TAM members are providing an amazing assist to Hope & Comfort by transporting one million bars of soap to various charity distribution centers around the Commonwealth. TAM member Hope & Comfort is the only organization in Boston solely dedicated to addressing youth hygiene insecurity, and has benefited greatly from the time and transport donated by our membership.
We are so proud of our members for working tirelessly to help those in need!
An American Transportation Research Institutes (ATRI) white paper reviews how professional truck drivers use parking availability systems. It also goes into perspectives on how truck parking information is distributed. From ATRI…
The research is based on a survey of more than 1,100 truck drivers, and cross-tabulates findings from all sectors, age groups, experience levels and gender. The research was conceptualized by ATRI’s Research Advisory Committee (RAC), through their recognition that the numerous truck parking information systems being developed by public sector agencies are often based on disparate technologies and information distribution channels. The RAC believed that the lack of national standardization may be creating confusion and distrust of these potentially invaluable systems.
“This new research on driver issues and preferences toward truck parking information systems is hopefully a first step in developing a national driver-centric system, built on clear standards and approaches,” said Bill Hambrick, a professional driver for Werner Enterprises and an America’s Road Team Captain.
The research recognizes that the truck parking information systems are managed at a facility level, but corroborates that long-haul interstate drivers are the preferred users of the system, and that the system designs and approaches should not differ considerably across state lines.
The full report is available online through the ATRI website, but you will need to provide your name and email address to for the report to download.
Our spring conference was a great success! Appreciation shout-outs to all of our terrific speakers, and as always – to our event and speaker sponsors, without whom we could not bring you such informative sessions.
To our attendees – thank you for sharing your comments and questions, and for your attendance. If you missed any speaker, the recordings of the event can be found below.
Headquartered in Portsmouth, NH, ConvenientMD is a walk-in and virtual healthcare provider dedicated to delivering the best medical care and experience for patients throughout New England. By offering fast, quality care at an affordable rate, ConvenientMD is raising the bar for urgent care and reshaping the delivery of modern healthcare. The recent grand openings in Dedham and Burlington mark the addition of ConvenientMD’s tenth location in Massachusetts and twenty-eighth across Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.
The existing urgent care clinics in Massachusetts are located in Bellingham, Dedham, Falmouth, Framingham, Newburyport, Pembroke, Plainville, Quincy, and Weymouth, with Ludlow and Westborough slated for openings this summer.
ConvenientMD recently announce an exciting partnership with Bain Capital Double Impact. This will position ConvenientMD to expand access to its differentiated, affordable, and flexible urgent care facilities through both service line expansions designed to make healthcare more affordable and accessible, and opening new locations in underserved areas.
ConvenientMD offers a wide range of high-quality in-clinic and integrated telehealth episodic care services, including injury and illness care, occupational health services such as DOT physicals, drug testing, and workers compensation as well as moderate and highly complex lab offerings.
Each clinic is staffed by a team of physicians, advanced practice providers, registered nurses, radiologic technologists, and other medical professionals, and features state-of-the-art technologies and capabilities, including digital X-ray, EKG and other tests, medical procedure rooms, electronic consultations with specialist providers, post-visit care navigation, and IV fluid/antibiotic treatments.
ConvenientMD offers affordable, on-demand care seven days a week, resulting in high customer satisfaction and significantly lower total cost to patients, health plans, and employers than a visit to an emergency department or other points of care for medical episodes.
ConvenientMD is excited to partner with TAM to offer discounted rates to all TAM Members. As a proud member of TAM, ConvenientMD is committed to offering affordable, convenient, and timely services to the TAM membership throughout Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire. For more information about ConvenientMD or to set up an account with us, please contact Michael Ceglie, director of business development at (781) 267-5191.
Top students from across Massachusetts will compete at Advantage Truck Group in the SkillsUSA Mass Diesel Equipment Technology State Championship. This hands-on event supports student interest in diesel technician-related work while helping to build the employment pipeline for the state’s trucking industry.
As part of its ongoing commitment to support training and workforce development, Advantage Truck Group will host the Diesel Equipment Technology competition for the 2021 SkillsUSA Massachusetts State Championship at its Shrewsbury facility on Friday, April 30, where the state’s top diesel technology students will come together to compete and the winner will represent Massachusetts at the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference virtual competition in June.
The annual competition helps to encourage students with an interest in and aptitude for diesel technician-related work and highlights career opportunities in this field.
