New Mexico
Trucking Association
4809 Jefferson St. N.E.
Albuquerque, NM 87109
505 884-5575
505 884-3661 (fax)
Click on ITH to link
January 12, 2012
In This Issue:
More Compliance Training Offered for CARB Reporting Deadline
David Geasland Retires from FMCSA
Fradulent Drug/Alcohol Letter Circulating
Washington State Enforces HOS Violations Electronically
Are You Ready for the 2012 NMTA - TDCC Championships
Pay the Fine, Admit Guilt
J.J. Keller Offers Program to Help CSA Education
The Foreign Based Carrier Hordes Are About to Invade the USA - 2nd Mexican Carrier Gets Operating Authority
NM DOT Website Tracks Road Status
Unsure
of State road conditions or closures?
Want to check the weather forecast. Then check out the New
Mexico Department of Transportation's website for compressive to State
traffic information. Click
here to visit the NM DOT website.
On the NM DOT site, you'll find a wide array of State maps, photo galleries, video galleries and much more.
You will also find State-wide and city specific details on:
Road Conditions
Accidents & Incidents
Road Closures
Road Construction
Commercial Vehicle Permits
Weather Alerts
Weather Forecasts
Are You Ready for the 2012 NM Championships?
State Championships Set for May 5th, 2012
For those of you who will have drivers participating in the New Mexico Truck Driving Championships competition this year. The 2012 State and National Rules and Procedures book and the 2012 Facts for Drivers (used to help study for the Championships Written Exam) will be available in February.
Several rules in the rulebook have been changed and others clarified (for example, some of the time limits for the Pre-trip Inspection have changed); and a number of sections and statistics have been updated or added in the Facts for Drivers. Stay tuned for more information. Get your drivers involved - this is a great morale booster and the competition is fierce. Think you have the best drivers or maybe you think you are one of the best drivers – Step right up and show your colleagues what you can do !!
The New Mexico competition will take place on Saturday 5th. of May, 2012 at the Fedex facility located on Los Volcanos, in Albuquerque and the Awards Banquet will take place that evening at the Sheraton Uptown on the corner of Louisiana and Menaul. Look forward to seeing you at both events.
Owner Operator/IRS Update
As many of our readers may know, the federal Internal Revenue Service is currently running what it calls the voluntary classification settlement program (VCSP), offering small businesses that have in the past misclassified employees as independent contractors to reclassify those workers and pay federal employment taxes owing from the change, without penalty or interest. Several months into the program, IRS reports that it’s received more than 120 applications from businesses, but has not signed any agreements yet. IRS emphasizes, however, that the data supplied under the VCSP will not be shared with either the U.S. Department of Labor or any state tax agencies. We are not necessarily recommending that carriers sign up for the VCSP, though it could be helpful to some trucking companies. We do recommend that trucking companies that use owner-operators be careful to treat these drivers as independents rather than as employees.
Reminder Commercial Motor Carriers: Update your VMT and PU data now!
Did You Know…As a motor carrier, your Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT) and Power Unit (PU) data from your Motor Carrier Registration form, known as the MCS-150, are used to calculate your Unsafe Driving and Crash Indicator Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category (BASIC) percentiles. If your VMT data is 2009 or older, it will not be used in your calculations when the January Safety Measurement System (SMS) snapshot is posted at the beginning of February.
Update your MCS-150 now with your 2010 or 2011 VMT/PU data to ensure FMCSA is using the most accurate data available to calculate your percentiles. Click here to update your MCS-150 information. Under the “Existing Registration Updates” section, choose the first option - “I need to update my USDOT number registration information or file my biennial update.”
PLEASE NOTE: The SMS website is updated monthly, so your MCS-150 changes will not be reflected on that site until the next monthly update. You can find the schedule of SMS updates here. MCS-150 updates show up faster on SAFER and the FMCSA Portal websites. Below are a few questions and answers that help to explain the situation.
- If the VMT data is not updated and is 2009 or older, what impact will this have when the snapshot is posted in the beginning of February? SMS uses VMT data if it has been provided within the last 24 months and references one of the two previous years. So, the January 2012 snapshot (released in early February 2012), will only include data provided within the last 24 months and that has a VMT year of 2010 or later.
- What will be affected? This could potentially impact a motor carrier’s Unsafe Driving and Crash Indicator BASICs results – both which use VMT data in their calculations.
- How will motors carrier be affected? Motor carriers that currently receive a VMT-based adjustment due to high truck utilization (i.e. more VMT per PU than the average) will cease receiving that adjustment if they do not update their MCS-150 form to reflect more recent data (i.e. VMT year of 2010 or 2011).
- If they update the information during the month of January will the change be reflected in the January snapshot that is posted in early February? Motor carriers must update their VMT information in the first few weeks of January to avoid this potentially detrimental effect on their Unsafe Drive and Crash Indicator BASIC percentiles.
NMTA Membership Drive Offers Kindle Fire to Promote Membership.
Be the first NMTA Member in 2012
to bring in a New Member to the Association
and win a new Kindle Fire.
How do you win?
- Come up with one or two names of companies that you think should be members of NMTA.
- Contact Vic Sheppard at the NMTA offices with the name and contact information of who your prospect is. You can e-mail Vic at nmta@truckline.com or call at (505) 884 – 5575
- Contact your prospect and tell them you would like them to join. (The Association will also be contacting them)
- If your prospect is the first company to join before January 31, 2012 the Kindle Fire is yours.
Oregon Offers A Sensible Anti-Idling Law?
If you are going to have anti-idling laws, Oregon’s new rules are probably the way to go. The new law went into effect on January 1 and provides a great deal of wiggle room for drivers who have to operate in extreme heat and cold. Seeing as the state’s territory includes both a desert and a temperate mountain range,
Oregon was never the most likely candidate for a successful anti-idling law. Lawmakers, however, seem to have been practical in the creation of the law. The basics are this: You can’t idle the engine of a vehicle weighing more than 10,000 lbs for more than five minutes in a continuous sixty minutes.
UNLESS, you are in a vehicle that weighs 26,001 lbs or more and the temperature is either lower than 50 degrees or higher than 75 degrees. This is to allow you to use the heat or air-conditioning to regulate temperature. Note that if you have an auxiliary power supply, the exemption does not apply to you, you have to use that power supply. Also, if there is anti-idling technology available at the rest stop, you must use that. Finally, the exemption does not apply if you are parked next to a school (private or public).
The benefits of anti-idling laws and technology are generally recognized by the trucking community, however, very frequently, they do not really apply to the reality of a trucker’s lifestyle. It’s nice to see a law that recognizes that it is not feasible for truckers to sleep in an unconditioned metal box in 100 degree heat.
