Truck drivers should be prohibited from talking and texting on phones while driving, no matter whether they use hands-free devices, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.

How can the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration so closely regulate a driver and then ignore the environment in which that driver operates?

American Trucking Associations said the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s draft five-year strategic safety plan, while a good start, does not do enough to address the root causes of crashes.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has signed a bill requiring trucks registered in the state and operating in New York City to have convex mirrors on the front of the vehicles.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) has introduced a bill that would provide tax credits for half the cost of certain commercial vehicle safety systems.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has unveiled a draft 2011-2016 “strategic plan” for improving truck and bus safety, and has invited the public to comment on the plan through the end of July.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has asked its advisory committee to examine concerns about the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program’s roadside violation severity weightings.

When American Trucking Associations and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association — two groups frequently at the opposite ends of trucking industry issues — are able to agree on something, you know it’s a pretty momentous occasion.   And recently the two trucking groups agreed to take on an issue that’s close to our heart: truck driver safety.

Motivated by concerns over driver safety, American Trucking Associations and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association united in asking the federal government to research the idea of national standards to improve a driver’s chances of surviving an accident in a Class 7 or 8 truck cab.

WASHINGTON — The trucking industry has made great strides in truck safety over the past decade, but numerous challenges remain as motor carriers and truck drivers cope with an increasingly tough regulatory environment, industry executives told the National Transportation Safety Board Tuesday.