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Insurance is one of the largest expenses trucking companies face and the exposure resulting from catastrophic accidents can spell doom. Despite that, many companies fail to review company insurance policies, ignoring important changes that might protect them from the many risks involved in hauling a load down the highway. Trucking companies must understand what insurance is needed for their operations and revisit their overall comprehensive plan at least annually. Federal Regulations impose various financial responsibility requirements on interstate motor carriers.… Read More

On May 31st, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued new regulatory guidance to clarify the agency’s regulations on personal conveyance with regards to records of duty status. It’s the first time since 1997 that this particular topic has been altered or expanded. In issuing this new guidance, the FMCSA sought to provide additional clarity on the use of personal conveyance as a type of off-duty status, provide more details to determine if a particular movement of a commercial… Read More

The Virginia Trucking Association's #1 issue for 2018 is the Study of I-81 Improvements and Truck-Only Tolls! Please read this important update and clarification about the upcoming series of public meetings and commit to getting involved in support of the VTA's efforts on your behalf! As a reminder, the first series of I-81 Corridor Improvement Plan public meetings continue this week: Tuesday, June 12, 2018 - Staunton District (north) Strasburg High School 250 Ram Drive Strasburg, VA 22657 Wednesday, June… Read More

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (“THUD”) funding bill for the fiscal year 2019. This appropriations bill funds the Department of Transportation and related agencies, among other federal departments. As with many of these large appropriation bills, numerous “riders,” or additional, small provisions attached to larger bills, made it through the committee stage. Several riders relate to the trucking industry in particular. One issue is with respect to livestock and insect haulers. They… Read More

If you can read this, you have access to a router. Maybe it's at home, but most of our readers are in small to mid-sized business, and all of them use routers. In a rare event, the FBI last week told Americans to "reboot" their routers. It showed up everywhere, including in the NY Times, and Fortune, and Forbes, and even PCWorld and Slate. I was asked about it by colleagues, friends, and baristas. It really is that big of… Read More

The Virginia Trucking Association's #1 issue for 2018 is the Study of I-81 Improvements and Truck-Only Tolls! Please read this important update and clarification about the upcoming series of public meetings and commit to getting involved in support of the VTA's efforts on your behalf! As previously announced, the Secretary of Transportation’s Office of Intermodal Planning and Investment (OIPI), VDOT and the Dept. of Rail and Public Transportation have developed their plan to study the entire length of the Interstate… Read More

Under the Equal Pay Act, all employers must pay equal wages to women and men in the same establishment for performing substantially equal work. The law covers jobs that require substantially equal skill, effort and responsibility and are performed under similar working conditions. The law covers all forms of pay, including salary, overtime pay, bonuses, stock options, profit sharing and bonus plans, life insurance, vacation and holiday pay, cleaning or gasoline allowances, hotel accommodations, reimbursement for travel expenses and benefits.… Read More

The Supreme Court on May 21 handed down a ruling, Epic Systems Corporation v. Lewis, that protected employers whose employees had signed arbitration agreements from being sued by those same employees for employment related issues in a class action lawsuit. The lawsuit pitted two separate federal laws against each other: the 1935 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and the 1925 Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”). The NLRA gives employees the right to self-organization and to “engage in concerted activities for the… Read More