ATA is ‘Alarmed’ About the Pending Hours of Service Changes
Posted on December 2, 2010
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This comes to us from TruckingInfo.com. It is an article dated today, December 2, 2010. The jist of it is that the American Trucking Association is ‘alarmed’ at the changes about to be made to the hours of service rules.
Without recapping the entire saga of the hours rules, in the not-too-distant past, FMCSA surrendered to the Teamsters and the safety advocacy groups, agreeing to redo their hours of service rules, which have been in place since 2003. The only question remaining is… how much more restrictive will they be? ATA anticipates they will make it a 10 hour driving rule instead of 11, an extension of the 34 hour reset (maybe now 48 hours?), or an elimination of the reset, and God knows what else. The new rule is finished, the White House is reviewing it, and it will be released any day now.
ATA has established a new website to present their position that the existing rules should remain in place. http://www.safedriverhours.com/index.html. It looks like the new website isn’t quite finished, as there seems to be a good deal of gobbledegook on the site. Anyway, in this case, I wish ATA luck, as the existing rules should stay in place. They won’t, but they should.
Another Thought About the Potential EOBR Law
Posted on November 30, 2010
Filed Under HOURS OF SERVICE, IN THE NEWS, POLITICS | 1 Comment
Something else about this Commercial Driver Compliance Improvement Act which is sitting in the Senate. I don’t know there’s any statistics showing these EOBRs reduce crashes. I’m almost sure of it, just because I don’t see the word “safety” in the name of the law. Oh, I suppose the EOBR manufacturers can produce statisitics, but then again, I bet you could find statistics to argue just the opposite. My gut tells me the EOBRs will do exactly nothing to reduce crashes. As I mentioned previously, I have two customers who have installed the EOBRs. They have not seen a reduction in crashes. They have seen an increase in moving violations though. I suppose drivers are rushing more than ever in order to get everything done in 14 hours.
It seems similar to the cameras at redlights. The politicians tell us these cameras are for safety, when everyone knows they are for revenue. The statisitcs show, if anything, there are MORE crashes at the red light camera intersections, as drivers slam on the brakes, run into each other, speed up to beat the light, and other un-natural driving, just to avoid the camera. Or, the story I posted about states who have no-texting laws, who are seeing more accidents, as drivers now hide their phones while texting, instead of holding them up so they can see where they’re going. There are limits to how much you can regulate human behavior. Well, I guess we’ll see what happens; the EOBR debate is just beginning.
Question About EOBRs
Posted on November 30, 2010
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I recently received a question from a good customer. He came across information about the Commerical Driver Compliance Improvement Act, which is a Senate bill, S. 3884. It was introduced by Senators Mark Pryor (D-Ark) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn). If made law, it will require all commercial motor vehicles to have electronic on-board recorders.
So what do we know about this bill? Well, reaching back into my high school civics knowledge, all bills not made law by the end of a 2 year Congress die. This Congress ends in less than a month, thank God. So, this bill would have to pass the Senate before the end of next month. Not likely, seeing as they are trying to pass some kind of regulatory overkill law about food safety, give illegals free college, and maybe extend the current tax rates. Then a matching bill must be passed by the House. I don’t think there is any matching legislation pending in the House, and it is very unlikely there will be any before the end of the Congress. So, it’s very unlikely it will happen in this session of Congress.
What about in future Congresses? Maybe. It would have to pass the Republican House, where I would like to think this kind of job-killing legislation would be DOA, but you never know. I note that Lamar Alexander, one of the co-sponsors in the Senate is a “Republican”. I put that in parenthesis, because as anyone who follows politics knows, Alexander is a RINO, that is, Republican In Name Only. So, if a bunch of RINOs in the House, join the Democratic minority, it could happen.
What makes it more likely to happen is, a number of mega-carriers, like US Xpress (from Tennessee, hence Alexander’s involvement), JB Hunt, Schneider, Maverick, and Knight are pushing this. They are doing so, of course, because they have all installed the EOBRs, and they want to force everyone else to do the same. I do not believe ATA has come out in support of this mandate yet, but that is only a matter of time.
My comment to the smaller carriers is, unless you want to be forced to pony up for EOBRs, you’d better pay attention, and make sure you let your Senators and Representatives know how you feel. The big carriers want to force you to have them, and they have the politicians on speed-dial. You’d better involve yourselves, or write a check for equipment you don’t want. Don’t think the mega-carriers already have this won. Despite the huge size of these mega-carriers, the smaller carriers vastly outnumber the mega-carriers.
In the News
Posted on November 9, 2010
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So, what’s been happening lately? Well, CSA 2010 is almost here, you probably knew that. Next month, FMCSA will supposedly turn on their website, so everyone can see everyone else’s CSA 2010 scores. We’ll see. The White House is still reviewing FMCSA’s proposal for changing the hours of service rules. Any day now, any day. Like I said before, I guess it will be 10 hours driving, 14 hour rule stays the same, and the 70 hour rule goes to a 48 hour reset.
The GOP, aided by the Tea Party took the House of Representatives, and gained a few Senate seats in the election. That may slow down the tide of regulations coming out of FMCSA; maybe not. There is a bill in the Senate called the Commercial Driver Compliance Improvement Act, which will require all trucks in the U.S. to install EOBRs on them after 3 years. This bill has the backing of JB Hunt, Knight Transportation, Maverick USA, Schneider, and US Xpress. I imagine, it probably as the backing of ATA as a whole. Maybe not…. some ATA members may be against EOBRs. Anyway, speaking as a Tea Party member in good standing, I hope this is Dead-On-Arrival in the House. It probably is. After all, we didn’t put them in there to expand government even further, we put them in there to do the opposite.
