According to TCP’s fourth quarter Business Expectations Survey, over 80% of carriers the firm polled report that recent health care changes will adversely affect them. As a result, more carriers (43%) are shifting additional costs to employees and are asking employees to pay more for family coverage (37%). Some 29% report that while they are affected by increased costs, they still haven’t developed an alternative plan.

“With two-thirds of carriers telling us that driver wages must go up above $60,000 to attract and retain drivers, it is likely that drivers will also put more emphasis on shopping for fringe benefit packages as a part of the compensation mix in the future, especially as the effects of health care change reverberate through the economy,” noted Richard Mikes, a TCP partner and survey leader.

“The cost pressure for driver health care and other employees’ health care is just another balancing act challenging carriers this year during rate negotiations and amidst uncertainty in the general overall economy,” he added.

The problem posed by the rising cost of health care is not just an issue for trucking alone. According to a study published last October by global human resources consulting firm Aon Hewitt – a division of insurance provider Aon Corp. – the average health care premium rate increase for 2012 is expected to be around 7%, which is slightly lower than the 7.5% mark in 2011 but on par with the 6.9% increase experienced by businesses in 2010.

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According to year-end numbers released by the Environmental Protection Agency, the total volume of nearly 1.1 billion gallons is a record for the industry. The number exceeded the 800-million-gallon target required by the EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard. The previous record for biodiesel production was about 690 million gallons in 2008.

The industry’s success in 2011 comes after Congress reinstated the fuel’s $1-per-gallon tax credit in December 2010 and as the EPA’s RFS program for biodiesel completed its first full year. Without those policies in place in 2010, production dropped dramatically as dozens of plants shuttered and thousands of people lost jobs.

The tax incentive expired on Dec. 31, 2011, and the biodiesel industry is urging Congress to reinstate it. In addition, the industry is calling on the EPA and the Obama administration to finalize the EPA’s proposal to boost the biodiesel volume requirement under the RFS to 1.28 billion gallons in 2013.

“Our success clearly demonstrates that the biodiesel tax incentive and the Renewable Fuel Standard are working just as Congress envisioned,” says Anne Steckel, vice president of federal affairs for the National Biodiesel Board. “Our industry is creating jobs, reducing our dependence on imported fuel, and improving the environment.”

A recent economic study commissioned by NBB found that biodiesel production of 1 billion gallons supports 39,027 jobs across the country and more than $2.1 billion in household income. An additional 11,698 jobs could be added between 2012 and 2013 alone under continued growth in the RFS and with an extension of the biodiesel tax incentive.

“Now is not the time to be second-guessing the RFS or eliminating the biodiesel tax incentive,” Steckel says. “We’re proving that the policies work, that American innovation and competitiveness can pull us away from our dangerous dependence on imported fuel. Just as President Obama said in his State of the Union this week, we need to stay the course to continue creating jobs and building America’s energy capacity.”

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Section 111 of the new law, for instance, requires the Health and Human Services secretary to “promulgate regulations onsanitary transportation practices for the transportationof food,” and also requires theFDA (Food and Drug Administration) “to conduct a study on the transportation of food, including the unique needs of rural and frontier areas.”

Section 204 requires the Health and Human Services secretary to “improve tracking and tracing of processed foods and fruits and vegetables that are raw agricultural commodities in the event of a food-borne illness outbreak; and establish standards for the type of information, format, and time frame for persons to submit records to aid the secretary in such tracking and tracing.”

The Food Safety Modernization Act is, by no means, the first and only move to help assure that food remains safe to eat from farm to the fork. Shippers of some cargo, like perishable food and pharmaceuticals, have been asking fleets to step up and assume additional responsibility for the integrity and safety of their cargo for some time.

They are and have been requiring carriers to deploy technology to help assure the integrity and safety of their goods and, in the case of temperature-controlled food for instance, also help to reduce spoilage and loss. The shippers’ customers’ in this case are the ones holding the whip handle, according to Dr. John Ryan, president of Ryan Systems. Ryan has spent over 25 years implementing high-technology quality control systems and is credited with piloting the first farm-to-fork, Internet-enabled food traceability system using sensors and RFID technology to help get the job done.

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The peaks experienced by trucking between 2006 and 2008 won’t be returning any time soon and global volatility will continue to be a threat, according to Eli Lustgarten, senior vice president of Longbow Secuities. However 2011’s moderate growth in freight tonnage helped trucking lead the growth in the country’s industrial sector with Class 8 sales reaching 254,000, up from 154,000 in 2010 and 118,400 in 2009, he said.

While “capacity remains tight and rates are holding up,” Lustgarten predicted that 2% economic growth would hold sales to just small gains this year as fleet sizes “stabilize rather than expand.” Looking a bit further out, he said regulatory changes that cut truck productivity and perhaps a move to “re-shore” manufacturing back to the U.S. could spur higher truck and trailer demand in 2013 to 2015.

The outlook for global Class 4 through 8 truck markets isn’t so rosy, according to Jonathan Storey, director of Polk’s Automotive Reports. Growth has begun slowing in several emerging markets, he said, which, combined with Europe’s economic turmoil, has made “the economic outlook gloomier than a year ago.”

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Sens. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced The Clean Ports Act of 2011 (S. 2011). It would reverse a decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and grant to local governments the ability to regulate interstate and foreign commerce by trucks within the port jurisdiction. The Ninth Circuit ruled only the federal government has the power to regulate truck interstate and foreign commerce.

