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Idaho authorities say that a truck driver was sentenced to prison after police discovered several illegal items in his truck when he was broken down.

California-based truck driver Patrick Michael McHenry, 28, was sentenced to 36 months in prison in addition to 3 years of supervised release, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Idaho.

McHenry pled guilty to a charge of possession of an unregistered firearm in September 2019.

The charge was filed against McHenry after his truck broke down while he was in Idaho.

From the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

According to court records, McHenry’s semi-truck broke down while driving through Nampa, Idaho. Police contacted McHenry and a drug detection canine alerted on the cab of McHenry’s truck. Inside, officers located a sawed-off shotgun with an obliterated serial number, shotgun shells, methamphetamine, and a digital scale. McHenry admitted to possessing the firearm, which was later identified as a modified Harrington and Richardson, Model Topper 58, 20-gauge shotgun. The shotgun had a shortened barrel that measured 8.5 inches in length, with an overall length of 14 inches. The National Firearms Act requires such a shotgun to be registered if the barrel is less than eighteen inches in length.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Nampa Police Department.

The case was prosecuted as part of two Department of Justice programs — Project Safe Neighborhoods, which seeks to reduce violent crime, and Project Guardian, which is an initiative to reduce gun violence and enforce federal firearms laws.

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Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) may have postponed the International Roadcheck inspection campaign indefinitely, but the agency currently has no plans to reschedule or cancel two other major enforcement efforts this summer.

This year, International Roadcheck was planned for May 5 — 7, but was postponed until sometime later this year due to the COVID-19 crisis.

However, the CVSA says that there are currently no plans to cancel or postpone Operation Safe Driver Week, taking place July 12 — 18 or Brake Safety Week, which is scheduled for August 23 — 29.

During Operation Safe Driver Week, law enforcement agencies throughout North America increase patrols, looking for dangerous driving behaviors from both passenger vehicle drivers and commercial vehicle drivers. These dangerous driving behaviors include speeding, distracted driving, unsafe lane changes, impaired driving, and failure to obey a traffic device.

During last year’s Operation Safe Driver Week effort, 46,752 citations and 87,624 were issued to both passenger vehicle and commercial vehicle drivers.

Brake Safety Week 2020 is scheduled to include both the August 23 — 29 enforcement effort and an additional single day unannounced inspection effort that could take place at any time throughout the year. During Brake Safety Week, inspectors perform primarily Level IV Inspections on commercial vehicle to identify out-of-adjustment brakes and brake-system violations.

The CVSA says that it will continue to monitor the pandemic and announce the new dates for International Roadcheck and update the status for Operation Safe Driver Week and Brake Safety Week when possible.

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The Tesla Semi.

Tesla Inc. pushed back first deliveries of its Semi commercial tractor into next year, making the truck two years behind its original schedule.

The Palo Alto, Calif., electric vehicle builder said in its first quarter earnings report that it has delayed the first deliveries until 2021. When Tesla unveiled the first prototypes of the truck in 2017, it said the tractor would start production in 2019.

Tesla did not provide a reason and did not respond to an email from Transport Topics. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on the social media platform Twitter last month that he would likely provide an update on the Semi later this year.

The delay looks to be a combination of a tight battery supply and the manufacturing disruptions created by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a Morgan Stanley trucking industry analyst.

"This decision is not a major surprise given COVID-related manufacturing disruptions at Tesla and in no way is a reflection of the technological or commercial feasibility of the Semi program, in our view,” Ravi Shanker, a Morgan Stanley analyst wrote in a May 4 report to investors.

At least part of the delay is because heavy-duty truck production would divert battery cells from Tesla’s passenger car business, which is starting to operate profitably, Shanker said.

“If production of the Tesla Semi were to ramp up meaningfully, Model 3 or Model Y car production would decline,” Shanker said.

He said work on what he described as a “longhaul electric, platooning-capable autonomous truck” continues.

Tesla has received several large pre-orders and follow-on orders for the Semi, which has been testing on public roads for several years.

UPS Inc. is looking to put 125 into service as an initial test, said Michael McDonald, UPS director of maintenance and engineering for sustainability and government affairs. PepsiCo has ordered 15 to use at a Frito Lay facility in Modesto, Calif. Anheuser-Busch said it has 40 on order as part of a companywide strategy to employ cutting-edge technology such as autonomous trucks and to reduce its environmental impact.

Shanker noted there is a crowd developing in the electric truck business.

“We expect the Tesla Semi to be joined many other products from incumbent OEMs and startup OEMs in the next 1-2 years,” Shanker said.

