The FMCSA announced that it will launch a new Driver Pre-Employment Screening Program, expected to begin in December, that allows motor carriers to better determine potential safety risks by accessing driver inspection and crash records as part of the hiring process.
The Driver Pre-Employment Screening Program will be populated by FMCSA's Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS), which is comprised of driver performance data including roadside inspection and compliance review results, enforcement data, state-reported crashes, and motor carrier census data. Commercial driver safety records are currently available to federal and state law enforcement personnel, and accessible to drivers through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). When the new program becomes effective, driver safety records will be available to motor carriers in any state or jurisdiction, but drivers must give written consent before records can be released.
FMCSA contends that by using driver safety information during pre-employment screening, motor carriers will be able to better assess prospective drivers, and drivers will have additional opportunities to verify the data in their driving history and correct any discrepancies. "Safety is our number one priority at the Department of Transportation," Secretary Ray LaHood said. "This new initiative will help trucking companies ensure the safest drivers are behind the wheel of commercial trucks and buses. Making this information more transparent will make our roads and highways safer for everyone."
The new program goes farther in terms of investigating a driver's history at the time of employment, making the background check process more rigorous and safer for all.
Driving Ambition is a premier CDL truck driver staffing company serving Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Since 2001, we have specialized in matching safe, experienced CDL drivers for our customers and great job opportunities for our professional truck drivers.
Our commitment to safety and building solid working relationships with both customers and CDL drivers has allowed us to earn an unparalleled reputation with our Proven Drivers and Exceptional Service.
The economy came out on top in the fifth annual survey of critical issues facing the trucking industry, conducted by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) and released at the annual ATA conference in Las Vegas.
The state of the nation's economy was of the greatest concern by a wide margin, followed by government regulations, fuel issues, congestion/highway infrastructure, hours of service, commercial driver issues, environmental issues, tolls/highway funding, truck size and weight, and onboard truck technology.
Government regulation was a distant second on the critical issues list. According to ATRI, "the ascension of government regulation to second place could be attributed to the changes in the national political landscape and election results at the federal, state and local levels. Many industry stakeholders anticipate a new era of costly government mandates."
Fuel, which ranked number one in 2005 and 2008, was considered of primary concern by just 5.5% of survey respondents in 2009, but ranked second by 21.8%. It was, however, among the top-five hot issues for the fifth year in a row.
As in prior years, the 2009 annual survey was conducted in two phases: Phase One was designed to identify and categorize key issues and strategies from a large, representative sample of for-hire and private fleets. Phase Two was distributed to more than 4,000 carriers, with the objective of rank-ordering the relative importance of each issue and the preferred strategies for addressing them.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has raised the amount per day that the employer of a truck driver may reimburse the driver for meals and incidental expenses when the driver is away from home on travel.
This per diem amount, which has been $52 a day for several years, will go up to $59 a day. It represents a safe harbor for employers and drivers alike, since reimbursements up to that amount need not be documented by receipts or other evidence. Reimbursements over that amount must either be documented or will be considered income to the driver.
The change takes effect Jan. 1, 2010, for drivers for whom the employer has used the $52 amount during 2009, and on Oct. 1, 2009, (for amounts paid with respect to travel after Oct. 1), for other drivers.
The IRS published the change in Rev. Proc. 2009-47, which was issued Sept. 30.
Driving Ambition is a premier CDL truck driver staffing company serving Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Since 2001, we have specialized in matching safe, experienced CDL drivers for our customers and great job opportunities for our professional truck drivers.
Our commitment to safety and building solid working relationships with both customers and CDL drivers has allowed us to earn an unparalleled reputation with our Proven Drivers and Exceptional Service.
The measurement and enforcement of safety in the trucking industry is on the verge of a major transformation. The FMCSA's current SafeStat system, considered inefficient and largely ineffective, identifies motor carriers for a compliance review (CR) using only out-of-service (OOS) and moving violations from roadside inspections.
Beginning in mid-2010, Comprehensive Safety Analysis (CSA 2010) will replace the SafeStat system. CSA 2010, in addition to having a much more robust method of grading, will consist of two distinct safety measurement systems (SMS): one for individual carriers and one for individual CDL drivers. This represents a fundamental shift as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is expanding its approach by directly monitoring the safety and performance of individual drivers in addition to identifying unsafe motor carriers. The new CSA 2010 approach will hold both motor carriers and drivers responsible for safety and performance.
CSA 2010 calculates safety performance of motor carriers and individual drivers based on seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs), and their scores will determine what action the FMCSA will take to bring the carrier and/or drivers into compliance. The seven BASICs, focused on behaviors linked to crash risk, are:
1. Unsafe Driving (Parts 392 & 397)
2. Fatigued Driving / Hours-of-Service (Parts 392 & 395)
3. Driver Fitness (Parts 383 & 391)
4. Controlled Substances/Alcohol (Parts 382 & 392)
5. Vehicle Maintenance (Parts 393 & 396)
6. Cargo Related (Parts 392, 393, 397 & HM)
7. Crash Indicator
The driver enforcement process of CSA 2010 enables Safety Investigators (SI) to identify problem drivers and to verify and address safety and compliance issues by tapping into a Driver Information Resource (DIR), consisting of individual driver safety performance and compliance history.
