CSA 2010: How will the Driver Rating System affect you?

i no what you mean truckerdave, so its a no win situation, u refuse to pull a load cause bad tires, u get fired, u pull the load with the bad tire, get dotd and become marginal....
DB do you agree or disagree with this?
i agree, but also disagree at the same time

 

The questions I always have is with the load securement tickets when you pick up a loaded, sealed trailer. I have seen a few of these on my company's record, but what are you to do in this case? We are told to NEVER break the seal.

What will also hurt is the vehicle citations that the driver has little or no control over. Sometimes things can't been seen at night or in the rain, and sometimes things mess up after you hit the road that day.

 

Well it doesn't matter what I think. But I believe from what I have read that the carriers are going to be hit more severely than before. If you go to that website it explains in frequently asked questions numerous items. One item is that carriers are going to be be shut down and fined for being non compliant, but this is the first time that driver's themselves are going to be responsible as well. As it stands now the only time a driver is responsible is if he or she receives a citation. From what I read, the driver's themselves are going to have a rating, just like the carrier. I see the reason behind this. I have dealt with many, many driver's over the years. However, I have my frequent flyers as well. There are guys and gals that I am on a first name basis with. It doesn't matter if they are over the road or local, I have some I have dealt with for years. Some have just been inspected with no major violations and some....well....they are screwed up everytime I have stopped them. I see this removing the screwed up driver off the road. Anyways just posted the information I found while reading up on it to assit you. Take care.

 

Hey Trucker Dave just keep your nose clean a little while longer and this will make it easier for you to find another job because there will be plenty of drivers losing their's when it comes about.

 

My question is how will someone be rated who has not been through an inspection or had any citations in the last 5 years? I would assume that is the best case scenario but just wondering .

 

I'm doing some research on this, however not very much is available. From what I can gather, it would be much easier to fly jets, with alot less hassle. We may miss DAC (hire right) someday, as I think that this is much more dangerous. It don't like it !!! One p.o.'d officer could basically end your career, with no recourse available.

Nothing personal there dieselbear, you understand I hope...

 

You're being too paranoid. First off, this is a legal response to truckers trying to cheat the system. Don't blame foreigners for it, the US trucking industry brought this upon itself.

Second, the opportunities to bring foreign drivers to the US are very limited, as pretty much all US work visas (except for agricultural/seasonal work, which is limited to 10 months per year or less in duration) require that the foreign national be a skilled or professional worker.

Surprise, driving a truck is not considered a skilled or professional position by the US Department of Labor. Their definition of that is a job that requires a 4-year college degree (ie. a Bachelor's) in a technical field (meaning liberal arts majors generally don't qualify.)

And those visas aren't free. They are, in fact, quite expensive. If a US trucking company wanted to jump through the hoops to hire foreign drivers (say, using the seasonal worker program) they'd end up paying more money for that driver. And if that driver is paid less than other employees doing the same job, that violates immigration regulations and means massive fines for the employer. Doesn't sound "cheaper" to me.

You'll find some foreigners driving trucks in the US, that is true. Most of those foreigners nowadays are permanent residents (green card holders), as people who are not are having an increasingly hard time obtaining or renewing a CDL. That status was usually acquired by coming here as a refugee, having a family member (including spouse) who's a US citizen, or immigrating years ago under laxer immigration laws. There's also a sizable number of US citizens, born in this country, who grew up in Spanish-speaking communities and whose English is poor. This is particularly prevalent in the Southwest and Florida, for obvious reasons.

However, fact is that the current US immigration system makes immigration difficult (impossible for many people), expensive and time-consuming. I have yet to see a US trucking company advertise for foreign drivers and promise to obtain employment authorization for them.

If any company IS doing that, I'd be genuinely interested in hearing about it. Being a foreigner (albeit a legal one) myself, I've had to learn quite a bit about the details of US immigration laws, and I've never seen anything other than the aforementioned agricultural/seasonal worker program (which is limited to 66,000 workers across ALL industries, by the way) that even comes close to enabling a trucking company to bring in foreign drivers.

Add to that that every state now requires proof of legal presence in order to issue a CDL (if you know of an exception, tell me.) That means an illegal alien attempting to drive a truck would get arrested at the first scale asking to see his driver license. Fake licenses don't work well either, as most state law enforcement agencies can now run a license check (against CDLIS etc) in realtime. So while illegals driving trucks may have been a problem in the past, I doubt it's very prevalent nowadays.

 

All the above said, it does seem to me that punishing a driver for doing the right thing (bringing a violation to the attention of law enforcement voluntarily) is morally wrong.

It also seems to me that these bills tend to get drawn up with no regard for the people affected by them. Would it not have made sense to invite some actual truck drivers to the table when drawing up these regulations?

 

txviking,
while everything you posted sounds correct and makes perfect sense, I still believe that there is a movement afoot designed to disqualify as many drivers as possible! I can illustrate my theory with several different types of regulations coming down the pike, ALL OF WHIICH ARE ENDORSED BY THE ATA!
Maybe you are right, foriegn drivers may not be the answer TODAY b/c of unfavorable legislation may make it cost ineffective, but as we all know, a simple change in the law, and suddenly it make sense (dollars and cents too!) Once they have disqualified a great number of experienced drivers from driving, who do you think is going to move this country's freight? I believe that very few peolple actually WANT to become truckdrivers anymore. They find themselves out of a job and wind up in truckdriving school as a last resort. And we all now they are starting these new drivers at alot less money than a 10-15 year veteren driver! The only way trucking companies are going to stay in business is to cut back expenses as you know that they will not raise their rates! What is the only expense left to try and cut back on now??? If you guessed driver's pay, YOU ARE RIGHT! And since most of us will not accept a pay cut, we have to be fired, disqualified, or whatever it takes to get rid of us and get a new, cheaper driver behind the steering wheel!!!
That's my perception, I would love to hear what the rest of you think!