Use Preliminary Notice

Although the CCTA is neither a collection agency nor a law firm, we try guide our members with proper collection techniques and lead them to the legal experts for advice and support in collection of past due money.  We’ve asked members to share some of their experience in this area…

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We at Rise Above Trucking, Inc. have been in business since 1996 and have always carried accounts receivable. During the early years customers did not want to be prelimed, which at that time, didn’t create a problem. However, now in this economy unfortunately in today’s industry that is no longer the case.  In the past year two of our long-term, large customers have filed bankruptcy. Therefore, we highly recommend you should prelim every job.

We have been a long term member of CCTA (CDTOA) and highly recommend that being a member and using their resources with the association can truly benefit your business. We had to use their services a short time ago for a customer that was not paying, with a brief phone call from CCTA (CDTOA) we were able to pick up a check within hours from the company that owed us.  We appreciate all your assistance CCTA (CDTOA). 

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Don’t get screwed:  Pre-liming a job is a very important part of doing business. We here at Partner Trucking believe in the practice of preliming every job. If a contractor does not want you to prelim, be very leery of their intent. Our collections have gone from a 75% to 95% rate. Believe us when we say it gives you power and gets you paid. We all need to start this practice get the respect back that we deserve.

Respectfully John Brazil / Owner

Basic Tips: Make sure all your paper work is in order, such as insurance, motor carrier documents and any licenses required. Turn in all paper work to customer in a timely manner.

By Bill Davis, Editor

At a time when other states are green lighting natural gas-fired electrical generation plants to lower electricity costs for their consumers and improve air quality, the state of California is headed in the other direction.
On April 19, the California Public Utilities Commission decided the state has enough electricity generation capacity to meet demand through 2020, so it banned construction of new fossil fuel plants (coal, natural gas or oil) for at least the next two years—and, based on the PUC’s 46-page declaration on the issue, maybe forever. 1

Like almost every piece of legislation passed in Washington, D. C., these days, there are some areas of controversy in the Senate-passed version of the federal highway bill that are stirring up controversy—and, as usual, they have nothing at all to do with the alleged intent of the measure—providing additional funding for the Highway Trust Fund.

The House of Representatives and the Senate have appointed conferees to hammer out the details between the two versions of the reauthorization bill in a conference committee.  They should have something figured out by the end of June when the House version expires.

But, buried deep in the Senate bill is a provision to require all truckers to use electronic logging devices to snoop on drivers’ compliance with hours of service driving limits.

Chief Executive Magazine released its eighth annual survey of CEO opinion of Best and Worst States in which to do business, and, surprise, surprise, California is ranked dead last for the eighth consecutive year.

Texas retained its number one position, also the eighth successive time it has done so.

Editor’ Note:  This late-breaking press release landed in our inbox right before deadline.

Dispatch Transportation (“Dispatch”) announced it acquired the construction-materials-hauling assets of Valley Aggregate Transportation (“Valley”) on April 30, 2012.  The acquisition signals the Dispatch’s expansion into the Northern California market.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

Dispatch has long been one of the largest dirt and aggregate haulers in Southern California and Southern Nevada.  Its new subsidiary will operate under the banner “Dispatch North.”  Valley, a perennially significant dirt and aggregate hauler in Northern California, had recently decided to terminate its workforce and sell its assets in order to pay off insider debt-holders. 

Dispatch CEO Bruce Degler saw the transaction as a win-win for both Dispatch and Valley, “It has allowed us to transform what would have been the shutdown of an important regional company into a turnkey operation.  We are grateful that drivers and customers have responded in short order.  We are happy to have addressed Valley’s creditor issues while expanding Dispatch’s reach across California.”

SACRAMENTO – state controller John Chiang May 8, released his monthly report covering California’s cash balance, receipts and disbursements in April, showing monthly revenues came in $2.44 billion below (-20.2 percent) the latest projections contained in the Governor’s proposed 2012-13 Budget.

“The task of crafting a credibly-balanced budget has been made more difficult by a nine-month revenue shortfall of $3.5 billion,” said Chiang.  “Without a timely, financeable budget plan, the state will be unable to access the working capital needed to pay its bills later this year.”

The first results of what is said to be the most comprehensive study ever undertaken of the health effects of exposure to new technology diesel engines has found no evidence of gene-damaging effects in the animals studied, and only a few mild effects on the lungs, according to a report issued by the Health Effects Institute.

The Advanced Collaborative Engine Study is exposing rats and mice for 16 hours a day to emissions from a heavy-duty diesel engine meeting stringent 2007 US EPA standards that reduce emissions of fine particles and other pollutants by over 90% from levels emitted by older engines.

The study was conducted by the Health Effects Institute in collaboration with the Coordinating Research Council. The Health Effects Institute is an independent, non-profit research institute funded jointly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and industry.

The Pacific Legal Foundation is, with the help of California Construction Trucking Association, the Southern California Contractors Association, United Contractors and our friend Skip Brown with Delta Construction, strapping on the off-road diesel regulation waiver requested by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) in March.

This effort, if successful, could halt major enforcement on the off-road rule, because, through regulatory over-reach CARB is trying to control emissions from equipment that is under the purview of the federal EPA.

The federal Clean Air Act requires California and every other state, to comply with uniform federal emission standards for motor vehicles.  California, under provisions of the expanded CAA (1970) may seek a waiver from this requirement and adopt its own, stricter emissions standards, if the state can demonstrate a “need” to meet “compelling and extraordinary” conditions.

Governor Brown recently announced the appointment of an employee of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a law firm disguised as an environmental organization, to a high-level administrative position at the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA).
Gina Solomon, 47, of San Francisco, has been appointed deputy secretary for science and health at the agency. She has been a senior scientist for NRDC since 1996 and a clinical professor of health sciences at the University of California, San Francisco since 2011. She served as an associate clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco since 2006 and as an assistant clinical professor of medicine from 1998 to 2006.

The California Construction Trucking Association joined a broad coalition of more than 50 other business, labor and local government organizations last month that sent a letter to the Attorney General Kamala Harris, expressing concern over her decision to join a CEQA lawsuit challenging the
San Diego Association of Governments’ (SANDAG) Regional Transportation Plan (RTP).   

The reason so many groups outside the San Diego region chose to get involved in this effort is because the AG’s lawsuit could set dangerous precedent that will hurt every other region in the state’s efforts to update their RTPs as required by law.

Caltrans is sharing a chart they call “The Mountain” that shows the days of $13 billion in highway spending in California ends this year. During the next fiscal year and without legislative action, for the foreseeable future, Caltrans spending will drop by nearly 50 percent.

All of the 2006 bond money and all of the federal stimulus money will be spent by the end of the 2012-13 fiscal year, leaving the motor fuel excise tax, local government half-cent sales taxes for transportation and an ever-declining federal Highway Trust Fund to support California roadwork.

May 8, 2012 | California Watch

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is not protecting public health and has violated federal law by failing to review air quality standards, according to a new lawsuit filed by the American Lung Association (ALA), the state air board and a consortium of states.

A brief filed late last week by the EPA in federal court in Washington, D.C., states that it does not plan to complete the mandatory review until Aug. 15, 2013 – about 22 months after the legal deadline.