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• The IRS has increased the per diem for this year, meaning truckers can deduct more from their federal income taxes for each day’s expenses, including meals, tips and showers. The per diem for 2006 is up $11 over last year and now stands at $52 per day; the percentage that a trucker can claim as a deduction is up 5 percent from last year at 75 percent. In 2008, the claim allowance increases to 80 percent.

Logbooks are the only documentation required to claim the per diem; truckers do not need to keep receipts for meals and showers. However, if a trucker routinely spends more than $52 a day in meals and showers, he may want to save receipts and forgo the per diem. Most drivers, though, find that claiming the per diem is easier and more profitable than saving receipts. Although laundry used to be considered a per diem expense, it no longer is—truckers should document their laundry spending and deduct it separately from the per diem.

• According to the U.S. Census Bureau, trucks hauling general freight generated $125 billion in revenue in 2004, amounting to about two-thirds of the trucking total. Specialized freight haulers—requiring flatbed, tanker or refrigerated trailers— totaled $61 billion in revenue, putting total trucking revenues for 2004 at $186 billion.

• In 2004, there were 895,000 company-owned truck tractors on the road, a 3.1 percent increase from the previous year. Smaller trucks and vans accounted for 212,000 vehicles, up 1 percent from 2003.

• In 2004, company-owned trucks drove a combined 87.8 billion highway miles—the equivalent of more than a dozentrips to and from Pluto. Total mileage was up 3.6 percent from the previous year.

• Faced with tightening resources and a greater workload, state police are turning to technology to help them get their jobs done. Maryland State Police Department, for example, says it has fewer personnel than it did a decade ago, yet technology has allowed state troopers to reduce fatalities by 2.7 percent in the last three years and conduct 350,000 homeland security checks.

“We have to work smarter, not harder,” says Lt. Col. Michael J. Fischer, chief of the Maryland State Police field operations bureau. “We have to come up with innovative ways to maintain public safety and highway safety, and most importantly, public trust.”

The Maryland department uses “enhanced patrol vehicles” with voice-activated radio, radar and other controls that allow officers to follow vehicles and run checks. Maryland troopers also have Smartcard-enabled laptops that generate reports on truck inspections. Virtual scale houses (pads in the road) transmit truck dimensions, speed, identification numbers and other data to on-the-road police.

Source: Roemer Report (used with permission)