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

and your response is about the best I've read so far...thanks man!

 

You are welcome.

 

TruckerDave, your history as a driver is available now to every law enforcement agency and officer out there. Everytime that you pull into a scale house, or get stoped, they can pull up your history. Now that same information will be available to your trucking company, and will be used to rate you as a driver, on a point system, instead of subjectively by the officer pulling you over. IT IS NOT DOUBLE JEOPARDY.

Just because you have paid your fine, does not wash your record clean. That action that you got caught for, will be held against you. CSA is bringing together all the data into one place, to be accessed by law enforcement, and companies.

This will make DAC a duplicate system that companies will have to decide if they want to pay DAC, USIS, or what ever name it is now, or pay the govt for the same record, although less subjective record.

 

It's all fine and good until they apply it to everyone, everywhere, for everything. Watch.

 

Hey there... Good thread and a lot of good input. I just graduated from a private school Friday. I have wanted to become a truck driver for awhile, but had to wait till now due to family obligations. However, having just been in school, the majority of other students were there due to being unemployed and going through workforce or vocational rehab. In my opinion, just based on my limited experience, the workforce and vocational rehab are not bringing in good candidates who have a real desire to be a good, professional driver. One thing that chaps my lower side is that I really applied myself at school knowing I wanted to become a professional. I passed my cdl tests on the first try, while it took my classmates up to 3 or 4 times to just barley pass. But passing is passing, and in the end it doesn't matter that they were just 1 point away from failing.
At my school the instructors were truckers, with many many years and miles of experience. They taught us what we needed to know and understand to pass the tests for both the DMV and the school, as well as inform us as how it will be in the real world of trucking, like the trailer scenario above. They were not telling us to run illegal or unsafe, they just wanted us to know "the grey area".
In school, when were backing, I would always need to stop and get out a go to the back of my truck and look, and I did so, even on the cold rainy days, and when it was snowing. (You all can go ahead a raz me on the cb, I won't be listening, I will be making sure I don't hit anything) anyway, my classmates wouldn't get out because it was cold or whatever, and so the instructor would have to yell "stop" and make them get out before they hit the trailer or whatever. Well, there won't always be an instructor or someone to yell "stop", and I hope that this new regulation does help get them off the road.
I do think too, that it is way to easy to get a cdl, the skills and road test is a joke. I passed after only a week and a few days in school, But I still had a lot to learn, and in the next two and half weeks I got some good training and practice. However, a lot of schools, especially company schools only teach you what you need to pass the cdl, which is not much. That is where I think they need more regulations, make the test harder, make it available how many times it took you to pass, and how many points did you take, were you just one point from failing.
I was talking with one of my instructors, and knowing what a bad driver one of my classmates is, and just amazed that he passed his test, I said, "Well, don't most companies make you take a road test before they hire you, is anyone going to hire him when he drives like that?" He smiled, and said, "he will get hired and he will be on the road, along with other bad drivers, that is why you will need to drive defensively and watch out for yourself!"

 

Hot topic: 14 pages in 7 days?

Anyway,,,

Does anyone see this legislation actually HURTING big companies and causing them to "splinter"? If a big company like Pumpkin or Big Blue, has 30% of their drivers in violation they're gonna be hurting. But if a consolidated group of companies (Like US X, Arnold, Schafer and whoever else they bought) can shuffle drivers around in the "umbrella" then they can close a whole division but continue to opperate as a whole?

Or is that just too big a loophole.

So far my biggest problem with this is the 3 point system: 1.) Okay, 2.) Marginal, 3.) Unfit. It seems to me the atitude is there are no "good" drivers. That attitude alone sends up a red flag with me. And what, besides sitting on your tuchas for 36 months can be done to redeem youselves under this law? Fines? Training seminars? Probably a money grab in here somewhere.

BTW, while we are being stopped by DOT, can we request they have THEIR vehicles checked? After all they work with those little yellow vans. Is the creeper properly tied down? Any cracks in the windshield? How many hours have they been on the clock? Has the officer had an alcoholic beverage in the past 48 hours?

Well, who ever said this was a just system anyway?

 

that is funny, I bet there are DOT vehicles and drivers that would not fair well.

 

i hope this new system put's dac out of business!!

 

me too! Unfortunatly there will some other parasite company eager to take their place, just as willing and able to take advantage of drivers!

 

well here's my take, ive been in this industry over 35 years as a company driver of 20 years(1974-1982 then 1990 to 2001 ) and an owner operator 15years(1982-1990 then2001 -3/2009 ). i do not have a problem with these regs as long as a driver or lease owner operator has the accessability to an 800 phone# and a website that they can document that their company refused to repair obvious safety defects at time of dispatch and was offerd taking the defective equipment or losing ones job as an alternitive relieving the drivers of responsibility in a court of law in a case of a violation that can be retrieved easily to prove the drivers point in court relieving the driver of responsability
and clearing his record

i quit this most recent job after 4 weeks because the owner of the truck that was leased to a company hauling bananas out of the port in delaware

. after 1 trip i gave him a list of things i wanted repaired or i was going to quit and he took the truck for 2 weeks and gave me a pos mack and the truck was as bad as the other and after 2 weeks gave me back the first truck which they did not repair 3/4 of the things i wrote down

he basically bought a pa inspection sticker because if it was really inspected it would have needed the repairs done i wrote down.

every load was overweight comming and going from delaware to ohio so i had to avoid all scales and dot , he refused to pay tolls which required me to run routes that made me exceed hos(15 hours for a 9 hour trip for 0 xtra pay and 100-130 xtra miles and of course dispatch was very carefull not to tell me to violate hos when i told them i couldnt make the trip in my available hours but let me know they weren't happy that i didn't deliver the loads in time) with unrealistic delivery times that would also violate hos,

the dispatch kept telling me the other drivers do it and i kept telling them good for them i don't care what they do

plus this nit wit wanted me to turn off the reefer for 3/4 of the trip to save fuel (which i did not!)

so i told him to shove it the truck in my driveway is in better shape and i'm not going to jail or pay fines and ruin the years i have left for any load or company






for every driver or want to be;

in the last 15 years this has become one of the few jobs that you can go to work in the morning and violate 1 rule or make a simple mistake kill somebody and wind up with a felony and go to jail just for doing your job




remember you are the capitan of the ship and everything that happens while behind the wheel is ultimately your responsibility no matter what your dispatch tells you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


any comany that try's to force you to violate the law isn't worth working for anyway,no matter what the pay, they will deny everything and the above statement will fall back on you