November 19, 2003

Construction Industry Advancement Fund and CDTOA

Dear Trustees and Sharon:

Following are some of the major issues your Industry Transportation Consultant has been dealing with to date.

U. S. Department of Transportation Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

We are currently working with the U. S. Department of Transportation Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regarding regulating legal and extra-legal trucking and the role of local government in regulating our industry.
On September 18, 2003, Greg Smith from American Road & Transportation Builders Association and I met with Warren Hoemann, Deputy Administrator and John Hill, Assistant Administrator / Chief Safety Officer of FMCSA.
We discussed the case of the City of Columbus vs. Ours Garage and Wrecker Service. The case addresses whether the state can grant to a municipality the authority to regulate trucking.
The answer-a state can grant authority to a municipality only if refers to "SAFETY", not because a Mayor or City Council member lives on the corner. They cannot control "prices, routes, or services".
There are numerous examples of the problems we're having in Southern California and how the increased cost is affecting our Industry daily.

Results: I have been speaking with Tony Harris, Chief Deputy Director of Caltrans regarding this problem we're facing throughout southern California. I have requested a more clear definition of "SAFETY" and a plan on how they can stop these cities from regulating trucks that they have no authority to be regulating. He has agreed to contact his legal department and other members of Caltrans to work on a solution to this problem. He was very willing to help with this issue and will get back to me with an answer.

Caltrans and all other agencies regarding reducible loads. We are requesting an evaluation of their current reducible load policy. The Industry would like to see Cranes be allowed to tow a vehicle behind them to a jobsite, which would relieve the problem that they are facing with the Federal and State Hours of Service regulation. You can tow a vehicle behind the crane when you're legal, but using the same size crane, except heavier, you are not able to do so because of the permit that is needed. The Heavy Haul Industry has the same problem, if they want to haul a D8 Dozer on a 5 axle to the jobsite and then move a couple of scrapers when they arrive, they could if they could tow the empty dolly with them. If they weren't transporting the dozer they could legally tow the dolly with them. Soon as a permit is required the rules change, but the safety factor doesn't. We are requesting a change in this policy, which will be a huge savings. This will also cover Concrete Pumping Trucks and Drill Rigs as long as you do not exceed the 65' legal length requirement.

Results: Proposal were approved by the steering committee and moved forward for Caltrans to approve or give a recommendation for our CTPAC January 27th meeting.

Caltrans was also requested to allow movement of all loads on a 24 / 7 basis. They currently allow certain loads and were requesting that the program has demonstrated safety and it's need for the Industry.

Results: Proposal was approved by the steering committee and moved forward for Caltrans to approve or give a recommendation for our CTPAC January 27th meeting.

Caltrans was also requested to allow an annual permit does not need to be an original, rather a faxed copy as are single trip permits presently. This would allow similar vehicles to utilize the same permit. Caltrans is only supposed to be recovering the cost of administering the permit. We presently have a majority of cities that write a permit for the company rather that each truck. The cost of an annual permit is $90.00, if you were to have an original permit in each truck for a company with 9 trucks or cranes etc in San Bernardino County alone would cost a company $21,870.00 a year for annual permit. Currently within the cities of the County of San Bernardino you can obtain a permit for the company and the example above only cost this particular company $2430.00 a year to service their customers and / or the Industry.

Results: Proposal was approved by the steering committee and moved forward for Caltrans to approve or give a recommendation for our CTPAC January 27th meeting.

LA County currently requires all crane permits to be subject to a manual review under their new permit program. You normally would be able to obtain a permit in a matter of seconds if you weren't a crane. Which means you're not able to order a permit during the weekends or at night, only when the permit office is open to have it manually reviewed. We have resolved that problem with the County and came up with a solution. The Computer program will be changed and cranes will no longer have to wait on permits.

