Saturday, December 29, 2012

Update your VMT and PU data



Did You Know…As a motor carrier, recent Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT) and Power Unit (PU) data from your Motor Carrier Registration form, known as the MCS-150, are required and must be up to date to properly assess your level of exposure in the Unsafe Driving and Crash Indicator Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) in FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System (SMS).

If your VMT data in FMCSA’s database is from 2010 or older, it will not be used in your calculations when the January SMS snapshot is posted at the beginning of February. Instead, the level of exposure will default to average PUs over the previous 18 months which can impact your percentiles in the Unsafe Driving and Crash Indicator BASICs. View the SMS Methodology for addition details on BASIC percentile calculations.

Update your MCS-150 now with 2011 VMT/PU information or shortly after January 1, 2013 with your 2012 data to ensure that FMCSA is using the most accurate data available to calculate your percentiles. Visit https://li-public.fmcsa.dot.gov/LIVIEW/PKG_REGISTRATION.prc_option to update your MCS-150 information. Under the “Existing Registration Updates” section, choose the first option - “I need to update my USDOT number registration information or file my biennial update.”

PLEASE NOTE: The SMS website is updated monthly, so your MCS-150 changes will not be reflected on that site until the next monthly update. You can find the schedule of SMS updates at http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/sms/InfoCenter/Default.aspx#question30897. MCS-150 updates show up faster on SAFER and the FMCSA Portal websites.


Thank You,
CSA Web Team
U.S. DOT/Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

New Ideas to Defend the Trucker



By Dennis McGee and Joel Beal

As an observer of the safety roundtable hosted by Dennis McGee and Associates, I get to see new ideas to protect our industry.  The following article was distributed to our group, and contains valuable information.  It's a matter of when - not if - you must defend yourself.  

Our clients have a great deal of information available from their onboard computers and transportation management software.  However, you will find yourself in situations where you simply need more information.  If you've been in court or given a deposition - you know it's an ugly, protracted battle.  I encourage you to read and think about these ideas.  -  JB

  
Battlefield Blunders As Decisive As Brilliant Tactics: New Ideas to Defend the Trucker
Battlefield blunders can be as decisive as brilliant tactics. The battlefields of history are littered with losers who failed  to recognize and develop new strategies.

Burnside at Fredericksburg: The Battle of Fredericksburg was a humiliating meat-grinder of a defeat for the Union Army, and the fault lies squarely with General Ambrose Burnside.  The man would be forgotten today but for the fact that he lent his name to excessive cheek hair.

Custer at the Little Bighorn:  Why Custer thought he could go hey-diddle-diddle-right-up-the-middle into a swarm of angry Indians remains a mystery.  The Plains Indians were among the finest cavalrymen ever.  When the repeating rifle came into their hands, they weaponized a Spanish import: the horse.

I consider every case as a potential battle, or least a skirmish, that must be carefully executed.  We cannot follow the fate of the unprepared or misinformed in defending our client, particularly trucking clients.

We must not be like the ego-centric Custer and wallow in the war stories of past glory, while ignoring new means and methods of defending against actions.  We must constantly look for new methods of proof.

We must continuously consider and develop new means of persuasion. I would welcome your unique ideas on how to better represent the trucking industry.

The following is a brief overview of some of the tactics that have been successfully employed.            

1. Video Cameras
Upon arrival at the accident scene, immediately check for video cameras-public or private.

Sure, it's a long shot that any are present or even longer that the accident was caught on film, but you must act immediately to have any chance of preserving any possible capturing of the accident on video.  Even a snippet of information can corroborate speeds.

Recently, I told a client that I had wished we had obtained the surveillance information immediately following the accident. He was somewhat perturbed for making this suggestion. I was not implying that he or his scene investigator had  done anything wrong, but I knew this area and I knew that there were cameras all around the truck stop. Had we received this information sooner, we may have learned that the plaintiff had been driving at a high speed and could have avoided our driver who was making a left turn from the  truck stop.

Video cameras can be both public and private. From municipal intersection cams to business security cameras, the myriad of possibilities constantly increases.  Although it is rare that municipal or cameras on the highway preserve the information, a  security camera outside a business captured the landing of the airliner on the Hudson River.  My investigation of this particular area revealed that there was  convenience store surveillance camera that would have  captured the vantage point of the plaintiff. There was also a surveillance camera at a fast food restaurant that was directly pointing at where our driver would have been pulling out.

