Roses & Razzberries – November 2021
ROSES to Pennsylvania Rep. David Zimmerman, R-Lancaster, who sponsored a bill which would require the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to stagger the expiration dates of commercial vehicles’ apportioned registrations. Pennsylvania now mandates every apportioned vehicle registration to expire annually on May 31, which has historically created a backlog, Zimmerman said. The proposed bill would provide at least four renewal periods each year and “not only create a more efficient process for the trucking industry, but for PennDOT as well.” As of late September, the bill was in the state’s House Transportation Committee.
RAZZBERRIES to Werner Enterprises and their attempt to benefit from driver shortage claims. The company asked the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for an exemption from a regulation that requires a commercial learner’s permit holder to be accompanied by a CDL holder in the passenger seat. Such a request has been granted to other companies in the past, but unlike the others Werner cited a “historic driver shortage.” Unfortunately for Werner, FMCSA cited statistics showing that the driver turnover rate at large fleets is 90% or more at a driver retention roundtable earlier this year.
You say shortage, I say turnover.
RAZZBERRIES to the seven additional individuals who have been charged in connection with “Operation Sideswipe,” a sweeping conspiracy to deliberately crash cars into commercial vehicles and defraud trucking companies and their insurers. The conspiracy, which operated in the New Orleans area, has included at least 40 people who have been charged. Of those charged in connection with Operation Sideswipe, at least 25 have pleaded guilty, including personal injury lawyer Danny Patrick Keating Jr., who admitted to paying a co-conspirator for 31 illegally staged crashes involving tractor-trailers, said a U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana news release. The nerve of some people.
ROSES to FMCSA and OOIDA for their organization of a Town Hall meeting at the Guilty By Association Truck Show in Joplin, Mo. Joe DeLorenzo, FMCSA’s director of the Office of Enforcement and Compliance; OOIDA President Todd Spencer, OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh; Collin Long, OOIDA director of government affairs; and Jay Grimes, OOIDA director of federal affairs, comprised the panel for the Q&A session.
“How often does a trucker have a chance to sit down and talk with FMCSA and get clarity on a regulation,” Pugh said. “This is an opportunity for a productive dialogue between truckers and FMCSA.”
Productive dialogue – now there’s something that we could all use more of in our lives.
ROSES to all the students who participated in the 2021 Safety Student Art Contest, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The contest asked students in kindergarten through high school to create artwork that displayed safety messaging for all road users. The winning artwork of 12 students will be featured in the 2022 Road Safety Student Art calendar as well as inside the U.S. DOT headquarters in Washington, D.C.
RAZZBERRIES to reality television star and supposed trucking company owner Maurice Fayne, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison and ordered to pay almost $5 million in restitution for his part in a Paycheck Protection Program loan fraud and Ponzi scheme. According to the original affidavit, Fayne applied for a PPP loan of nearly $4 million with United Community Bank in April 2020. Instead of using the loan money legitimately, Fayne used it for child support, custom jewelry, a Rolls-Royce and restitution from a previous fraud among a variety of other impressible expenses. Payne has filed a notice to appeal, so stay tuned.
RAZZBERRIES to Congress and their continued refusal to address the truck parking crisis. Most recently, an OOIDA-backed amendment that would have provided $1 billion in funding to address the crisis failed by a vote of 36-29 in the House T&I Committee. “It’s tough to swallow the fact that in a year when Congress is authorizing hundreds of billions of dollars for infrastructure projects and highway safety programs, not a single penny was set aside for truck parking,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said. If not now, when? LL