House committee OKs transportation bill that cuts wide swath across trucking

The bill passed the T&I committee by a 62-2 vote. Its formal name is the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act , but is also being branded with the Build America moniker.

Two provisions in the bill that have drawn a lion’s share of attention deal with issues that are very much on the ground for truckers: bathrooms and parking.

Bathroom access would be made law

Under the section entitled Restroom Access (section 5102 for those searching the more than 1,000 page bill), drivers will be given access to bathroom facilities under various scenarios they are likely to encounter when on the road.

Drivers will be “granted access to any covered restroom facility at any covered establishment” where the driver is delivering “any goods or cargo,” or “is waiting at such covered establishment to transport goods or for cargo to be loaded.”

But the bill also states that the establishments do not need to make any physical alterations in their existing facilities to comply with the new law.

A “covered driver” is “any commercial motor vehicle operator with respect to whom the Secretary of Transportation has power to establish qualifications and maximum hours of service.”

The covered establishment is “a place of business open to the general public” or structures such as “a shipper, receiver, manufacturer, warehouse, distribution center” or other facility that is taking in or sending out goods.

There’s also a specific requirement impacting drayage drivers. “A terminal operator shall provide a sufficient number of covered restrooms for use by covered drayage truck operators in areas of the terminal to which such operators typically have access.” the law requires.

“Drivers servicing shippers and receivers should not be denied access to bathroom facilities, and this language makes sure they won’t be,” the ATA said in its summary of the bill.

Jason’s Law as the basis

The parking section of the surface transportation bill is under the heading of the “codification and improvement of Jason’s Law.” The specifics of Jason’s Law are that it requires a federal survey of truck parking availability and is named after Jason Rivenburg, who was murdered in 2009 while parked at an abandoned gas station.

But Jason’s Law also permits federal funding for parking, and that is where the latest transportation bill comes into play.

The parking section of the bill allows the Department of Transportation to make grants for commercial vehicle parking. There is a list of entities that can receive that grant money, including a state or local government.

A private entity can partner with a government to complete a project, according to the bill.

As well as being able to put new parking on a federal highway, where it already exists, the grant program would permit parking to be built in what the bill calls “a freight facility.” It can also be parking added to an existing location, such as a weigh station. 

In an online commentary about the legislation, the law firm of Holland & Hart noted that the corresponding committee in the Senate, the Environment and Public Works committee, “has not yet released the content of its transportation bill, but it is expected in the coming months.”

The existing authorization legislation expires September 30, the law firm said.

Among other surface transportation highlights in the bill:

Cabotage

The Transportation Department will conduct a study on cabotage. Specifically, the study will focus on “the safety and economic impacts of cabotage violations using commercial motor vehicles.” Cabotage is a term used to describe the movement of goods between two locations in the same country or political entity. It is often regulated so that only a transporter based in that country can move those goods. The Jones Act, which requires that any product shipped on the water between two U.S. cities move on a U.S.-flagged vessel, is an example of a cabotage law.

In trucking, a truck coming across the border from Mexico or Canada is permitted to take foreign-originated goods to a U.S. destination. It can take goods from that destination back to Mexico or Canada. But it can’t stop at somewhere in between and haul goods, nor can it take goods between U.S. destinations. 

There long has been allegations that some non-U.S. carriers are regularly violating cabotage laws. The study mandated by the surface transportation bill will study the impact of illegal cabotage in the U.S. 

Broker qualifications

There already are requirements on the books regarding establishing qualifications for brokers and freight forwarders. The surface transportation bill requires the Secretary of Transportation, within two years, to issue a final rule that would more thoroughly implement them. 

The Transportation Intermediaries Association, in an email to its membership and others, said that proposal is “a reform TIA has championed for more than a decade.”

Leasing

The bill would require lease deals between a carrier and an independent owner operator to contain a disclosure form. That form, according to the bill, would need to include information on weekly compensation; average weekly mileage and driver schedules; data on the number of drivers at that company who sign a lease and the number that fulfill that agreement; and deduction information on fuel, insurance and other charges. The DOT also will be able to “carry out a campaign to increase awareness of how standard lease-purchase programs work. 

The section refers to “predatory leases.” The definition of what constitutes “predatory” in the bill is not specific, but encompasses a wide range of issues, including the carrier’s policy and practices on recruitment, operations, taxes and other financial issues, such as “(where” the motor carrier controls the work, compensation and debts of the driver, and the driver accrues no equity or is forced to give up equity accrued in the contracted truck.”

Legislation introduced last year by Rep. Julia Brownley regarding lease purchase programs has not advanced out of the T&I committee. 

Further initiatives

Other parts of the bill that will be the focus of future reporting include regulation of electronic logging devices, the creation of a committee to review cargo theft, and an extension of the safe driver apprenticeship program.

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