Vacation
Well, I’m out of here. Heading onto another boat for a week. I’ll have limited access to email and phone messages, but I will try to keep tabs on what’s going on, if for no other reason so I don’t have to work 85 hours the week I return. Besides, I have to go, as President Obama has told me I can only make so much money, before my executive compensation is limited. Well, I guess he knows best. Besides, somebody has to spend recklessly and stimulate the economy, might as well be me next week. Be safe, don’t hit anything, avoid DOT until I get back.
Safety Ratings
One of the things DOT does is it rates all motor carriers at the conclusion of all its audits. It gives out 3 different ratings. Satisfactory, is the best rating, which means you are mostly in compliance. Conditional, means there are some major rules you are violating. Also, a Conditional rating means you almost certainly were fined as a result of the audit. Finally, there is Unsatisfactory. This means you’re so screwed up, they only give you 60 days…. less if you handle hazardous materials, to clean up your act, or they put you out of business. If you’ve never been audited, you have NO rating.
Ideally, you want to have a Satisfactory rating, or no rating. You can operate indefinitely with a Conditional rating, but it’s hard, especially if you are a for-hire motor carrier. Shippers, brokers, and insurance companies can and do view these ratings on the Internet. It varies by shipper, as to whether or not they’ll load a Conditional carrier. Some don’t care. Others want CYA documentation from you about how you really are a safe carrier. Then others won’t load a Conditional carrier, no ifs ands or buts. I had heard CH Robinson is one of those, for example, but I’m not 100% sure if that’s true.
Furthermore, your insurance carrier may jack up your rates, strictly based on the Conditional rating. I once asked a larger customer of mine, who had just gotten out of the Conditional status how much extra he was paying in insurance due to the Conditional. He guessed he was paying $200 – 300 more per truck. Your mileage may vary.
The thing many motor carriers don’t understand is that once you have the Conditional rating, it’s not easy to get the Satisfactory rating. First you have to comply with the rules. Second, you have to get the DOT to upgrade your rating. This can be very hard. It used to be you could call your local DOT office, and they would send out an agent to conduct a reaudit. They would satisfy themselves you’re on the straight and narrow, your rating gets upgraded to Satsifactory, and everybody is happy.
DOT doesn’t do this anymore. They have decided they don’t want to waste resources on motor carriers who probably are in compliance. If you get a Conditional, that’s your problem, they reason. Your crisis is not their crisis, so they very rarely conduct re-audits. You can sit with a Conditional rating for a year or two before they do a re-audit.
They do provide you an avenue in order to regain the Satisfactory rating. You must petition their office, providing reams of documentation about how you have corrected the violations, and will sin no more. This is not an easy process. First, when dealing with government workers, you must remember their primary focus is CYA. In other words, if they upgrade you to Satisfactory based on a few pieces of paper, they want to make 100% you’ve earned it. If they upgrade you on Monday, and Tuesday, you slide into a family of six, they know that on Wednesday the media will be asking questions. No DOT official wants to be on the news.
Therefore, they go over these petitions with a fine-toothed comb. They nit. They pick. God forbid if you need guidance. Getting a DOT guy on the phone is usually difficult, sometimes impossible, and if you do get to the right person on the phone, getting any legitimate help is a crapshoot. Many of the DOT guys are just not that interested in helping the motor carriers. Some are, but like I said, it’s six of one, half dozen of another whether you get the helpful guy on the phone. You are just as likely to get somebody who not only will not help you, they’ll be downright rude in doing it. After all, it’s not their Conditional rating, it’s yours, so kiss off motor carriers.
Oh well, rude DOT officials just creates more demand and work for me. They answer the phone 25% of the time. I answer it 70% of the time, and the other 30%, I return messages almost always that same day. Anyway, the best way get out of a Conditional status is to avoid getting placed there in the first place.
Hiring Opportunities
Even in these difficult economic times, there is opportunity. I believe, and there are many business experts who will back me up, good employees are vital to a successful business. Right now, you can improve your business is by upgrading the quality of your employees. There are a lot of good, quality people out there right now, looking for work. When times are flush, the only people out there, are ones no one else wants. Weak companies are folding, and good labor is hitting the streets.
This is a good opportunity to weed out your bad employees and snatch up some of the good ones off the open market. Snatch them up cheap, too. Truck drivers are a prime example. Generally speaking, 20% of your drivers cause you 80% of your problems, but you never do anything about it, because you can’t find good drivers. That’s no longer the case, so get active, get recruiting, and give those problem-children their walking papers. Your company will be better off for it.
