DOT will start auditing GPS data
In November, 2008, in a very brief notice in the Federal Register, FMCSA notified the world that it was rescinding its policy on GPS data. In 1997, FMCSA issued a policy to its auditors, stating that they were only to use GPS data as a last resort in auditing logs for accuracy. This was done largely to keep the playing field level. An auditor checking GPS data against a driver’s logs will obviously find a much higher percentage of falsifications, than one who is just using paper documents like fuel statements and toll receipts. The policy was also done to encourage trucking companies to buy the GPS technology.
Now, by eliminating that policy, the FMCSA has signaled very clearly they will start using the GPS data to audit your logs. Any carrier who has GPS satellites could be in jeopardy during an audit. I imagine what will happen is many auditors will just do it the way they’ve always done it, and use the traditional EZPass statements, toll receipts, fuel statements, and scale tickets. However, I’m sure there will be some aggressive field agents who are going to use that mountain of GPS data as a hammer. And guess who is the nail?
This will probably lead to multiple levels of expectations during an audit. If you do not have GPS data, or if you’re lucky enough to get an auditor who is going to leave sleeping dogs lie, nothing will change. BUT, if you get a guy who wants that GPS data, for no reason other than he wants it, you and your drivers will be held to a much stricter compliance standard. In other words, your drivers’ logs will have to be precisely accurate and legal. No fudging an hour here, or an hour there.
If FMCSA wanted everyone to run strictly legal, they would have mandated that all new trucks are equipped with the on-board recorders a few years ago, but they didn’t do that. With the on-board recorders, everyone would have been held to the same standard. Now, a carrier without the GPS can cheat more than carriers with the GPS.
Stay tuned, and be forewarned. If do have GPS, you might investigate how far off your drivers’ logs are compared to your satellite data, especially if you are on FMCSA’s Safestat list.
How Many Miles Can I Legally Log?
This is a popular question in safety classes. Drivers want to know how far they can show themselves driving on their logs, without it being questioned. The short answer is, you are supposed to log it as you drove it. In other words, if you left Carlisle, PA at 8:45am, and arrived in Columbus, OH at 3:00pm, then that’s what you put on your log. If you log it as you do it, you don’t have to worry about miles driven, etc.
However, to answer the question, the DOT will generally allow you to log 5 mph below the speed limits in whatever states you’ve driven in. For example, if you are driving in states where the limit is 65, you can have 60 x however many hours you’ve driven, without arousing too much suspicion. Many drivers try to cheat an extra hour here and there by driving 12 hours, but logging 10.5 or 11. This is common practice, but just remember, if you are involved in a big wreck, the police and the district attorney are going to go over your logs with a fine tooth comb.
Crete Driver Gets 7 Years in Jail
Last week, a former driver for Crete Carrier Corp., of Crete, NE was sentenced to 7 years in jail for crashing his tractor-trailer into a car and school bus, killing 7. This wreck occurred on January 25, 2006.
This has been one of the worst truck wrecks in terms of casualties in the past few years. There has been much speculation and rumor about the cause of the crash. It appears somewhat settled now that the driver fell asleep, causing him to rear-end a car at highway speed loaded with children. The driver entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors. As part of that agreement, the driver described to them how he had been awake for 34 hours prior to the accident.
Prosecutors have stated that they are not finished with this case. The implication is that, with the help of the driver, they will attempt to bring actions against the motor carrier, Crete Carrier Corp. This probably won’t happen. Prosecutors always imply that justice will be served before the cameras, but then when their evidence doesn’t take them where they want to go, they quietly drop the case. That will probably happen in this case.
Nevertheless, this incident illustrates why the safety regulations exist. Every safety class I give, I go into my fatigue spiel, and I see eyes roll, and people tune out…. but I’m telling you, driving when you’re sleepy can be worse than driving drunk. You lose control of your truck at highway speeds, and you’ll be lucky to walk away. Of course, if you’re unlucky, and kill somebody else, like this poor guy in handcuffs, you’ll wish you were dead.
I don’t know this driver from Adam, but I would imagine he is just your normal, everyday, good guy truck driver, who used bad judgment, and paid the price. How many of you drivers reading this have done the same thing and gotten away with it? Learn from this guy’s misfortune!
