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The Rhode Island Trucking Association is no longer working with the lobbying and communications team that has been guiding its opposition to Gov. Gina Raimondo’s toll proposal, just as the plan appears to be gaining steam at the State House, according to Providence television station WPRI. Chris Maxwell, the trucking group’s president, confirmed that his…

Trucking executives say they still expect growing business from Amazon.com Inc., even as the company takes steps to move some of its own freight, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal. The Seattle retailer said in December it would roll out thousands of branded semi-trucks, one of several recent moves by the company to…

Truck drivers are tired—literally—of searching for parking spots. In a survey of 4,000 truck drivers conducted by an Illinois consulting firm, 95 percent said they spend more than 15 minutes to find parking for mandatory rest periods. Nearly 40 percent search for longer than an hour. The scenario further exhausts tired drivers and impacts businesses’…

New data from The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) highlights a number of important safety issues facing long-haul truck drivers (LHTDs) and their employers. The study, published in the December 2015 issue of the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention, is the first to describe truck crashes, work-related injuries, work environments, and driver…

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe recently announced that the Virginia Port Authority has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Cuban National Port Authority to evaluate commercial opportunities between the Port of Virginia and Cuba’s newly opened Port of Mariel Special Development Project. The MOU establishes a platform for cooperation and information sharing aimed at…

Responding to a request from statehouse leaders, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation has provided a list of the locations under consideration for placing toll gantries, should Ocean State lawmakers approve a controversial plan proposed last year by Gov. Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) to begin truck-only tolling to fund bridge repairs, according to an article…

Last month, he Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) launched a new, simplified, online registration process that truck and bus companies, freight forwarders, brokers, intermodal equipment providers, and cargo tank manufacturing, inspection and repair facilities use as new applicants for USDOT registration. The first phase of the Unified Registration System (URS) combines multiple “legacy” reporting…

Truck-driver teams are emerging as the shipping heroes of the holidays, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal. Retailers and parcel carriers have been turning this season more than ever to teams, in which drivers pair up to keep trucks rolling for hundreds of miles over 20 or more hours a day. They…

For his entire career in truck driving, Bryan Spoon has tried to move toward being his own boss. A third-generation trucker, he started driving in the military, which lasted ten years. After leaving the service, he bought his own truck in 2004, and leased it to one company for a while. Then he became independent,…

The year began with the city of Long Beach in the middle of what was shaping up to be a national crisis — labor strife at West Coast ports and its resultant slowdown of shipping activity, according to a year-end review article in the Long Beach Press Telegram. Container ships stretched for miles down the…