Results: E-Mail from LA County approving our requests.
Greg,
Good afternoon. Regarding the renewal of annual crane permits requiring a Cal-Trans inspection report. After discussion with Nelson on this matter, we've decided the set policy is to have the agent or permittee state " PREVIOUS PERMIT # _ _ _ _ _ " on the last line of the LOAD DESCRIPTION box. When this is done, we will reference the previous annual permit, verify Permittee information and License/Serial number to complete the manual review. If all information submitted on application check out, it will be manually approved. Therefore, the only time we would require an inspection report would be for a new crane or when the permittee information is other than that shown on the previous permit.
As far as using a Serial or VIN # in lieu of a license number, it would only be necessary/ allowed when the carrier is brand new. If that were the case, the Serial/VIN # could be entered in the LOAD DESCRIPTION box along with the PREVIOUS PERMIT # _ _ _ _ _ . Remember, this situation would be a one time only variance to the rule, after DMV issues the permanent plates the next permit will be required to state the license plate number to be excepted for manual review.
We will leave to you the responsibility of distributing this new policy to the industry. Please remind them that any variance from the above detailed procedure will require extra work and correspondence it was designed to reduce.
This will resolve the problem you're having with LA County. Presently if you apply for a permit, Cranes are automatically subject to a manual review. This means that you can only obtain a permit during regular business hours and the manual permits take up to 2 hours to process. You will need to let your members know as the e-mail explains, I am to let the Industry know!

LA County has been requested, as we have with Caltrans to allow a vehicle to be towed behind a permitted vehicle as long as it doesn't exceed the 65' for legal length.

Results: The County has agreed with out request and will need to work out the proper language to add it to the permits to cover the vehicle in tow.

The City of Indio has been requested to issue annual permits and to stop regulating legal truck traffic, by posting no truck routes signs, which stops through traffic from adjoining cities into the City of Indio. The City has agreed to a meeting to resolve the issues on November 7th.

Results: The City has agreed with our request to issue annual permits, the presently only issue single trip permits. This will issue an annual permit for 110' in length, 15' 0" in width, 16' 0" in height, nights and weekend travel and up to 250,000 lbs. This will cover 95% of the equipment that our Industry owns or rents on a daily basis. There is one stipulation and that is that the City be notified by phone or fax the route and time of the move to make sure that a detour isn't necessary.
The City has also accepted the permit application that we created as a uniform city permit and will start using it immediately.
The City will review their current Truck Routes and develop through routes from other adjacent cites to keep the truck traffic flowing.
The City is also interested in the Internet Permit program and LA County has offered to take this to other cities in an effort to finalize a uniform permit with municipalities.
Amir Modarressi, P.E., is Deputy Director of Public Works / City Engineer and also the Chairman for the Technical Transportation Advisory Committee for CVAG, Coachella Valley Associated Governments. He is requesting that I attend the next meeting to speak to all the Cities Public Works Directors regarding uniformity.

The City of Rancho Mirage has been over charging the Industry for single trip permits for years.
They have charged from $50.00 up to $200.00 per single trip permit as they have done to Yeager/Skanska Construction. The City is also requiring trucking companies to obtain a business license for $55.00 a year, which should not be required. I have requested that the City discontinue this practice and have a meeting scheduled with their Public Works Director on November 7th to resolve these issues.

Results: The City of Rancho Mirage has agreed to stop charging in excess of $16.00 for single trip permits and issue annual permit at $90.00 for the company. There is one stipulation and that is that the City be notified by phone or fax the route and time of the move to make sure that a detour isn't necessary. This will issue an annual permit for 110' in length, 15' 0" in width, 16' 0" in height, nights and weekend travel and up to 250,000 lbs. This will cover 95% of the equipment that our Industry owns or rents on a daily basis.

The changes that have been made and those that we are expecting to make will benefit our Industry and significantly ease operation and reduce costs. The benefits will continue to accrue in months and years to come.

Sincerely,

Gregory D. Dineen
Industry Transportation Consultant

Cc: John Hakel, AGC Jim Burton, SCCA
Barbara Cunningham, ECA Seth Hammond, MCOG
Richard Lambros, BIA Lee Brown, CDTOA