Trucking Company Owner Goes to Jail for Log Falsification
This press release was issued recently by the Department of Justice. It illustrates that the government does take criminal action occasionally for safety violations.
FRESNO, Calif.—United States Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced today that SURINDER SINGH NIJJAR, 42, of Madera, Calif., owner of Nijar Brothers Trucking and NB Trucking, Inc., was sentenced to one year in prison by United States District Judge Anthony Ishii for making false statements to a government agency. He pleaded guilty on September 22, 2006.
This case is the product of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector General.
According Assistant United States Attorneys Mark E. Cullers and Marlon Cobar, who prosecuted the case, NIJJAR and other employees of Nijar Brothers Trucking and NB Trucking falsified the Drivers Daily Logs of their truck drivers. These daily logs were supplied to the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration, the federal agency authorized to ensure truck drivers do not exceed the daily maximum number of hours driving allowable. By falsifying the logs and allowing the falsification to take place, Judge Ishii found that NIJJAR “created a conscious risk of death or serious bodily injury” to drivers using the roads and put the safety of the public at risk. In addition to serving a year in federal prison, NIJJAR was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine.
New Entrant Rules to Get Tougher
I haven’t posted anything in awhile. Why? Well, let’s just say, if you’re not backing up your computer files, you should be. One day you’re going to push the “ON” button on your trusty laptop, and it’s just going to sit there. I was 80% ready for that awful day, next time I will be 100% ready.
Anyway, I came across this article on the Net about FMCSA’s New Entrant program. As you may know, I am selling a DVD training package, for $275 plus shipping and handling. It is designed for small companies who don’t know much about the safety regulations, such as logbooks, driver files, or drug testing. One of the main groups I market to are the ‘new entrants’, which are carriers who have just gotten a DOT number. FMCSA audits all new entrants within 18 months. According to this article, FMCSA is going to make the new entrant audit much tougher to pass. If that’s true, then you really should buy my DVD package.
Anyway, here is the article, from Traffic World, dated April 21, 2008:
“Never mind the record high diesel fuel prices, new trucking companies soon will have to face a barrier that until now hasn’t posed much of a problem for new entrants: The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The agency, under fire at times from critics who say the motor carrier regulator has been too friendly to business, is preparing stringent new requirements for trucking companies entering the marketplace. The FMCSA says it expects the demands, including tighter mandates for training, drug and alcohol testing and insurance, could cause some 30 to 40 percent of new applicants to hit the brakes.
The rules could tighten the lid on capacity as the sagging American economy is pressing larger trucking companies to scale back fleets and pushing many smaller truckers and independent drivers into bankruptcy or out of the industry altogether. “This is a much more thorough program and it’s got some teeth in it,” said Stephen F. Campbell, executive director of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance. “Saying ‘I didn’t know,’ it will not be a defense.”
By the agency’s own admission, its past oversight of new carriers has been less than stringent. Under the current program, new trucking companies could operate without drug and alcohol testing program, although they would have to put one in place within 18 months. “Our entrant program was designed to be more of an educational format,” FMCSA Administrator John Hill said. “Carriers can tell [us] they are doing something and that is all we are required to do … we don’t really do a lot of our verification.”
All that is about to change. The agency is gearing up to complete its New Entrant Motor Carrier Safety Assurance Process in the next few months, the culmination of a process launched by the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act in 1999. FMCSA expects to issue final rules shortly that will govern the 18-month provisional period and the accompanying audits of new trucking companies. These rules will replace interim final rules issued in 2003. The new rules represent the biggest change in entrance requirements for new truckers since deregulation stripped many economic regulatory requirements from the books.
At the heart of the rule will be 11 regulations, including stringent requirements for drug and alcohol testing programs, insurance and use of records. Unlike the current system, a single violation would result in automatic failure. The new requirements – which were proposed in December 2006 – would be effective 30 days after the final rule is published. Hill says they will not make the entry process easier.
“We estimate through some early analysis that 30 to 40 percent of the new entrants will have difficulty” meeting the new standards, Hill told the National Industrial Transportation League’s Spring Policy Forum on April 8. Hill noted that safety audits required for Mexican carriers participating in the agency’s crossborder trucking program place stricter requirements on Mexican companies than on American operators. “We really ought to do that with the American companies as well,” Hill said.