While the need for technicians extends across Massachusetts, the state has identified Transportation, Warehousing, and Logistics as one of the Central Massachusetts region’s top three priority industries, with diesel technicians facing among the most significant employee shortages.
“The need for qualified diesel technicians in Massachusetts creates strong job prospects for students and skills competitions like this help highlight these opportunities,” said ATG president and CEO, Kevin Holmes. “ATG is proud to be able to provide this support for SkillsUSA Massachusetts, as we see this as a vital part of technical education in the region that will help build the next generation of skilled technicians.”
This year’s state championship includes nine high schools representing six school districts across Massachusetts, with twelve students qualifying for the competition by achieving top scores on three written exams. During the event, the students will complete tasks that challenge their knowledge of tools, precision measurement, specific vehicle components, and job interview skills as they cycle through ten workstations. Stations include tasks related to engine diagnostics, electrical systems, brakes, steering, air systems and air conditioning. Students will be presented with a vehicle challenge during which they diagnose and repair several pre-assigned problems under the hood of a live vehicle, giving them the opportunity to test their skills in a real-world situation they may encounter as a professional technician.
The winner of the state championship will earn four hours of training with a Master Diesel Technician at ATG’s Shrewsbury facility to help prepare for the national competition. In addition to hosting this year’s Diesel Equipment Technology competition, ATG manages the event and is responsible for designing the hands-on tasks at each testing station.
The live competition will be held on April 30 from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. and will be closed to the public.
Women make history every day, but Women’s History Month provides an opportunity to focus on those remarkable achievements.
In a male dominated career, Somerville Facility Driver Patricia Clark is the first female UPS driver in the Boston area to attain 25 years of safe driving. All without a single accident. She was able to achieve this remarkable goal while driving a large commercial vehicle on busy roads and through severe weather situations.
Patricia delivers in old Boston—the historic waterfront neighborhood of Charlestown. “It has the original brownstones. Cobblestone streets designed for horse and carriage. To get to this safe driving milestone in the extremely tight, old city environment makes her accomplishment remarkable,” said Business Manager Kevin Thibert.
Patricia joined the ranks of UPS as a part-time package handler in Watertown, Massachusetts thirty years ago. She was motivated to be a driver for the job security, good health care insurance and wages. She saw mostly men working in this field, but wasn’t deterred. She knew office work wasn’t for her. She liked the idea of working outdoors and on her own.
Now, with more than 25 years on the road, she agrees her success behind the wheel has been achieved by applying the UPS safe driving methods. “The safety training is really important. I practice it all day long. The methods have been tested, tried and proven successful,” Patricia shares.
Her safety tip to the public, “Remember, it’s expensive to get into an accident. When you get behind the wheel of a car, take it seriously. Slow it down. The way you travel to the address you are going will determine your outcome.”
UPS adds to its prestigious “Circle of Honor” each year to recognize employees who have delivered packages for a quarter of a century without an accident.
Patricia was recognized for her outstanding driving record along with 50+ other drivers in Massachusetts. She is the first women in the Boston area to join newly inducted drivers into the company’s elite organization.
Globally, 10,779 active UPS drivers are members of the Circle of Honor. Collectively they’ve racked up 15 billion safe miles during their careers. It’s enough to circle the earth at the equator about 600,000 times.
Originally submitted on April 9, 2021.
TAM is committed to improving air quality in Massachusetts and supporting policies that safeguard the environment. And while we appreciate and applaud the efforts of the Baker administration to pursue these goals via the TCI-P, we have multiple questions and concerns about how the program will affect Mass trucking companies, particularly users of diesel fuel, when officially enacted.
TCI-P will inherently change behavior in the commercial transportation sector, but potentially not as it was intended. Diesel fuel in particular will continue to be utilized in Massachusetts, but it will simply be purchased elsewhere whenever possible. Most troubling is that it will likely not significantly reduce emissions already being reduced from increasingly stricter diesel fuel regulations, and will actually drive businesses and jobs away from our state.
We understand that TCI-P is designed to reduce the amount of fossil fuel utilized for transportation in Massachusetts. But it is problematic that the commercial transportation sector is not considered separately. Diesel fuel and gasoline fees (taxes) should not be looked at equally; they are very different.
