FMCSA Medical Board to Review Comments on Sleep Apnea Pre-Rule

With the extended comment period on the impact a sleep-apnea rule might have on CMV drivers closed for several weeks, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has announced its Medical Review Board will meet on August 22 and 23 in a public session to make recommendations on comments submitted regarding its Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking “on safety-sensitive rail and commercial motor vehicle drivers with moderate to severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea.”

That APRN— also known as a “pre rule”—was issued jointly with the Federal Railroad Administration back in March. At that time, the agencies described the pre rule as “the first step” in considering whether to propose specific requirements around OSA.”

The pre-rule (RIN 2126-AB88) is titled “Evaluation of Safety Sensitive Personnel for OSA.” It specifically sought “data and information concerning the prevalence of moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea among individuals occupying safety sensitive positions in rail and highway transportation.”

Since March, almost 600 comments were filed in the APRN's docket and three “listening sessions” were held at several locations across the country to further elicit public comments on moving forward with such a rulemaking.

The current pre-rule activity is in line with legislation passed by Congress in 2013 that instructs FMCSA on the regulatory approach it must take regarding OSA. That law does not require the agency to issue any sleep-apnea policy or regulation. Rather, the bill states that no policy can be issued without the agency first conducting a thorough analysis of the prevalence of OSA among commercial drivers; the range of possible actions to address the problem; and the costs and benefits that may result.

In its August 9 Federal Register notice of the upcoming meeting, FMCSA said that the MRB will also review its previously issued report on OSA from 2012 to determine whether the report should be updated based on any changes to medical standards and practice or on any pre-rule comments placed in the docket or received at the listening sessions.

The MRB is composed of five medical experts who each serve 2-year terms. The board is charged with establishing, reviewing and revising “medical standards for operators of commercial motor vehicles that will ensure that the physical condition of operators of commercial motor vehicles is adequate to enable them to operate the vehicles safely.”

The MRB will meet on Monday and Tuesday, August 22-23, 2016, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. EDT, at the FMCSA National Training Center, 1310 N. Courthouse Road, Arlington, Vir., 6th floor. Copies of the task statement and a meeting agenda will be made available online in advance.

Oral comments from the public will be heard during the meeting, subject to the discretion of the chairman, FMCSA noted. Members of the public may also submit written comments on the topics to be considered during the meeting. Those are due by Wednesday, August 17, and should be directed to the Federal Docket Management System Docket Number FMCSA-2008-0362 and FMCSA-2015-0419 for the MRB using any of the following methods:

• Federal eRulemaking Portal. Go to http://www.regulations.gov and follow the instructions for submitting comments
• Fax. 202-493-2251
• Mail. Docket Management Facility; U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590
• Hand Delivery. U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Room W12-140, Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays

Related: How Not to Lose Sleep Over Apnea

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Mack offers new online spec’ing tool

Mack Trucks is rolling out a new online tool to help customers craft the most fuel efficient Pinnacle highway tractor specifications for specific applications.

“Even with today's low fuel prices, fuel remains the single largest expense for the vast majority of our highway customers,” noted Scott Barraclough, Mack's technology product manager, in a statement.

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FMCSA convenes medical board to review sleep apnea sentiment

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Fuel prices down yet again

National average retail pump prices for both diesel and gasoline dropped yet again this week, according to data tracked by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). And this continued decline in fuel prices – reflected an ongoing slump in global oil prices – is leading to reduced employment in the U.S. energy sector, the agency noted.

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Can Big Trucks be Hacked?

Photo by Jim Park

If you have read any of the headline stories about the trio of researchers from the University of Michigan who successfully hacked into the J1939 databus of a 2006-model-year truck, you might now believe that it's discouragingly easy. While the researchers did manage to seize control of the truck's throttle and engine brake controls, they used a laptop computer connected directly to the truck's dataport (OBD port) to pull off their experiment.

A YouTube video accompanied several of the online reports about the hacking attempt showing the vehicle lurching along a test track, the would-be hacker in the back seat of the club-cab truck with his laptop, while the driver and a passenger (presumably the trio or researchers) comment on the performance of the truck.

It's one thing to hack into the J1939 databus from onboard the vehicle. But the question the U of M researchers were keen to delve into is the likelihood of carrying out the same type of hack, or perhaps a more serious disruption of the vehicle controls, remotely via the telematics links now emerging as a popular maintenance management option.

