On October 26, the last day both chambers were in session before the November election, the Pennsylvania House and Senate both passed Rep. Donna Oberlander’s HB 2398, which provides additional opportunities for the operation of highly automated vehicles (HAVs) in the state with or without a human driver. The bill, which was supported by PMTA, allows PennDOT to publish guidelines related to the operation of HAVs and includes various policy and technical amendments.

After it is signed by Governor Wolf, HB 2398 will provide for the evaluation and commercial deployment of HAVs at Levels 3, 4, and 5, which is already permitted in 39 other states. A recent Pittsburgh-based study predicted that the HAV sector would contribute 5,000 jobs and $10 billion of impact for the southwestern PA economy if the region captures only 1% of the global market for growth in the industry.

HB 2398 amends section 3317 of the Vehicle Code (Platooning) to allow the lead vehicle to operate with a driver and one nonlead vehicle with an automated driving system (ADS) engaged, with or without a driver. It also removes the approval by PennDOT of the plan for general platooning operations and instead requires the person operating the platoon to file and review a plan with PennDOT, in consultation with the State Police and the PA Turnpike Commission as appropriate.

The bill, which is now before the Governor for signature, will ensure that Pennsylvania is positioned on the cutting edge in the promising field of highly automated vehicles. In the trucking sector, the legislation will allow the industry, including PMTA member Pittsburgh-based Locomation, to take advantage of significant efficiencies that help move critical supplies and commodities safely and responsibly.

Importantly, HB 2398 was amended in the Senate to include language supported by PMTA to increase the penalties for catalytic converter theft, an increasing problem in the industry.

Grading of the offense related to the theft of catalytic converters is as follows:

• 1) A misdemeanor of the third degree if the value of the catalytic converter is less than $50;
• 2) A misdemeanor of the second degree if the value of the catalytic converter is between $50 and less than $200;
• 3) A misdemeanor of the first degree if the value of the catalytic converter is between $200 or more but less than $1,000; and
• 4) A felony of the third degree if the value of the catalytic converter is $1,000 or more.

Following the Governor’s signature, HB 2398 takes effect as follows:

• The amendment providing an option to indicate an HAV on a certificate of title: 1 year
• The addition of Section 3723 (relating to theft of catalytic convert): 60 days;
• The provisions preempting and superseding all ordinances, policies and rules relating to HAVs: immediately; and
• The remainder of this act: 240 days.

San Diego, California – On Sunday, the American Trucking Associations honored Rebecca Oyler, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association, with the ATA Trucking Association Executives Council President’s Leadership Award.

“When Rebecca started at PMTC last year, the state was already moving forward with an initiative to fund the reconstruction of 9 major bridges via an aggressive tolling scheme,”ATA President and CEO Chris Spear said. “Talk about trial-by-fire. She took a leading role in opposing these tolls, both in the media and in the courts – and this past summer a Pennsylvania court sided with the PMTA-led coalition and ruled that PennDOT failed to follow proper procedure in pursuing the bridge tolling initiative effectively killed the proposal.”

Prior to joining PMTA, Oyler was legislative director for the National Federation of Independent Business, and had worked across a number of policy development, legislative advocacy, and project management roles in state government over roughly two decades.

TAEC is comprised of staff executives of state trucking associations and conferences affiliated with ATA. TAEC serves to promote the trucking industry; contribute to the improvement of the associations and organizations established to serve the industry; and advance the professional stature and capabilities of the managers and executives of such associations and conferences.

The President's TAEC Leadership Award was created in 2002 by ATA to honor a state trucking association leader and to create an enduring legacy for that leader and for the industry. The award comes with a $10,000 grant for trucking education or research cause chosen by Oyler.

Past winners of the award are: Paul Enos of Nevada, Sheila Foertsch of Wyoming, Chris Maxwell of Rhode Island, Shannon Newton of Arkansas, Shawn Yadon of California, Brenda Neville of Iowa, John Esparza of Texas, Kendra Hems of New York, Mike Riley of Connecticut, Rick Todd of South Carolina, George Burruss of Missouri, Karen Rasmussen of Arizona, Jim Runk of Pennsylvania, Tom Howells of Wisconsin, John Hausladen of Minnesota, Dale Hanington of Maine, Larry Davis of Ohio, Dale Bennett of Virginia, Cathy Gautreaux of Louisiana and Dave Huneryager of Tennessee.

In addition to Oyler, ATA honored a pair of state executives for their continued service to the industry: Rick Clasby, executive director of the Utah Trucking Association, for 10 years of service and Traci Nelson, president of the West Virginia Trucking Association, for five years of service.
 