The FMCSA’s strict new carrier requirements come in the face of mounting criticism from safety groups and others that the Bush administration has not taken a strong enough regulatory role. This new rule may be part of the agency’s answer. The agency has more than seven rule-makings coming out this year ranging from issues addressing intermodal container chassis to sleep apnea.
Although instigated by a lawsuit, the agency’s recently proposed entry-level driver training rules – which will require 120 hours of classroom training time – are another example of tougher requirements in the pipeline. The agency says its figures show highway safety improving in recent years. The large truck fatality rate has fallen to its lowest level since the Department of Transportation began tracking the figure in 1975, for instance, while traffic on U.S. highways has increased 22 percent over the past 10 years. And the FMCSA says since autumn 2007 it has published several rules and regulations ranging from fire extinguisher requirements to Unified Carrier Registration fees.
But many fear the new requirement on new carriers could end up harming the trucking industry and its shipper customers just as the freight downturn is expected to subside. “It’s becoming more and more onerous on small operators,” said Brigham McCown, an attorney and former general counsel at the FMCSA. “More and more regulations at some point starts to push the little guy out of business. … At some point you just say ‘To hell with it, it’s not worth it.’”
Small carriers make up approximately 90 percent of trucking companies, accounting for roughly 50 percent of capacity in the market, according to David Ross, a transportation analyst for investment firm Stifel Nicolaus. “These increased regulations will make capacity tighter in the upturn and will favor the large trucking companies already out there,” Ross said. Many large truckload carriers have parked hundreds of trucks over the past year in response to waning demand, but broad figures on trucking activity in recent months belie the negative reports about the larger economy and may even suggest an upturn is on the way. The American Trucking Associations reported increases in its trucking tonnage index in the first two months of 2008, including a 3.5 percent increase in February over the same month last year.
“You’ll get back into the tight demand environment; when that happens the pricing power goes back into the hands of the carriers rather than the hands of the shippers, where it is now,” he said.
“The agency has to balance the realities,” said Donald Schaefer, executive vice president of the Mid-West Truckers Association. “You can put regulations on the industry, but if you put half of them out of business then you’ve created an all-new set of problems.”
Not everyone thinks there will be a problem. The American Trucking Associations supports the new-entrant rule. “It does make sense from our standpoint to make this process tougher,” said Dave Osiecki, the ATA’s vice president of safety, security and operations. “What I hope it does is ensure a more safe company coming into the industry.”
And the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, whose smaller companies would most likely be the ones affected by the rules, supports the new regulations as well. “Generally, we don’t have a lot of problems with it,” said Rick Craig, OOIDA’s director of regulatory affairs. He said new trucking companies that fail one of the requirements can always reapply. “I don’t think they are going to give up,” Craig said.
But Craig, and Todd Spencer, OOIDA’s executive vice president, also have their concerns, questioning the accident data used to develop the rule and whether the rule emphasizes paperwork over safety operations. “While most of the new carriers have shortcomings,” Spencer said, “they weren’t crashing trucks.”
Logbooks…. Can I Abbreviate?
Many drivers ask, “When I’m filling out my logbook, can I use shorthand when putting in the locations in the ‘Remarks’ section?” Instead of writing, Cincinnati, can I write Cincy? Or NYC? Or STL? The rules do not provide for that. They say city, town, village, and the State abbreviation. They even say you’re supposed to write down the mile marker of the highway, followed by the nearest city and State, if you are not in a city when you stop.
In reality, most DOT cops will not give you grief if it’s clear where you are. For example, I’ve never seen a DOT person complain about something being logged as Ft. Washington, rather than Fort Washington. No doubt someone will post a comment within 15 minutes saying they got a ticket for just such a case, but I’ve never seen it. If you are only marking MM 68 on the log, that’s a problem. Which highway? Which way to the mile markers run? 0-300 or 300-0? DOT uses the cities and States to determine where you were, and whether or not your log is an accurate document. If they can’t figure out where you were, they can cite you for a false document.
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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.
