Arkansas Trucking Association

The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) advisory group concluded a study on the construction options for the Interstate 55 (I-55) interchange on the Arkansas border, determining a long-term full closure of the I-55 Bridge during of the project will not be pursued.

A 93-year-old toymaker, Ed Higinbotham, donated 300 trucks he made in his home workshop to be given to local Pennsylvania kids for Christmas.

Higinbotham has been donating his handcrafted cars, trucks, and horse-drawn tractors for about 30 years and recently began enlisting Pennsylvania State Police troopers to deliver to homeless shelters and Head Start programs.

On Aug. 14, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration released advanced notice of proposed rulemaking to revamp hours-of-service rules for commercial truck drivers. Arkansas Trucking Association along with the American Trucking Associations praises FMCSA for recognizing the opportunity to improve safety and provide additional flexibility for drivers on our nation's highways.

"This proposed rule seeks to enhance safety by giving America's commercial drivers more flexibility while maintaining the safety limits on driving time," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao.

The Arkansas Trucking Association Self Insurers’ Fund has declared a $700,000 dividend to 57 trucking companies that are enrolled in its workers’ compensation insurance trust.

The Arkansas Trucking Association created the insurance trust in 1993 to help members control the cost of workers’ compensation insurance. The trust, which provides coverage to over 4,200 employees, stabilizes costs and rewards employers for safe operations. Any surplus premiums collected are returned to members in the form of dividends after injury claims and other expenses are paid.

The Arkansas Trucking Association held elections for its newest members and new chairman for the Board of the Directors at its annual conference in Little Rock, Ark. May 15 - 17.

Outgoing Board Chairman Al Heringer IV, vice president of Star Transportation, announced Dan Cushman, president and CEO of P.A.M. Transportation Services, as the new chairman to an audience of ATA members in attendance. As chairman, Cushman will serve a one-year, renewable term.

Cushman has a well-rounded transportation career that began as a dock supervisor at Roadway Express. In his 30+ years of trucking, he has gained experience with less-than-truckload, bimodal and railroad, and truckload service. In 2009, he moved to Northwest Arkansas to lead P.A.M., one of the top 100 trucking companies in the U.S. He has served on the Arkansas Trucking Association’s Board of Directors for 10 years.

A new video game (named TMCSuperTech: The Game) by Design Interactive will offer players a chance to test their technician skills using augmented reality technology.

Design Interactive’s product is a game for Android or Apple phones and tablets that models the Technology & Maintenance Council’s National Technician Skills Competition (or TMCSuperTech), the annual two-day skills for professional commercial vehicle technicians that includes hands-on challenges that real technicians face every day. Using AR technology, vehicles navigate a fictional city with fleets of moving trucks that require virtual service. Players execute tasks inspired by TMCSuperTech events, and points are awarded or deducted for the time trucks are repaired and for the longer they remain in service.

Consumer preference for self-driving cars is set to double within the next five years, according to a new study from the Capgemini Research Institute. The report, “The Autonomous Car: A Consumer Perspective,” found the Chinese and millennials are two demographic groups that report feeling the most positive anticipation for a future with self-driving vehicles.

In a global survey of 5,000 people, researchers found that over half (53 percent) Chinese respondents described their feelings toward autonomous vehicles as positive and 12 percent reported negative feelings. While the respondents in the United States and United Kingdom had more mixed feelings (33 percent and 35 percent respectively).

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s pilot program for 18-21-year-old military truck drivers is now accepting its first applications. Approved younger drivers with the military equivalent of a commercial driver’s license will be able to operate across state lines if they are sponsored or hired by a participating fleet.

Currently, drivers between the ages of 18 and 20 are forbidden from operating interstate, but can operate intrastate. The pilot program will serve two groups: military veterans or reservists who are transitioning back to civilian life and the trucking industry that faces a shortage of qualified drivers.

Autonomous trucking start-up Starsky Robotics is recruiting truck drivers to remotely operate commercial trucks in addition to the company’s 36 trucks that are driven by humans.

“Driving trucks is extremely tough and so is finding the right drivers to be a part of this unique opportunity,” says Starsky Robotics Founder and CEO Stefan Seltz-Axmacher. “We’re able to get to know our drivers over the course of a few months to see if they have what it takes to advance into being a safety driver and eventually into a tele-op driver.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s General Counsel Stephen Vaden issued a memo in May clarifying that the hemp can be transported over state lines according to new provisions in the 2018 Farm Bill.

Hemp and its seeds are no longer schedule 1 controlled substances, according to the Farm Bill, and while states and tribes can regulate hemp in their own jurisdictions, they will not be able to stop in from legally being produced in another jurisdiction and transported.

Industrial grade hemp is becoming an increasingly sought-after raw material for a growing array of industrial and consumer goods, including increasingly popular CBD oils, which are used for health purposes by many Americans. Hemp and marijuana are both types of the cannabis plant. But unlike marijuana, hemp does not contain enough THC chemicals to produce the “high.”

When the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a working paper in March that refuted the trucking industry’s claim that it is experiencing a driver shortage despite rising wages, American Trucking Associations Chief Economist Bob Costello criticized the paper and its findings.

In the Bureau’s piece, “Is the U.S. labor market for truck drivers broken?”,  authors Stephen Burks and Kristen Monaco conclude that, contrary to industry and media statements, the trucking labor market is consistent with other blue-collar occupations and while for-hire over-the-road drivers experience high turnover rates, the labor supply is not exceeded by demand.

“Unfortunately in their article Mr. Burks and Ms. Monaco demonstrated some basic misunderstandings about the trucking industry generally and how we at ATA and in the industry discuss the driver shortage,” said Costello.