Caltrans
1. Impact of Furloughs begins February 6th – It’s only two days per month, but you can count on Caltrans Transportation Permits and Vehicle Inspections being delayed due to a plan advanced by Governor Schwarzenegger requiring state employees to take off two days. A Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the Governor’s plan to save $1.3 billion over the next 18 months and said State Controller John Chaing must obey the order.
Industry is gong to have to start giving Caltrans permit section additional lead time on permits and inspections. Notify your customers to expect potential delays having their permits issued in a reasonable time.
State vehicle inspectors, who are already working only four days per week (4-ten hour days) will also slow down so you should call ahead in plenty of time to be scheduled. We are going to start seeing more carriers standing by at the state borders, wondering why everything is going to be backed up.
Again, we can’t stress enough, as soon as you know you are going to need a permit, send it in or call your permit service. The best plan, use the Caltrans’ Star program to avoid unnecessary delays.
City of Los Angeles
1. ALL Annual Permits expire February 28th, Renew Early – Street Services Investigation All Annual Permits for the city expire February 28, as they have every year. We want to remind you that if you procrastinate, you will only be delaying yourself. The city issued 994 Transportation Permits last year, so that ought to give you an idea why there may be delays.
We are working with the city now regarding the language that is necessary for you to obtain your annual permit.
Los Angeles will no longer be accepting the language describing a non reducible load that Caltrans CVC 320.5 and/or LA’s own municipal code (LAMC Section 62.143), as the description of the load you are transporting. The city requires all “Applicants must fully describe the type of equipment that they intend on moving”. They are trying to make the annual based on the equipment hauled rather than weight and other dimensions.
Carriers within the port for travel from the Shipper along the designated Overweight Corridor routes to their approved warehouse facility
The problem that the intermodal industry is having in the port is that these units are over weight and can’t be opened until they have cleared customs. Then they are taken to the designated warehouse and broken down and/or the weight reduced to otherwise legal. They have special arrangements that have been made through legislation, DMV and other local agencies over the years to accommodate these overweight loads.
This change was made without our input and we were reassured the changes will not affect the construction industry. We immediately requested the changes to the ordinances and then we discovered there were numerous changes made outside of the area of intermodal issues that should have been discussed with our industry. We are working on reestablishing contact on this issue and will report back to you on our progress.
2. Parking Enforcement Citation – We win one—Hearing Examiner dismissed citation for an unattended truck and trailers for being parked near or adjacent to jobsites.
On October 29th, a member was making a routine delivery to a jobsite within the City of Los Angeles and returned to his unattended trailer to discover a parking citation. The Parking Enforcement Officer was just leaving, so the driver tried to explain the exemption that the construction industry is exempt when making pickups or deliveries, to no avail.
We contacted the City of Los Angeles Public Works, who referred us to, Jimmy Price, Chief of Parking Enforcement and Traffic Control. We were told to file for an Administrative Review, which we did by mail and it was denied, with a boiler-plate answer—“The investigation has confirmed that the citation was properly issued and is valid”.
We requested an Administrative Hearing which was scheduled for January 13, 2009. We appeared at the hearing, held near LAX in Los Angeles. We thought it was going to be a challenge to articulate the problem that our industry was faced with and to explain that it took legislation to fix the issue for the construction and transportation industry.
The California Dump Truck Owners Association (CDTOA) sponsored AB 2201 (Firebaugh) signed by the governor on September 14, 2004, effective January 1, 2005 codified in CVC Section 22507.5(a) which exempts a transfer truck and trailer from local parking ordinances while making deliveries. This does not allow overnight parking, only when making a pickup or delivery at or near a construction site as stated in CVC 22507.5.
CVC 22507.5 The ordinance or resolution relating to the parking or standing of commercial vehicles in a residential district, however, shall not be effective with respect to any commercial vehicle, or trailer component thereof, making pickups or deliveries of goods, wares, and merchandise from or to any building or structure located on the restricted streets or highways or for the purpose of delivering materials to be used in the actual and bona fide repair, alteration, remodeling, or construction of any building or structure upon the restricted streets or highways for which a building permit has previously been obtained.
After explaining the Legislature’s intent, we explained how CVC 22507.5 is very clear about this exemption. We discussed that due to the design and licensing of a transfer trailer, they are licensed commercial vehicles and therefore unhooked transfer trailers are not unattended trailers and should not be cited as such.
Our work required trying to explain to someone that isn’t around our industry what a transfer truck and trailer does that makes it so unique that it required the legislation to get the problem solved. We brought photos that helped to explained that once the vehicle arrives at the project or adjacent to it, they disconnect from the trailer that is at issue and go into the project and dump the truck. Then they return to back up to the trailer, where the unique design, the bed on the trailer with the assistance of electric gear driven motor allows the box in the trailer to move forward and eventually inside the truck. That again is where it leaves trailer unattended and left the trucker vulnerable for a citation. So, the driver after dumping the trailer box would return the box back on the trailer and then hook back up and be on his way. These trailers were design for those tight areas that only a 10 wheelers could get into, but yet still be able to haul an approximately a 25 ton payload.
When the hearing was completed, there still appeared to be some ongoing concerns from the Hearing Examiner. It was going along fine, the examiner understood the dilemma the trucker was facing and that the exemption in the law allows for these trailers to be left unattended while making a pick up or a delivery to a construction site or even a private residence where a building permit has been issued. It was when she wanted to know the specific jobsite, which was a school site. The Examiner said,” well as long as we can show it was at a school site that should be ok.” We explained that is fine, except this exemption covers any site or residence. We are not looking to only resolve this citation but to stop any other citation from being issued. Once this decision is made, which we feel will be a positive outcome, all the Parking Officers need to be educated on the law and how to apply it these situation and cease issuing parking citation to unattended trailers immediately. I was then informed that we would receive their conclusion by mail.
