Tag: compliance reviews

Channel 19
Do more offsite carrier audits translate to more safety ratings for owner-ops?
Find both the short and long answers in this examination of federal safety ratings issued through 2020 so far; what you can expect if audited.
September 14, 2020
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Channel 19
Critical med-cert step to avoid one ‘acute violation’ in audits
Breakdowns in the process for electronically marrying a driver’s updated medical certification with his/her CDL has been a “fertile field for auditors” in back-office compliance reviews, yielding acute violations that contribute adversely to safety ratings.
November 1, 2019
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Hours of Service
New personal-conveyance FAQs illustrate FMCSA’s round-trip view of ‘under dispatch’
In the agency’s new FAQ series, Question No. 1 solidifies an interpretation of any dispatch as encompassing a round trip, and also attempts to clarify seeming contradictions between that interpretation and the new personal conveyance guidance. More on PC enforcement during audits, too, muddying waters.
November 9, 2018
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Electronic Logging Devices
Will enforcement use ELD data for purposes beyond hours of service?
Some in the industry have worried ELD data would be used at roadside or by compliance-review auditors to uncover violations other than hours infractions. If it is, it will be a violation of Congressional directive.
December 6, 2017
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Channel 19
FMCSA and some states sharpen audit teeth with ‘enhanced investigative techniques’
‘EIT’ in the parlance of acronym-happy bureaucratese, Jeff Davis of Fleet Safety Services likened new investigative approaches of auditors to another EIT, Enhanced Interrogation Techniques — or ‘compliance-review waterboarding,’ so to speak …
December 16, 2016
“What’s it mean when a bunch of exclamation marks pop up on my computer?” —Anonymous Tennessee state trooper, after checking a carrier’s DOT number, to a driver he’d just put through a Level 3 inspection — and clear evidence understanding of the CSA Safety Measurement System isn’t total among law enforcement. The driver knew what those marks meant — alerts that the carrier’s category scores were higher than FMCSA’s intervention thresholds — but didn’t exactly offer to help the officer. He was on his way shortly.
Business
How the potential gold mine of ELD data could hurt you
The precision and quantity of ELD data available after the mandate could, combined with a new safety-rating scheme, give on-site auditors an extra-effective tool for declaring a carrier Unfit on the basis not only of uncovered hours violations, but also moving violations.
July 12, 2016
Moving violations totals have been falling the last two years in the federal system, according to Overdrive’s most recent analysis. However, with a decline in overall violations, the national average of moving violations as a share of all violations, 4.6 percent, held steady between 2014 and 2015. As shown here, speeding accounts for the majority of moving violations in all the most intense states for traffic enforcement but for North Dakota, where speeding violations are less than half of the total. Access more national-ranking data on moving violations, inspections and more via OverdriveOnline.com/csa.
Channel 19
How ELDs could be the new radar guns
If the SFD process as proposed becomes regulation, and the ELD mandate isn’t struck down by the federal courts or otherwise derailed, on-site auditors may garner an extra-effective tool in their arsenal for declaring a carrier Unfit on the basis of hours, moving violations.
May 26, 2016
One of Georgia's TruCam Lidar speed guns
Business
CSA’s Fallout: Trapped in a CSA nightmare
Part 1 of this story of how one small fleet operator got stuck in “safety jail” as a Conditional safety rating, a high BASIC score in hours and violations compounded and business vanished.
July 7, 2014
Safety Ratings Issued chart
Electronic Logging Devices
Analyst: E-logs drove 2013 carrier bankruptcy spike
2013 didn’t follow the typical seasonality of trucking bankruptcies. When analyst Donald Broughton researched the situations of newly bankrupt carriers, a pattern of FMCSA audit, implementation of e-logs and business failure was found.
June 27, 2014
ELD grid
Business
How to prepare for a safety audit
Safety consultant Leon Feazell detailed audit prep procedures and processes with recommendations for small carriers at the Great American Trucking Show.
August 23, 2013
Roadside inspection data drivers driver-audit selection during carrier reviews.
Business
Crashes and interventions: Crackdown!
FMCSA is putting extra muscle into shutting down truck and bus fleets. Often lacking robust back-office resources to deal with interventions, small carriers can be considered most vulnerable.
May 10, 2013
Following the raft of warning letters that went out in 2011, FMCSA has sent out far fewer letters, which representatives say is an indication that the letters prompted the desired compliance improvements. Onsite investigations resulting from carriers’ lack of improvements, however, are moving away from full compliance reviews or comprehensive investigations to focused looks at compliance problems as indicated by a carrier’s CSA BASIC scores. Such focused attention allowed the agency to get their hands into the inner workings of about 10 percent more businesses in 2012.
Voices
Poll: What is the most safety-enhancing enforcement strategy?
As industry conversation heats up around the appropriate national enforcement strategy, this poll probes owner-operators’ views on the most safety-positive efforts on the highways.
May 2, 2013
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