The funding, made possible through the Next Level Roads: Community Crossings Initiative, will be dispersed across 229 cities, towns and counties, according to an INDOT press release issued Oct. 10. Community Crossings, which Holcomb signed into law in April 2017, has awarded more than $612 million in state matching funds to local government agencies.

The purpose of the program is to boost economic vitality by helping communities with projects such as road resurfacing and preservation, bridge rehabilitation and replacement and road reconstruction to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Material costs associated with crack filling and chip sealing also are eligible for funding. Chip sealing involves adding a coating of liquid asphalt and aggregate to protect the surface of the road.

“High-quality local roads and bridges are an important part of our formula for attracting jobs, growing our economy and building strong communities,” Holcomb said. “Our fully funded Next Level Roads plan and record-b

reaking level of construction has gained Indiana national recognition for our approach to infrastructure, and Community Crossings takes that commitment to the local level all across the state.”

The Community Crossings program has grown in popularity since its inception. According to the press release, the latest round of funding attracted more applications than there were dollars available. INDOT accepts applications for the program twice a year, in January and July. There is a $1 million cap annually per community for local government agencies interested in applying.

There will be an estimated $100 million available to communities that apply during the January 2020 call for projects. INDOT evaluates projects on a basis of need, traffic volume, local support, regional economics and impact on mobility.

“Efficiently and safely moving people and commerce is vital to the quality of life and vitality of our communities,” said Indiana DOT Commissioner Joe McGuinness. “INDOT is excited to partner with communities through this matching grant program to make infrastructure investments that contribute to the success of all Hoosier cities, towns and counties.”

In order to be considered for funding, local government agencies must provide matching funds from a source approved for road and bridge construction. Larger communities must match 50%, while smaller ones must match 25%. They also are required to submit an asset management plan approved by INDOT for maintaining existing roads and bridges.

The funding is meant to help smaller communities, although all Indiana city, town and county government agencies are eligible to apply. State law requires that 50% of the available matching funds annually get awarded to places within counties that have populations of 50,000 or fewer people.

In November 2018, INDOT divided $100 million across 283 cities, towns and counties for local road projects through the Next Level Roads: Community Crossings Initiative.

INDOT also has used federal funds to support local road projects. In March 2018, the agency directed $161 million to rural road, bridge and sidewalk projects. The money was divided among 66 towns, cities and counties to support bridge rehabilitations, resurfacing efforts and traffic safety projects. The federal funds were supplemented with local funds, creating $212 million for those infrastructure projects.

The business of moving freight is all about connection. The connection between shipper and carrier, between driver and vehicle, between technician and engine — all of these are critical.

As an intermodal carrier, I see these connections in practice every day. Living in that space between the port and the railhead or highway and distribution center is part of the rhythm of my daily life.

As I take up the responsibility of being American Trucking Associations’ chairman, I have spent a lot of time thinking about the importance of connections. We have important connections — to our fellow members, to our state associations, to our affiliates — and those connections help us raise our collective voice to connect to lawmakers, regulators and law enforcement to move our industry forward.

To me, it is those connections that make our federation strong. They allow us to, when we work together to strengthen them, effect change. Just look at what we have been able to accomplish since we gathered last in Austin: We were able to secure critical relief from onerous state meal-and-rest-break rules; we changed and shaped the conversation on infrastructure; we made the case for sensible hours-of-service reform, resulting in a proposal to provide flexibility for our drivers.

Our industry, despite our differences and diversity, faces the same challenges — finding and keeping good drivers; congestion; proliferation of tolls; over-regulation; and increasing threats from an aggressive plaintiff’s bar that sees our trucks as rolling piggy banks.

As chairman, I plan to spend the next year working to bring our industry even closer together to make progress on as many fronts as possible. Despite the uncertainty that comes with a national election, I firmly believe we can do so much if we work together.

It would be easy to throw our collective hands up and walk away, put our feet on the desk and wait to see how things shake out next November. But that’s not in our DNA as truckers.

Most of us have been in this business our whole lives. Growing up, my family vacations were with my father to see customers. Delaware, Michigan, California, Tennessee … we would hit the road to see the country, but also to connect with shippers.

From those earliest days, trucking has been part of my life. When I was 13 I learned to type so I could work in the billing department. I worked my way through the business as I went through school — dispatch, safety, sales — connecting with as many parts of our trucking company as I could.

I even, for a short time, drove a truck for our company. That brief experience taught me a lot about trucking — notably, that while I can drive a truck, I am not a good truck driver. Certainly not when compared to the million-mile champions on our America’s Road Team or at the National Truck Driving Championships. It gave me a real appreciation for what the men and women who literally make our industry go do on a daily basis.