More Traffic Tickets in Michigan
I received this on the Internet from a colleague. It was on the Internet, so it must be true, right? Anyway, apparently, the State of Michigan is holding a strikeforce in March, looking to raise a bunch of money off of unsuspecting motorists. Of course, I wouldn’t be surprised if this isn’t going on everywhere, as nearly all State and Local governments are broke. Gee, that’s funny, when my stocks tank, when the phone doesn’t ring, when funds are low…. I slash my spending and conserve. Government, well, they just write a bunch of speeding tickets, or raise taxes. I came across these guys on the Internet, the National Motorists Association. In looking at their mission statement, etc. it seems like a group every motorist should support, as they fight unfair traffic enforcement, red-light cameras, and other examples of government run-amok.
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“Watch your speed in Michigan Gov. Granholm NEEDS some quick cash!
Spring is Coming!
Operation Yellow Jacket
Look out for MI-DOT trucks parked along the road or suddenly appearing behind you pacing you – it could be a Trooper driving the truck. Called ‘Operation Yellow Jacket’, each Michigan State Police District has a truck cleaned up and ready to go! These trucks have specially modified engines that can virtually catapult the truck from snow-plow speed to intercept speed in seconds. And when the engine boost kicks in, the warning lights automatically change from flashing yellow to the dreaded red and blue!
Starting March 1, 2009, Michigan will launch a 31 day speeding ticket frenzy. The state estimates that $9 million dollars will be generated in speeding tickets, with an additional $3.5 million in revenue for failure to wear a seatbelt. $1 million will go to pay state troopers overtime. There will be 47 state troopers on duty at all times patrolling the main intersections and highways with the highest rates of speeding.
They are the following:
I-75, especially from the Ohio line north to Woodhaven, and again from Auburn Hills to Flint
I-96 east and west in its entirety
I-275 north and south
I-675 north and south
I-94 east and west from Battle Creek to Jackson
I-696 east and west in its entirety
I-196 east and west
US-131 north and south
I-69 east and west from Lansing to Flint and again from Flint eastward to Port Huron.
I-69 north and south from I-94 to Lansing
M-14 east and west from I-94 to I-275
M-39 from I-94 to I-96
M-59, especially from Pontiac to Utica, and from Utica east
US-10 from Midland to Bay City
US-23 from I-96 to Flint
US-27 from Lansing to Mt. Pleasant
Quotas:
5 mph above the limit can justify a ticket and every state trooper is supposed to pull a car over and write a ticket every 10 to 20 minutes. They have issued 30 brand new unmarked Dodge Charger Police cruisers and canceled all vacation time. In addition, they are bringing in all of their part timers on full time for the month. This nonsense will conclude on April 1.
Driving Ticket fine increase in MI:
Starting on January 15th, the price of a ticket for violation of MI Law 39:3-29 (failure to show your driver’s license, registration, or proof of insurance card at the time you are stopped) went from $44.00 to $173.00. Please make sure your vehicles have the proper documents in them. If you jump in the car to run to the store and forget your wallet with your license in it and you are stopped…. Oh well… you just spent $173. And the fine for not having all three documents is $519!!!”
Training is Important
I am a member of the Outdoor Amusement Business Association. This is an association of the traveling carnivals, fairs, and shows, which travel the countryside from March to October, in a tradition as old as the hills. I write the occasional article for their trade magazine. Below is my latest submission, on the importance of training. It will make more sense to you if you are a seasonal operator, but there are larger points there which apply to everyone. Enjoy.
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This year, among other goals, you should be striving for a successful DOT season. That means, no accidents, no roadside tickets or Out of Services, and no DOT audits. If you can do that, it will increase your chances of having a successful year, dollars and cents-wise, as well.
There are some things you can do in the office to comply with the DOT rules. You should review your driver files, making sure they are complete. Check that all your drivers have current medical certificates before the season starts. Run all of your drivers’ license histories through the DMV. If you are hiring any new drivers, do your background checks. Make sure all of your CDL drivers have a pre-employment drug test, and double-check that you are properly set up to conduct random drug and alcohol tests throughout the season.
However, there is a limit to what you can do in the office. The primary personnel, who are going to determine whether or not you have a successful DOT season are your drivers. Therefore it is crucial they understand what you expect of them. If you simply toss them the keys, and say, “Stay safe out there”, you are going to have DOT problems.
Training is the key to getting your drivers following the rules. Many drivers do not know what the rules are, because no one has ever told them, and that includes those who have had their license for 30 years. Yes, it is true that some employees will not take direction, no matter what you do. However, the majority of your employees want to do the right thing, and do what you ask. They just need direction as to what that is.
Prior to the season, you should gather as many of your people as possible, and go over the DOT rules. This should take a few hours. The more time and effort you put into it, the more seriously your drivers will take it, and the more successful you will be.
