Very quiet month this time around.  I think everyone is just worn out from winter and not interested in much.  So the report will be brief.  Enjoy the spring.

APRIL TRAINING SESSION – Here are the training sessions upcoming in April:

CAB Basic Training April 8 at 2:00 PM EDT. To register:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/670900601

CAB Focus Training April 9 at 2:00 PM EDT – The CAB Focus session will be on understanding shared units in the Carrier Search Page, the CAB Report and VITAL. To register:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/290886984

ELECTRONIC ON BOARD RECORDERS – The FMCSA has published its proposed rulemaking on the use of electronic logs recorders.  The rule is a supplement to the 2011 rulemaking which was challenged by various organizations.  The supplemental rule sets out protocols which will permit reports to stay with the motor carriers and drivers while still being made available to the FMCSA during roadside inspections, compliance reviews and post-crash investigations. There is an explicit prohibition on harassment by a motor carrier owner towards a driver using information from an ELD. It will also establish a procedure for filing a harassment complaint and creates a maximum civil penalty of up to $11,000 for a motor carrier that engages in harassment of a driver that leads to an hours-of-service violation or the driver operating a vehicle when they are so fatigued or ill it compromises safety. The rule will also make it more difficult for a driver to cheat when submitting their records of duty status and ensuring the electronic logs can be displayed and reviewed electronically, or printed, with potential violations flagged. More information on the Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Electronic Logging Devices  is available here.

CSA AUDIT REPORT – The Inspector General has issued its report after an audit of the DOT CSA program.  While recognizing the benefits and successes of the program, the report also makes recommendations for improvement, focusing on the widespread use of the system by the general populous.  A copy of the report can be viewed here.

SCOFFLAWS FACING DEACTIVATION OF DOT NUMBERS – The FMCSA has begun the process of deactivating carriers who have failed to update their Unified Registration System data. All carriers are required to update their URS registration biannually. Every month the agency will proceed with purging carriers two months beyond deadline.  This is designed to clean up the data, leaving only truly active carriers with DOT numbers.

DRIVER STATISTICS – An eight-year analysis of driver age and tenure conducted by Sylectus, a business unit of Omnitracs Canada Inc. was released this month.  The report identified an increase in driver age and a decrease in tenure for both male and female drivers.  The average age of male drivers is 48 and for woman the age is 51.  92% of drivers are male. The average tenure for a male driver is two years, with woman holding steady for a shorter period of time. Read More

I don’t know about you but I am done with this winter weather. Spring cannot come soon enough. February is a short month and I feel like I was just writing January’s report.

TRAINING AND INFORMATION SESSIONS – Here is the schedule and links for registration for this month’s training and information sessions:

Focus Training – Wednesday March 12 at 2:00 PM EDT – This month we will have a specially designed session for people involved in claims that will show all the ways the CAB website can be used for claims to help achieve better results. This special session will be led by Jean Gardner. –

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/413093200

CAB Basic Training – Thursday March 13 at 2:00 PM EDT –

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/573678697

Agent Advantage Preview – Wednesday March 19 at 2:00 PM EDT –

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/774081873

SALEs Preview – Thursday March 20 at 2:00 PM EDT –

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/434724089

This month we report:

CSA – This month we saw conflicting reports by government agencies on the success of CSA. The Government Accountability Office released its report on the FMCSA’s CSA regulatory compliance measurement program concluding that the system has some problems. The report indicates that small carriers are ‘disproportionately’ affected by the results, concluding that many motor carriers lack sufficient safety performance information to ensure that FMCSA can reliably compare them to other carriers.  The GAO found that the FMCSA attempts to compensate for the variances in inspection levels by grouping motor carriers with similar inspection rates in groups within the BASICs categories. Carriers are then compared against other carriers in the same group and ranked based off the violation data of the other carriers. The GAO recommends that the FMCSA conduct an analysis that identifies the limitations of the inspection and crash data used to calculate CSA scores.  A copy of the report can be viewed here.

The FMCSA released its own report which concluded that SMS was more effective at identifying commercial bus and truck companies of all sizes for targeted enforcement than the system it replaced. Researchers analyzed the association between historical carrier data and future crash involvement by taking two years of pre-SMS safety data for a subset of carriers, running it through the system’s algorithm, and then following those companies’ crash records for eighteen months. Results show that the companies the SMS would have identified for interventions, such as roadside inspections, warning letters and on-site investigations, had a future crash rate of more than double the national average. In addition, 79 percent of the carriers that SMS would have ranked as high risk in at least one of the seven safety categories it monitors, had higher future crash rates compared to those it would not have identified. A copy of the report can be viewed here.

DRUG AND ALCOHOL CLEARING HOUSE – The FMCSA released its proposal for a drug and alcohol clearinghouse that would store positive drug and alcohol test results; adulterated, substituted drug test results; test refusals; and successful completions of the return to duty process following a positive test result for drivers.  The reporting requirements are for prospective and current employers, medical review officers, consortiums, third-party administrators and substance abuse professionals. In the case of owner-operators, the agency is proposing the mandated use of a consortium or third-party administrator to complete the reporting requirements to the clearinghouse. The FMCSA is asking for comment on the question of whether positive results should be held for 3 or 5 years for drivers who come back to work and indefinitely for drivers who do not.   Motor carriers would be required to check a driver’s records in the clearinghouse before hiring the driver and to require rechecks on existing employees annually.  Drivers who do not provide consent to employers for searches of the clearinghouse will not be allowed to conduct safety-sensitive functions, like driving a truck. It will be set for public comment shortly.

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