A June 26, 2020, article opened with:

“A current bill to increase insurance requirements will put a strain on already struggling carriers and will likely force a lot of small carriers and owner operators out of business.”

Near the end, the article stated:

“On Wednesday, June 24, OOIDA sent a letter to its members asking them to contact [the representatives listed at the bottom of the article].”

If you feel strongly about this, please contact the U.S. House members listed to give your feedback.

Another article on this topic is:

New Plan Introduced to STOP Massive Insurance Hike on Small Trucking Businesses

7. Regarding truck operations:

Did you know that DEF can “expire”?

Because it can, “watch for expiration dates.”

Evidently, one doesn’t have to look into a crystal ball in order to tell “which truckers are most likely to crash.”

These articles address upcoming blitzes:

While the following article sounds positive, I have observations and a question:

California car hauler wins major award for cutting down on idling fleet-wide

Observation 1: Nowhere in the article was there any mention of the temperature inside the vehicle that the driver experienced.
Observation 2: Nowhere in the article was there any mention of climate control from non-idling sources.
Observation 3: Car haulers do not generally have sleeper berths installed on them.

Question: Is climate control even needed on car haulers?

For reference purposes, I wrote 9 pages on our site having to do with idling and we also wrote a review of a battery-powered climate control device that worked poorly in Mike’s truck.

8. Regarding brokers:

The issue of freight brokers is still in the news and I hope it will continue to be in the news until the issues that truckers and trucking companies have raised are fixed.

9. Regarding shootings and safety:

If you’re face-to-face with an attacker, that’s one thing.

But what do you do if someone is shooting at the truck you’re driving — or you! — when you’re in transit?

We’d love to hear your thoughts if you’ll send them through the form below. 🙂

Here are some of the most recent articles about shootings:

The following kind of shooting is different:

Trucker Who Opened Fire on Assailants After Being Robbed and Beaten is Going to Prison

Here are “Four Ways to Improve Your Fleet’s Safety Culture”:
from TruckingInfo.com and TruckNews.com.

10. Regarding scanners:

The state of Arizona has added more scanners, per the articles listed here:

Based on what I read, the technology in the scanners includes or looks at:

weigh-in-motion sensors for the truck’s weight,
cameras to read USDOT numbers and license plates,
“message signs,” and
ability to detect tires that are damaged or need to be repaired.

One article also stated:

“The computer checks the truck’s credentials against national and state databases”; and
“If there is an issue identified with the commercial vehicle, such as expired registration, federal out-of-service orders or required permits not on file, the message boards will direct the driver to pull into the port for further inspection.”

So get ready for an electronic form of “your papers, please” when it comes to driving a commercial motor vehicle in Arizona, at least through the ports of entry.

I anticipate, too, that this kind of scanning will become more commonplace around the USA (and possibly the world) as these technologies are more fully developed: