The VOLPE Center Speaks

A little less than 24 hours ago I posed what I felt was a serious problem with the way a driver was written-up, while stopped on a roadside in Texas by a DOT officer, to the VOLPE Center who handles DataQ issues.
At 1:30 today I receive a call from Jonathan Mozenter from the VOLPE Center. Jonathan explains his roll to me as one of the program developers of CSA. His department did not deal with the regulations of CSA but more of the distribution of the system and the rules & regulations that govern carriers during an intervention.
Jonathan apologized for not readily having available the information that I was asking for but gave me important information regarding department contacts where answers supposedly can be found.
Currently in development is a new training plan called Roadside Uniform Information Program. The FMCSA is developing this plan to try to cure the problem of officers not being consistent when issuing write-ups. It turns out that there are many disgruntled people out there other than me filing complaints.
We also discussed the intervention process for carriers and the fact that there are some changes in that program. Jonathan said that carriers have missed the point on the type of training that carriers should be providing for their company. The idea that drivers and safety managers can be properly trained from FMCSA manuals and distributing pamphlets to drivers is not the message or the standard of training they had hoped to get across.
The fact is that now upon an intervention carriers are instructed by the FMCSA to develop a CSA training plan that includes management, drivers, mechanics and dispatchers and all be trained in a uniform manner which includes the consequences for failure of not following CSA regulations. At carriers were recent interventions were issued; training programs of this nature have been installed and have been successful in reducing overall CSA point values.
I now have three offices in the D.C. area to contact and tell my story to over and over and over. My intention is to get the rule quoted that allows DOT officers to issue write-ups at will and decide the severity at the same time on equipment failures. In this case I am following the action of a DOT officer who issued 31 write-ups because a fuse that controlled all the lights was blown. Is the fuse at fault or is each of the 31 lights that were controlled by the one fuse at fault? What regulation tells the officer to write-up this safety violation and how to write-up the violation? At least I had the opportunity to bend the ear of a developer. I will keep you posted on how the ear bending goes from here.

Rickey Gooch
Justice for Truckers