Recently announced, those who drive vehicles in the transportation industry and courier services industry are going to be federally banned from texting under federal guidelines that the US transportation Sec. Ray LaHood announced.

“We want the drivers of big rigs and buses and those who share the roads with them to be safe,” LaHood said in a statement. “This is an important safety step, and we will be taking more to eliminate the threat of distracted driving.”
This is effective immediately.

Those drivers who choose to text while conducting their commercial vehicle can receive the civil or criminal penalties up to $2750. This is received from the Department of Transportation in a news release.

There was no further information on the release on how prohibition will be enforced on the federal basis.
As recent as September 2009, the Transportation Department launched a website located at http://www.distraction.gov to raise awareness of the sheer magnitude of the dangers of this corrected drivers.

During this month, January 2010, the national safety Council President Janet Froetsher announced the creation of the ad as a group named FocusDriven.  This is an organization that sports the families from those victims of distracted drivers and this is a nonprofit organization That Is Modeled after Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

It is said that drivers take their eyes off the road for at least 4.5 seconds out of every 6 seconds while they are texting. This means that if driver chooses to text their eyes off the road at least 75% of the time.  There is a clear correlation with research that shows drivers who text are at least 2000% more likely to crash their vehicle.

As of January 2010, there are at least 19 states have passed laws banning texting while driving. Six of these states including the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands, completely ban the use of any handheld device while conducting a motor vehicle.
Included in this push, Pres. Obama signed an executive order requiring all federal employees do not text while driving any government-owned vehicles or government-owned equipment. This took effect January 1, 2010.
Information from the national Highway traffic safety administration, indicated more than 5900 people died in 2008 in automobile crashes that involved a driver that was texting, and there were at least half 1 million individuals in the United States that were injured.

In light of this new law, it is highly recommended and encouraged at every single independent contractor and driver in Courier and transportation industry do not utilize any of their devices while conducting their vehicle. When providing courier services, a driver to pull over to the side of the road to communicate with their electronic device.

Many local and national courier companies rely on the independent contractor model to successfully operate their business. In recent years abundant attention has been focused on the use of independent contractors by several different groups, among those groups is the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as well as other federal and state labor agencies. These groups are looking closely at how companies are classifying their workers in an attempt to be sure the company is not avoiding taxation and other employee-related expenses. Class action lawyers have also joined in the advance by suing companies in the transportation industry as well as other industries.

Because of the recent spotlight and focus on the independent contractor model, companies are becoming frequently targeted by government agencies, plaintiff’s lawyers and unions. A company being targeted can find itself with unwanted publicity and unionization by existing workers and because of the previously lax laws regarding worker classification many companies are finding themselves in trouble and fines because of their misclassification. 

Several states have passed laws or are initiating legislation related to proper worker classification. Any Indianapolis Courier company and Pittsburgh Courier Company is going to have to be sure that they are not misclassifying their employee and independent contractors because both the state of Indiana and Pennsylvania introduced new legislation to take aggressive measures against worker misclassification.

There are important factors to remember when you own and/or operate a company that relies on the independent contractor model.  One of the most important being the use of properly worded formal written agreement between the independent contractor and the company. This agreement needs to highlight the rights of each party, the services that will be performed and many other facets of the business. The written and signed agreement needs to be kept in the contractor’s file along with other important documents to help distinguish the contractor from an employee if it is ever called into question. Contractor’s files should be looked at annually to check for any adjustments that need to be made. Taking a proactive approach with this issue is the best way to protect against the enforcement measures that are anticipated by state and federal legislation and the financial problems that could result.

The courier service industry has been facing many challenges at the federal level in the past year and it looks as though it will continue to face those challenges throughout 2009. President Barack Obama and the Democrats have been working to push legislative agendas to the forefront. Two of those agendas are threatening to the courier business. The first would affects the way an employee driver based company would operate. The “Employee Free Choice Act” takes away a worker’s right to privacy when voting whether or not to join a union. A union would then be able to organize just by a majority of the workers signing a card; this is called a “card check”. The MCAA along with 500 other associations has joined the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace to oppose this legislation.
Those businesses that base their operations on independent contractors are also facing a serious threat. A legislation is being drafted to intensely modify if not eliminate the independent contractor model altogether. There will be congressional committee hearings and markups regarding this issue. The MCAA has been actively opposing this legislation as well. On March 5, 2009 in Washington, DC they hosted a MCAA Lobby Day, attendee’s were able to speak with their congressional office about the issues affecting the courier industry.