That knowledge inspires me to work on their behalf to improve this industry. To bring more of our resources to bear on issues like developing our next generation of drivers and finding new, young, energetic men and women to drive our trucks. To safely and responsibly integrate technology into our industry. To ease pressure on those drivers with the hours-of-service by working with FMCSA to safely bring flexibility to their daily lives.

These goals are achievable if we work together, and that is my challenge to you. Come together. Deepen our connections to each other and to this federation. Share your time and your talent with your fellow executives by joining ATA or coming to a Call on Washington, or reaching out to your representative on the issues critical to your business.

Being at the table is important — not just to ATA, but to your businesses. From personal experience, I can tell you the connections you make as part of this federation can serve not just the larger industry; it will benefit your company.

Through my work at ATA and the Louisiana Motor Transport Association, I have been able to participate in some great undertakings on behalf of trucking: The rebuilding of the Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference, the founding of the North American Chassis Pool Cooperative and, now, it has given me the privilege of serving as ATA chairman.

It was my connection to trucking, to my colleagues in ATA and LMTA, to our customers, to our friends in the industry, that allowed these things to happen.

Those connections are important, and I encourage you to join me in deepening and developing those connections this year.

Guillot is president of Triple G Express Inc., an intermodal motor carrier based in the New Orleans area. American Trucking Associations is the largest trade federation in the trucking industry and has headquarters in Arlington, Va., as well as affiliated associations in every state. ATA owns Transport Topics.

California lawmakers have passed a bill that codifies into law a 2018 state Supreme Court decision that makes it easier for independent contractors to become reclassified as employees of motor carriers.

Assembly Bill 5, passed along party lines by the state Senate on Sept. 10 and Assembly on Sept. 11, was the latest development by officials in California attempting to reduce what they have called widespread misclassification of independent contractors.

The bill was signed into law on Sept. 18 by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had publicly voiced his support for the legislation.

The bill has been opposed by the California Trucking Association because the trade organization said it will require many motor carriers to use an employee standard known as the “ABC test” that truckers have said makes it difficult, if not impossible, to continue the use of independent contractors.

The test was upheld by the California high court in a case styled Dynamex Operations West Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles.

The B-prong of the ABC test is the most troublesome, carriers have said. It dictates that for a motor carrier to establish that a worker is an independent contractor that the worker must perform work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business.

Greg Feary, a partner in the Indianapolis-based trucking law firm Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson & Feary, P.C., called the California legislation “Dynamex on steroids.”

“I think it will ripple through the industry and cause some changes for sure,” Feary told Transport Topics. “For the most part, the ABC test would be used under this statute for courts or other adjudicators in the government to determine whether an owner-operator providing truck driving services to a motor carrier is an independent contractor. It’s a controversial bill.”

“AB 5 could have been amended to address worker misclassification issues, as well as protect the 70,000 [predominantly minority] truckers currently operating as independent contractors,” California Trucking Association’s CEO Shawn Yadon said in a statement. “There is no reason why protecting workers does not include defending the right of tens of thousands of drivers who have built their businesses as independent truckers, invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in clean trucks and have operated successfully.”

Yadon added, “AB 5 will have implications that will go beyond worker classification. Like the rest of the nation, California is experiencing a shortage of truck drivers, this measure will aggravate the problem by removing thousands of drivers from rosters as many have indicated they will move to other states or seek a different line of work altogether.”

AB 5 proponents created a scenario in which they chose winners and losers by carving out exemptions for some professions while excluding others, California Trucking Association said.

It added that AB 5 was amended to allow drivers working within the construction industry a narrow window to continue operating as independent truckers for a two-year grace period. However, the bill will severely limit work opportunities for tens of thousands of independent owner-operators in other business sectors.

In California, more than 136,950 trucking companies remain primarily small, locally owned businesses with small fleets and independent drivers, according to California Trucking Association.

“Today the Legislature made it clear: we will not in good conscience allow free-riding businesses to profit off depriving millions of workers from basic employee rights that lead to a middle-class job,” said Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, the bill’s author. “Employers looking to cut costs at the expense of workers have misclassified more than a million Californians and in turn, we have seen income inequality increase, union membership decline and the power of working people diminish.”

Many commercial fleets are seeing premium increases for the second or third year in a row, and some have even seen rates double – the direct result of increasingly high legal settlements and skyrocketing auto repairs.¹ Fearing loss of profits (or no profit at all), insurance companies are being very selective when it comes to renewals and new quotes.  It’s important to work with an insurance broker who understands the market and can advocate on your behalf.

HUB International has identified several ways to help you navigate the current hard insurance market. Follow these 10 best practices to get ahead of your next policy renewal.