The Clean Ports Act would give ports the authority to regulate truck prices, routes and service in order to improve pollution, congestion and safety. It is designed to create a legal foundation for the type of concession plan the Port of Los Angeles attempted to set up as part of its clean-port program, which would have required drayage drivers to be employees and not independent contractors. That aspect of the LA concession plan was thrown out last October by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

This is the companion legislation to a measure introduced in the House last February by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. That bill was referred to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which under Republican leadership is not likely to act on it.

The associations told Reid, “Clean truck plans that have been enacted under current law have reaped tremendous reductions in emissions. If enacted into law, this bill would void the enormous investments made by many small businesses and put them out of work.”

Joel Anderson, IWLA president and CEO, said the bill was one more example of unions pressuring elected officials for the purpose of mandating union-organized businesses. “The goal of this legislation is to handcuff private business owners into adopting a business model that only union business agents would find acceptable.”

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“The rebound in orders to finish 2011 reaffirms our confidence that new truck demand will not wane in 2012,” says Jonathan Starks, FTR director of transportation analysis. Starks says the six-month annualized order rate of 280,000 units confirms FTR’s outlook for this year: modest growth over 2011, but relatively flat production versus the last six months.

Starks says the final ruling for trucking’s hours-of-service regulations, scheduled to start in July 2013, negates any possible positive impact for truck demand in 2012. “We expect to see orders ease late in the first quarter as trucking operations prepare for the start of the freight season,” he says.

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The real danger of using cell phones is not the risk of being caught. The accident risk is equal to driving while legally intoxicated, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

To help mitigate this risk, fleets can use applications that automatically lock down mobile devices when they detect motion. The real challenge, however, may be restricting drivers from using personal phones while operating company vehicles.

The transportation industry has a precedence of taking controversial measures to mitigate risk. In most cases, measures that seem controversial at first soon become standard practice. Technology that makes it possible to enforce restrictions on drivers’ personal cell phones, for instance, may at first seem to drivers to be an intrusive measure.

Consider the history of electronic onboard recorders (EOBRs). For years many fleets resisted using EOBRs fearing they would cause a mass exodus of drivers. Today electronic logs are used by the majority of fleets and widely accepted by drivers.

Technology that monitors driver behavior is also widespread. Many fleets use management systems that report risky behaviors such as speeding, sudden lane changes and panic braking, and other events the moment they occur.

Since fleets already use technology to enforce safety and compliance, is using technology to restrict employees’ use of cell phones while driving any different?

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The rules, adopted in 2008 and amended last year, apply to all privately owned and federal government diesel trucks operating in California.

Separately, large fleets in California also face a Jan. 1 deadline to have SmartWay-approved fuel efficient aerodynamic technology equipment installed on 15% of trailers manufactured before 2011.

Fleets that signed up late for a phase-in option must have 20% of their 53-foot or longer dry van or reefer trailers equipped with the technology on that date.

For the engine rule, “fleet owners who need to get the facts should call CARB’s diesel hotline or go to CARB’s website for assistance,” CARB assistant chief of mobile sources Erik White said in a statement.

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While the final rule retains the current 11-hour daily driving limit — FMCSA previously was in favor of reducing it to 10 hours — it reduces by 12 hours the maximum number of hours a truck driver can work within a week. Under the old rule, truck drivers could work on average up to 82 hours within a seven-day period. The new HOS final rule limits a driver’s work week to 70 hours. FMCSA says it will continue to conduct data analysis and research to further examine any risks associated with the 11 hours of driving time.

In addition, truck drivers cannot drive after working eight hours without first taking a break of at least 30 minutes. Drivers can take the 30-minute break whenever they need rest during the eight-hour window.

The rule also requires truck drivers who maximize their weekly work hours to take at least two nights’ rest when their 24-hour body clock demands sleep the most – from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. This rest requirement is part of the rule’s “34-hour restart” provision that allows drivers to restart the clock on their work week by taking at least 34 consecutive hours off-duty. The final rule allows drivers to use the restart provision only once during a seven-day period.

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“The Low Carbon Fuel Standard is an essential part of California’s program to move away from dirty fuels and toward a clean energy future,” says Mary Nichols, CARB chairman. “These changes streamline the program. They ensure that we accurately account for every gram of carbon released during the extraction and transportation of unrefined fossil fuels, no matter where they come from.”

CARB says one key amendment will improve how the regulation accounts for the carbon intensity of crude oils. The carbon intensity of crudes can vary significantly with heavy crudes generally having a higher carbon footprint. The proposed amendments require that the carbon intensity of crudes be fully accounted for just like other fuels under the program. The provision also incentivizes innovation by providing credits for specific actions to reduce the carbon intensity of crude oil.

The amendments also clarify which regulated parties receive low carbon fuel credits for the electricity used to charge electric vehicles. For residential charging, the electric utilities will be eligible for the credits, as they appear best suited to send the credit value back to electric vehicle owners in the form of rebates, time-of-use rates or other incentives. For public access charging, companies that install and service charging units in public settings such as malls or parking structures may receive the related credits. Finally, businesses that install private access charging stations for employees, or fleet operators that operate at least three electric vehicles, also may be eligible for credits.

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