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.”
Wheel Comes Off Tractor-Trailer in El Paso
On Tuesday, February 19, on I-10 in El Paso, TX, a westbound tractor-trailer lost its left front steer wheel, which then bounced into the eastbound lanes of I-10. The wheel struck a glancing blow to at Dodge pickup pulling a camper, smashing in the driver’s door. No one was injured.
This sort of thing doesn’t happen too much anymore. It was much more prevalent 20 or 30 years ago, but the surge of Federal money to the States over the last 2 decades to hire DOT vehicle inspectors has greatly improved the quality of equipment you see on the road. It was luck that no one was killed in this incident. A truck wheel probably weighs 100 – 200 lbs, traveling 60 MPH, heading into traffic going 70 MPH, and you have a 130 MPH missile.
Why did this happen? Lack of routine maintenance. You must routinely bring your truck into the garage, even when nothing is wrong with it. This is the only way to catch little problems before they become big problems. If your maintenance program is one where you fix it when it breaks, that’s wrong, and it’s dangerous. If the truck fails to start, nobody is hurt, except your wallet, but if a wheel falls off on the interstate, you could very well kill somebody.
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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.
Post-trip inspections
The regulations state that you must do a pre-trip inspection satisfying yourself the vehicle is in proper working condition at the beginning of your shift, and then a post-trip inspection (which must be in writing) at the end of the shift. Many drivers only do one thorough inspection at the beginning of their shift, and neglect to do the one at the end of the day. This can lead to problems. If you only do one inspection in the morning, and you do find something wrong… maybe a wire got loose yesterday, and a turn signal stopped working, or a tire went flat… you have no time to fix it. You’ve got places to go, and freight to move. So you either fix the truck and be late, or take a defective truck. Both are less-than satisfactory choices. If you had done the inspection last night, however, maybe you find the defect then, and then have time to fix it.
Driver Vehicle Inspections
Commercial Motor Vehicles, particularly tractor-trailers, have hundreds of moving parts. Like anything mechanical, they require constant maintenance to remain in safe operating condition. Daily inspections conducted by the driver are large part of any maintenance program.
The safety regulations require that both a pre-trip and post-trip inspection be done on commercial motor vehicles each day they are driven. The pre-trip inspection is done before the work shift, and takes less time than the post-trip inspection. A driver must assure himself that the vehicle is in proper working condition. To do this, he should make a complete trip around the vehicle, including looking under the hood, checking fluid levels, tires, lights, etc.
The post-trip inspection is to be done at the conclusion of the shift. This inspection should take no less than 15 minutes, and include all areas covered by the pre-trip inspection, plus crawling under the vehicle, checking the brakes and suspension. A driver should look for cracks and leaks. Many drivers do not conduct two inspections, but instead combine them into one inspection before the shift. For example, a driver does his inspection in the morning, concludes his shift, parks the truck and goes home. The next morning, he does another inspection. This is not correct. For one thing, what if the driver finds something wrong with the truck during his morning inspection? He has places to be, customers to service, and a boss to keep happy. All that will have to wait, as the driver now has to fix the truck. Of course, more commonly, the driver drives the defective truck, and worries about getting it fixed later. If he had done the inspection the previous evening, he could have gotten the truck fixed the night before. Make sure your drivers are doing both pre and post trip inspections.
Vehicle Maintenance Compliance
The simplest advice (which often the best) on maintenance is 1) keep the vehicles in proper working condition at all times, and 2) write everything down you do to the vehicle in the way of maintenance.
