CHP Biennial Inspection of Terminals (BIT) Program – Every two years, you’re required to schedule an appointment, but do it in writing.

We have been receiving calls from members unaware of their responsibilities as a motor carrier under the BIT program. Working closely with our local CHP Commercial Offices, questioned if these are isolated incidents or a growing concern. The Commander asked if we were going to write about it in our monthly transportation report and then suggested that we would remind our members of a few of their motor carrier responsibilities and the perhaps unexpected consequences for failing to meet those responsibilities.  

A motor carrier subject to the BIT Program is the registered owner (with some exceptions) of any of the following vehicles, whether or not for hire:

· Any motor truck with three or more axles (including the steering axle) with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 10,000 pounds.

· Truck tractors.

· Trailers or semitrailers used in combination with the vehicles listed above.

· Any motor truck with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 10,000 pounds (excluding a pickup truck as defined in 471 VC), while towing any trailer or semitrailer that results in a combination length over 40 feet (excluding trailer coaches, camp trailers, and utility trailers, as those terms are defined in the Vehicle Code).

As a carrier you have responsibilities that sometime seem endless, but you are required by law to follow.

·            The Carrier is required to schedule with the department the inspection at least every 25 months.

·            Change of Address – Title 131233.5 Motor Carrier must notify the department of an address change.  This is important because maybe that is the reason you didn’t receive your fee or inspection notice.  Then you will be subject to late fee charges.

·            Required to pay your BIT Fees between the 17th and 19th months, no later than the 20th or penalties will be imposed. Late fees Penalties based on 1 truck fleet at $270, 30 days - $432,  1 year - $486, 2 years - $702

·            Vehicle fees increased 9-1-07 – Fleet size now includes trailer equipment.  For example: A tractor pulling two bottom dump trailers is required to pay a fee for 3 units, $510. If you don’t pay the full amount, regardless of excuse, you are considered a delinquent payment and penalties will be due until payment in full has been paid.  

California Vehicle Code (VC) Section 34501.12 requires any person or organization directing the operation of certain trucks or trailers to participate in an inspection program conducted by the California Highway Patrol (CHP). The law requires the CHP to inspect California truck terminals with every 25 months.

CVC 34501.12 (C) "Representative sample" means the following, applied separately to the carrier's fleet of motortrucks and truck tractors and its fleet of trailers:

      (d) (1) the department shall inspect, at least every 25 months, Every terminal, as defined in Section 34515, of a motor carrier who, at any time, operates a vehicle described in subdivision (a).

      (e) (1) It is the responsibility of the motor carrier to schedule with the department the inspection required by subdivision (d). The motor carrier shall submit an application form supplied by the department, accompanied by the required fee contained in paragraph

        (2), for each terminal the motor carrier operates. This fee shall be submitted within 30 days of establishing a terminal. All fees submitted under paragraph (2) are nonrefundable.

(2) (A) The fee for each terminal is set forth in the following table:

Terminal       Required fee per terminal

fleet size

1                        $ 270

2                        $ 375

3 to 8                   $ 510

9 to 15                  $ 615

16 to 25                 $ 800

26 to 50                $1,040

51 to 90                $1,165

91 or more              $1,870

              (B) In addition to the fee specified in subparagraph (A), the motor carrier shall submit an additional fee of three hundred fifty dollars ($350) for each of its terminals not previously inspected under the section.

   (3) Except as provided in paragraph (5), the inspection term for each inspected terminal of a motor carrier shall expire 25 months from the date the terminal receives a satisfactory compliance rating, as specified in subdivision (h). Applications and fees for subsequent inspections shall be submitted not earlier than nine

months and not later than seven months before the expiration of the motor carrier's then current inspection term.  If the motor carrier has submitted the inspection application and the required accompanying fees, but the department is unable to complete the inspection within the 25-month inspection period, then no additional fee shall be required for the inspection requested in the original application.

Motor Carrier Property Permit (MCP) - Two axle trucks over 10,000 GVWR may require an MCP

While attending a San Bernardino court hearing with a member recently, we were surprised to learn about yet another permit required for our industry - the Motor Carrier Property Permit (MCP) - with several cases on the docket. I contacted our local CHP Motor Carrier Specialist and asked if there was something going on we should know about. He informed me that during the days when work was plentiful and companies or individuals were purchasing larger pickup trucks, the dealers generally neglect to mention you may be required to get an MCP.  

