Do Violations Affect anything?

If you get an inspection with no violation it will help the company. It will be listed as an inspection with no violations in your PSP.
Again, companies are looking for patterns, not a specific number (usually) of violations.

 

The more inspections the better. I imagine right now your csa shows a pretty high driver, or maintenance violation percentage just based on amount of inspections?

 

If you had like 20 inspections then 1 issue won’t be a big deal at all. Even with 5 inspections, 1 OOS will still show up at 20% OOS rate

 

Time...24 months on the company SMS report and they drop off.

I have a problem with too few inspectons too due to our 'local' nature.

 

I admit I am not up on CSA. I may be wrong but I want to remember reading somewhere that the FMCSA doesn't take high percentages with small sample sizes. Again, this is why CSA was designed to have lots of leeway. This leeway does not mean the FMCSA won't take the actions listed here on a case-by-case basis!

 

CSA/SMS does compare you to other carriers with similar roadside inspection history. If you look ar a SMS report the botom of each 'basic' catagory shows the group you are in; mine was > 5 inspections for a long time and is now > 11 inspections over 24 months...

 

Got dinged for one lousy stinking minute over?! I'll never run an ELD. Such a joke it is. Can't even use your full hours in a system with absolutely zero leeway.

 

Yes, the driver and the trucking company gets scores. The drivers gets a PSP score, the company gets a CSA score. Many people just say CSA score for both scores, even though the company and the driver get different scores called different things. Since the drivers is REQUIRED to do a pre-trip inspection before driving the vehicle any fault with the truck is usually a black mark on the driver and the company. I've had a fault the company committed and lead to a ticket/violation. Once the company paid the fine, and I verified wen that happened with the state, nothing went on my score. Each violation/fault carries a certain number of points. Once you get those points they are multiplied for the first 12 months, only doubled the next 12 months, and at face value for the last 12 months. Then they disappear after that, IIRC.

Choose carefully who to work for and do a thorough pre-trip inspection and report/repair anything found. Your future depends on it. Don't work for slack outfits or be a slack driver. It harms yourself and the company. This was supposed to be covered in CDL school, BTW.

 

Trucking companies and also insurance companies set their own rules for who they want to hire or who they can hire. Some bottom of the barrel companies will hire you no matter what, if you are legal to be hired, and some best companies only hire nearly perfect drivers. It's important to know what kind of company you are going to work for before you decide to apply. You will not change a company into a different type of company. You need to know enough about the trucking company before you apply.