What CDLLife is reporting this morning

The Ro-Mac Brief now reads CDLLife alongside the government sites. CDLLife covers the same industry for people who drive trucks. Three of its September 29 stories matter even if you never sit in a cab.

Georgia turned the state diesel tax off for 30 days

On September 28, Governor Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency and suspended Georgia's motor-fuel tax from 12:01 a.m. on September 29 through October 29. The state tax is 37.3 cents on each gallon of diesel and 33.3 cents on gasoline. His office put the average gallon of diesel in Georgia at $6.24. That is a Georgia number. It is not the national weekly average on the diesel desk of this brief, which is still $6.529.

The same order suspends state weight limits on commercial trucks, which is the legal cap on how heavy a loaded truck may be. CDLLife reports that a five-axle truck can be permitted up to 95,000 pounds on state roads, not on interstates, while the emergency lasts. The point of both moves is the grocery bill: fuel and a heavier legal load change what it costs to move food.

Paper logbooks are still not allowed

An electronic logging device, or ELD, is the box that records when a driver is driving and when they are resting. A group called the Federation of Professional Truckers asked the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to let drivers go back to writing those hours in a paper book. On September 29 the agency said no. Congress already required the electronic record, and the group did not show that paper would be as safe.

A lawsuit accuses two brokers of using copycat trucking companies

CDLLife also reported a case filed September 23 in a Texas federal court. Six family-owned trucking companies sued C.H. Robinson and Total Quality Logistics. They claim the brokers handed loads to chameleon carriers — companies that close after safety problems and reopen under a new name — and that the cheaper rates pushed rule-following carriers out. Nothing in the filing has been proved. The brokers have not been found at fault.

• The companies that sued are Stevens Trucking, Western Flyer Express, Freymiller Trucking, IWX Motor Freight, Christenson Transportation, and E.O.S.
• A chameleon carrier is a new name on an old, troubled company. The name is trucking slang, not a criminal charge by itself.
• If you hire a broker, the useful question is who actually picks up the freight, not whose logo is on the rate sheet.