This is one of those uniquely California approaches to raising money from contractors and truckers. If you purchased an F350 pick up (unmodified) and you were over 10,000 GVWR, no MCP required. If, however, you took the same F350 and put a flatbed or service body on it and you were over 10,000 GVWR, you would be required to purchase an MCP for the low, low price of $270. 

Random Drug Testing required? – Why you should be enrolled in a drug program / consortium.

We had a member call to say that the employee who was handling the company’s drug testing program is no longer with the company, so they were unaware of the BIT Program requirements.  That is no excuse and when CHP shows up you will receive an “unsatisfactory” rating during your BIT Inspection.  

The drug testing issue is a sensitive one, involves both state and federal regulations and, if you are a union signatory contractor, provisions of your labor agreements.  

This is another one of those cases where it is critical that you belong to an association and that you make use of your association membership to get the information you need to operate within the rules—all the rules. Your company must be part of a drug testing organization such as CDTOA’s American Alliance Drug Testing (AADT) www.aadrugtesting.com  who will help assist and make sure you’re kept in compliance for your BIT drug testing requirements.  

Caltrans

1.      Caltrans Director Will Kempton has stepped down and is now Executive Director for Orange County Transit Authority.  Great Job and Best of Luck at OCTA.

There will always be one thing I will remember that Will Kempton said over and over “we need to work to find a way to say yes, rather than just no” and he kept to his word.  Will has shown through his actions that he is very proud of the State of California, its thousands of dedicated employees and the construction transportation industry.   We in turn want to thank Will for his endless hours of dedication and his wife Beverly for allowing him to do such great work.  

We also want to congratulate Randy Iwasaki as the new director and wish him well in these challenging times.  We also want to thank Randy for presenting on behalf of all the Associations that Greg Dineen & Associates represents, a plague expressing our appreciation of Will’s accomplishments.   

2. Governor’s Executive Order (EO)-S13-09 (three unpaid furlough Fridays per month) closed Caltrans Permit Offices starting July 10. We recommended that they are kept open and Caltrans was given an exemption to be open starting July 23.

Governor Schwarzenegger issued Executive Order (EO) S16-08, last December, which mandated most state workers, including Caltrans employees, had take off two days of a month (unpaid) starting February 6^th and was to be in effect for 18 months.  The executive order allowed for a “self-directed” furlough program, which gave managers and workers some flexibility in what days were taken off. 

July 1, the Governor announced Executive Order S13-09, which added another furlough day and took away the flexibility. We lost the skeleton-staffed Fridays we had to handle unscheduled permit requests.

Working with James Anderson, Caltrans’ Chief of Truck Services, we immediately sent out a notice requesting industry to notify field personnel, the lowbed company transporting their equipment and their customers to plan ahead.  We had been told that e Governor’s office was saying “no exceptions” on the furlough plan, so the Permit Offices would be closed.

Aware of the impact this was going to have over the next 11 months, on July 10^th, we sent an e-mail to Jim Bourgart, Deputy Secretary for Transportation and Infrastructure, California Department of Business, Transportation and Housing, who we have worked with for several years.  We explained the situation that our industry was going to experience and that while we understand the financial situation that our state was currently facing, but now this is much more than our industry can take in this current environment.  

The Caltrans Transportation Permit Office is a vital partner for our industry.  We can’t do business when it’s closed and being closed for three days causes a ripple effect of delay. If you can’t get your permit on Friday, then you are parked with the load until late Monday or possible Tuesday.  We don’t have the option of calling someone else for a permit or take our business elsewhere; we don’t have any other choice.  We are also paying for a service, and for years we were told our payments are covering the employees cost of the agency.

It didn’t take long before problems started developing.  I happen to have been communicating with CHP and a load they were suppose to escort through five different divisions was going to be delayed because a load they measured Thursday night need a change made on the permit that was issued.  When that happens it has to be resubmitted and couldn’t be even looked at until Monday because the office was closed Friday.  This was a variance load that would have been probably not looked at until late Monday and delayed the load until Tuesday.  This was going to definitely not help CHP in any way, so Caltrans Permit Office being closed affects not only our Industry.  So we sent Jim another e-mail on July 12 explaining the problem as I just explained.