American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of 50 affiliated state trucking associations and industry-related conferences and councils, ATA is the voice of the industry America depends on most to move our nation’s freight. Follow ATA on Twitter or Facebook. Trucking Moves America Forward

San Diego, California – Today, the American Trucking Associations recognized Calvin Ewell, president of H.R. Ewell Inc., with the 2022 Dameo Award at the Chairman’s Membership Committee during the ATA Management Conference & Exhibition.

“Calvin is a tremendous leader in our industry and we are proud to recognize his efforts on behalf of trucking,” said ATA Chief Commercial Officer Mario Grande. “Between his work with ATA and the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association, he is a great example of what participating in the Federation means.”

Since 2014, the Dameo Award, has been awarded to ATA state vice presidents who have gone above and beyond in advancing the goals of the trucking industry and ATA. The award is named for Rocque Dameo, longtime New Jersey ATA state vice president, who passed away the year the award was created. The award carries with it a $5,000 donation to the winner's state association.

This year’s donation will be presented to PMTA President and CEO Rebecca Oyler.

"Calvin is a fantastic and extraordinarily supportive member of our association and the ATA,” Oyler said. “His longstanding and dedicated contributions of time and energy in support  of the industry and our associations are immeasurable. We are thankful to have him as member of our association and believe he is more than deserving of this recognition."

Previous winners of the Dameo Award include:

• 2014 – Kevin Lhotek, president, Reliable Transportation (Illinois) and Mike Wilson, president, Whitewood Transport (Montana)
• 2015 – Clifton Parker, president, P&G Trucking Company (South Carolina)
• 2016 – Greg Brown, president of B.R. Williams Inc. (Alabama)
• 2017 – Andy Owens, president, A&M Transport Inc. (Oregon)
• 2018 – Tom Lee, vice president, Empire Warehouse (Colorado)
• 2019 – Mike Massengill, president, Big M Transportation (Mississippi)
• 2020 - Michael Collins, president, M&D Transportation (Rhode Island)
• 2021 – Ryan Walpole, purchasing director, Walpole Inc. (Florida)

American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of 50 affiliated state trucking associations and industry-related conferences and councils, ATA is the voice of the industry America depends on most to move our nation’s freight. Follow ATA on Twitter or Facebook. Trucking Moves America Forward

Wreaths Across America  - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Carriers and Professional Drivers Needed to Help Move the Mission in 2022

Join the Honor Fleet Today and Haul a Load of Veterans’ Wreaths

COLUMBIA FALLS, Me., -- Oct. 4, 2022 — Lanes are currently open across the country to support the delivery of sponsored veterans’ wreaths to participating Wreaths Across America (WAA) locations this December! Professional drivers and carriers are needed to join the Honor Fleet and help the national nonprofit fulfill its mission to Remember, Honor, Teach, with the delivery of live, balsam veterans’ wreaths to their destination – one of more than 3,500 participating locations across the country – where volunteers will place these wreaths on the headstones of American heroes.  

To learn more about helping to move the mission and to register to participate, please visit www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/lanes.

This year, WAA transportation partners will assist in delivering more than two and a half million veterans’ wreaths to be placed on graves of our fallen heroes all over the country on National Wreaths Across America Day – Saturday, December 17, 2022. Transportation partners who join us as volunteers will become a part of WAA’s Honor Fleet, get the opportunity to give back in recognition of the sacrifice our veterans make.

“With the help of our volunteer transportation partners in 2021 more than 525 truckloads of veterans’ wreaths were delivered across the country by hundreds of volunteer professional truck drivers,” said Don Queeney, WAA Director of Transportation. “We are immensely grateful for the support of our Honor Fleet carriers who are taking the opportunity to give back in recognition of the sacrifice our veterans make, and because of their support we are able to fulfill our mission.” 

Interested fleets should contact [email protected] or call Don Queeney direct at 757-761-5710. https://trucking.wreathsacrossamerica.org/   

# # #

About Wreaths Across America

Wreaths Across America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery begun by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester in 1992. The organization’s mission – Remember, Honor, Teach – is carried out in part each year by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies in December at Arlington, as well as thousands of veterans’ cemeteries and other locations in all 50 states and beyond. 

For more information or to sponsor a wreath please visit www.wreathsacrossamerica.org.

Press contacts:

Sean Sullivan
(207) 230-4599[email protected]

PRESS MATERIALS:

WAA Media Resource Page

https://learn.wreathsacrossamerica.org/mediaresources

CAMP HILL, PA – The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), the trucking industry’s not-for-profit research organization, has just released the update to its Crash Predictor Model, which statistically quantifies the likelihood of future crash involvement based on specific truck driving behaviors (e.g. prior crashes, violations and convictions).  

ATRI’s research draws on data from over 580,000 U.S. truck drivers over a two-year time frame.  The analysis identified more than 25 different violations and convictions that increased the likelihood of future crashes, five of which increased future crash likelihood by over 100 percent.  Simply having a previous crash increased a truck driver’s probability of having a future crash by 113 percent, 28.4 percent higher than previous ATRI Crash Predictor reports.