Daimler Trucks North America, Volvo Trucks, Paccar and Navistar all are developing electric trucks for the U.S. market, though the pandemic may delay some of those programs. Daimler, with its eCascadia, and Volvo, with its VNR Electric, both plan to launch commercial production of their electric trucks next year.

But Tesla may yet prove itself an able competitor against mature manufacturers, Alexander Potter, an analyst with Piper Sandler, said in a report to investors.

“The company’s increasingly global footprint should drastically reduce logistics cost, while rising software content is a margin tailwind that no other automaker can replicate,” Potter said.

In a conference call with industry analysts and investors last month Musk continued to make his case for electric vehicle adoption.

“We really need to figure out where is the transportation of the future and not the transportation of the past. You know, if this was 1920, do you want to be investing in steam engines or internal combustion engines? Obviously not steam engine,” Musk said.

Tesla plans to sell two versions of the Semi. It has announced an “expected” $150,000 base price for the model with a 300-mile range. That jumps to $180,000 for a truck with an expected 500-mile range.

Four independent motors on the rear axles will power the truck. Tesla has said it will have faster acceleration than a diesel counterpart, going from zero to 60 mph in 20 seconds while hauling an 80,000-pound load. Like other electric truck builders, Tesla said it will cost less to operate and maintain than a diesel tractor.

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On a normal work-day, the narrow 50th Avenue SW, which runs between J Street SW and Bowling Street SW near U.S. Highway 30, sees quite a bit of semi-truck traffic.

“It’s congested some,” Teresa Zimola-Ransom, a truck driver who works in the area, said. “There’s a lot of truck traffic and cars of people that work down in that area. It’s a heavier industrial area.”

Zimola-Ransom said about 20 trucks from her business alone drive this road every day. With Gov. Kim Reynolds announcing the TestIowa site at the Kirkwood Continuing Education Campus would be opening Thursday, Zimola-Ransom is worried about a lot more traffic for drivers who aren’t used to this part of town.

That includes people getting tested and those who might not know that you must be pre-approved to get a test.

“You have to go through TestIowa to get a number," Zimola-Ransom said. “There’s going to be people that are wanting to get tested and don’t have the preapproval”

Cedar Rapids Mayor Brad Hart said he doesn’t believe traffic in the area will be too much of an issue but said there’s a reason this parking lot is being set up for testing.

“It’s a really large parking lot, it’s pretty accessible off of the interstate and off of 30, and Kirkwood and Prairie are closed,” Hart said.

While Hart isn’t too concerned with the number of cars driving this street to get tested, he is asking people to be careful

“If you can avoid that area while testing being done, great,” Hart said.

Zimola-Ransom understands these people do need to get tested. She just wants people who are unfamiliar with this stretch to be safe while sharing it with truck drivers.

“A lot of cars don’t realize that it takes both lanes of 50th Avenue to turn," Zimola-Ransom said. “Even with the traffic control from either CRPD or DOT, there’s going to be a lot of traffic.”

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Onboard video can protect fleets from litigation, vendors say.

Many trucking companies have installed cameras in their vehicles as a way to coach drivers and avoid protracted litigation, but onboard video also can help address rising insurance costs in the transportation industry.

Most insurance companies, for their part, are in favor of their trucking clients deploying video telematics. Theoretically, the existence of onboard cameras should lower premiums, particularly if the recorded event in question exonerates the driver. But whether that actually translates into discounted insurance premiums is another question. In the long run, such insurance breaks will likely occur as insurance companies analyze the data and determine if fleets are utilizing the technology to effectively train drivers.

Meanwhile, nuclear verdicts and expensive settlements in trucking litigation have skyrocketed — a key factor driving up insurance costs.

“These types of settlements are driving our trucking companies out of business, driving insurance rates to levels we’ve never seen in the last decade,” said Jim Angel, vice president of video intelligence solutions at Trimble, which offers an onboard camera system primarily for Class 8 fleets.

Onboard video, however, can provide fleets with liability protection, suppliers said.

“More often than not, the truck driver is exonerated,” said Jason Palmer, chief operating officer at SmartDrive, which supplies a wide range of video-based safety systems. “It’s really there to protect the driver, and even if they are at fault, they’d want to know about it right away.”

Passenger car drivers are principally at fault in 70% to 75% of fatal car-truck crashes, according to a 2013 report by American Trucking Associations.

“If you take advantage of the odds of truck drivers only being at fault a small minority of the time, then having the right tools is absolutely key,” Angel said.