How to do a proper pre-trip inspection is definitely one topic you should cover. Many of you in the carnival management are old drivers yourselves, so you should know the correct way to do a pre-trip inspection. JJ Keller, www.jjkeller.com, sells any number of training aids dealing with pre-trip inspection, including a video training package. One of their post-trip inspections, which itemizes all the parts of the truck is a good training aid, as it serves as a checklist for doing the inspection. The checklist is key, to make sure the driver does not forget anything. Pilots use pre-flight checklists, so should your drivers.
Logbooks are another area you should cover in your pre-season training. More OABA members get in more trouble over logbooks, and it is all very avoidable. Your drivers are very rarely in violation of the hours of service limits, so there is no excuse for getting in trouble with DOT over the logs. The drivers just need to understand what’s expected of them.
Each time a driver goes on the road, his log must be current to his last change of duty status. The driver must have his previous 7 days worth of logs with him at all times. Those previous 7 days should not say “off-duty”, if the driver was working on the show for a week. If a driver is taking tickets, or operating rides, that is on-duty time, and the log should reflect as much. Drivers must show at least 10 hours off-duty before starting their driving shift. Drives cannot work more than 14 hours. For example, if a driver starts his shift at 4am, he must be done by 6pm, regardless of whether he had any breaks in between. The only thing, which extends the 14 hour clock, is 8 hours in the sleeper berth. One thing you can use for training are properly completed logs. Make some copies of correct logs you have from a good driver, and give them to all the drivers to use as a guide.
Finally, you should cover accidents, or more specifically, how to avoid accidents. Defensive driving should be part of every training session you have. Many insurance companies have defensive driving videos they will let you use for free. JJ Keller has numerous safe driving videos. At a minimum, you should cover obvious tips such as not speeding, leaving enough space between your truck and the vehicle in front of you, and proper use of mirrors.
Taking the extra time to spell out for your drivers your expectations of them while they are driving the truck will pay dividends. You will have less DOT tickets, less fender-benders and accidents, which means more money for you.
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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.
Lightweight Vehicles and the DOT
DOT rules and regulations apply to all vehicles, and their drivers, used in interstate commerce with a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GWVR) of 10,001 pounds or more. The GVWR of a vehicle is a value assigned by the manufacturer. It is how much he thinks the vehicle can safely carry, including the weight of the vehicle. It is not the weight of the vehicle, or the weight at which you register the vehicle. The GVWR is commonly found on a metal plate on the inside of the door.
Power units are not the only vehicles with GVWR’s; trailers have them as well. When determining the GWVR of a combination unit, you must add the GVWR of the truck to that of the trailer. If it is 10,001 pounds or more, and goes across state lines, it is subject to the rules.
It doesn’t take much to come up with a 10,001 pound or more rig. A ¾ ton pickup probably has a GVWR of around 8,000 pounds. A one ton pickup is close to 10,000 pounds, if not over. If you pull any sort of trailer with these type of pickups, you are very likely over 10,001 pounds for the combination, thus making you subject to the rules.
A vehicle, which has a GVWR of over 10,001 pounds, but not over 26,001 pounds, which is a CDL vehicle, is subject to all of the same rules as a CDL vehicle, except for drug and alcohol testing. This means if you have a one ton pickup, pulling a kiddie ride, going state to state on your route, that driver must fill out logbook. He must have a medical card. The truck and the trailer must have an annual inspection. The truck must have a fire extinguisher and reflectors. The truck must have a USDOT number on it.
Trucks being used for non-commercial purposes are not subject to the rules. For example, you use your one ton truck to pull a trailer loaded with construction equipment for your job: subject to the rules. You use your one ton truck to pull a trailer with some ATV’s on them so you can so four-wheeling on the weekend: not subject.
Undoubtedly, you are thinking, “hey, I see those type of hot-shot combinations all the time on the highway, and none of these guys have USDOT numbers on them”. They’re probably violating the law. Most DOT cops don’t bother with the smaller combinations. However, if a DOT cop wants to write some easy tickets, all he needs to find is a one ton pulling a trailer for a business purpose with out-of-state plates, and no USDOT number on it. It just a question of if the officer wants to spend the time writing all those tickets that day. If you get stopped in one of these smaller rigs, and your driver is not adhering to any of the rules, it can be several hundreds of dollars in tickets. You should review their equipment and determine if they have any of the 10,001 – 26,001 pound GVWR vehicles. These vehicles and their drivers are subject to nearly the same rules as the big trucks!
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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.
Fox News Announces the deadliest highways in U.S.
