December 7, 2023

FMCSA issues policy on sexual assault among truck drivers

Purpose:

• to clarify that state laws should apply when there is a use of commercial motor vehicles in sexual assaults.
• reduce sexual harassment and assaults on women while in training to be a drive
• remove CMV licenses from those found guilty of sexual assault using a CMV.

“Using a CMV” in the commission of the assault could, for example, include:

• felony sexual assault occurring in or upon a CMV or towed unit; or
• use of a CMV to transport a victim to a site where felony sexual assault is committed; or
• use of a CMV to conceal a felony sexual assault – e.g., the CMV serves as a shield from public view while the assault is taking place.

FMCSA urges State courts to be diligent in forwarding these convictions to the SDLA so the perpetrator will be disqualified from operating a CMV in accordance with 49 CFR 383.51(b) and corresponding State requirements.

• Announcement

Establishes a "green shipping corridor between Canada’s West Coast and ports in the United Arab Emirates, Korea and Japan."

Green shipping corridors will play a vital role in reducing emissions from the entire range of marine shipping activities. They will encourage:

• innovative ship technology;
• clean marine fuels; and
• the use of clean electricity and other low-carbon technologies in port operations.

This could have impacts on the fuel used in shipping and therefore an impact on delivery of fuel to ship yards.

• US, Canada to form task force to get locomotive emissions to net zero

The task force will develop a joint research agenda on zero-emissions locomotive technologies.

This will impact the work of members doing maintenance through technological change.

Updated language may be needed to deal with the training upgrades and to ensure there is no outsourcing of work simply because technology is upgraded.

• establish a joint research agenda to test the safe integration of emerging technologies, including hydrogen-powered and battery-electric locomotives;
• coordinate strategies to accelerate the rail sector’s safe transition from diesel-powered locomotives to zero-emission technologies to ensure a net-zero rail sector by no later than 2050; and
• collaborate on the development of a U.S.-Canada rail sector net-zero climate model by 2025.