Why CSA 2010 and E-Logs are a good thing.

I thought that it is all part of CSA.

 

Good inspections will belisted and do count. Something my company has done as a way to "back up a driver" is they require DOT inspections every 6 months ( they pay for one and you the other) they also do mid trip inspections (for 25 bucks at ta/petro) and speedco (they pay) in between your DOT's. These combined with passed roadsides are a way to back you up and they make sure they dont have an o/o out on the road with crap equipment. It does take several good inspections to make the bad ones go away so it pays to be on top of your maintenance and doing those pre trips in the morning.

 

It is all a part of it. What applies to different participants varies.

CSA is data collection. Nothing more or less.

The FMCSA can use the Data to target problem carriers, employers can get a view previously unavailable of prospective employees, drivers can get a feel for a company and it's policies, shippers and brokers can view a companies statistics to choose more compliant companies.

 

Insurance providers could use data to deny pospective clients. Health care providers could use data to deny coverage to low CSA scorers(they are at a health risk at least in 'their' eyes)

Oh, wait... One could get health care from the gov't. While gov't will continue to collect data on all individuals they provide care for.... This can then be centarlized in gov't run monitary systems.

So, gov't will then know you have high blood pressure... Therefore, when you decide you want to order a sausage pizza, red flags will appear at the pizza place cash register cross referencing your medical records(from gov't data collection) and you will be charged an 'at risk' price for the pizza, say $145.00.

It bewilders me on how people can think this is even a remotely good thing!

 

A mid-trip CSA inspection you buy at TA/Petro isn't a fail safe. You could be driving a brand new truck off the dealer and get placed OOS if the DOT wanted you OOS bad enough. Also, if you actually do a pre and post trip inspection, the mid-trip CSA inspections are a waste of money IMO.

It's no different from a CAT scale. If you're caught overweight at a scalehouse, waiving a CAT scale ticket isn't going to save you. You don't know if the scale was calibrated properly or not. Some of the CAT scales I weighed at were off by as much as 3,000 LBS.

 

Tin foil is on isle 14 next to the Midol. This discussion is about tracking the actions of commercial drivers and companies. Not some fantasy debate about your healthcare you can freely purchase with cash at any time.

Now insurance carriers for vehicles can see this data and charge people for coverage accordingly. This is not new however. Yes the weighted system of points is more detailed but they could already pull up some information on your violation history. While the old system was no where near as detailed it existed.


As always if your scared of being judged against the performance of others feel free to not seek the privilege. If you think this system hasn't existed in another simpler form your naive. Kinda like the fools that believe prepass suddenly tracks your gps position and tattle tales you if your comic book doesn't match. It gives no more and no less than a dozen other things do about your location and time.

 

Your naive if you do not see this as a ways and means of control though information gathering. Does it stop with trucking? Nope! Currently one can receive large insurance cost redutions if you agree to put a tracker on your car... I think some insurance companies even pay for it. Few years ago things like this wouldn't be possible. Today with current computer technology, VERY possible and seemingly increasingly likely.

Ok prepass can record your location at a certain time, coupled with e-log data and a rather simple cross reference computer program. It certainly could at least tell if your e-log is correct. Is this happeneing now? Unlikely but certainly VERY plausable that it could happen one day.

Governments should be afraid of it's people, people should NEVER be afraid of the government.

 

The insurance is voluntary. You would agree to having it in your car and that is the insurance companies wanting a "mapping" of your driving habits not the government.

I do not fear any of the regulations mandated to our industry, nor any power out of Washington. If you have irrational fears about following the law perhaps a career change is in order. I do not drive in fear, do not spend countless hours reporting bears or coops.

On occassion I become exasperated with their performance when I see OOS worthy violations driving right by a scale. And when they are just doing hype to appease the public. But I will never fear any of them because I am confident in my abilities, and my equipment.

 

Scalehouses have a camera that take your picture when you pass by. Pre-pass doesn't record anything. Nor-pass does, however.

Driving is not a right. It is a privilege. Especially driving a CMV. Abuse the privilege, and the privilege gets removed.

 

To say CSA "points" are only being gathered to be used as data is one of the most naive, disingenuous comments I have ever seen on these boards.

For now, information is being gathered. However, drivers are already being denied employment via private use of the system. A request has come from 1600 Pennsylvania to begin revoking CDLs at an arbitrary number of accrued "points." The claimed purpose for the application of "points" against a driver's score was to "remove bad actors" from the roads. How do the suits intend to do that if the "points" are not being tracked and used to determine who the "bad actors" are?

The assignment of "points" is rather arbitrary, too. The claim in this case is "research" has shown certain defects to be present in more crashes than other defects. There was no common sense applied when these "points" were assigned to violations.

Common sense like, there are more than 30 required lights on any tractor/trailer combination, yet only ten brake chambers. Lights will fail many, many times more often than brake chambers. I have replaced dozens of burned out lights over my four years and ten months. Yet, with all the hundreds of trailers I have hauled, I have never had a failed brake chamber. Since lights burn out far more frequently than brake chambers fail, the likelihood that someone in a crash has a burned out light is far higher than someone with a brake chamber failure. The pencil-necks in DC have decided that, due to this fact, a burned out light weighs heavier as a causation factor in a crash than a blown brake chamber. Therefore, a burned out light carries more "points" than the brake chamber.

The logic used to design the CSA system was faulty, "points" assignment was, at best, arbitrary and data collection biased. Now, FMCSA is making a push to utilize all that data that has been collected...to suspend and revoke CDLs because of burned out light bulbs.

Regarding elogs: the simple answer is, that computer does not know when I'm tired and shouldn't be rolling. Only I know that. The computer might think I'm good at 0230. My Circadian Rhythm says otherwise. Which do you think I would be better served to listen to?