I just had an accident. Will it count against my record?
Dear Eric: A car stopped short in front of my driver on the interstate. He locked up the brakes, but jacknifed into the median. He did not hit the car. The police were called and filed a report. I went up to the accident scene, and drove the truck and trailer out of the median, and back to the yard. Will this count against my record?
Answer: No, as this does not meet the DOT definition of a recordable accident, which states there must an injury treated away from the scene (no in this case), or a vehicle towed from the scene (no again in this case). I would recommend keeping detailed notes, just in case the police officer checked the wrong box on the accident report, but this should not count as a DOT recordable accident. However, you might want to talk to your drivers about driving too fast, following too closely, or leaving themselves an out when driving. You might not be as lucky next time.
Eric Arnold is a Former Enforcement Agent with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and a leading expert on USDOT compliance for small businesses. Do you have a question for Eric Arnold? Email him at eric@arnoldsafety.com.
Arnold Safety simplifies D.O.T. Compliance for commercial vehicle operators. Get Eric Arnold’s USDOT Compliance Guide, DVD, & Regulations at ArnoldSafety.Com.
Learn more about Arnold Safety compliance consulting services at ArnoldSafety.Com.
When do I have to fill out logbooks?
Dear Eric: Do I have to fill out logbooks?
Answer: The regulations state that you must complete a record of duty status (aka a logbook) every day, unless if you:
1) stay within a 100 air mile radius from your office, and 2) return to the office within 12 hours.
If you do that, your driver may record his time on a time card, time sheet, any thing that captures the time started, time finished, and the total number of hours worked that day. In the event the driver does not meet those requirements one day, then for that day, he must complete a logsheet. Logbooks are generally available at truckstops, or online from www.jjkeller.com. If you are a non-CDL driver, there are numerous exceptions that apply instead of the 100 air mile rule.
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Eric Arnold is a Former Enforcement Agent with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and a leading expert on USDOT compliance for small businesses. Do you have a question for Eric Arnold? Email him at eric@arnoldsafety.com.
Arnold Safety simplifies D.O.T. Compliance for commercial vehicle operators. Get Eric Arnold’s USDOT Compliance Guide, DVD, & Regulations at ArnoldSafety.Com.
Learn more about Arnold Safety compliance consulting services at ArnoldSafety.Com.
Do you have a question?
Post any and all of your D.O.T. compliance-related questions here. I will do my best to answer them.
Within reason, that is.
For example, if your question is, “what do I have to do to comply with all these rules?”, the answer is, buy my DVD.
Or, if your question is “What’s the girl in the truck have to do with compliance questions?”, the answer is: Did you really want another picture of me?
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Eric Arnold is a Former Enforcement Agent with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and a leading expert on USDOT compliance for small businesses. Do you have a question for Eric Arnold? Post them here, or email him at eric@arnoldsafety.com.
Arnold Safety simplifies D.O.T. Compliance for commercial vehicle operators. Get Eric Arnold’s USDOT Compliance Guide, DVD, & Regulations at ArnoldSafety.Com.
Learn more about Arnold Safety compliance consulting services at ArnoldSafety.Com.
Why are there non-safety posts on your website?
Basically, I need something to keep myself interested in the website. Posting ALL safety/regulatory related posts would probably drive me crazy. So I need a diversion. I will try to keep it around a 70/30 split. Also, the other posts will be in the General, Sports, or Politics categories.
So if you don’t want to hear about the Philadelphia Eagles, George W. Bush, or my cat, simply skip to the next post.
Eric Arnold is a Former Enforcement Agent with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and a leading expert on USDOT compliance for small businesses. Do you have a question for Eric Arnold? Email him at eric@arnoldsafety.com.
Arnold Safety simplifies D.O.T. Compliance for commercial vehicle operators. Get Eric Arnold’s USDOT Compliance Guide, DVD, & Regulations at ArnoldSafety.Com.
Learn more about Arnold Safety compliance consulting services at ArnoldSafety.Com.
What is this DVD package you are selling?
The DVD training package I am selling on the website is something which will teach you how to comply with the rules in 2-3 hours.
It is designed mostly for motor carriers who are not that familiar with the requirements of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. The regulations are several hundred pages long. For a newbie to go through the legalese, and pick out all the important requirements will take days, if not weeks. Your time is better spent doing whatever you do to make money.
For example, if my car breaks down, I could probably fix it myself, but that will take me several hours……hours which I could be using making money consulting. So I hire a mechanic. It’s worth it to you to spend a few dollars, get the information in a neat, complete package, get it done, and then get back to your real business.
