Transcom -Business Services for Transportation

06/17/2025

Need help with compliance?

06/17/2025

Insurance costs continue to have a sufficient impact of motor carriers.

06/10/2025

FMCSA just released their new guidance for English Language Proficiency. The policy is effective immediately.

POLICY
This policy advises FMCSA personnel to initiate all roadside inspections in English. If the inspector’s initial contact with the driver indicates that the driver may not understand the inspector’s initial instructions, the inspector should conduct an ELP assessment in order to evaluate the driver’s compliance with 49 CFR § 391.11(b)(2). This assessment should consist of
a (1) driver interview; and (2) highway traffic sign recognition assessment.

Step 1. Driver Interview – Determining a Driver’s Ability to Respond Sufficiently to Official Inquiries
The inspector should evaluate the driver’s ability to respond sufficiently to official inquiries and directions in English, as required by 49 CFR § 391.11(b)(2).

Because the driver interview is a means of establishing the driver’s ability to respond to official inquiries by speaking English sufficiently, the inspector should inform the driver that the driver should respond to the inspector in English. Tools to facilitate communication such as interpreters, I-Speak cards, cue cards, smart phone applications, and On-Call Telephone Interpretation Service should not be used during the driver interview, as those tools may mask a driver’s inability to communicate in English. If the inspector determines the driver is unable to respond to official inquiries in English
sufficiently, it is the policy of FMCSA that the inspector cite the driver for a violation of 49 CFR § 391.11(b)(2).

There is no need to progress to Step 2 if the inspector determines that the driver is unable to
respond sufficiently to official inquiries as outlined in Step 1 of the ELP Assessment.

Step 2. Highway Traffic Sign Recognition Assessment – Determining a Driver’s Ability to Understand Sufficiently United States Highway Traffic Signs Including Changeable Signs in the English Language

The inspector should evaluate the driver’s ability to understand sufficiently United States highway traffic signs by conducting a Highway Traffic Sign Assessment to include highway traffic signs that conform to the Federal Highway Administration’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways (MUTCD) and electronic-display changeable (a.k.a.
“dynamic”) message signs the driver may encounter while operating a commercial motor vehicle:
1. Explain to the driver that one of the qualifications to drive a CMV that the inspector is evaluating is that the driver is able to understand the meaning of U.S. highway signs.

There is more in the link to the guidance below.

06/05/2025

06/04/2025

Pass your Safety Audit. I guarantee it!

06/04/2025

Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced 52 actions to streamline regulations across FHWA, FMCSA, and NHTSA, targeting outdated rules that don't enhance safety.
Key amendments include rescinding the 10-Year Repayment Provision and altering civil penalties related to drug testing, while proposed changes will ease labeling and retrofitting requirements for trailers.
Of the 52 actions, 43 are in the Notice Proposed Rulemaking stage. These changes aim to improve efficiency and safety in the trucking industry by removing duplicative and obsolete regulations.

05/21/2025

Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance wants the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to impose new restrictions:

A two-hour daily hard limit on PC use.
Express prohibition of owner-operators utilizing PC to travel to or from home.
Prohibition, too, on PC use for drivers up against an hours of service limit to continue driving to get to a "safe haven" when no parking is available.
Moving PC driving of the truck away from the "off duty" log line.

05/01/2025

House revokes California's authority to regulate truck emissions. It will have to pass the senate and Trump will have to sign it.

04/30/2025

"Pursuant to the executive order, the CVSA Driver-Traffic Enforcement Committee voted today to add non-compliance with 49 CFR 391.11(b)(2) to the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria," said Adrienne Gildea, deputy executive director of CVSA.

04/29/2025

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) is ending Spring Thaw Class II and Posted Road restrictions in Zones 1 and 2 on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, at 12:01 a.m., CDT. Class II and Posted Road Restrictions previously ended in Zones 3, 4 and 5.

Class II roads include about 1,400 miles of state highways susceptible to damage from heavy trucks during the spring thaw period as frost leaves the ground. Further information can be found online for divisible load permits and non-divisible load permits.

County highways, town roads, city and village streets may also be posted or limited to legal load limits or less. Decisions to place or lift weight restrictions on those roads are up to local units of government.

04/28/2025

A foreign driver holding an employment authorization document or an unexpired foreign passport accompanied by an approved Customs and Border Protection (CBP) I-94 Arrival/Departure Record may obtain a non-domiciled CDL. However, drivers who are citizens of Canada and Mexico are not eligible for non-domiciled CDLs because FMCSA has determined that commercial licenses issued by Canadian provinces and territories, and the United Mexican States, are in accordance with the standards established by our rules.

04/28/2025

Citing concerns for highway safety, a federal lawmakers ares asking the U.S. Department of Transportation to require that commercial truck drivers who cannot demonstrate proficiency with speaking and reading English be taken out of service in roadside inspections. Before 2015, this was a out-of-service violation.