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Massachusetts and Iowa enacted laws to combat distracted driving late last week, with Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) signed legislation Friday outlawing texting while driving, making his the 29th state to outlaw the practice.

Safety advocate groups once again are pursuing their never-ending effort to reduce the driving time allowed commercial motor vehicle operators.

The proposal for revamping the federal government’s hours-of-service rule for truck drivers that a coalition of interest groups released recently illustrates just how little these political theorists understand about highway safety and the business of moving America’s freight.

The U.S. Department of Transportation in June awarded grants totaling $6.25 million to five states to “ease truck parking shortages on U.S. interstates.”

A U.S. Appeals Court has rejected an effort by a group of truckers to collect more than $10,000 from an insurance company that posted a surety bond for a broker that went bankrupt.

Transport Topics Online will be closed on Monday, July 5, for the Independence Day holiday. Please check back on Tuesday, July 6, for the latest trucking and freight transportation news.

June is National Safety Month, a particularly relevant observance this year as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration makes final revisions to its operational model for the Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 program, with implementation expected as early as December.

Although trucking companies do not yet face a legal mandate to report their carbon emissions, some shippers continue to demand such disclosure, forcing truckers to choose between several complex reporting methods, the American Transportation Research Institute said.

I continue to be perplexed by May 10’s “Opinion” writer, David Dwinell. Call me old school, but I prefer my statements to be supported by facts.

Tim Lynch, American Trucking Associations’ top lobbyist, said last week he would leave the federation in July to join a Washington, D.C., law firm’s government affairs department.