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Eric Arnold is a Former Enforcement Agent with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and a leading expert on USDOT compliance for small businesses. Do you have a question for Eric Arnold? Email him at eric@arnoldsafety.com.
Arnold Safety simplifies D.O.T. Compliance for commercial vehicle operators. Get Eric Arnold’s USDOT Compliance Guide, DVD, & Regulations at ArnoldSafety.Com.
Learn more about Arnold Safety compliance consulting services at ArnoldSafety.Com.
What is the ‘DOT’???
If you are somewhat new to operating heavy vehicles on the road, you may not be familiar with the alphabet soup of regulatory agencies who will be looking in on you.
The most common name for the regulatory body which enforces the safety regulations on trucks is ‘DOT’. Which is short for Department of Transportation. If you cross state lines with your vehicles, you are then the Federal DOT has jurisdiction over you, aka the United States DOT (USDOT). USDOT is a cabinet level department, just like the Department of Defense, and Department of Justice.
Within DOT there are a number of sub-agencies, such as the Federal Rail Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
The FMCSA is the organization which enforces the safety regulations. Most people recognize them as “DOT”, but they are also known as “FMCSA”. So, if you get any type of correspondence from these organizations, you should pay attention to it.
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Eric Arnold is a Former Enforcement Agent with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and a leading expert on USDOT compliance for small businesses. Do you have a question for Eric Arnold? Email him at eric@arnoldsafety.com.
Arnold Safety simplifies D.O.T. Compliance for commercial vehicle operators. Get Eric Arnold’s USDOT Compliance Guide, DVD, & Regulations at ArnoldSafety.Com.
Learn more about Arnold Safety compliance consulting services at ArnoldSafety.Com.
Pay attention, pay your tickets!
Well, looks like Paris Hilton is going to be going to another type of Hilton, for 45 days anyway. For those of you who have missed it, she’s been sentenced to 45 days in the county lockup, for mostly traffic-related violations.
Back in September, 2006, she was driving drunk. She was sentenced to 36 months probation, alcohol re-education camp, and $1,500 in fines. She continued to drive on a suspended license, and never did enter the alcohol camp. The police stopped her twice, the latest on February 27, 2007 for speeding.
Apparently the judge had no tolerance for this sort of arrogance and sent her up the river. Actually, you think with all the money the Hiltons have, they could find some better lawyers.
Drivers, the lesson is, protect that CDL! Every motor carrier you ever work for is required to run your driving history, or MVR. Every ticket, every accident you have will be on there (probably). The jobs which pay the most demand a clean MVR. If you have tickets, you are relagating yourself to a lousy-paying job. Also, if you do get a ticket, pay attention to the conditions attached to it. Do you have to appear in person? Where do you send the check? Make sure it gets taken care of properly, or you will get suspended.
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Eric Arnold is a Former Enforcement Agent with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and a leading expert on USDOT compliance for small businesses. Do you have a question for Eric Arnold? Email him at eric@arnoldsafety.com.
Arnold Safety simplifies D.O.T. Compliance for commercial vehicle operators. Get Eric Arnold’s USDOT Compliance Guide, DVD, & Regulations at ArnoldSafety.Com.
Learn more about Arnold Safety compliance consulting services at ArnoldSafety.Com.
Safety Ratings and Accidents
When DOT conducts its audits, it will generally assign a safety rating to that motor carrier. There are three ratings: Satisfactory, Conditional, and Unsatisfactory.
It is very important that you be assigned the highest rating of Satisfactory, for reasons I will detail in some later post. In determining the ratings, DOT considers not only if you are in compliance with the regulations, but whether or not you are having too many crashes. It will take the number of serious or “recordable” crashes you have had, multiply that times 1,000,000, and divide that by the number of miles you have operated over the past year. That ratio cannot be more than 1.5. Or, put another way, you cannot have more than 1.5 recordable crashes per million miles operated.
What is a recordable crash? An accident where there is a death, an injury treated away from the scene, or a vehicle towed from the scene is a recordable crash. An incident where a driver bent the ICC bumper backing into a dock is not a recordable crash.
If your ratio is too high, it can cause you to have a Conditional rating all by itself, even though you may be complying with all of the rules. This is just another benefit to having safe drivers who do not cause accidents.
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Eric Arnold is a Former Enforcement Agent with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and a leading expert on USDOT compliance for small businesses. Do you have a question for Eric Arnold? Email him at eric@arnoldsafety.com.
Arnold Safety simplifies D.O.T. Compliance for commercial vehicle operators. Get Eric Arnold’s USDOT Compliance Guide, DVD, & Regulations at ArnoldSafety.Com.
Learn more about Arnold Safety compliance consulting services at ArnoldSafety.Com.
