Quitting over the road for home nightly and the economy

Its funny you missed this part numerous times:

Yeah, I don't send a thing off to a current employer, as I don't need the new hire to have any problems with transitioning employment (there are carriers that will shut off their fuel card the moment a request for Employment Verification hits the fax in the back office). Somehow in your entire ranting and quoting of 391.23, you missed the key that carriers have 30 days after employment begins to complete these checks (not just licensing jurisdictions, but the entire qualification file has the 30-day counter from hire date).

Our process:

1. Get completed application from prospect.
2. Pull HireRight , PSP, and MVR
3. Send Chain of Custody form overnight to applicant (so he can take the drug screening locally at his convenience, billed to us)

If all still looking OK:

4. Contact prior employers for DOT Verification

Once a reasonable number have returned their verifications (between HireRight and manual methods),

5. agree to start date and make travel arrangements.
6. complete orientation, assign truck, send back to/through hometown on first load (with added time in the load plan) so new hire can pick up all his personal effects

After employee is working:

7. Complete all manual verifications, send off first attempt to now-past employer.
8. Have all verifications completed (or three attempts made) before 30 days since hire transpires to meet requirements set forth in 391.23.

And yes, this method passes audit.

 

How many times do I have to say this? I have stated now 4 times that 391 leaves lots of wiggle room with the hiring process. This was not my point. What I am saying is carriers have to avoid being sloppy with these files and gathering this data. All it takes is somebody missing something and if the FMCSA happens to catch it they WILL issue a civil fine. What I am trying to say is a carrier should develop a system to comply with 391.23 and stick to it! To do otherwise breeds sloppiness!

 

We are less concerned with the FMCSA aspect and more concerned with the legal aspect. Say we miss something, the guy is a nutjob behind the wheel, goes out there the first week and plows into a church bus full of VBS kids heading on a field trip... yeah, the lawsuits would be more than enough to put the company under (even with good insurance), as the question would be "if the lawyers found 'XXX' in his background, why did you hire him anyway?"

 

And that's a fair assessment. I know many fleet owners that are the same way. They just hire compliance people to get their files in order. I was thinking about something a guy said to me several months ago. He said the FMCSA gives a carrier more than enough rope to hang themselves on. It is a smart fleet owner that does pay serious attention to who they hire. People like @Ridgeline basically have to get their insurance to approve a driver.

 

I just finished having a nice conversation with a friend who runs a trucking carrier HR dept. I spent a few minutes asking him questions about the building of the driver files and how to 100% comply with 391.51 (a) and (b). There is NO grace period when it comes to 391.51 (a) and (b). As an authority holder, you are NOT allowed to let ANYBODY operate a vehicle under said authority until this section is in 100% compliance. YES, you can take months if you like complying with 391.23. The FMCSA has tons of wiggle room with regard to these investigations.

What does this mean? Well, it means that to allow someone to operate your equipment on the road EVERYTHING required by 391.51 MUST be in place. Before you allow somebody to actually drive for you these things required by 391.51 must be in place and finished. I would also want to direct anyone interested to what is stated in 391.51 (b) (1). Notice the word COMPLETED used there. Part of 391.21 is that mandated inquiry to a current or past employer.

I want to finish this with an agreement that we do live in a world full of vindictive and basically evil people. I know firsthand of situations where drivers had to hire lawyers to go after these types. So I am aware that a driver in such a bad situation would be wanting to get this process moving as fast as possible and just quit when the other job is ready. This leads me to my point and it is something I don't think I have done a good job of getting across. Trucking in the US is a tightly regulated industry. Sometimes these regulations can cause more harm to an applicant going through trying to get away from a toxic workplace. It's sad, but the FMCSA is firm on these regulations.

This HR guy told me that what actually happens more often than not is the carrier won't return the fax sent. This is a chronic problem with some of these lowlife carriers. This is generally fixed within a day or two and all they do is follow 391.23 (c) (3). You can NOT leave this undone, if the FMCSA ever finds you ignore these failures they will issue civil fines.

§ 391.51 General requirements for driver qualification files.
(a) Each motor carrier shall maintain a driver qualification file for each driver it employs. A driver's qualification file may be combined with his/her personnel file.
(b) The qualification file for a driver must include:

(1) The driver's application for employment completed in accordance with § 391.21;

(2) A copy of the motor vehicle record received from each driver's licensing authority pursuant to § 391.23(a)(1);

(3) The certificate of driver's road test issued to the driver pursuant to § 391.31(e), a copy of the license or certificate which the motor carrier accepted as equivalent to the driver's road test pursuant to § 391.33, or the original of the written statement providing that the motor carrier determined the driver is not required by § 391.44(d) to complete a road test pursuant to § 391.44(d)(3)(ii)(A) and the original, or a copy, of the driver's certification required by § 391.44(d)(3)(i);

(4) The motor vehicle record received from each driver's licensing authority to the annual driver record inquiry required by § 391.25(a);

(5) A note relating to the annual review of the driver's driving record as required by § 391.25(c)(2);

(6)

(i) The medical examiner's certificate as required by § 391.43(g) or a legible copy of the certificate.

(ii) For CDL holders, beginning January 30, 2012, if the CDLIS motor vehicle record contains medical certification status information, the motor carrier employer must meet this requirement by obtaining the CDLIS motor vehicle record defined at § 384.105 of this chapter. That record must be obtained from the current licensing State and placed in the driver qualification file. After January 30, 2015, a non-excepted, interstate CDL holder without medical certification status information on the CDLIS motor vehicle record is designated “not-certified” to operate a CMV in interstate commerce. After January 30, 2015, and through June 22, 2025, a motor carrier may use a copy of the driver's current medical examiner's certificate that was submitted to the State for up to 15 days from the date it was issued as proof of medical certification.

(iii) If that driver obtained the medical certification based on having obtained a medical variance from FMCSA, the motor carrier must also include a copy of the medical variance documentation in the driver qualification file in accordance with paragraph (b)(7) of this section;

(7) A Skill Performance Evaluation Certificate issued by FMCSA in accordance with § 391.49; or the Medical Exemption document issued by a Federal medical program in accordance with part 381 of this chapter; and

(8)

(i) For drivers not required to have a CDL, a note relating to verification of medical examiner listing on the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners required by § 391.23(m)(1).

(ii) Through June 22, 2025, for drivers required to have a CDL, a note relating to verification of medical examiner listing on the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners required by § 391.23(m)(2).

 

They are buying log trailers also, guess they are getting ready to go logging.