He said this can translate to lower insurance deductibles because companies are able to win the majority of litigation battles and not pay out as many false claims as they had in the past.

Onboard cameras have become much more common in trucks, almost an expectation. If a collision between a truck driver and passenger vehicle results in litigation, fleets that have not implemented video systems then have to defend that decision, Palmer said.

“Paying for claims and damages that are the fault of the trucker is not really the issue. No one is trying to dodge legitimate liability, but we’re trying to isolate that legitimate liability as compared to frivolous litigations, claims that have no foundation, and the camera certainly helps us to do that,” added Bob Fuller, agency president of AssuredPartners/Fleet Risk Management, an insurance company focused on the transportation industry.

Two years ago, KKW Trucking, headquartered in Pomona, Calif., installed forward-facing cameras in its 400-truck fleet, primarily because of the litigious environment in the trucking industry.

“We wanted to capture what really occurred. From our perspective, we’re going to mitigate liability in many cases completely where we captured an accurate account of an event that was not absolutely 100% our fault, and the other piece is, if we did have some fault, we want to be able to have an accurate account of what occurred and be able to address it as quickly and as cost efficiently as possible,” said Brandon Krueger, senior director of IT and fleet services.

“While our insurance company was happy for us to have it because they recognized the potential help for liability circumstances, it really never produced a premium discount or subsidy of any kind for us,” he added.

Still, Krueger said the cameras already have helped mitigate claims.

“We feel it has been worth the investment,” he said. “In most cases, it has proven that we were not at fault.”

Kevin Parker, a fleet manager at Dana Cos., said his company started installing video systems last fall. The technology is still new, though, so it has not had an impact on insurance premiums yet.

“Because we’re still providing them with evidence, they want to see a curve in chargeable claims. I don’t expect anything to change with our insurance until it is time to review premiums,” he said.

Lytx, another supplier of onboard cameras and video-based safety systems, has been working with insurance companies for a decade, said Eliot Feldstein, senior vice president for corporate development.

“They have realized early on that once they write a liability policy for a trucking company, it’s in their economic interest to make sure the trucking companies have the lowest collisions and the best performance they can,” Feldstein said.

In his experience, insurance companies will generally give discounts on premiums to those fleets that have installed Lytx systems.

“A safer fleet with a better track record gets better insurance pricing. They’re a better risk when they go out and look for insurance, and we are able to formalize that with a variety of insurance companies,” Feldstein said.

He added that some insurers will even subsidize the cost of his company’s system, shouldering the load because they know that video evidence can be very impactful. And it’s not just about price, but having insight to deliver services better, along with helping to adjudicate and settle claims more quickly. But fleets have to utilize the data they obtain from a telematics system in a meaningful way in order for everyone to reap the benefits.

The ability to address unsafe driving behaviors is undoubtedly important for all parties. Not only are drivers involved in collisions being exonerated more often than not, but it creates opportunities for coaching; this is what insurance companies want to see.

“It makes drivers more conscientious of driving skills when they realize the potential for what they’re doing to be recorded. It can be a great training tool if it is implemented properly,” Fuller said.

“The telematics will allow an intervention on an unsafe behavior much earlier, which translates into lower insurance costs and a more efficient operation,” he added.

Many companies proactively integrate the data into formal safety programs.

“We have a SmartDrive-managed service team of highly trained driving analysts that objectively review and score driving events, which are incorporated into a driving performance profile,” Palmer said. “This is an essential component of the SmartDrive safety program that typically results in 50% to 70% reduction in collisions, which is a significant portion of cost savings.”

Parker plans to extract videos from the dash cams for training purposes in the company’s school for new hires.

“We’re using recent material that was defensible, and in a couple of cases showing where our driver made poor decisions; we can use that to educate new drivers,” he said.

Todd Reiser, vice president at risk management firm Lockton Cos., said insurance providers want to know that the client is utilizing the data to train drivers.

“That the camera footage and data is being reviewed and utilized and being part of the training process on an ongoing basis is the most important thing insurance companies want to see,” he said.

KKW’s Krueger agreed.

“If you’re seeing these events you wouldn’t otherwise see that create coachable events — you’re coaching against risky behavior — that will theoretically result in lower events per miles driven, and it’s that claims experience the insurance company is looking for and what they’re basing their premiums on,” he said.

Insurance firm Sentry has an affiliation with one of the large camera providers, said Dan Grant, corporate director of safety services.