Fox News has analyzed the government’s highway crash data, from the Department of Transportation, and listed the stretches of highway where the most deaths occur. Turns out they are all in California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida. I’m not sure what to make of that. I live in Pennsylvania, so I don’t drive on those roads. I thought we had a lot of crashes around here, but apparently not as many as those other States.
Police Officer Killed On Highway Shoulder
On early Monday morning, January 19, a police officer was killed on Ohio 8, in the Cleveland suburb on Boston Heights. The full article can be found here, thanks to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The photo below is brought to you by Marvin Fong of the Plain Dealer.
The officer had parked his cruiser on the shoulder, and was outside on the roadway, cleaning up debris. An oncoming vending machine delivery truck hit the officer. The accident is still under investigation, however, the article does say that the lights of the officer’s cruiser were on at the time of the crash.
While it is unclear at this point exactly what happened here, one of the principles of defensive driving is be aware of what’s happening 10-15 seconds down the road. If you see flashing red and blue lights, slow down and move over. Maybe it’s just a routine traffic stop, but you never know. In this case, the officer was out of his cruiser. When the lights are on, you know where the police car is, but is it an accident? Something in the road? Someone in the road? If you see it in time, you can move over.
Improvement to the Web Site
One of the reasons I took a 3 month hiatus from the website was because my webmaster was making some behind-the-scenes upgrades on the site. One of the things we want to do, is sell safety and compliance items, (probably JJ Keller material), in addition to my handy-dandy DVD Compliance Kit. By the way, the DVD Compliance Kit is ideal for beginners. The forms you need to set up your qualification files are in there, the regulations are in there, and there’s a 95 minute DVD of me explaining what you need to do.
In addition, if you purchase the DVD kit, you get access to me via telephone, so if there’s something that wasn’t clear, call me, and I can explain it on the phone. Also, there’s a money-back guarantee, although I’ve never had to use that yet.
Back to the JJKeller material, I am an affliate marketer for Keller, which means I can sell the Keller items at a discount to you, as compared to what you would pay on their website, or catalog. Such a deal. So I’m hoping that’s a reason to keep coming back to this site.
Anyway, I see we now have some ads listed on the website…. apparently largely for anxious women. I guess it’s a work in progress, I’ll have to ask the webmaster about that, I’m not sure anxious women in my target audience here.
Eric Is Back!
Well, really I never went away, other than the fact that I stopped posting on my blog. Why? Well, a number of reasons. 1) I had a rush of other safety consulting work pile up in the fall of 2008, and 2) I was training to run a marathon. No, seriously, I ran the Las Vegas Marathon in 5:01:25.
Now that might seem like a ridiculously slow time, but consider a few things. First, Las Vegas is very dry, so it’s really hard to stay hydrated for 26.2 miles in that type of climate. Second, I weigh 210 pounds; I’m not one of these skinny Skeletor guys like Lance Armstrong. They even have a classification for it: the Clydesdale division. So, I’m pretty proud of it, although it did take a huge amount of time to train for the race. Anyway, my New Years Resolution is to keep the website current, so I will do the best I can on that end. Even though I haven’t been here in 3 months, people keep posting and emailing me, so somebody must be finding this place.
What’s happened in the last 3 months? Only the most momentous occasion in the last 25 years! No, I’m not talking about the stupid election, more on that in a minute. I’m talking about the Philadelphia Phillies! The Phillies, who have delivered us from 25 years of Philadelphia sports hell. Fantastic. I went to the parade, along with 2 million of my closest friends.
In politics, we have our first Hawaiian-American President, Barack Obama. I didn’t vote for the guy, but then again I didn’t vote for McCain either, as I really don’t think either one will be a good President. Both of them want to spend us into the poorhouse, so I guess we taxpayers just have to wait until the bill comes due. Nevertheless, I wish Obama well, as we’re all in the same boat now, like it or not. I just hope he doesn’t take my guns and Rush Limbaugh away.
Back to sports, it was another failed year for the BCS in college football. This year, it crowned the wrong team! The champion is the undefeated Utah Utes, who ended their season by whipping Alabama, on an SEC field. Yet the BCS crowned a one-loss Florida (who I did pick at the beginning of the year to win the National Championship. I will not take credit for that one, since Utah is the champion).
In the NFL, my Eagles somehow have moved within striking distance of winning the Super Bowl. Unbelieveable, after 25 years of futility, we could go back-to-back in the span of 3 months. I can’t get a feel for Sunday’s game yet. The Eagles should kill the Cardinals, but that home field worries me.
All in all, sports season is winding down, work season is beginning, so I’ll be pounding the keyboard, bringing you safety and compliance tips, and otherwise trying to entertain you.
