With the new CSA laws.

My father made almost as much as we, in the 70's. He only worked 6 months. That was pre-deregulation.

He agreed with the Teamsters, even if he thought they were crooks. He was a Teamster, even though he hated them. He was shot at during strikes.

I don't think you people really know what trucking was like; before it was de-regulated. It wasn't better, it just paid a helluva lot more.

 

Awesome post!

 

Not to flash back to the beginning of the thread but CSA scores will have virtually no effect on any large carriers. (points are calculated on avg. score for drivers, hire lots of new drivers w/ clean records problem solved) it may have a negative impact of mid sized companies due to not being to play the Avg's game and will more then likely have a positive impact on law abiding small trucking companies (1-5 trucks) due to many renegades running legal or being gone which would increase the truck to freight ratio while at the same time limiting drivers 7500 mile weeks thus even if freight stays the same more trucks are needed.

Many drivers old and new are concerned about CSA for no reason, CSA simply doesn't affect you if you follow simple rules. Don't break the law, don't be a fat slob, do your pretrips, and act like a professional for once. Showering daily isn't too hard and wearing non-holy clothes that fit and aren't sagging will help.

If you keep your appearance professional and your truck clean you aren't bothered, think of how many inner city adults get busted on drug charges compared to business owners in suburbs, an equal amount use illegal drugs but the guy dressed professionally in a clean car doesn't draw the attention...same principal in trucking.

I help my father run a few off road trucks and I am a company driver over the road (not for my father, different company) my father is having CSA issues due to image and irresponsible drivers and it's a pain for drivers to do all appropriate checks (from my point of view) but its how we get paid and our job. Take care of yourself and your/companies equipment and CSA will have zero impact on you.

 

There might be a strategy to smelling like arse funk and old sweat. Maybe they figure if other truckers can't stand to be around 'em, the cops won't either. You know....chase them out of the scale house due to the stench before finding that log violation.

 

This has to be the biggest bunch of BS I have ever read here .

 

The part about the company telling your husband where to go to get it fixed?? Hmmmm-does the company pay his extra miles for this and his time sitting there waiting for repairs? What about his log book hours? What does he make for sitting a shop for maybe 2-4 hours? That is the part I would like to know?

 

It's not hubby's truck to decide who works on. It. If he wants to make those decisions, he needs to buy or lease his own truck.

 

CountyBoy, I would beg to differ. The scores affect carriers more than the drivers. If a carrier gets points, they don't go away by getting rid of that driver and hiring another one who will also give them more points. Once a carrier, large or small, reaches a certain point, the FMCSA can force them to shut down. No amount of points will cause a driver to lose his/her CDL. Will limit their employment options, sure. But they will still have their CDL. Once a carrier gets too many points and the FMCSA has had enough, they lose their operating authority.

If I were running a large carrier, I would have sleepless nights. Those carriers cycle thru so many drivers and are CDL mills themselves and the risk is really great. And all the points those newbies will rack up, can't be taken away just by getting rid of them and hiring other drivers. An example, take a look sometime on FMCSA's website at CRST. They are getting themselves in a heap of a predicament. They have 3 of the 8 areas in alert status. That is what happens when you go with the dime a dozen philosophy regarding drivers and pump them out of training like an assembly line. A smaller carrier generally has a better handle on who they have out there running the freight.

 

As for CountyBoy, his statement is indicative of someone who does not understand how CSA works.

Thank you for trying to clear it up some, CowPie.

 

Ok, let's clarify CSA is used for judging deficiencies of safety at companies and does not serve the sole purpose of shutting down carriers. FMCSA's website states it is an evaluation tool alone. The score is not helped by firing drivers with bad scores however after receiving an Intervention notice the carrier needs to merely show improvement to get to the Min. Standard outlined by the FMCSA. Many carriers have used the method of merely replacing drivers with poor CSA scores with new drivers as a means to "show improvement" to the FMCSA. I guess that's what I was trying to say, after attending a seminar over CSA for small fleet operators done by the state I was told it was common already at large carriers to do that but they are already trying to stop letting it influence FMCSA.

COWPIE- your right on the impact to drivers it doesn't have as huge a result (loss of license) technically although I'm sure as CDL's are issued by the Fed's somewhere they could find a way to take a license of habitual violators. 1 thing that deffinately shows less of an impact for carriers is the fact any points against a driver from a previous employer are NOT transferred to the new employer upon hiring the driver.

INJUN- I try to stay informed for myself as a driver and for companies I help my father and wife run but NO by no means do I think I understand all of CSA, I would doubt many DOT inspectors do, saying I'm "indicative of someone who does not know how CSA works" makes me question what stellar company educated you on CSA (unfortunately most companies don't bother to teach drivers new or expeirienced about it) I've done a fair amount of reading up on it compared to most and attended multiple programs done by MEDOT but it is a fair amount to learn so I will take your sly remark with a grain of salt. I do the best I can while trying to scrape out a living.

**lastly has anyone heard of any of the final HOS rule change recommendations it looks like DOT might go with