Unfortunately, in our opinion, the limited amount of participation across the region is problematic on many fronts as well, and seems to call into question the viability of the initiative at this point. Listed below is a sampling of some of the concerns we have with TCI-P, and we would welcome the opportunity to discuss these issues to obtain clarity and understand how these concerns are being addressed.
All figures are per US EPA
Year: 2002
Mandate/Technology: Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR)
Environmental Benefit: 50% NOx emissions reduction
Cost to Industry: $250 million annually
Year: 2006 – 2010
Mandate/Technology: Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD)
Environmental Benefit: 97% reduction of sulfur in diesel
Cost to Industry: $4 billion annually (in combination with PM/NOx limits)
Year: 2007 – 2010
Mandate/Technology: US EPA PM and NOx limits; Diesel Particulate Filters (DPFs)
Environmental Benefit: 90% reduction of Particulate Matter (PM) “soot” 90% reduction of NOx
Cost to Industry: $4 billion annually (in combination with ULSD)
Year: 2014
Mandate/Technology: US EPA/NHTSA “Phase 1” Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium- and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles
Environmental Benefit: 23% reduction of CO2 emissions
Cost to Industry: $8 billion
Year: 2021, 2024, 2027
Mandate/Technology: US EPA/NHTSA “Phase 2” Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium- and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles
Environmental Benefit: additional 34 percent reduction of CO2 emissions
Cost to Industry: $20 – $30 billion
As of January 2021, a typical five-axle tractor-semitrailer combination paid:
TAM is anxious to get a better understanding of TCI-P’s plans to address these issues as well as many others. We stand at the ready to discuss all issues and to offer our expertise to further detail any and all of the issues we have raised.
Respectfully submitted
Kevin Weeks
Executive Director
Founded in 1984, Manning Gross + Massenburg LLP (MG+M) is a national litigation and trial firm with 13 offices across the country. Their experienced team of diverse attorneys offers a collaborative approach, national resources, and a broad counsel network that can rapidly deploy in response to litigation demands in all courts across the country.
David Willis leads the Boston location, and has represented transportation, shipping, and logistics companies for most of his 30-plus years. He began his career representing a small company with two trucks. Today, that has grown to representing national carriers with thousands of trucks. In addition, David holds a 200-ton coastal master’s license issued by the United States Coast Guard. David has held this license for decades. He began this aspect of his career in New Orleans working with an Admiralty and Trucking firm in the 1980s. His experience spans from the gulf coast to New England.
MG+M’s nationwide Trucking and Transportation Litigation practice group focuses on all aspects of the trucking and transportation industry to defend manufacturers, premises owners, retailers, and service providers in the areas of commercial litigation, freight and property claims, personal injury and wrongful death claims, and labor and employment claims. For more than 15 years, the attorneys involved in this expanding docket of cases have gained a thorough understanding of the complexities involved with trucking and transportation, including interstate transportation and the extensive regulatory frameworks of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, the Transportation Equity Act of the 21st Century, and the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program.
Whether it is defending a tractor/trailer accident or other transportation related matters, MG+M takes a proactive approach – always keeping in close communication with their clients, insurers and claims administrators, private investigators, law enforcement, witnesses, and experts to provide a robust and collaborative defense using the latest technology, graphics, and computer animation.
MG+M’s experienced team of lawyers will defend each aspect of the case, in and outside of the courtroom, with a full understanding of the facts, the law, and the legal issues. Their team approach extends beyond the firm. MG+M works collaboratively with a team of trucking and transportation experts and private investigators on emergency accident investigations, because we understand the benefits of early response and effective liability assessment. MG+M’s 24-hour Rapid Response Team is a strategic network of experienced MG+M attorneys, experts and investigators ready to deploy and reach an accident scene to collect evidence and assess liability anywhere in the United States within 24 hours. This team is equipped to handle issues and claims wherever and whenever they arise.
To learn more about MG+M, visit their website page dedicated to trucking and transportation litigation.
The following communication was sent today to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) clearly expressing the trucking industries opposition to a proposed federal truck-only vehicle miles traveled tax. The letter is also available as a PDF to be printed.
Dear Senator Warren,
On behalf of the Trucking Association on Massachusetts, I write to discuss our shared goal of pursuing meaningful investments in infrastructure in the weeks and months ahead. The trucking industry is eager to work with you, Congress and the Biden Administration to end the continuous cycle of underinvestment in our nation’s infrastructure. A bold investment in infrastructure will improve the safety and functionality of our nation’s transportation systems while reinvigorating a pandemic-stricken economy.