We then heard the morning of July 23 that Caltrans was going to be allowed to continue with the “self-directed” furlough program at only one Permit Office at a time.  They would rotate from north to south and vice-versa, well that wasn’t going to work as easy as it may sound.  We have safety issues with that, the North Region Office knows their area and routes in the north and the South Region Office knows their area and routes also.  To change that up would create a potential safety situation.  We immediately made several calls / e-mails to inform BT& H and Caltrans that the idea sounds great on the surface, but technically it would create too many potential safety problems if only one Permit Office was open one week and the other the next.  Confusion alone is another reason. 

That evening we were notified that Caltrans will be back on the “self-directed” furlough program effective immediately.

Again, this interruption in our permit program is scheduled to last through June 30, 2010, so we were given a little reprieve, but you can still expect delays if you don’t plan ahead and make sure your customers understand. 

We really owe a special thank you to the Governor, BT&H and Caltrans for considering our exemption to Executive Order S-13-09.  

3.      Rotator Tow Trucks – Conventional versus Modern Rotator Truck, is bigger actually better versus being able to clear an accident scene in 90 minutes.

Caltrans considers a conventional and rotator tow truck the same; they all must meet the current Caltrans Policy to operate in California. The only other way to change that would be through legislation if that is necessary.  Rotator tow trucks have become an invaluable part of the towing industry, making more efficient recoveries and clearing traffic accidents in record time.  The Governor through his Incident Management Plan is requiring that accident scenes be cleared within 90 minutes so that commuters are not inconvenienced anymore than they are.  This also has to be done with blocked lanes, which the rotator is capable of doing in even some of the most unsafe situations. 

These Goliath Tow Trucks that can be as much as $700,000 and at an emergency rate of $750 an hour doesn’t provide enough revenue to recover these costs…in fact they may have to triple if an exemption for additional weight through legislation isn’t considered for these emergency recovery vehicles.   The insurance and trucking companies don’t want to pay the high cost tow bill if they have to raise their rates, so clearing a highway in 90 minutes vs. 4 to 5 hours has a much larger impact on our economy.

Caltrans’ main interest is protecting the state’s infrastructure and pavement. The issue for Caltrans is the additional weight, which is being requested for loads that already exceed legal weight. This maybe something you’re not aware of and that is another Caltrans’ concern—on tandem axles, with an increase of 1500 pounds—may result in a 30 percent reduction in the service life of pavement.

Those tow trucks in question will continue to operate until such time as their Caltrans Annual Permits expire, at which time they will only issued an Annual Permit for the actual overweight of the vehicle if over legal weight plus a two percent tolerance or 700 lbs, whichever is greater.  Caltrans will no longer state on the face of the inspection report or Annual Permit, “vehicle can tow another vehicle”.  Caltrans sets the policy and CHP enforces them, so in this case it will be the responsibility of the tow company that they don’t exceed permit weight.

If the towing company feels they are able to flat tow a disabled vehicle after checking their on-board scales that they are required to have, then they should be allowed too.   In the past, Caltrans stated you couldn’t tow, meant exactly that you couldn’t until now and we had several members from the industry that said they could and not be overweight.  Caltrans says their intention was never to tell you how to operate your business by saying what rotator trucks can or cannot do.  They were only making sure your operating within policy.

If you happen to have a tow truck that maybe a few pounds over legal weight, you may want to figure a way to reduce the additional weight to be able to maintain legal weight and not require an overweight permit to operate unladen.  If you’re able to maintain legal weight, you will be issued a permit for maximum purple weight based on your configuration, otherwise you won’t.  To assure this, make sure your vehicle configuration and weight distribution are within compliance Caltrans Policies and meet CVC 35551 legal axle weights.

Riverside County – Effective August 14^th, 2009, the Riverside Permit Assistance Center will be closed on Fridays.

“As a cost saving measure, the Riverside Permit Assistance Center will be closed on FRIDAYS beginning August 14^th, 2009.  To assist our customers, we are expanding service hours to 7:30 to 5:30 Monday – Thursday, effective August 13, 2009.” 