Tanker Crash Creates Major Jam in Wichita
In the early morning hours of Tuesday, March 11, a Groendyke Transport tanker truck hit a bridge abutment, flipping his trailer over the railing onto the roadway below. The driver sustained minor injuries. The highways were shutdown nearly all day while cleanup crews pumped off the 8,000 gallons of butane into another tank.
Check out the video at the link. It is being reported that the driver fell asleep. The Groendyke official stated the driver had only been on-duty 6 or 7 hours at the time of the crash. Fatigue can strike at any time, not just when you are at or over your 14 hour shift. Any company with any brains at all will encourage its drivers to PULL OVER if they feel too ill or sleepy to continue. Sometimes just getting a 20 minute nap can refresh a driver, and make him able to continue safely. It is not uncommon to see fatigue related accidents occurring at the beginning or in the middle of a driver’s work shift.
Many drivers are embarrassed to call a dispatcher and say, “I don’t feel well, or I’m falling asleep at the wheel, I need to pull over for an hour”, when they’ve only been on-duty for a few hours. You’ll be more embarrassed if your trailer ends up in a ditch.
A note on these truck accident stories: Some of you probably think that’s all I post is truck wrecks. Well, I try to make a safety point with the wrecks, not just posting them for fun. I think they’re a little more interesting than just talking about the ins-and-outs of filling out a driver vehicle inspection report, or a logbook. Besides, it’s hard coming up with new material every week.
Truck Driver Filling Out Logbook Causes Fatal Wreck
On the afternoon of February 14, a fatal wreck occurred in Ocala, FL. A conversion van was attempting to merge onto northbound I-75, when it struck a tractor-trailer which was on the shoulder of the on-ramp to I-75. The truck was partially parked in the travel lane of the on-ramp, and the van struck the back corner of the trailer. The van spun into the travel lanes of I-75, where it was immediately struck at high speed by another tractor-trailer.
According to the article, the driver of the parked truck had pulled over when he realized that he had not completed his logbook after just fueling his truck. Well, this goes in the category of “best intentions gone wrong”. It’s great that you want to comply with the law, and not be placed Out of Service, but you cannot pull a tractor-trailer over just anywhere. There’s a reason the police give tickets to trucks for parking on ramps. Usually, they give them out for parking on off-ramps, as traffic is moving at a high rate of speed onto the ramp. However, many states also ticket trucks on on-ramps as well, and this is an example of why. Apparently, the truck had only been parked for less than a minute, but sometimes that’s all it takes.
Appeals Court Lets Hours of Service Rules in Place
Late yesterday, January 24, 2008, the US Court of Appeals denied Public Citizen’s petition to invalidate the FMCSA’s hours of service rules, which were issued (re-issued?) on December 27, 2007. Yea!
To recap: FMCSA changed rules to the 11, 14, 70 hours in 2004, I think. The public safety crazies sued them, saying they weren’t strict enough. In the summer of last year, the US Court of Appeals agreed with the public safety people saying FMCSA had not properly followed the steps to make the rules, and signaled its intent to strike down the rules. On December 27, 2007, FMCSA responded to the Court, re-issuing the exact same rules… with maybe a little more explanation and justification as to where they came up with those rules. And now the Court has said that process can continue. Confusing? Hell, yeah. Here’s the bottomline: the current hours of service rules will stay in place for the forseeable future. Which is a good thing. In today’s freight climate, the last thing anyone needs is to learn a whole new set of hours rules.
Pointy-Headed Congressional Committee Files Report
The National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission released its report on January 15, on how to spend highway money, and reduce congestion. They recommended changes in the current hours of service rules, to allow drivers to stop their 14 hour clocks with off-duty periods. Presently, the clock starts running at the beginning of your shift, and runs continually for 14 hours, and cannot be stopped. This would allow drivers who are, for example, on the outskirts of New York City at the beginning of rush hour to shutdown for a few hours, get a nap, and then go through when the roads have somewhat cleared, rather than beating your head against a wall of traffic at 5 mph for 3 hours.
Of course, before you get all excited, keep two things in mind. One, most committees in Washington talk, talk, talk, and nothing ever happens, so that’s likely here. Two, they also recommended higher tolls, higher fuel taxes, and congestion pricing. So, it’s just as likely you’ll pay more to drive, and still have to follow the 14 hour rule.