We received the Hearing Examiner Report / Notice of Decision results with the following response:
“In the present case, Respondent has presented evidence sufficient to rebut the prima facie case created by the citation. The Respondent’s testimony and evidence regarding the circumstances involved with this citation was credible, persuasive, and convincing. California Vehicle Code (CVC) Section 22507.5 does exempt transfer trailers delivering materials to construction sites from local ordinances or other laws that prohibit or restrict the parking or standing of a commercial vehicle or trailer component on a local street. Respondent has submitted sufficient evidence to excuse the violation. I therefore find Respondent Not Liable for the citation.”
The Hearing Examiner stated at the end of the report:
“The Hearing Examiner’s decision for this case is not intended to establish a legal precedent for any other parking citation case. Each case is decided based upon its own unique set of facts, upon the evidence presented, and upon the hearing Examiner’s determination of the credibility of the evidence.”
Even with this disclaimer, we hope that Chief Price will embrace the decision and send out a directive to his enforcement officers to cease issuing parking citations for any unattended trailers meeting the criteria set forth n CVC 22507.5.
In the mean time, at our latest LA City Transportation Ad-HOC Workgroup meeting, this issue was on the agenda for discussion. We explained that if the issue is not resolved and could affect most projects within the city. This will be back on the agenda for our upcoming meeting and we are requesting that a representative from Parking Enforcement and Traffic Control be in attendance to work toward a resolution.
We will keep you updated on our results.
Culver City – Already one of the most aggressively policed cities in southern California, we are seeing citations increase.
A member received a citation for excessive smoke, which was strange since the member recently had his vehicle smoke tested prior to the citation and then again immediately after the citation was issued and their truck passed the opacity test and was found to be in compliance.
Our member received a citation under California Vehicle Code (CVC) Section 27153 for excessive smoke.
CVC 27153. No motor vehicle shall be operated in a manner resulting in the escape of excessive smoke, flame, gas, oil, or fuel residue. The provisions of this section apply to motor vehicles of the United States or its agencies, to the extent authorized by federal law.
This officer is already out writing citations based on his ability to “see” how much a truck is smoking. Once the California Air Resources Board (CARB) on-road rule goes into effect and retrofit devices are installed on our vehicles, we are going to “see” another statewide problem.
While the technology involved in on-road applications is more mature than that for off-road machines, they still require optimal engine temperatures to work properly. Industry is going to have a problem when our vehicles are retrofitted and driver jumps in the cab at the end of the day, ready to head home; that truck is going to pull off the job with smoke belching out. This “excessive smoke,” is going to provoke police to get out their ticket books.
This particular citation was dismissed due to the officer not appearing in court, which doesn’t help the outcome for future cases, so we contacted ARB again on this issue to discuss how to address it in the future as to not have it create any additional problems for our members.
A member recently received citation under "CVC 35100 (a) exceeding max width 102” (total width 109 ½ “) no permit”.
CVC 35100. (a) The total outside width of any vehicle or its load shall not exceed 102 inches, except as otherwise provided in this chapter. (b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, safety devices which the Secretary of Transportation determines to be necessary for the safe and efficient operation of motor vehicles shall not be included in the calculation of width as specified in subdivision (a).
Our member was transporting a Cat Loader which was less than 10’ wide with all other dimensions otherwise legal under the exemption of CVC 35104 should have been considered legal, but was cited under “CVC 35100 (a) exceeding max width 102” (total width 109 ½ “) no permit.”
The officer stated that if the carrier hadn’t been traveling with their red flags and oversize load signs displayed, they wouldn’t have been citied. CVC 35100 (b) actually addresses safety devices but in the contents of not including then in calculating width, but we generally assume that they would be required otherwise, why list them?
This citation has since been dismissed due the officer not appearing in court, but we would like some clarification to see if there is any credibility to this citation. We have asked CHP Commercial in Sacramento for clarification when operating under the exemption of CVC 35104, as it relates to the requirement to operating with or without additional safety devices such as wide load lights, red flags and/or oversize load signs when operating less than 10’ wide with all other dimensions otherwise legal? We will report back to you on the outcome.
City of El Segundo - NEW – L.A .County issuing transportation permits on their behalf.
One of our prime objectives is getting uniformity in the permitting process, so we are celebrating this city for making the right choice. With 88 communities in L. A. County, the fragmented permit process is a minefield for members of our affiliated associations.
Using the L. A. County system has benefits for all local communities—saving those staff time and unnecessary duplication of a fully functional, automated approach that improves both efficiency and safety.
West Hollywood - Complaints that Industry is being over charged are stacking up.
We continue to receive complaints regarding West Hollywood charging $350 for a Transportation Permit, when they know they can only legally charge $16. The city agreed several months ago that this practice would not continue and now we may have to take another approach if we do not see results immediately. This is the kind of situation where we need input from the industry—if you don’t tell us about your problems we can’t got to work to solve them.
Reaffirming Our Purpose:
If you have any problems with a local agency (city/county/state) and you find yourself asking ‘why we are having to do things this way’ and the agency tells you, ‘this is the way we have always done it’, let us know. We are here to make California transportation operations as smooth, efficient and safe as possible.
Respectfully submitted,
Gregory D. Dineen
Industry Transportation Consultant
CC:
John Hakel, AGC Aimee Shook, DCA
Richard Lambros, BIA Jim Burton, ECA
Michael Vlaming, COA Lee Steinberg, MCOG
Eric Sauer CTA William E. Davis, SCCA
Jeff Hunter, CTTA Doug Ball, SC&RA
Lee Brown, CDTOA
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