With the state’ never-ending fiscal problems, this is becoming a growing issue. One solution we are suggesting is for the county reviews it current Annual Permit policy and increase the envelope vehicle for local carriers hauling local contractor’s equipment, reducing the need for single trip permits. This will become a safety issue. When an agency makes their transportation permit difficult to obtain or worse can’t because they’re closed on Fridays and someone has to have something moved, it will be moved. With the state of the economy and lack of work our Industry is facing, this couldn’t happen at a worse time.

If an agency like LA County, which has an Internet permit program in place, is able to issue permits 24/7, this wouldn’t be an issue. We approached Riverside County over 6 years ago about adopting LA County’s program, which they offered to give to Riverside County for FREE, and they declined, saying the new system they were purchasing would be able to do what LA County’s does. That “new” system is still not up and working – would this have been the savings they needed today and then some?

City of Los Angeles – City of LA Deputy Engineer Clark Robins retires July 18^th after 45 years of service. 

We attended the retirement party for Clark Robins on Friday July 31^st in Pasadena, where I presented a plaque on behalf of all the Associations that Greg Dineen & Associates represents, expressing our appreciation of the fine work Clark has done over the years.  The Plaque reads:

Greg Dineen & Associates

Salutes

Clark Robbins

LA City Deputy Engineer

On His Retirement

Our Ten Member Associations

Thank

HIM FOR AN EXCELLENT RECORD OF

COOPERATION WITH THE GOALS OF

IMPROVING EFFICIENT

CONSTRUCTION TRANSPORTATION

AND UNIFORMITY

Presented on July 31, 2009

Clark Robins can be thanked as the one who was instrumental in having everything available on-line such as permits and plans etc. A true friend of the Construction Transportation Industry and a gentleman with true integrity.

City of Milpitas – Construction end dump must always be covered under a trash law.

We reported last month on a member that was cited under a rubbish / trash section of the Vehicle Code. This section is actually a Rubbish/Trash hauling section and within this section there is some verbiage “anything being transported for disposal, or recycling … totally covered”—while the initial intent may have been good, unfortunately our member was trapped because of the word “anything”. 

CVC 23115.  (a) No vehicle transporting garbage, swill, used cans or bottles, wastepapers, waste cardboard, ashes, refuse, trash, or rubbish, or any noisome, nauseous, or offensive matter, or anything being transported for disposal or recycling shall be driven or moved upon any highway unless the load is totally covered in a manner that will prevent the load or any part of the load from spilling or falling from the vehicle.

We have since received calls from other members that are starting to receive warnings for not having their loads “totally covered,” so you will need to make sure if you’re not already tarping your loads in Milpitas, you should start until we’re able to resolve this issue.

City of Perris – City Resolution # 1948, CR&R Disposal is the only approved waste hauler that shall be used for all construction and other waste disposal. 

We received a call after a member was out looking for any possible work that might be available by visiting potential customers and some old customers.  He was in the Perris and stopped by one of his old customers only to be disturbingly told that he couldn’t use his services as it had in the past if he wanted to because of action by the Perris City Council, granting a monopoly to a single carrier.

The council adopted a resolution that stops our member (or any other company) from doing any hauling out of their city and/or his customers from having the opportunity to receive competitive bids to haul away his broken concrete products from their place of business. CR&R Disposal is the only company that is allowed to haul any and all waste or recycled materials from all construction projects, commercial sites or residential properties. CR&R Waste and Recycling Services, who is a trash/rubbish company which has the curbside contract for, pick up residential and commercial trash within the City of Perris and the company currently services throughout Orange, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Imperial, and Riverside counties.

This ordinance mandates that any business, such as our member’s customer who manufactures concrete products within the city, has to use CR&R as if they were picking up their weekly dumpster. Any construction project where demolition is involved, pavement or asphalt is being replaced and hauled off to a local recycler they too also have to use CR&R to haul off all projects within the city. It doesn’t make a difference whether the job is big or small or it’s your own property or a project that they may have been just awarded, you are mandated to use CR&R roll off bin service. 