1. Keep CSA safety scores low.  Address the easiest and most preventable violations – maintenance for tires and lights. Pre-trip vehicle inspections can prevent most of these issues. Tackle unsafe driving violations through training and accountability programs.
2. Implement a safety program across your fleet.  Keep safety concepts at the forefront of your driver’s minds and actions by instituting training on vehicle inspections, hours of service regulations and defensive driving concepts during training.
3. Hold drivers accountable.  Drivers need to know about both best practices and company rules. They also need to know what will happen when violations occur.
4. Hire good people. Make sure the drivers you bring in are a good fit for your organization. This is especially critical if your organization does not have an extensive onboarding or ongoing training program.
5. Manage your losses. Manage and report all claims in a timely manner and keep good documentation.
6. Know your numbers and tell their story. Make sure you are familiar with your loss trends so you can talk to the insurance carrier about them.
7. Be proud of what you’re doing right – and talk about it.  If your fleet is utilizing best practices, let the insurance carrier know what you’re doing well so they can include it in your pricing model.
8. Incentivize your drivers. Create an incentive program that rewards clean roadside inspections, no preventable crashes over various intervals and positive citizen comments.
9. Prevent driver turnover.  Know your turnover rates and be able to explain why they are what they are.
10. Be as transparent as possible. Let your insurance broker know what your fleet does and what changes you’ve made over the last year so there are no surprises at renewal time.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law a bill that directs the California Air Resources Board and other state agencies to develop and implement a new smog inspection program for heavy-duty diesel on-road trucks.

The inspection and maintenance program would begin with a two-year pilot program to develop and demonstrate technologies that show potential for bringing heavy vehicles more than 6 years old and with a gross vehicle weight of more than 14,000 pounds into a permanent testing program similar to one already in place for cars.

“Just as car owners have to get their own personal cars ‘smog checked’ every two years, so too should truck operators be required to maintain their emissions controls so that we can ensure long-lasting air quality improvements here in California,” Democratic state Sen. Connie Leyva, author of the bill, said in a statement. “With Governor Newsom’s signature, SB 210 reinforces California’s leadership on improving air quality and public health, while also leveling the playing field for law-abiding truck owners and operators in our state.”

The new law would authorize CARB to assess a fee and penalties as part of the program and would create the Truck Emission Check Fund, which would be available upon appropriation by the legislature to the state board for “the regulatory purposes of the program.”

Mike Tunnell, California-based director of energy and environmental affairs for American Trucking Associations, said the future system would eventually sunset the current program requiring motor carriers to conduct annual smoke tests and replace it with a program that is more emissions-based.

“What that will look like is still to be determined,” Tunnell said.

But CARB is hoping to accomplish the goals of the new law with an emissions-testing program that would not have to follow the station-based model of the smog check program currently used for cars.

Instead, the agency has been working on a program concept that could be based on the use of telematics and other data collection and submission tools to enable the inspection process from the vehicle’s location, officials have said in discussion documents.

One potential program design concept couples periodic on-board diagnostics system checks as the primary test method with on-road emissions monitoring that would use remote sensing devices and plume capture systems to identify high emitters and verify program effectiveness.

The program should be designed to ensure both in-state and out-of-state vehicles have adequate methods to demonstrate compliance with program requirements, according to CARB.

Currently, there is no smog check-type program for heavy-duty vehicles to ensure their emissions control systems are functioning properly and repaired in a timely manner, according to CARB.

CARB’s current Periodic Smoke Inspection Program requires diesel and bus fleet owners to conduct annual smoke opacity inspections and maintain records of the tests, and repair those vehicles with excessive smoke emissions to ensure compliance. In addition, CARB randomly audits fleets, reviews maintenance and inspection records, and tests a representative sample of vehicles. A fleet owner that neglects to perform the annual smoke opacity inspection on applicable vehicles is subject to a penalty of $500 per vehicle per year.

CARB officials say that even with modern emissions controls and on-board diagnostics monitoring systems, 2019 estimates indicate that heavy trucks contribute approximately 58% of the statewide on-road mobile source oxides of nitrogen emissions and about 82% of the statewide on-road mobile source particulate matter emissions. Some of these emissions are attributed to broken or failing emissions-related equipment.

Approximately 12 million residents across California live in communities that exceed federal ozone and PM standards, according to state environmental officials. Increased exposure to harmful emissions has been directly associated with serious health impacts, particularly for the elderly, small children and people with pre-existing respiratory issues, it said.

“There’s work to be done on a new system,” Tunnell said. “Hopefully with the telematics on the truck, something can be designed that is less intrusive than what most of us know as a smog test program.”