Trucking co involved in fatal accident in Terrell tx still operating illegally post crash

Who pays for the computers and the programmers? Remember FMCSA just cut their IT department.

And whose to notice when the computer decides that a small carrier is fraudulent because their name because their name is similar to a larger carrier in the same town and their address is similar to a known address for another large carrier? Or maybe the computer decides to revoke the authority of any carrier whose OOS percentage is more than 50% over the national average? Or is just a sudden spike is enough to suspend operations?

The computer just shut down a legitimate carrier - who does the carrier appeal to? That takes staffing.

Saying "we can do it through computers/AI" sounds a lot like "I don't need an atlas, I can just use my gps".

 

I've said before how a compliance review works. Very little human interaction needed. Even less so with ELD's now.
#1 change of status in a review is HOS
#2 D/A
#3 DQ
First two are electronic submissions. Both are run through a computer program.
DQ is reviewed by a person.

 

I can speak firsthand about this, not specifically FMCSA. I only had a few days of work per month to do, was very capable, begging for more work. One manager had a heavy work load and I was helping him. When the boss found out he got slapped hard and I went back to doing nothing. There were others. They burn up the funds so they get allocated again the next year. One individual right out of school (Bachelor's Degree) with no experience and no special skills was billing at 250k per year through his contractor. Another with about 5 years of experience billing at almost 350k per year. I saw the actual invoices and billing rates.
I know auditors in the gubberment, one who has been there for over 30 years. They say if people worked like they should they could cut half of the employees. It is as bad as they say it is.

 

They've had it for years

And again, you have zero idea of how it is done, how status is changed, how authority is revoked.

 

Okay, I have no idea. So how are so many fraudulent carriers continuing to operate? How are they getting new (at least to them) authorities to transfer assets to? You want to turn the current process over to a computer program - how is it going to change the results? It may do it faster, but will it do it better?

If you know what the computer program is looking for, how hard is it to falsify records to keep the computer happy?

I know how it's done. I'm saying how it's done isn't good enough and we need to do more.

 

But the question is FMCSA specific.

I can think of a very recent example where a certain state built a certain facility to do a certain thing where the contractors were vastly overpaid and under delivered.

There is plenty of waste in government - the procurement rules are insane, it's easier to get funding for contractors than it is to hire an actual employee even though the contractor costs five times as much, and there is hardly any oversight on contractors. I have a friend who was once a DOD contractor for the Navy for 6 months to create a training program to hold recruits between basic and the schools. The Navy was finding that if they sent recruits home between basic and the 'physical schools', the recruits got fat and washed out. The Navy didn't want to hire the contractor to create the program, but a certain 'prince' had contacts - so a bunch of civilians were hired to create a training program. They spent almost as much time learning rank insignia and Navy SOP as they did working on the training program. As soon as the contract ended, the Navy did what they wanted to do from the start - use active duty personal who were on limited duty status. They tossed the contractor's program into a file cabinet and made something that would actually work. I don't know what the contractor was paid, but my friend was paid $55,000 and their were 12 other guys, plus their supervisors - so at least $1 million, maybe $1.5 - all for nothing.

That's the sort of thing I'd like @drvrtech77 to show me. Things like FMCSA providing funds for state troopers to ride with truckers and vice versa (take a guess at who's program that was and how much it cost, then google it). But he's not going to do that. He's going to moan about ELP and foreign companies, then when Road Check starts he's going to moan about over regulation.

There's even an easy answer to my question, and a couple not so obvious answers outside of FMCSA's budget that I would whole heartedly agree should be cut.

 

First, the program for HOS is the same one they've had for a long time. When we were all paper it required a person to enter all the data by hand.

ELD's are electronically entered.

HOS are the #1 for status change.

When they pick drivers/equipment, they already have points/dates/times in the system for who/what they request. Scale crossings, tickets, or any CMV interaction with law enforcement, which are required to be sent in. On "real" ELD's every violation, change of status and every edit is in the data file transmitted. Overseas servers that they "edit" the logs have no way of knowing what info they already have. That means the HOS reviews are fast and easy.
That doesn't require a lot of manpower to do. The same applies now to D/A reviews.

Just typical government in-efficiency of actual work.

OOS rate has nothing to do with a status change, so that is a non-issue.

Carrier411 draws all this info from the FMCSA, owners applied/addresses ect. So they have all this info already.

Again, just typical government in-efficiency.

Approx 12K audits every year, around half new entrant. Can do for more than that without more people/money.

 

So how would the current process have flagged this carrier?

Why shouldn't a spike in OOS be grounds for an investigative audit?

 

Lol, leaner government office..yet they are asking for a budget increase..

Yah, we know who’s clueless

 

I already know that you get it so I’m just passing on some ammo

“The staff cuts follow years of FMCSA claiming to industry watchers that it simply doesn't have the manpower to tackle fraud and/or a myriad of other issues. With new efforts around fraud ramping up over the last year and more, might the agency need more, not fewer staff?”

Read more here..

https://www.overdriveonline.com/reg...fident-in-fraud-fight-despite-staff-reduction