Well the year is over for me, I check my Blackberry for important messages but aside from that Im out of the office until 01/04/2010.
While reflecting on the last compliance review I thought Id share some items that may prove helpful to business owners and drivers.
First for companies:
Supporting documentation is a crucial element to a review of the HOS. It is imperative that companies retain fuel receipts, J-1s, bills of lading, toll receipts, daily fuel summaries from corporate fuel cards, and drivers reports identifying what theyve done.
Since carriers receive the toll receipts separately they must store them separately by driver or vehicle. The courts have already ruled on the issue ruling the tolls must be kept by driver or vehicle:
http://www.transportationlaw.net/articles/jan01article.htm
http://www.bpmlaw.com/portals/15/Documents/Hot_Recent_Cases_0902.pdf
For carriers that use factoring companies you must retain a photo copy of the bill of lading. A load confirmation sheet is not a bill of lading:
Any violation of this part would most likely be cited under Part 395.8 for failing to retain supporting documentation.
Failing to retain supporting documentation is equal to failing to retain the drivers logs. Both have a negative impact on the carriers rating.
Modification of supporting documents falls under part 390.35:
Drivers that believe theyre sly because they white out the time stamp, or use their cigarette to burn a hole in the bill of lading where the time stamp was have guaranteed their employer an acute violation and a 99% chance of a notice of claim from the FMCSA. Congress chastised the FMCSA for not taking enforcement action on acute violations; it is now policy enforcement is initiated for any acute violation as listed in Part 385 Appendix B.
http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/administration/fmcsr/fmcsrruletext.aspx?chunkKey=090163348002436c
http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/administration/rulemakings/notices/E9-7057-Supplemental-Policy-on-Assessing-Maximum-Fines-under-MCSIA-of-1999-Section-222-3-30-09.htm
False logs are a critical violation of the FMCSR. Your best bet is honesty; if you must cheat then dont alter the supporting document. You may find yourself unemployed.
Second for drivers:
I was reading Transport Topics and came across an article on CSA 2010. The article mentioned that drivers who failed to notify their home state in writing of any CMV conviction would have 6 points awarded on their CSA 2010 score.
A check of the FMCSAs web site revealed the statement as true:
The above was printed on page A-11 on the document available on-line at:
http://csa2010.fmcsa.dot.gov/Documents/SMSMethodologyVersion1_2Final_2009_06_18.pdf
I suppose the short of it is, notify your home state of any convictions.
Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Be safe.
FYI
Discussion in 'Trucking Industry Regulations' started by Mike_MD, Dec 23, 2009.
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Much of the intent here was to make it harder to get away with falsifying logs. Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease, sometimes the cure causes worse trouble than it fixes, that seems to be how life works in many regards.
My thought is this, since eobr devices should prevent log falsification, why aren't they pushing them instead of the administrative approach.
I think there is something being withheld from us.
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