News - page 21

Shell and TravelCenters of America (TA) have finalized an agreement to develop a U.S. nationwide network of liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueling centers for heavy-duty road transport customers.

The plan is to construct at least two LNG fueling lanes and a storage facility at up to 100 existing TA and Petro Stopping Centers branded full service travel centers along the U.S. interstate highway system.

Construction and opening of the LNG stations will be done in a phased approach with at least two natural gas fueling lanes and associated storage capability established at each facility.

Pending customary approvals, the company estimates the first of these stations will be operational in roughly one year’s time with a priority to develop the main trucking corridors to provide the potential for what Shell says will be the first-ever coast-to-coast LNG-fueled commercial transport network.

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CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — Trooper Gordon Roberts sat behind a pair of Ray-Bans, a steering wheel and about 15 different gauges as he merged onto Interstate 75. He looked out the driver’s side window and scanned across the three lanes in front of him, left to right, looking for his first catch of the day.

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A few small trucking company owners took the opportunity last week to give California’s Air Resources Board “an earful,” pointing to both general and specific issues with implementation of the state’s latest emissions regulations (which went into effect this year), according to KHSL 12, a CBS affiliate in Chico, Calif.

Namely, the requirement that 2000-2004 year-model engines be retrofitted with a state-approved soot filter or the vehicles be done away with or updated was the rule drawing the most fire.

Noncompliance could be met with $1,000 fines, block of registration or even impounding vehicles.

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Is it time to replace your old truck or tractor? Is it old enough that its engine has none of the exhaust-emissions equipment that’s been giving people fits in recent years? Have you decided to take the plunge anyway because your vehicle is just plain worn out?

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LOUISVILLE — In a Friday “listening session” the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration hosted regarding its proposed entry-level driver training stories, truck driver training school officials warned that the proposal would make the current driver shortage even worse.

As FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro explained during opening remarks in the Friday afternoon session at the Mid-America Trucking Show, the agency has been working on this for more than two decades. Back in 1991 Congress ordered safety regulators to start work on a training rule. A 2004 rule requires new drivers to know basic information about the job, over and above the skills they need to pass the CDL exam.

Advocates for Highway Safety sued, saying that the lack of a requirement for road training is a fatal flaw in the rule. The court agreed and forced the agency to take another look. That led to a 2007 proposed rule that would require anyone applying for a new or updated CDL to graduate from an accredited program that includes road training as well as class training.

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