Legislation regulating speed limits takes effect
Texas motorists may notice some changes to speed limit signs in the next several months, as new laws regulating speed limits on the roadways of the state highway system begin to take effect.
The 82nd Texas Legislature passed and the Governor signed House Bill 1353, which takes effect on September 1. This legislation allows the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to create a 75-mile per hour speed limit on any state highway found to be reasonable and safe through a speed study. TxDOT will be reviewing existing 70-mile per hour speed limits to determine where a 75-mile per hour speed limit may be safely posted.
HB 1353 also eliminates the 65-mile per hour nighttime speed limit and all truck speed limits. On September 1, the existing nighttime and truck speed limits are repealed and no longer enforceable.
Southwest Movers Association Helps Fight Hunger in Texas
July 11, 2011Southwest Movers Association's (SMA) Executive Director John D. Esparza announced that the association's partnership with Move For Hunger turns one year old this month. Move For Hunger is a nationwide non-profit that partners with moving companies to pick up unwanted food during the moving process and deliver it to local food banks. Since joining forces with the Texas based moving association, SMA members alone have collected more than 23,622 pounds of food. That food donated to local food banks across the state is enough to provide more than 18,000 life-saving meals to struggling families throughout Texas.
"Through Move for Hunger, our members are improving the lives of Texas families," says SMA Executive Director John D. Esparza. "This program is an excellent way for SMA movers and their customers to assist struggling and hungry families in their own home town, one move at a time."
Moving gives families an opportunity to clean out their pantries. Participating movers in the Move for Hunger program are asking their customers to donate unopened, unwanted food items to help hungry families. Even the smallest donations make a difference. Every time movers go out on an estimate or perform a move, they leave behind a box for food items. Customers can pack the box, or their professional moving staff will pack it for them, and the mover will deliver the food to the local food bank, where it can be distributed to families in need.
According to Feeding America's latest hunger studies, one in six Americans struggles to find their next meal; 17 million children are in need. With one in seven Americans relocating every year, Move For Hunger has a huge opportunity to help fill our nation's food banks.
Move For Hunger is working with movers nationwide and in just the past two years has delivered more than 325,000 pounds of food. With the support of its partners such as Southwest Movers Association, Move For Hunger is turning the average food drive into one of the nation's largest, year-round service programs.
"If we as an association have helped just one family feed their children, we have improved the community around us," said Esparza. "This is a simple way to do something that directly impacts those in need and in turn provides a necessary public service."
To learn how to donate to Move For Hunger, visit www.MoveForHunger.org.
HB 1523 Filed Today
HB 1523 was filed today by the chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Larry Phillips (R- Fannin), that would stiffen the penalties for unregistered movers in Texas. The bill would now subject violaters to a class A misdemeanor.
More than 100 Southwest Movers Association and Texas Motor Transportation Association members from around the state spent the day Wednesday talking to legislators about supporting this change. If passed, the fine would increase from $200 to $4,000.
Released Rates of Motor Common Carriers of Household Goods
To provide additional protection for customers of interstate moving companies, the Surface Transportation Board adopts two changes concerning the responsibility of these companies to pay for damage to or loss of customers’ household goods and requires the moving companies to amend certain documents they provide to consumers accordingly. One change requires moving companies to place on the written estimate for a move an estimate of the cost of the move if the moving company assumes liability for the replacement cost of goods damaged or lost. Another change increases the minimum total and per-pound value to replace a consumer’s goods in the event that the goods are damaged or lost and the consumer did not provide a value for the shipment. Click here for full story.
Background Checks as defined in the Texas Regulations:
"(c) A residential delivery company that sends two or more employees together into a residence shall be deemed to have complied with the requirement in Section 145.002 as long as at least one of those employees has been checked ... and, while they are in the residence, that employee accompanies and directly supervises any employee who has not been checked, and the residential delivery company or in-home service company maintains a record of the identity of any such non-checked employee for at least two years."
THE SMA MAX 3B TARIFF BECOMES EFFECTIVE NOVEMBER 1, 2008
BECOMES EFFECTIVE NOVEMBER 1, 2008
AND
CANCELS IN FULL, SMA MAX 3A TARIFF ORIGINALLY ISSUED EFFECTIVE APRIL 1, 2000.
To order your copy of the Max 3B tariff, complete the form below and return with your check or
credit card. Tariff purchasers will be entered into the SMA database to receive, via email,
updates to the tariff in pdf format, as issued, at no additional charge.
Click Here to Download Order Form
You must be a member of Southwest Movers Association.
For membership information call 1-800-759-2305 and speak with Dorothy Brooks.
MOVEFacts: Oct. 23