Thursday, May 31, 2012

Transport Topics Editorial: Time to Fix CSA

The members and leadership of American Trucking Associations have long supported the federal government’s efforts to modernize safety oversight of the nation’s trucking industry.

ATA has worked with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for years now, as the agency moved to replace the older programs that governed the industry’s operations.

Trucking has weathered the growing pains as the agency sought to put its ideas onto paper and then into effect.
For all of that time, we have continued to work with FMCSA, even as various proposals came out of the agency that were contrary to the wishes of the trucking industry.

And over time, we have found that the agency was willing to listen to the suggestions, complaints and compliments from us — the very companies most affected by their program, which is now called Compliance, Safety, Accountability.

We didn’t always get our way, by any means, but in most cases, we believed we got a fair hearing. Sometimes, FMCSA staff agreed with the industry position, and other times, they didn’t.
However, more recently we have noticed an unmistakable change in FMCSA’s attitude and interest in working with trucking.

It now has reached the stage where we find it necessary to bring the issue to a public forum.
At ATA’s leadership conference last week, we issued a statement pointing out what we see as the increasingly inflexible stance taken by FMCSA in regard to a number of outstanding issues and by some counterproductive steps the agency has taken as it fleshes out the CSA program.

ATA’s top leaders reiterated their unwavering support for the goals of CSA. But the leaders also warned that FMCSA needs to be more responsive to the trucking industry if it expects to continue to enjoy our support for this important program.

As ATA stated after the meeting, if the program is “improved, CSA could be a powerful tool to improve trucking’s already impressive safety record. . . . But if FMCSA continues to insist on pressing forward with the program without addressing industry’s concerns, ATA will have no choice but to explore all avenues of ensuring the program is improved to actually meet its stated, and worthy, objectives.”

Let’s hope FMCSA chooses to work with the trucking industry in order to make CSA the important safety tool we believe it could be.

Who in Your Company Can Say "Yes" to Innovation, Without Permission?

Who in Your Company Can Say "Yes" to Innovation, Without Permission? - Vijay Govindarajan and Mark Sebell - Harvard Business Review

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Opinion: Safety Compliance Enters the 21st Century

By Bill GravesPresident and CEO
American Trucking Associations
This Opinion piece appears in the May 21 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

We live in an age of electronic information. Computers, the Internet, iPhones, iPads, GPS . . . all these technological wonders work to make our lives easier, reduce paperwork and give us all more time to do other things.

At the same time, curiously, we have yet to bring our technological prowess to bear on an important safety issue in our industry — logging and monitoring how many hours our nation’s truck drivers are spending behind the wheel.

While many forward-thinking, safety-conscious motor carriers and drivers have embraced electronic logging devices (ELDs) or electronic onboard recorders (EOBRs) to track their hours of service, there is still a strong strain within our industry that continues to argue against bringing our recordkeeping into the 21st century.
These individuals — and a few groups — argue against electronic logging using mostly half-truths and fear mongering to distort and dissemble, so allow me to set the record straight.

First, these devices are not nearly as costly as some would have people believe — particularly when weighed against the costs of noncompliance with hours-of-service rules.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration puts the cost of an ELD at between $500 and $800 a year, which may sound like a lot — until you compare it to the thousands upon thousands of dollars that are on the line if a fleet violates the hours rules or, God forbid, has a crash.

That risk of a crash brings me to my second point: Compliance with the hours of service clearly is related to crash risk. Despite its numerous flaws, FMCSA’s initial evaluation of its Compliance, Safety, Accountability program demonstrated that compliance with the hours-of-service rules is statistically related to carrier crash risk.
The American Transportation Research Institute’s updated 2011 “Crash Predictor” study also found that drivers with various types of hours-of-service violations are more likely to be involved in a future crash.

I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that this also speaks to the effectiveness of the current set of HOS rules in place since 2005, but that is an argument for another day.

Carriers that have converted to electronic logging have noted over and over that their compliance rates improve. If the industry adopts the technology broadly, it is the logical conclusion that the overall compliance rate would also go up, and truck safety would improve even further.

