BASICS data

On controlled substances and vehicle maintenance, the alerts are not caused by roadside inspections, rather by violations found by a DOT audit.

Controlled substance has an alert because a driver failed to take a post accident drug / alcohol test after an accident. That only happened one time, and it was enough to get an alert in that category.

Vehicle maintenance has to do with the E-Logs and how the post-trip inspection is done. On paper, all you did was check a box on the log and sign. With the e-logs there is a macro on the QC you have to fill out. Many drivers weren't filling this out, and the DOT caught it on the audit, causing the alert.

The alert in driver fitness I believe is caused by a high instance of drivers getting inspected and not being able to find their medical card. A few months ago it was rumored that you weren't going to be able to take your truck off any of our yards without showing your CDL and Medical card so Prime could be sure you had them. However, I've never been checked for them.

 

I was in Pittston the other day and was asked for my med card. I showed it but he wanted the long form. I had it. It was at the fuel island and we weren't getting fuel.

As for a culture of safety i say yes. If a post trip is not done you get an email. Like the controlled substance issue the driver can do the inspection or just fill out the form. do the inspection.

Do some driver's choose to ignore log policies, substance policies, safety policies? yep there are bad apples but get caught and the penalties can be severe and quick.

On the culture. yesterday there were high winds in KS and CO. Safety sent out a message if unsafe pull over. while time is critical no shipper or receiver wants the load scattered on the road. So yes safety is a culture at prime.

 

Primes policy is if its unsafe, don't do it. The Qualcomm message actually told ppl to pull the truck over, because it was unsafe. This wasn't a suggestion, as I read it, but them telling drivers to pull off in a safe place.

 

On operational matters... you're the "captain of the ship" out there, and that's the way they work it. If you decide it's unsafe to continue, pull over somewhere safe to park, inform dispatch of the delay, and wait for things to improve. That's what we got with the QualComm message about hazardous winds in east Colorado and west Kansas the other day.

The only time you may receive some pressure is from the night and weekend guys who are more used to having to prod some of the slackers. I usually re-explained the situation and if I still got a ration from them, asked if they'd like to conference the safety director into the conversation... that always ends the argument. Usually they back off real quick once they realize that you have a situation that can't be dealt with by heading down the road.

CSA is the FMCSAs latest attempt to justify their existence. It takes all of the existing regulations that have been around since the FMCSA was created, and puts a scoring system on it... one that wasn't adequately tested. When the program went live earlier this year, the FMCSA had no clue about how it was going to work. They had a pre-canned PR campaign that they used to satisfy Congress, the NTSB and all of the Mad Mom's who Hate Truck Drivers. Sounded real good to them. Stick it to those drugged-out, road-ragin' truckers! YEAH!!!

From what I've seen, those numbers change monthly. What is an issue this month may not be an issue next month - for a given carrier. But the points hang out to haunt them... and you the driver.

For the idea of "safety" there are two real numbers in there... the unsafe driving basic - which tells you about traffic tickets, and calculating the accident rate per million miles (which you have to do.) Both of these will tell you something about the carrier's operational safety performance.

The rest of it is mostly Bravo Sierra in my opinion. You can have the most aggressive maintenance program in the world, but the wrath of the light bulb god and a string of unfortunately timed roadside inspections can ding a carrier's maintenance basic - just as easily as a carrier who doesn't fix their brakes. So can a bunch of thick-headed drivers with minds numbed from too many miles who can't for the life of themselves remember that they are sitting on their DOT medical card - ding a carrier's driver fitness basic. What in God's Great Name does that have to do with safety?

Wanna beat the driver fatigue basic? Its easy. That one is about paperwork. Hey driver! You forgot to put the decimal point of this mile post in your paper log book! DING! DOT's gotcha for $200 and a ticket! Go to elogs... end of story.

CSA is mostly about how much Bravo Sierra as the DOT can heap on the industry. The more the better. So be careful when you start getting all upset over those numbers. Mostly they are there because the idiot lawyers who wrote those rules at DOT, who have never driven one inch in a CMV had to come up with something that sounded good to their bosses - a bunch of politicians who have never driven one inch in a CMV. CSA? Sounds good! Dang! Order a front end loader and another ship load of Bull!!!!

 

When looking at the numbers, I always go and look at the individual violations, and use my common sense. (oops, that's a dirty word, right?)