Guide Promotes Safe Ag Trucking
May 4, 2009 It’s the beginning of another planting season, and agricultural vehicles are back on the roads and in fields. A new educational publication provides safety strategies for drivers.
The guide, Manager’s Guide to Safe Trucking During Agricultural Planting and Harvest Season, has been created to educate truck drivers and their managers in the agricultural industry about the importance of safe operation during agriculture’s busy seasons and provide active strategies to apply.
Created by the Agricultural and Food Transporters Conference (AFTC) of the American Trucking Association (ATA), with assistance from the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA), much of the information is taken from a comprehensive textbook, Safety for the Long Haul, recently released by ATA.
Timing is often critical and flexibility is needed in the agricultural industry to get the job done during the busy seasons. While government regulations limit truck drivers’ working hours, farm supply dealers and agricultural haulers are allowed an exemption from these hours of service regulations. ARA led an industry effort to ensure the 2005 Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) provided more permanent protection of an exemption for drivers transporting agricultural commodities and farm supplies for agricultural purposes.
ARA is now working closely with allied organizations and members of Congress to ensure this exemption stays in place.
Safety is especially critical in the case of truck driving since accidents on the road can affect not only the company but others in the public who share the road.
The guide is available for free. To download and print a copy, click here, or visit the "News" section of the ARA Web site at www.aradc.org.
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