Level 8 Electronic Inspections Coming

Be interesting to see how they manage the electronic "inspection" on a b model 94...

 

This was the entire purpose behind the ELD mandate. And the standards set for communication of data.

Right now it takes very little effort for the FMCSA to call/email a carrier, tell them to do a data dump of everything from their ELD's in the last 6 months.
That transfer take a few seconds, then the FMCSA has the programs to comb through and determine either outright violations or patterns of abuse.
If the transfer is continuous, which i am sure a carrier might have to agree to if his authority was placed on some sort of conditional or deficient basis, then it is similar to what is being proposed.

As opposed to the past, where an audit could only spot check a very small percentage of HOS records, now every single minute of every single day of every single driver is checked in a very short period of time, no matter how large the fleet is.

This just takes it to the next step, real time data transfer from the rolling vehicle looking for violations.
Plus they could add requirements, data from the truck indicating the emission controls are operating, excessive brake or acceleration parameters, all of the tattle tale stuff that is routinely captured in the several ECM's on board.

I am glad i am out of it....

 

Sounds like another way to push automated driverless trucks. Hey no human here robots do exactly as it’s told.

 

There is no need to get upset or surprised. It's a normal "training" for obey and submit process which slowly creeps in year after year to have everything and everyone running the way they "should". Nothing new and more to come.

 

John Connor is not amused by this.

 

I have many issues and many quibbles about this whole idea, but this stood out to me:

"All other vehicles would bypass the inspection point, but unlike current bypass programs, bypassed vehicles would be considered inspected, and the results of the Level VIII Inspection would be recorded as part of the motor carrier’s or driver’s safety record."
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I'd like to know how many violations of the HOS are found during inspections (not form and manner, but actual violations of the 11, 14, and 70), how many HOS and vehicle violations, and how many vehicle only violations. I'd posit that the first group is a very small number and the 3rd group is the largest number. I'd argue that vehicle violations present a larger risk on the road. All improvement projects eventually reach a point of diminishing returns. I think that happened with aobrs, and certainly with elds. I could even entertain the belief that everything after the 2004 HOS has not had enough of a positive impact to make the effort worth it.

I'd also argue that the money spent creating and deploying this technology would be better spent investigating and shutting down chameleon carriers. Or making entry level driver training be competency based instead of time based.

 

"Drive to 0" measures are ALWAYS a bad idea precisely because of the diminishing returns issue

 

That is the dream. But the reality is for most of the country most of the time it is fantasy, and the carriers and regulators know it.

Sooooo, let's do the next best thing. Make the environment that the driver exists in 100% controllable and supervised(surveilled)
The largest fleets have been adopting this philosophy for some time now. But since 80% of all motor carriers out there have less than 10 trucks, the regulators need a way to force this level of control on them.

Long gone are the days of the cowboy independent trucker enjoying the freedom that attracted so many to the business.
Having your own authority, leasing or working for a small carrier will no longer give some level of autonomy.

Your papers please....electronically.