The research paper is titled "Truck Hacking: An Experimental Analysis of the SAE J1939 Standard," published by Yelizaveta Burakova, Bill Hass, Leif Millar, and Andre Weimerskirch of the The University of Michigan. The paper was presented Monday in Austin, Texas at 10th Usenix Workshop on Offensive Technologies. It's available to download here.

It focuses on what an adversary could accomplish while physically connected to the truck's internal network, and analyzes the impact of insecure electronic control units in heavy vehicles by exploiting the inherent openness of the J1939 architecture -- which is something common to all heavy trucks in North America and a great deal more diesel-powered equipment as well.

According to the report, the motivation for J1939 stems primarily from a desire to electronically control drivetrain components of a vehicle. Because so many different organizations are involved in the building of heavy vehicles, a standard was needed to minimize engineering effort and the complications of integrating systems. While standardizing these communications has proven crucial in allowing various suppliers and manufacturers to work together and cut costs, it also means that all heavy vehicles currently on the road from tractor-trailers to garbage trucks and cement mixers to buses, utilize the same communication protocol on their internal networks.

By contrast, the authors say communications networks on consumer vehicles tend to be proprietary to the OEM that designed that particular vehicle and kept secret. For that reason, the authors note, "deciphering consumer vehicle network traffic involves the tedious process of reverse engineering any messages observed on the bus to determine their function."

Not so with J1939, and that's part of the vulnerability at least partially exposed by the report.

The SAE J1939 standard used across all U.S. heavy vehicle industries gives easy access for safety-critical attacks and these attacks aren't limited to one specific make, model, or industry," the authors point out.

The report also provides example of the sort of attack they were able to accomplish:

INSTRUMENT CLUSTER: By spoofing the status messages that originate in various ECUs of the truck, researchers were able to control all gauges on the instrument cluster, including oil temperature, oil pressure, coolant temperature, engine RPM, speed, fuel level, battery voltage, and air pressure.

Researchers indicated that it would be "possible" to spoof the air pressure indicator to read a normal operating pressure when in fact the pressure could be physically reduced initiating a spring parking-brake application while traveling at highway speed.

POWERTRAIN: Researchers were able to override the driver's input to the accelerator pedal and simultaneously cause either direct acceleration or remove the ability to provide torque to the wheels while the truck was in motion.

ENGINE BRAKE: Certain message could be configured to disable the truck's ability to use engine braking at speeds below 30 mph. Researchers acknowledged that the driver retained control of the service brakes, but noted that if they had been able to control the engine brake above 30 mph, it would could have implications for trucks operating on long downhill grades.

The story appeared on several technology publication websites whose authors are more familiar with pure technology that the current state of the trucking industry. They envisioned the potential for autonomously controlled trucks running pell-mell across the country leaving trails of destruction in their wake.

Insiders, on the other hand, would recognize the "attacks" described by the authors of the study as potentially risky, but generally not life threatening in every circumstance. But we should not be lulled into a false sense of security because this particular exercise didn't come up with a crash 'n burn scenario.

Foremost on the authors' minds was the potential for remote access to the vehicle's internal electronic controls via some telematic interface wi-fi, cellular or satellite connectivity.

The paper makes for some interesting reading, as do a couple of other stories that appeared online following its release -- if you can forgive the doomsday scenarios.

Forbes.com: There's A Windows PC Helping Control Fleet Trucks -- Any Idiot Can Start Hacking It In 30 Seconds

Wired.com: Hackers Hijack a Big Rig Truck's Accelerator and Brakes

Salon.com: As era of autonomous trucking arrives, Michigan researchers prove how easy it is to hack trucks

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Wake up! 5 slides detail deadly impacts of drowsy driving

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Truck Groups take Issue with California Sustainable Freight Plan

Image: California State Transportation Agency

The release of the final version of California's Sustainable Freight Action Plan has been met with harsh criticism by two groups representing Golden State's truck-fleet operators.

According to the California Air Resources Board, the revised document is similar to the draft issued back in May. However, CARB claims it “reflects new input provided by industry, labor, regional and local government, and community and environmental group stakeholders.”

The plan is important to trucking as the agency regards it as a “blueprint” for making the state's freight transport system environmentally cleaner, more efficient, and more economically competitive.