As a contractor, you’re unable to utilize your own company end dumps/hauling equipment which are obviously more efficient than any roll off bin. Contractors purchase their own equipment for tax purposes and increased value of the company, but more than that, the availability to haul materials to and from a projects at a reduced cost and immediately if necessary. This also gives the contractor that competitive edge over someone that doesn’t invest in equipment purchases and this ordinance has just undermined the availability or usage, which has increase the cost to the project to the property owner or the developer.

The contractor has to call to have a bin dropped off, once filled by the contractor then calls CR&R to return to the project and pick up the roll off bin, which are now two trips versus one that the contractor would have made. You lose control of the transportation cost, jobsite equipment costs are increased and unnecessary project delays. This is not efficient nor a productive way of hauling material off a construction site, so we will continue to communicate with city officials.

City of Rohnert Park – Annual Permits can be obtained with limitations

We asked if the city would consider issuing annual permits. We explained the County of Contra Costa recently started issuing annuals, so there shouldn’t any reason a city with the county won’t issue annual to help facilitate these oversized loads through the county and reduce staff cost.

The city did agree to issue Annual Permit at $100 which allows the permit to be used to the company. The city agreed to this with one stipulation and that is because they want to know where you’re going. You will need to submit a permit application by fax or electronic at no charge each trip. They want to make sure the route you are using or requesting in this case is safe. You will need to submit your permit 72 hours in advance, it’s doesn’t necessarily mean it will take that long, but they just want to make sure every effort is put forth. If you are going to need one sooner, you can give them a call.

Here is the link to Rohnert Park’s City website that will take you right to the transportation permit packet.

http://www.ci.rohnert-park.ca.us/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=482

If you have any questions regarding obtaining your Annual Permit, give Ellen a call at 707-588-2213.

City of Thousand Oaks – New Oversize Vehicle/Truck Parking Ordinance passed.

On July 1, a meeting was set up by Assemblyman Tony Strickland with Mayor Tom Glancy, Jay Spurgin Pubic Works, Captain Randy Pentis and Sergeant Bob Fleming of Ventura County Sheriff’s Department to discuss the city’s potentially new Oversize Vehicle Ordinance.

We began by expressing the potential impact this ordinance change was going to have on our member, his business and our industry. Being a longtime resident of Thousand Oaks, he has seen more and more commercial parking taken away as if they are trying to push commercial vehicles out of Thousand Oaks. That wasn’t the case according to Captain Pentis. They were mirroring the City of Camarillo parking ordinance and were trying to cut down the 2700 complaint calls they received last year, most of which were Motor home related. We requested that the ordinance not include commercial vehicles. They said they understood our issue, but were set on keep it together as an oversize vehicle ordinance. We were assured that this new ordinance was going to be complaint driven and if our member didn’t have a problem in the past, he shouldn’t expect one in the future. We were requested to be at the city Council meeting on the 14^th and express our concerns to the entire council.

On July 14^th, we attended the Thousand Oaks City Council Meeting and spoke on the behalf of the construction transportation industry.  It was obvious that this ordinance wasn’t focused on our industry, but rather the motor home and travel trailers in town. It was created by those that take advantage of their neighborhoods and leave their vehicles in areas that are considered unsafe for reasons such as parking where they are blocking others view while trying to pull out of their driveways, etc. This new ordinance is going to be taking more truck parking away from areas that are already lacking efficient parking. There are signs posted that are limit the available parking places even in the commercial and industrial areas where they should be allowed without any restrictions.

Reaffirming Our Purpose:

If you have any problems with a local agency (city/county/state) and you find yourself asking ‘why are we having to do things this way’ and the agency tells you, ‘this is the way we have always done it’, let us know. We are here to make California transportation operations as smooth, efficient and safe as possible.

Respectfully submitted,

Gregory D. Dineen

Industry Transportation Consultant

cc:

John Hakel, AGC                                  Aimee Shook, DCA

Richard Lambros, BIA                          Jim Burton, ECA

Michael Vlaming, COA                         Lee Steinberg, MCOG

Eric Sauer CTA                                                William E. Davis, SCCA

Jeff Hunter, CTTA                                Doug Ball, SC&RA

Lee Brown, CDTOA