Often, we see complaints about the potential for an ELD mandate from individual drivers, citing such objections as loss of personal freedom and other issues they claim not only will hurt morale, but also make it harder for the industry to retain drivers.

Fortunately, the American Transportation Research Institute also looked at this issue in the recent past. ATRI found that 76% of carrier and driver respondents said the use of an ELD improved driver morale, and while just 19% said it helped with retention, no one commented that it hurt in retaining drivers.

While we agree there are issues that will need to be addressed in a final rule — concerns like data ownership, ensuring positive driver identification, providing significant relief from other recordkeeping requirements and the need for uniform technical device specifications — these issues are minor when compared with the compliance and safety benefits these devices can provide.

If you look at the collection of groups advocating for this technology — the National Transportation Safety Board, ATA, the Teamsters, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance and a coalition of advocacy groups headed by the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety — it is clear this has broad support from groups that, to put it mildly, do not often see eye to eye on things.

Now, opponents of this technology can say it is too costly. They can say it is intrusive. They can say it is unreasonable. But what they cannot bring themselves to say it is that it’s the right thing to do, not just for trucking but for our highways.

As a resident of Virginia, I often see the signs posted on highways reminding drivers that radar detectors are prohibited in motor vehicles.

This prohibition is in place because possessing one is an implicit admission that the driver intends to break the law — in this case, the speed limit.

In a similar vein, what opponents of this technology are implicitly arguing for is the continued opportunity to break the law. If you follow the hours-of-service rules, what does it matter how you record your hours? With ELDs on all large trucks, we ensure fair, honest, unambiguous enforcement of the hours-of-service rules for all carriers, large and small. This enforcement will lead to improved compliance and improved safety for all motorists, not just truck drivers. In addition, by bringing this technology to trucking, this industry also takes away one of our critics’ longstanding arguments — that there is rampant cheating on logbooks.

In this age of modern technology, we owe it to ourselves and to our fellow motorists to continue to improve on our already impressive and record-setting safety performance, and to use the cost-beneficial tools at our disposal to ensure that safety rules are followed.

American Trucking Associations, the largest national trade federation for the trucking industry, has headquarters in Arlington, Va., and affiliated associations in every state. ATA owns Transport Topics Publishing Group.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

What's New at A&I Online?


New Items were added to FMCSA's A&I Online (http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov):


Safety Measurement System (SMS)           

The Motor Carrier Safety Measurement System (SMS) module has been updated with the April 27, 2012 Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) data snapshot. Check your safety assessment now at: http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/sms.

- Homepage has been modified to include a rotator image communicating important topics, a driver area has been added, and the upcoming release dates are clearly displayed.

- The measure to percentile graph for each BASIC has been enhanced to allow users to hover over points on the graph and see the corresponding measure and percentile values.

- The carrier specific data downloads have been modified slightly to make them easier to use.


Carrier/Driver Safety           

-The Bus/Passenger Carrier Information has been updated based on the April 27, 2012 MCMIS and Licensing & Insurance (L&I) data snapshots.



Data Quality  

The Data Quality Module has been updated based on the April 27, 2012 MCMIS data snapshot in the following areas:

-The State Safety Data Quality Evaluation Reports found in the Evaluation Area.

-The SSDQ Continuous Improvement area has been updated with a new action document entitled "Improving Non-Fatal Crash Completeness: A Case Study from Washington State". In this case study, learn how collaboration with key partners and online resources from FMCSA helped the State of Washington improve its nonfatal crash reporting process and the quality of the reported crash data.

For more information, click here:  http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/DataQuality/dataquality.asp


Safety Programs       

The following three Safety Programs modules have been updated with the April 27, 2012 MCMIS data snapshot. These modules include:

-The Reviews Module
-The Roadside Inspection Module
-The Traffic Enforcement Module

Passenger Carrier Statistics has been updated based on the April 27, 2012 MCMIS data snapshot.

Hazardous Materials has been updated based on the April 27, 2012 MCMIS data snapshot.
           
