The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has begun efforts to address obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in commercial truck drivers. As part of the proposal, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) are seeking public comment on the impacts of screening, evaluating and treating commercial drivers and rail workers for OSA. FMCSA and FRA will host three public listening sessions to gather input on OSA in Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles as both agencies consider whether to propose requirements specifically on OSA (Fleet Owner).

FMCSA has extended the public comment period for its proposed rule on safety fitness determinations for motor carriers. The comment extension is a result of stakeholder requests to FMCSA. The deadline for the submission of initial comments is now May 23, 2016. Reply comments will be due on or before June 23, 2016. Under the proposal, it would replace the current three-tier federal rating system of "satisfactory-conditional-unsatisfactory," which has been in place since 1982, with a single determination of "unfit." A carrier that is determined to be unfit would be required to either improve its operations or cease operations (Truckinginfo). 

FMCSA has issued a proposed rule for entry-level driver training that would revise the standards required for new interstate and intrastate commercial vehicle operators to obtain a commercial driver license. The proposal does not specify a minimum number of hours that driver-trainees must spend on classroom theory, but it would require that Class A CDL driver-trainees receive a minimum of 30 hours of behind-the-wheel training, with a minimum of 10 hours on a driving range. Class B CDL driver-trainees must receive a minimum of 15 hours of behind-the-wheel training, with a minimum of seven hours of public road driving (Transport Topics).

The AFL-CIO's Transportation Trades Department is seeking to block a proposed merger between Canadian Pacific Railway and Norfolk Southern. Canadian Pacific has painted its proposed merger with Norfolk Southern as a natural combination that would benefit both railways. The AFL-CIO has said the proposed combination recalls mergers in the 1980s and '90s that greatly diminished the number of freight rail companies in the nation and negatively affected railway workers (The Hill).   

Traffic on the U.S. rail network continues to weaken in a sign of the slowdown spreading across the industrial economy and efforts by firms to reverse the unplanned buildup of inventories throughout the supply chain. Freight volumes carried by road, rail, barge and pipeline peaked in November 2014 and have been essentially flat since then, ending five years of strong growth, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (Reuters).