As that work begins in earnest, we want to convey our strongly-held view that any infrastructure investment must be grounded in long-term, sustainable funding, based on mechanisms where all road users contribute to rebuilding and revitalizing the American transportation network. The trucking industry will aid in those efforts, and welcomes the opportunity to contribute to infrastructure development in a meaningful and efficient way.
However, we strongly caution against discriminatory funding schemes that place the burden of supporting our infrastructure solely on the back of the trucking industry. Forcing the industry to cover the entire gap between available revenue and infrastructure funding needs will jeopardize economic stability, cripple our nation’s supply chain, and threaten to decimate recent economic gains. Moreover, it will irreparably fracture the broad stakeholder support that has facilitated the advancement of past highway bills. Therefore, any discriminatory funding schemes, like a truck-only vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax, will be met with resolute opposition by the industry, and must be dismissed as a misguided and prejudiced funding gimmick.
Mandating that the trucking industry bear the brunt of our nation’s infrastructure investment via a truck-only VMT tax is unfair, imbalanced, and runs counter to public interest. In terms of feasibility, there are ample reasons why a truck-only VMT is an ill-conceived and dangerous solution. First, experts agree that proper implementation of a VMT tax will require at least five to ten years to generate revenue because the relevant technology has yet to be fully developed, large-scale field testing has not been conducted, data privacy and security issues have not been addressed, and VMT enforcement mechanisms have not been implemented to combat anticipated evasion. Second, current review of VMT fee pilot programs estimates that collection costs could be as high as 40 cents on the dollar. While full implementation will likely bring these costs down substantially, these estimates suggest collection costs could still be as high as 15%—more than 70 times greater than the cost to collect the fuel tax. Third, a VMT fee would require individual accounts for each taxed vehicle, which, if applied to all road users would affect approximately 270 million vehicles, creating a daunting administrative boondoggle to implement and oversee. Fourth, there is an assumption that electronic logging devices (ELDs), which are currently required in only 28% of commercial motor vehicles, can be used to track miles for the purpose of imposing a VMT fee. However, federal law prohibits government agencies from using ELDs for any purpose other than Hours of Service compliance.
The trucking industry stands ready and eager to work hand-in-glove with Congress and the White House towards stemming our deepening infrastructure crisis. As you and your colleagues work to advance meaningful infrastructure legislation, we urge you to consider funding mechanisms that are built around a system where all who benefit from the transportation system contribute fairly. And, we emphatically caution you against the pursuit of discriminatory funding mechanisms such as a truck-only VMT, which will seriously impede efforts to enact meaningful infrastructure legislation this Congress.
Thank you for your attention and thoughtful consideration of this important and timely matter.
Sincerely,
Kevin Weeks
Executive Director, Trucking Association of Massachusetts
Certain workers in Massachusetts will be eligible to schedule COVID-19 vaccine appointments as part of Phase 2, effective this coming Monday, March 22.
For a complete list of worker categories in this eligibility group, visit the Massachusetts government website related to vaccinations. This information is current as of Wednesday, March 17 and is subject to change.
Worker categories include, but are not limited to…
Food, meatpacking, beverage, agriculture, consumer goods, retail, or food service workers – All staff involved in the production, processing, storage, transport, wholesale and retail sale, preparation, and service of food and consumer goods, including farm and other agricultural workers, including farm stand and nurseries.
Medical supply chain workers – Workers directly involved in the manufacturing and production, packaging, transport, quality control, and sale of materials critical to the delivery of medical care.
Vaccine development workers – Workers directly involved in research, development, manufacturing and production, packaging, transport, quality control, and sale of vaccines (COVID-19 and others).
Transit/transportation workers – Drivers/operators, attendants, sales, administrators, maintenance staff, public and private bus, train/subway, passenger boat/ferries, passenger air, and automobile (including rental car, car service/limousine, taxi, and ride apps) transportation, bridge and road construction and maintenance workers, shipping port and terminal workers, commercial transportation.
Public works, water, wastewater, or utility workers – Utility: Electrical generation and supply system, natural gas delivery, nuclear power plant, water supply, telephone, cable/fiber optical/broadband/cellular service workers Public works including street repair, street lighting, public park, beach, and trail maintenance workers.
Sanitation workers – Drivers, solid waste handlers, recycling staff, street cleaners, sewer and storm water system workers
Register in advance…
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