It seems the nation's roads are being haunted by out-of-service carriers that won't stay out of service. A recent article from the Associated Press reports:

"Hundreds of tractor-trailer and bus companies ordered to shut down because of federal safety violations ranging from suspended licenses to possible drug use have stayed on the road by using different names, investigators say."

A study conducted by the Government Accountability Office revealed these findings a year after one of the nation's deadliest bus crashes involving an unlicensed charter bus carrying a Vietnamese-American Catholic group. Seventeen people were killed when the bus blew a retreaded tire installed on a steering axle and skidded off of a highway in Texas. The use of recapped tires on the steering wheels is a violation of federal regulations, the study stated.

"The GAO report found that at least 20 of the roughly 220 commercial bus companies that had been fined and ordered out of service in 2007 and 2008 by federal regulators evaded compliance by setting up shop under a new name, the same tactic used by the bus operator in the Texas crash."

"The investigation found offenders in at least nine states - Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, Texas, New York, and Washington. The violators owed tens of thousands of dollars in delinquent fines and had scores of violations, from operating without the proper licenses to failing to test drivers for illegal drugs and alcohol."

"Another 1,073 commercial trucking firms are also believed to be possible 'reincarnations' after incurring fines and violations... 'These companies pose a safety threat to the motoring public,' wrote Greg Kutz, GAO's managing director for special investigations... 'We believe that these carriers reincarnated into new companies to evade fines and avoid performing the necessary corrective actions.'"(1)

The FMCSA has responded to this report by instituting new oversight measures, including a computer matching process to compare new applicants to poor-performing motor carriers dating back to 2003. Newly licensed carriers must also undergo a safety audit within 18 months of approval, a step that helped identify several of the companies cited by the GAO.

This is definitely a step in the right direction for the FMCSA, and hopefully they will continue to develop ways of watching just who is driving on our streets. But while this report has only recently become public, Hannic has been aware of these deceiving practices for several years and have put in place a procedure to avoid using these "resurrected" carriers. In addition to the usual new-carrier review and set-up, we run checks on the phone and fax numbers, as well as the physical address given by the carrier to see who they are listed to. We also check the carrier's insurance company's information to confirm who is listed and how long they have been in business. On occasion we have found discrepancies, which are flagged and the carrier is further inspected to determine if we feel they are usable or not. Our computer dispatching program also verifies a carrier's information every time they are booked on a load, so we are immediately informed of any changes in their status.

Hannic has been the same company (with the same name) for 21 years, and we make sure the carriers we use are of the top quality. We won't put our customers' product -- or our reputation -- on some fly-by-night carrier with a dark and scary past.

Following are portions of a letter that was recently published in Transport Topics (1):

After reading this, one of our dispatchers sent her response to TT (2):

Hannic has worked with a lot of trucking companies both large and small, many of which have been with us for years. We work hard to develop these relationships and do our very best to make sure that the carriers we depend on (and come to care about) don't go out of business. While we don't claim to know how other companies feel, the trucking companies we work with seem to appreciate us as much as we do them, and we are committed to maintaining that relationship.

Debbie Maass and Tracy Brown will be attending the Fall TIA Meeting being held in Anaheim, California on November 14-18. The TIA Meeting is being held in conjunction with NTL's 102nd Annual Meeting and IANA's 27th Intermodal Expo., which means new faces, topics and points-of-view. With the theme "The Power of Together" the meeting allows for expanded networking and learning and perhaps even forming business relationships that may not have otherwise been considered. As always, there will be the familiar workshops that introduce new methods and ideas as well as brush up on old ones. However, this meeting will also see new topics and demonstrations, such as "Getting Down the Road Feeling Better: FMCSA Explains New Roadability Regulations", and "CVSA Roadside Inspection". It should prove to be a very informative event for all.

• Refrain from driving and using mobile phone at the same time - the dispatcher can wait for you to pull over (or for you to call back when you're stopped) so you can discuss and write down load info safely.
• Make sure your trailer is completely empty, clean and odor-free, and pre-cooled if necessary when arriving at shipper's facility to load.
• If possible, watch as the shipper and consignees load and unload your truck. It is important to watch while loading to make sure the product will ride properly. It is also a good idea to count how many pallets go to each delivery so you can make sure each stop gets all of (and only) their product. Remember, YOU are the "captain of the ship".
• Make sure the trailer is locked at all times between deliveries when you have a load on. Some consignees will refuse the entire load if trailer is not secured by a padlock upon arrival for delivery.
• Call dispatch with any problems ASAP such as a breakdown, large shortage at delivery, reefer malfunction, etc. - Hannic has someone on-call for afterhours emergencies.