Recognizing that traffic enforcement, particularly those activities that target the crash predictor behaviors, is an effective tool for mitigating crashes, ATRI’s research quantifies the “top tier” states which emphasizes those states that have proven track records of maximizing their enforcement resources while minimizing their share of the nation’s truck crashes. Pennsylvania was ranked seventh overall in ATRI’s report. 

Other key findings from ATRI’s Crash Predictor Model Update are:

• ·         The top three behaviors for predicting future crash involvement, with more than 100 percent increased likelihood of a future crash, are a Failure to Yield Right-of-Way violation, a Failure to Use / Improper Signal conviction and a Reckless Driving violation.
• ·         Several behaviors have maintained stable trends across all four ATRI Crash Predictor models (2005, 2011, 2018 and 2022) as statistically significant predictors of future crash involvement including violations for Failure to Yield Right-of-Way and Reckless Driving, along with convictions for Failure to Use / Improper Signal and an Improper / Erratic Lane Changes.
• ·         The 2022 Crash Predictor update includes several new analyses, including a safety comparison of 18-20 year old truck drivers and those older than 24 years.  The report also revisits the safety of male versus female truck drivers, with female drivers continuing to be safer than their male counterparts. 
• ·         The analysis also documents a surprising differential between the percentage of female truck drivers overall (6.7%) and their much smaller representation among truck driver inspections (2.7%).  Several explanations are tested to understand the basis for the difference.

A copy of this report is available from ATRI at www.truckingresearch.org. 

It’s no longer surprising when Pennsylvania’s courts rank high in the Judicial Hellholes Report released annually by the American Tort Reform Foundation. However, a new report on nuclear verdicts issued by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) ranks Pennsylvania number five in the nation for nuclear verdicts from 2010-2019 and number three per capita behind only Florida and New York. Over half of these verdicts came out of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.

Nuclear verdicts, defined as court rulings in which the jury awards the plaintiff more than $10 million, have become increasingly a concern for the trucking industry. Average verdicts in the industry have skyrocketed from $2.3 million to $22.3 million during the same decade mentioned above, almost a 1000% increase. And they’re still rising.

Of course, such awards are disastrous for trucking companies that are impacted, but the trend itself has dramatically driven up the cost and limited the availability of liability insurance, affecting every business in the industry and increasing costs for transportation at a time when supply chain challenges and inflation continue to plague the U.S. economy.

About one in four auto accident trials resulting in a verdict of more than $10 million or more in ILR’s study involved a trucking company.

The ILR report highlights Pennsylvania’s product liability and medical liability cases as making up the majority of the 78 reported nuclear verdicts during the reported period, each with 31% of the total. Auto accidents came in at 15%.

However, recent news may make Pennsylvania’s trucking companies a more frequent target. Pennsylvania Association for Justice (PAJ) President Kila Baldwin recently announced that the association is working to organize a trucking law section so that trial lawyers working on litigation against trucking companies can trade notes on best strategies. PAJ will provide continuing legal education courses and create a listserv for attorneys to share resources and find experts to help them sue trucking companies. “The increasing complexity of these cases means you can’t just dabble in trucking law,” Baldwin said. “They are much more complex than basic automobile accident cases, and may also involve criminal investigations.”

There is also evidence that, with lawsuit numbers rising and trial lawyers focusing on trucks, large verdicts are also on the rise in Pennsylvania since the coronavirus pandemic, with attorneys involved in these cases reporting that the pandemic seems to have made jurors more motivated to help plaintiffs.

A recent article in the Legal Intelligencer reported that as of the end of September, five verdicts had already surpassed $10 million, while in 2021, only four had passed this threshold. Verdicts are also higher this year, with the largest 2022 verdict being at $21 million in an employment liability lawsuit in March, while 2021’s largest was a $19 million verdict in a car-crash case. The second-highest verdict this year was $18 million, while last year’s was just short of $16 million.

Trucking defense attorneys are alert to trends in the industry. Saxton & Stump attorney and PMTA Board member Doug Marcello noted that he’s seen an increase in trucking-related litigation since the pandemic, he thinks, due in part to passenger vehicle operators driving faster and more recklessly. While most accidents involving a truck are the fault of passenger vehicles, Marcello says a lawsuit is likely to follow against the trucking company, no matter who is at fault. “It has become an area where plaintiffs are living by the mantra, hit a truck and get a check. They look at trucks as being 18-wheel ATM machines.”

PMTA’s Board of Directors and Legislative Committee have elevated lawsuit abuse reform to a high priority for the association moving forward in response to these trends. Stay tuned for updates.

In addition, PMTA’s October 19 Safety Day agenda includes a Litigation Trilogy session with updates from excellent speakers on several aspects of litigation in the industry. Please sign up to join us.