For more information, click here:  http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SafetyProgram/home.aspx


If you have comments or questions regarding A&I Online, we would love to hear from you.Click on the "Contact Us" or "Feedback" menu buttons from any of the A&I Online pages to access a list of contacts or provide feedback electronically.

Thank you!

Scott Valentine
A&I Online Program Manager
FMCSA

CSA Safety Measurement System (SMS) website updated


The CSA Safety Measurement System (SMS) website has been updated, check your safety assessment now at: http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/sms.

Also available is FMCSA’s SMS Preview website.  Carriers can log in to the site to preview the first package of proposed changes to the SMS through two websites:

1. Visit the CSA Website (http://csa.fmcsa.dot.gov/smspreview/) and log in with an FMCSA-issued U.S. DOT number and a personal identification number (PIN), or

2. Log in to the FMCSA Portal (https://portal.fmcsa.dot.gov/login) and select the “CSA Outreach” link.

FMCSA encourages motor carriers to view the SMS Preview to see how methodology changes will affect their SMS results. Written comments regarding the changes can be filed to the Federal Docket Management System, Docket ID Number FMCSA-2012-0074.

NOTE TO CARRIERS: To login into the SMS or SMS Preview websites and see all of your safety data, you will need an FMCSA-issued U.S. DOT Number Personal Identification Number (PIN) (NOT a Docket Number PIN). If you do not know or have forgotten your PIN, you can request one via http://safer.fmcsa.dot.gov/ and select 'Click here to request your Docket Number PIN and/or USDOT Number PIN.' Be sure to request a U.S. DOT Number PIN, NOT a Docket Number PIN.


Thank You,
CSA Web Team
USDOT/Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

FMCSA 2012-2016 Strategic Plan

The 2012-2016 Strategic Plan presents a new comprehensive direction to focus its efforts on outreach, oversight, and enforcement resources directed at the entire CMV transportation life-cycle. It establishes a framework that places safety as the highest priority and employs three core principles:
  • Raising the bar to entry
  • Requiring to maintain high safety standards
  • Removing high risk carriers and drivers

You can read a summary of the Strategic Plan here:   http://fmcsa.dot.gov/documents/STRATEGIC-PLAN/FMCSA_SPHighlights_2012-2016.pdf

For-Hire Motor Carriers asked to Participate in Operational Costs Survey

The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) launched a survey today to update the 2011 Operational Costs of Trucking report. The brief online survey seeks to capture basic cost information from for-hire carriers such as driver pay, fuel costs, insurance premiums and lease or purchase payments. Carriers are asked to provide full year 2010 and 2011 cost per mile and cost per hour data.
In combination with the previous Operational Costs of Trucking reports, the results of this research will yield four full years (2008 – 2011) of trucking financial information derived directly from fleet operations. This research provides carriers with an important benchmarking tool and government agencies with an accurate dataset for infrastructure improvement analyses.
For-hire motor carriers are encouraged to provide confidential operational cost data through ATRI’s survey, available here. The results of this survey will be available later this year.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

LoadTrek Training - LoadTrek Map Interface

5/10/2012 at 1500 CDT.  To register for the free training webinar:  https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/201964024

Carriers Needed to Participate in a CSA Survey


The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) today launched its second annual motor carrier survey to identify CSA impacts on trucking operations, as well as carrier perceptions and attitudes toward FMCSA’s maturing regulatory program.  This survey, which specifically seeks trucking company input, will be compared and contrasted with last year’s CSA research – where ATRI received responses from a representative sample of approximately 700 fleets (report available online at www.atri-online.org).

The brief online survey asks carriers for information on how their perceptions of CSA have changed or been affected as CSA continues its second full year of measuring motor carrier and commercial driver safety performance.  The survey also seeks to capture attitudes toward the program and general understanding of its key components.

Motor carriers are encouraged to provide confidential input on CSA through ATRI’s survey, available online at www.atri-online.orgThe aggregated and anonymized results of the survey will be available later this year, accompanied by findings from ATRI’s surveys of other stakeholder groups impacted by CSA, including thousands of commercial drivers, shippers and the enforcement community.