The WV TRUCKING Truck Driving Championship (TDC) will be held in Charleston at the Civic Center on June 12th followed by our Annual Safety Banquet.
In previous years, many of our members have been General Sponsors donating $300 to go toward paying for the rent for the facility so that our drivers can compete inside.
Sponsors are listed in the TDC program and recognized at the Banquet. Sponsors will also be listed in the newsletter and our TDC publication The West Virginia Transporter.
 
Last year's sponsors were:
 
Underwriting Sponsor
 
BrickStreet Insurance

General Sponsors

Appalachian Tire Products, Inc.
Arnett & Foster PLLC
Bonded Carriers, Inc.
Cummins Crosspoint, LLC
Dyno Nobel
Joe Boggs & Associates
Lincoln Leasing Co., Inc.
New River Trucking, LLC
Summit Community Bank
Trucks, Inc.
Wells Fargo Insurance Services
Winjean Trucking Co.

 
If you would like to sponsor this event this year, please contact the Association Office. Thank you for your consideration and support.

The West Virginia Oil Marketers and Grocers Association is pleased to announce a new Workers’ Compensation Discount Program.  We have teamed with BrickStreet Insurance to offer active OMEGA members who have a good safety record a 6.1% discount on your workers’ compensation premiums.

If you can meet just a few criteria, your company can qualify for this cost savings program through OMEGA.  I have listed the criteria below:

• Report claims within 48 hours of a loss;
• Achieve and maintain a loss ratio of 65% or less;
• Implement a formal Return to Work Program;
• Attend at least one safety seminar per year that applies to operational hazards or complete one on-line course through Safety Source;
• Implement BrickStreet’s 5 Step Loss Control program; and
• Be a member of the West Virginia Oil Marketers and Grocers Association.

That is all there is to the program.  You continue to make your payments to BrickStreet and continue to use the agent of your choice.

If you have any questions regarding this program or if we can assist you in any way, please do not hesitate to contact us.

by George Hohmann
Charleston Daily Mail, April 28, 2010

It's another spring and once again, orange construction barrels have sprung up like wildflowers along West Virginia's highways. But this year's crop is more conspicuous because of a surge of federal stimulus dollars.
 
Lots of money is poured into maintaining and improving the state's roads. But advocates for better roads say it's never enough. The state Division of Highways spends more than $1 billion annually to build, rehabilitate and maintain roads and bridges.
 
Year after year, the never-ending challenge of maintaining 36,000 miles of roads and 6,700 bridges is the largest expense. As the division's 2009 annual financial report pointed out, more than one third of the state's bridges are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, although all are deemed safe.
 

Trucking Industry Talks Safety During Work Zone Awareness Week
America’s Road Team Captains Provide Life Saving Advice

With National Work Zone Awareness Week 2010 marking the 11th anniversary of this life-saving safety campaign, the trucking industry is reminding motorists the importance of our interstate highway system and helping them to stay safe. 
 

The U.S. Department of Transportation issued three final rules on February 25, 2010 that affect petroleum marketers who must comply with federal drug and alcohol testing requirements for CDL/HAZMAT drivers. While the rules do not impose new regulatory burdens, they adopt changes that are required for full compliance.

U.S. DOT Issues Changes to Driver Drug and Alcohol Testing Program

1. The first rulemaking adopts in total an Interim Final Rule authorizing employers to disclose to State commercial driver licensing (CDL) authorities the drug and alcohol violations of CDL/HAZMAT drivers when a State law requires such reporting. This rule does not create an affirmative duty to report test results. It only allows such reporting if a state so requires. This is a technical amendment removing previous language that prohibited transfers of drug and alcohol testing results unless the employer first obtained written consent from the driver. Under the new rule, if a state requires reporting of drug and alcohol test results, the employer is not required to obtain consent from the driver to comply. The rule is available here.

2.The second final rulemaking makes technical changes to U.S. Department of Transportation driver drug and alcohol program forms. Both the U.S. DOT Alcohol Testing Form (ATF) and the Management Information System (MIS) Data Collection Form are updated. Petroleum marketers use these forms to comply with U.S. DOT drug and alcohol program testing and reporting requirements. The DOT recognizes that employers and alcohol testing technicians may currently have a large supply of the old ATF forms. Instead of discarding these forms, the DOT will permit their use until supplies are exhausted or employers may begin using the new forms immediately. Either way, only the updated forms may be used beginning August 1, 2010. Since the MIS is a single-page form that is an annual submission usually done electronically via the Internet, (at http://damis.dot.gov), it is less likely employers have a large number of these forms on hand. Therefore, employers may not use existing supplies of MIS forms for the next reporting deadline of March 15, 2010. Instead, the new MIS forms must be used. Both revised forms with instructions can be found here. The final rule can be viewed here.

3.The third final rule adopts an Interim Final Rule (IFR) that allows certain pre-screening devices for alcohol testing. When the federal alcohol testing rules for CDL/HAZMAT drivers were finalized on February 15, 1994 [54 FR 7302 et seq.], a provision was included requiring breath testing be conducted using evidential breath testing devices (EBTs). However, the DOT subsequently added flexibility in testing methods by allowing the use of non-evidential alcohol screening device (ASD). Regulations updating the types of ASD allowed for non-evidential screening purposes were made in an IFR on January 11, 2007 IFR [72 FR 1298]. The final rule adopts the IFR as written and can be viewed here.
Should you have any questions about these new forms or drug and alcohol testing requirements, please feel free to contact the Association Office.