Beginning in December 2009, FMCSA's Commercial Drivers Pre-Employment Screening Program will provide carriers with individual drivers' safety performance histories with previous employers. These "Driver Profiles" from DIR contain important driver data including crash and inspection histories for individual drivers, allowing employers to use that data to better determine potential safety risks. The new program goes farther in terms of investigating a driver's history at the time of employment, making the background check process more rigorous and safer for all.
Over the course of the coming months, The Dispatch will continue to provide information and updates on CSA 2010, including articles and material from various professionals throughout the industry.
For information on CSA 2010 directly from FMCSA, visit the site at http://csa2010.fmcsa.dot.gov/. The latest update includes a downloadable Industry Briefing PowerPoint presentation.
CSA 2010 Updates appear every Wednesday in the FMCSA News Summary.
Driving Ambition is a premier CDL truck driver staffing company serving Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Since 2001, we have specialized in matching safe, experienced CDL drivers for our customers and great job opportunities for our professional truck drivers.
Our commitment to safety and building solid working relationships with both customers and CDL drivers has allowed us to earn an unparalleled reputation with our Proven Drivers and Exceptional Service.
The recent two-day Driver Distraction Summit brought together safety experts, researchers, industry representatives, elected officials and members of the public who shared their expertise, experiences and ideas for reducing distracted driving behavior and addressed the safety risk posed by this growing problem across all modes of transportation. Authoritative speakers from around the nation led interactive sessions on a number of key topics including the extent and impact of distracted driving, current research, regulations and best practices.
At the conclusion of the Summit, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced a series of concrete actions the Obama Administration and the DOT are taking to help put an end to distracted driving. "I'm greatly encouraged by the work accomplished at this summit. Working together, we're going to make sure that traveling in America is as safe as it can possibly be."
President Obama signed an Executive Order directing federal employees not to text while driving government-owned vehicles, when using electronic equipment supplied by the government while driving, or while driving privately owned vehicles when they're on official government business.
LaHood announced a number of immediate actions the Department is taking to combat distracted driving, including the Department's plan to create three separate rulemakings that would consider:
1. Making permanent restrictions on the use of cell phones and other electronic devices in rail operations.
2. Banning text messaging altogether, and restrict the use of cell phones, by truck and interstate bus operators.
3. Disqualifying school bus drivers convicted of texting while driving, from maintaining their commercial driver's licenses.
He said the agency also would target onboard communication and fleet management systems. LaHood said truckers "need information, but we need to figure out a way that they can get the information they need without being distracted." LaHood told reporters he expected to have the cooperation of the industry as DOT works on its regulation.
LaHood did not say when the regulations would go into effect, other than to say "soon."
Driving Ambition is a premier CDL truck driver staffing company serving Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Since 2001, we have specialized in matching safe, experienced CDL drivers for our customers and great job opportunities for our professional truck drivers.
Our commitment to safety and building solid working relationships with both customers and CDL drivers has allowed us to earn an unparalleled reputation with our Proven Drivers and Exceptional Service.
A recent study has confirmed that obesity-driven testing strategies identify CDL drivers with a high likelihood of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and suggests that mandating OSA screenings could reduce the risk of truck crashes.
"Truck drivers with sleep apnea are much more likely to fall asleep at the wheel, and the condition is increasingly common as Americans become more obese," said the study's senior author, Stefanos N. Kales, MD. "Additionally, we found that drivers who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea frequently underreport symptoms and diagnoses and often do not follow through with sleep study referrals and sleep apnea treatment."
OSA is a syndrome characterized by sleep-disordered breathing, resulting in excessive daytime sleepiness, sleep attacks, psychomotor deficits, and disrupted nighttime sleep. It increases the risk of a vehicular accident by two- to seven-fold, and is common among truck drivers. Approximately 2.4 - 3.9 million licensed commercial drivers in the U.S. are expected to have OSA. In addition to being unrecognized or unreported by drivers, OSA often remains undiagnosed by many primary care clinicians despite the fact that OSA increases the risks of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and heart disease.
The study, funded in part by the FMCSA and published by the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, has significant policy ramifications, as the FMCSA is already deliberating recommendations to require sleep apnea screening for all obese drivers based on body mass index or "BMI" (BMI is calculated based on height and weight). The Administration requires medical certification of licensed commercial drivers at least every two years. These occupational medicine exams present a unique opportunity for detecting OSA as part of determining a driver's safety behind the wheel.
"OSA screenings of truck drivers will be ineffective unless they are federally mandated or required by employers," said Dr. Kales. In the future, the FMCSA may consider the recommendation as part of a comprehensive medical rulemaking.
Click here for a Body Mass Index Calculator
Driving Ambition is a premier CDL truck driver staffing company serving Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Since 2001, we have specialized in matching safe, experienced CDL drivers for our customers and great job opportunities for our professional truck drivers.
Our commitment to safety and building solid working relationships with both customers and CDL drivers has allowed us to earn an unparalleled reputation with our Proven Drivers and Exceptional Service.