Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration June 14, 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

FMCSA announces its decision to grant Volvo Trucks North America, Inc.'s (Volvo) application for an exemption for two Volvo drivers to drive commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) in the United States without possessing the requisite CDL issued by one of the States. Magnus Ericsson and Conny Harlin are part of a team of Volvo engineers and technicians test-driving Volvo prototype CMVs in U.S. environments. Each of these drivers holds a valid Swedish CDL but lacks the U.S. residency necessary to obtain a CDL issued by one of the States of the U.S. FMCSA believes the rigorous training and testing that drivers must undergo to obtain a Swedish CDL, and the excellent safety record of both of these drivers, ensure that these drivers will likely achieve a level of safety that is equivalent to, or greater than, the level of safety that would be obtained in the absence of the exemption.

FMCSA requests public comment on an application for exemption from the Flatbed Carrier Safety Group (FCSG) regarding the securement of metal coils on a flatbed vehicle, in a sided vehicle, or in an intermodal container loaded with eyes crosswise, grouped in rows, in which the coils are loaded to contact each other in the longitudinal direction. FCSG wants to use the pre-January 1, 2004 cargo securement regulations for the transportation of groups of metal coils with eyes crosswise.

FMCSA requests public comment on applications for exemption from Con-way Freight (Con-way), TK Holdings, Inc. (Takata), and Iteris, Inc. (Iteris) regarding the placement of lane departure warning system sensors at the top of the windshields of commercial motor vehicles (CMVs). Each applicant requests that FMCSA permit the mounting of the lane departure warning system sensors near the top of the windshield, and within the swept area of the windshield wipers, which is currently prohibited by the Agency's regulations. The lane departure warning system would be used to alert a driver when he or she unintentionally drifts out of their lane of travel, thus promoting improved safety performance of CMV drivers. Each applicant contends that this mounting position does not adversely impact driver visibility.