Some More Thoughts About CSA 2010
While I’m thinking of it, there are a few differences in the CSA 2010, and how DOT is going to do their business. For the uninitiated, DOT means the same as FMCSA, which is the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. They’re the group that regulates anyone who has a truck. They are the government, and they’re not there to help you. In fairness to the FMCSA, I do not believe their agents say that anymore.
Anyway, DOT is planning to conduct many more “interventions” (their word) under CSA 2010. Seriously, where do they come up with these words? If I had to guess, they probably had a meeting, which may have taken multiple days, and decided they need a new, non-threatening word for “audit”. Boom, we have “intervention”! After all an intervention is where your friends (like the DOT!) sit around in a circle and force you change your behavior. So, maybe they still are thinking they’re here to help you.
These interventions are mostly going to take the form of them sending you threatening letters, and then you will have to send them many pages of documentation, showing you are in compliance with the rules. Then they may go away. They might not. They might come out and do an audit, they might send another threatening letter, or they might actually just send you a fine. I doubt they’ll start fining motor carriers without doing an audit immediately. It will probably take them a year or so, until they feel comfortable with their system, but that’s definitely where they’re going with this.
There are still many unanswered questions about CSA 2010, so I wouldn’t get too worked up over it. DOT wants to expand their footprint, expand their outreach by fining more motor carriers, but the problem is, they don’t have the auditors to do it. Even if they do issue more penalties, even by mail, they don’t have the people to process them. I doubt they’ll be able to hire more people, because in November the $$$ spigot is going to be shut off. Ok, it won’t be shut off, I’m not dumb enough to think the GOP will actually bring back any sort of fiscal sanity to government. The $$$ spigot will be partially shut off, how’s that?
What Else is New?
So what else is new? The DOT is getting closer to implementing their CSA 2010 system. I guess I should revamp the website, and start pushing CSA 2010 products like JJ Keller is… but I guess I don’t see it as a game changing development. The rules have not changed. CSA 2010 will not change the rules. Presently, DOT uses Safestat to rank the carriers. CSA 2010 will rank the carriers instead of Safestat. CSA 2010 will have a driver component to it. You will be able to see how many times a driver has been placed Out of Service prior to hiring him. This will have new information on it, but presently, you run MVRs on drivers which tells you how many times a driver has been in accidents, and been stopped for moving violations.
So, I guess I’m not seeing where it’s THAT different. I know, that makes me a heretic, go figure. Right now, you have a Safestat score. Shippers and insurance companies can see the Safestat score. They can choose to do business or not do business with you, based on the Safestat score. The CSA 2010 score is going to be just another score. If you have poor Safestat scores, and you have shippers, and you have an insurance company, you’re probably still going to have shippers and insurance under the new system. If you’re a driver who has some tickets or some Out of Services on his record… you’ll still be able to find a job. Especially when the economy takes off 4-5 years from now. Notice I said 4-5 years from now… if you think things are taking off sooner than that, you’re probably an a economist working for the Obama Administration.
The one thing that will change, and probably within months are the hours of service rules. The FMCSA held all of their listening sessions, pulled the rulemaking which had been written prior to the listening sessions out of the drawer, and sent it to the White House for approval. The only way it won’t be approved is if it’s not restrictive enough. Now we just wait to see how bad it’s going to be.
Writer’s Block
Yeah, I know, I haven’t updated the website in a long time. Well, I’ve been busy, and I’ve had writer’s block. So rather than carefully think out a few posts, write and rewrite them until they’re right, I’m just going to type them out, and get this done.
So, what’s happened in the past month? Well, Brett Favre retired. In other news, Brett Favre played in the Vikings exhibition game this weekend. I saw the USA Today had an article out which stated government employees make twice what their private sector counterparts make. The Federal Government through the Office of Personnel Management quickly said this wasn’t true. I’m not sure why the OPM felt it necessary to tell me government workers don’t make outrageous salaries. Especially when they do. But hey, don’t take my word for it, the Federal GS scale is public information. According to the GS Table, a DOT auditor who lives in the Philadelphia area with 15 years experience makes around $90,000. That’s without benefits; from what I remember, the benefits on top of the salary are worth about another $20,000 – 30,000. You have health insurance, they match your retirement contribution into your 401(k) plan up to 5% of your salary, cheap life insurance, etc. Oh yeah, don’t forget the generous vacation and sick time you get.
By comparison, I have a friend, let’s call him Bob. Not his real name. Bob has a bachelor’s degree, Bob has been in sales for 20 years, when the large corporation he worked for laid him off. So Bob starts hunting. Luckily for Bob, he found a job as a human resources director for a large multi-national corporation involved in construction, right before the economy really tanked in 2008. Bob was making $45,000. Bob was in charge of several dozen truck drivers, as well as numerous other duties besides the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Reguations. While working there, Bob completed his masters degree in Business Administration. After 18 months with the large, construction related multi-national, Bob was released, as there was no work, so there was no money to pay Bob. Of course as Human Resources Manager, they made him fire all the drivers and office personnel, before laying him off, and closing the division.
Bob was unemployed for about 9 months, when he got another Human Resources job. This one pays $50,000. I did tell Bob to apply to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for a job, which he did. He didn’t get the job.
Anyway, the point of this long story is not that government workers are lazy. Some are, but most of them do their jobs. The point is, when compared to what’s going on out in the private sector right now…. they are making wa-a-a-ay more than people in the private sector are making. It’s not debatable. It just is.