“We’ve been actively promoting the video telematics as a solution to basically improve the drivers that are behind the wheel. That is what the technology is for — capturing observed behaviors of drivers, and then have some type of intervention with the driver,” Grant said.

Still, his company does not directly align a premium discount with cameras.

“We like to see companies that are actively administering a good safety program based around the cameras, so just having cameras doesn’t indicate it’s a better risk. We need to see how well they’re performing. Are they holding drivers accountable? Do they have training? We’re trying to gather as much information as we can, which builds into the overall risk picture and the underwriting of that particular account,” Grant said.

In fact, his company conducted an internal study to determine if fleets that installed video telematics perform better.

“We found there was a measurable reduction in claim frequency for the group that had video telematics, a benefit to us as their carrier, reporting less claims and having less severe claims, but also a benefit to the company as well,” Grant said.

Another benefit, said Fuller, is the ability to process claims quickly and efficiently rather than slogging through litigation.

“If it is the trucking company’s fault, we want to pay the claim. And if not, which we find to be the case so often with the video available, we want to get that out and get that to the plaintiff’s attorney and shut this litigation down as quickly as possible,” he said.

Trimble’s Angel added that video analytics give the carrier a snapshot into predicting risk by looking at all the data, including overall driving performance. He said insurance companies love having the data available and that it gives them an opportunity to process claims more quickly.

“But what you don’t hear them talking about is the dollar amount that has been reduced in total amount of claims. I’d like to see more of an active role played by insurance companies and providing larger discounts to trucking companies,” Angel said.

Video intelligence is almost always viewed favorably by the insurance carrier, with some insurance companies even subsidizing or supplementing the cost of deploying the technology. There are usually expectations with shared cost programs, with performance indicators that they have to meet.

Sentry had a subsidy program but moved away from it, though Grant said it is still a very common practice in the trucking insurance space.

“Some will underwrite the cost, typically the cost of monitoring but sometimes the cost of purchasing the units, though generally it’s an underwriting consideration, not an enumerated discount,” Fleet Risk Management’s Fuller said.

Grant said that while a video program is not required, it is indeed a plus.

“That shows us that the company is being proactive from a risk management standpoint. It’s an underwriting consideration — we’ll look at it as part of the overall profile for a particular trucking company. If they’re having good experience with the program, it will reduce their loss frequency and will make it more likely to see lower rates than companies that don’t have that,” he said.

Adopting video telematics may not drive down the cost of insurance at the outset, but is likely to happen after the system has been in place, and the insurance companies see that the fleets are utilizing the data to coach drivers.

“Most are going to wait for the reduction in claims that we believe will follow implementation of the cameras to show up in the loss history for the carrier. If we see improvement in the loss history, that will drive down cost of insurance,” Fuller said.

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Two truckers — one in Michigan and one in Kentucky — literally dodged bullets in two separate road rage incidents recently.

On Tuesday, May 5, a trucker was northbound on the Southfield Freeway near Seven Mile Road in Detroit when a motorist fired three times at his truck, hitting the cab twice.

Jim Boggis told a Detroit TV station the driver of a Pontiac G6 was apparently upset because Boggis could not move over to allow the motorist to enter the freeway. The driver of the Pontiac eventually pulled alongside Boggis’ tractor-trailer and fired three times.

Michigan State Police continue to search for the shooter. Boggis’ dashcam recorded the incident.

On Sunday, May 3, Williamsburg (Kentucky) Police officers arrested 70-year-old Jerry Melton after it was determined he shot twice at a tractor-trailer southbound on Interstate 75 in Whitley County, which is about 70 miles north of Knoxville, Tennessee. Both bullets struck the sleeper berth of tractor-trailer.

Police say a road rage incident prompted the shooting but did not elaborate. The trucker driver was not identified.

Melton was charged with attempted homicide.

In yet another road rage event, one trucker threatened to beat and shoot another during an encounter on Interstate 78 in New Jersey.

On Monday, May 4, two tractor-trailers pulled off to the side of westbound I-78 in Lebanon, New Jersey.

During a confrontation between the two drivers, Daiho Guerra, 32, of Whitehall Township, New Jersey, reportedly threatened driver Osman Oways, of Columbus, Ohio, according to police. Guerra told Oways he would shoot him and threatened him with a tie-down bar from his truck, police said.

When Oways began filming the encounter with his cell phone, Guerra grabbed the phone and drove off. Oways was arrested and charged with making terroristic threats, burglary, theft, unlawful possession of a weapon, and tampering with evidence.

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