More CSA 2010 Thoughts
Posted on October 11, 2010
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Well, this isn’t totally related to CSA 2010, but I’ve discovered if you use the words CSA 2010 a lot, it makes you show up higher on the search engines. So CSA 2010, CSA 2010, CSA 2010. Anyway, I’ve noticed that some of my customers’ Out of Service rates are staying fairly steady over the past 30 months, yet their Safestat scores are going up. Safestat and CSA 2010 operate on the principle of comparing you against all the other motor carriers with DOT numbers. The worst performers in terms of violations and accidents gets audited. CSA 2010 is just like Safestat in this regard; it’s just using a new methodology.
If my Out of Service percentages are staying the same, but my Safestat score are going up, it can only mean one thing: everyone else is getting better. It means I’d better get better too. For example, if I’m hitting .300, and the rest of the team is hitting .250, I’m the best hitter on the team. If next year everyone else is hitting .350, and I’m still hitting .300, I’d better pick it up, or I’m going to be benched or cut.
This could make sense. In the area of logbooks, more carriers are utilizing the electronic logs, which drastically cut down on the number of logbook violations a carrier receives. Also, with the advent of EZPass technology, and scanning kiosks at truckstops, there is probably less paperwork for a DOT cop to inspect in the truck at the time of a DOT roadside stop. Less paperwork means less chance of being nailed for a false log. All this means, there are less driver violations being cited on the roadside. This means you have to get your drivers to be cited less, too, to keep up with the Joneses.
Another analogy (I love analogies) is driving on the road. You are running at 75 mph, with a pack of other cars. You are with the flow of traffic, your chances of getting stopped are small. Suddenly the pack slows down, but you’re still going 75. Your chances of getting nailed have now increased greatly. You do not want to be nailed with a DOT audit.
Flying Dog
Posted on October 11, 2010
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My webmaster told me once the site looks much better with a liberal number of graphics. Any graphics. So, I will insert the flying dog, to spruce up the front page. I believe I will name this dog, “CSA 2010″.
State of New Jersey to Issue Traffic Texts
Posted on September 30, 2010
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The State of New Jersey will begin issuing “traffic prediction” texts to motorists on the Turnpike and Garden State Parkway starting next year. The State is spending $650,000 to use advanced technology which will predict traffic bottlenecks and jams, which will then be emailed or texted to motorists, in effort to allow the motorists to avoid the backups. This technology is already in use in Singapore and Stockholm.
Well, two things. One, I thought texting was dangerous. I mean, how are you going to get this information to me where it’s useful? I’m in the car. So, I guess they’re going to text me…. POTENTIAL TRAFFIC JAM BETWEEN EXIT 15 AND 16. But I can’t read the text, because Ray LaHood tells me it’s dangerous. And then, two, I thought the State of New Jersey was bankrupt? Well, I guess they have money for this, though.
NYC To Spend $27.5 million Replacing Signs
Posted on September 30, 2010
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Apparently, New York City is being required by the Federal Highway Administration to replace its street signs. It seems the Federal regulations require the street signs to be in both Capital Letters and Small Letters. New York City’s signs are in all CAPITAL LETTERS. So, the Feds are going to force NYC to spend $27.5 million to replace the signs.
Insane. Absolutely insane. Hey, it’s not like the government’s a gabillion dollars in debt or anything. Or that we have 15-20% unemployment. By all means, let’s print another $27.5 million to replace perfectly good street signs. Well, I guess NYC has to cough up the money, but they don’t have it, so they’ll come right back to the Feds…. that is, you and me, to get it. Could I at least get some of the old signs I’m replacing??
Texting Ban Causes More Crashes?
Posted on September 29, 2010
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This just in from the Highway Loss Data Institute: the texting bans may be causing more crashes than it prevents. The HLDI compared insurance claims in California, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Washington before and after their text bans went into effect. According to the HLDI, in 3 of the states, the rate of collisions went up slightly.
The HLDI attributes this to people now hiding their texts while driving. Apparently, the preferred method of texting while driving is holding your phone at eye level. Since it’s now illegal to text and drive in these places, the HLDI surmises people are texting in their laps, thus taking their eyes off the road for an even longer time.
Is this true? Who the hell knows. As Mark Twain said, “there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Which means you can make statisitics read any way you want them to read. That being said, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if it was true. The government is the king of unintended consequences. Maybe it means you can only regulate human behavior so far before people ignore the rules.
More CSA 2010 Thoughts
Posted on September 13, 2010
Filed Under GENERAL, HOURS OF SERVICE, IN THE NEWS, VEHICLE MAINTENANCE | Leave a Comment
Well, as we get closer to this thing, I learn more about it. I talked to two DOT people last week. One swears it’s going to revolutionize how the DOT does business. The other says its not much different from the system they’re using now. I sort of agree with the 2nd person. One thing I learned this past week is DOT is focusing even more intensely on the roadside inspections, including citations which were not Out of Service. This is a departure from the current system. For example, even if your logs at the office are in compliance, if you have a bunch of “log not current” cites on your roadside inspections, DOT is going to harass you.
It is important to take every DOT roadside inspection, and address every last citation on every one of them in writing. For example, your driver is written up for not wearing his seatbelt. Make a note that you made the driver watch a video on the importance of seatbelts. Or that you talked to the driver. Or that you pointed him to page 32 of your company manual which says seatbelts must be worn. Or that you fined him $50. Etc.
It might not be a bad idea to come up with a disciplinary policy geared specifically for roadside inspections. Maybe something like for every violation, you get a warning letter…. if you get too many, we suspend you, or fine you. If you pass a roadside inspection, we give you $25 or $50. More on this later….
