It’s Monday again—hope you’re coping—and time thus for another edition of the weekly peek at what’s new in the world of Dangerous Goods and EH&S: OSHA: OSHA announced the new availability millions of dollars in grant monies to qualifying small governments and training organizations under the annual Susan Harwood Training Grant program, targeting safety improvements…
DG Digest: OSHA’s New Reporting Requirement, More PHMSA Special Permits, and Amtrak #118 One Year Later
Happy Monday! May has been a chilly month in much of the nation, but hopefully it finds you gearing up for a safe and productive summer. Here’s the past week’s “latest and greatest” in reference to the world of DG transport and EH&S activity: PHMSA: PHMSA took a variety of actions in reference to Special…
DG Digest: FRA Grants, PHMSA Reverse Logistics, & D.O.T. Seeks Public’s Help
As the weather begins to turn for the better in most places, the regulatory world stays busy. Here are the past week’s notables: U.S. D.O.T. Announced its latest five-year research and development plan and asked for public input to its development. The plan gets used as a guide to help decide things like funding priorities…
DG Digest: From OSHA’s “Flashpoint” Definition to FRA’s Quiet Zones
Another eventful week on the DG/Transport Scene! OSHA OSHA issued a revised definition of “Flashpoint,” correcting a CFR omission in its most recent iteration of the 29 CFR. OSHA has partnered with the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) to create a new informational website which offers greatly enhanced safety guidance for users…
DG Digest: More Lithium Battery News, PHMSA Special Permits and FRA Fines Hit Record Heights
Several items of note occurred in the DG world last week, with new and revised regulations affecting everything from Limited Quantities to Lithium Batteries and a vital Federal Agency noting that its enforcement penalties were way up: ICAO/IATA Lithium Battery Rules Changes Both the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Air Transport Association…
DG Digest: FMCSA lowers truckers’ substance test rates, will hold FAST sessions; FRA begins PTC data collection
December 24: FMCSA cuts random truckers’ testing rate for substance abuse to 25%. Good news for truck drivers and carriers—the United States Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has cut the random testing rate for substance abuse in half, from 50% to 25%. This should produce a nice savings for carriers,…
2018 Rail PTC Extension rolls through Congress
Congress acted to avert confusion and delay on the nation’s rail infrastructure on Wednesday October 28th, 2015 by passing an extension to what had been a looming December 31st, 2015 deadline for railroads to fully implement Positive Train Control, or PTC, control systems on their networks. PTC is a control system that uses Global Positioning…
Congressional politics threaten PTC extension bill
Just when American railroads were perhaps starting to breathe a bit easier about the December 31st, 2015 Positive Train Control (PTC) deadline account the seeming agreement in the House of Representatives about extending the deadline to 2018 under a pending bill HR 3651, new political roadblocks to passage appear to be arising. On Wednesday October…
Congress advances bill to delay Railroad PTC Mandate
The US House of Representatives has introduced legislation to delay until 2018 the current deadline for US railroads to implement Positive Train Control (PTC) systems on their tracks. As discussed in a previous blog on the subject, the nation’s railroads have jointly stated the physical impossibility of completing such an inter-operative system by the end…
PTC Alert! The Positive Train Control Deadline Creates a Potential Transportation Crisis
UPDATE: Congress advances bill to delay Railroad PTC Mandate Will January 1, 2016 be the day the trains stop? As America’s railroads and Congress fail to agree on extending the December 31 deadline for implementing Positive Train Control systems, that threat inches closer to reality. The railroads have threatened to essentially shut down all service…