However, key trucking stakeholder associations in the Golden State argue that the plan doesn't take into account the realities of the trucking industry, especially the billions truckers already spend to eliminate harmful emissions from the vehicles they operate in California.

“We listened to stakeholders, incorporated changes, and we will continue to consult with them as we put the Plan into action,” said California Air Resources Board Chair Mary D. Nichols. “This dialogue -- and a commitment to shared responsibility for and ownership of this plan-- is the underpinning for the successful transformation of our freight transport system and the multiple benefits it will bring to our environment, communities and our economy.”

Developed in response to an executive order issued by Governor Jerry Brown, the plan was prepared by no fewer than seven state agencies. Governor Brown's senior jobs adviser Mike Rossi noted that the plan “builds upon ongoing efforts to modernize the freight industry while reducing emissions and keeping it competitive through commercially viable and affordable technologies."

The ambitious plan includes “a long term-2050 vision and guiding principles for California's future freight transport system” along with these slightly more near-term, albeit arguably vague targets: I

• Improve freight system efficiency 25 percent by 2030
• Deploy over 100,000 zero-emission vehicles/equipment and “maximize near-zero” by 2020
• Foster future economic growth within the freight and goods movement industry

Per CARB, the plan also identifies opportunities to leverage freight transport system investments made by the State of California; “pinpoints actions to initiate over the next five years to meet goals and lists possible pilot projects to achieve concrete progress in the near term.”

The agency said the final plan also puts more focus on partnerships and includes a discussion of “toxic hot spots.”

Changes have also been made “to clarify and emphasize” collaboration between the responsible agencies and other regional planning efforts, including funding.

CARB said that, going forward, state agencies will continue working with federal, state, industry, labor, regional, local and environmental and community-based partners “to refine and prioritize the strategies and actions” outlined in the plan.

State agencies have also been charged with creating “collaborative stakeholder working groups on competitiveness, system efficiency, workforce developments, and regulatory and permitting process improvements.” All these efforts will lead to state agencies establishing work plans for “chosen pilot projects” by next July, CARB stated.

In statement on the finalized action plan, Shawn Yadon, CEO of the California Trucking Association, said that for California to “spur innovation” in zero and near-zero emission technologies, the state “must make a business case for new investment from the trucking industry, which is already spending $1 billion a year to bring about a more sustainable freight system. Broad expansion of regulations targeting freight facilities will impede this progress by discouraging the investment needed to achieve California's environmental and economic goals.”

Yadon told HDT that CARB and other air-quality agencies in the state “continue to signal that they intend to expand regulation to cap emissions at freight hubs, which they contend are [toxic] ‘hot spots' despite the billions the trucking industry is spending to eliminate emissions throughout the state

“If the true intent of this program is to advance zero and near-zero emission technology, then California must make the case for billions of dollars of new private investment in the state,” he added. “Continuing to signal that draconian new rules are on the horizon will only hurt this effort.”

Joe Rajkovacz, director of governmental affairs and communications for the Western States Trucking Association, reacted even more vehemently to the final plan. “Despite what the news release from CARB states about the ‘inclusive' nature of the process, as usual it is nothing but gross hyperbole,” he told HDT. “The whole document is really a manifesto outlining future interference in the goods-movement marketplace by bureaucrats intent on maintaining their command and control over a sector of the economy. It's newsworthy to the point that it telegraphs the direction of future policy decisions by CARB.”

Rajkovacz also said that WSTA has known for “quite some time” that California move forward with “inducements” towards the adoption of zero-emissions technology in heavy duty trucks. “I have been told by CARB bureaucrats they never wanted a repeat of ‘forced' mandates similar to what occurred with the Statewide Truck and Bus rule. The roadmap here will be financial inducements to adopt zero- emissions trucks in specific market segments.”

That being said, he added that “all the news of Class 8 electric trucks ‘possibly' entering the marketplace in some commercially viable way is going to be interesting if it really happens. Those as yet ‘fantasy trucks—I haven't seen any being beta-tested on highway yet, just concepts-- will be exactly what CARB wants in the California marketplace. At least until some public researcher comes up with a theory that even those trucks somehow are contaminating the environment.”

Related: California Aims to Regulate Sustainability into Freight System

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