If you want this stuff, you need to get our there quickly and preserve it. Rarely does the private company keep this data more than a few days. Wouldn't it be great to have unbiased documentation of your driver's version in an intersection accident.

Lucky? Luck is the by-product of anticipation and preparation.

2. Early Surveillance
If you do traditional surveillance, do it early, immediately after the accident. Frequently this is far more productive than later when claimants are warned by an attorney or guarded for the sake of litigation.

3. Cheap Surveillance:  Social Media
Social media is everywhere.  Younger generations live there, but even the  older generations engage it regularly. People constantly post their activities and photos. Those who do so before or after they assert a claim against our companies are handing us a gift.

A few years ago, I was defending an alleged closed-head brain injury claim. The plaintiff stated there were numerous activities, she was unable to do, including being in crowds. Oddly, she posted on Facebook, movie scenes in which she played an extra.

We cannot waste this resource of cheap surveillance. Act fast because personal injury lawyers know we are asking for this information now. Facebook has limited the access to this information, but good discovery questions can ensure this information is made available to you.

Check available public sources immediately upon the accident, before it can be taken down. All to often, by the time a lawsuit is filed, the information has been privatized or deleted. When your hire an attorney to oversee the investigation of an accident, you should also have him check public access to social media.

Neither you nor your lawyer can befriend someone, but often social media is not privatized, at first. Download and preserve photos and videos. Then follow up regularly. You can often save the expense of iffy surveillance by capitalizing on "self surveillance".

There are ways to request this information in discovery, but it's more difficult to get. Better to get it early and preserve that information for use later.

4. Push Back
Let plaintiff's counsel  know they are in for a fight. This is not "hit-a-truck, get-a-check." Be aggressive and demand medical and employment releases even before you answer the lawsuit.  Request a list of providers and employers also.

Many plaintiff's lawyers move by inertia so  follow up in at least thirty days, reminding them of your prejudice due to their delay.

Don't let the braggadocio plaintiff's attorney control the case, but keep some humor about it. An attorney in Texas told me that he liked to "cut the gonads of insurance defense lawyers." My response, "Be sure you have a sharp knife."

5. Pre-Litigation Medical and Vocational Evaluations
Request IME's and vocational interviews early, before suit is filed even if it is just a records evaluation (assuming you have the records). If plaintiff agrees, you have early evaluation by your expert to rebut their claims. If they refuse, we have documented our attempt and their rejection, raising questions of their validity.

Plaintiffs  often delay for months or years while they build their case, one visit at a time, before filing suit. We remove  the argument that initial claims of injury and disability must be justified if our  experts were not allowed to see  the plaintiff until much later.

6. Dig Deep and Wide
Undermine plaintiffs' claims of "no prior similar injuries" by digging for  the data. Request the identity of all prior medical insurers, pharmacies and health care providers.

You may have a client who thinks the pre-accident information is unnecessary but it's rare. Most of them know that the plaintiff's pre-accident problems are highly relevant.  

Okay, we know that the plaintiffs will not tell us the truth about all the pre-accident health care providers, but they may not realize that when we get their pharmacy records, we will know who has been prescribing them drugs. Identify all pharmacies filling prescriptions for any reason. These can often reveal prescriptions that can again be traced to similar previous maladies. Alternatively, they can reveal abuse that may be admissible based upon their effect on life expectancy.

Better yet, the health insurers will reveal ALL the providers and pharmacies that have been paid. Subpoena their files. These records can lead to prior treatment that plaintiff previously denied.

Conclusion:
We know that every case has its unique challenges. Our clients may not want us to do some of the things suggested, but any case can be LOST cheaply. Some cases will only be settled cheaply when we push-back and dig deep. To do that, we must anticipate and be prepared.

Prior to the battle at Little Big Horn, Brig. Gen. Alfred Terry had advised Custer to await the arrival of two columns before engaging the enemy. These reinforcements were approaching at the time of the attack. So why did Custer disregard Terry's warning?

Some historians suggest Custer had lost the element of surprise and was compelled to attack. Author Mari Sandoz suggested it was because he wanted to be president.  The Democratic National Convention was to begin in St. Louis in two days, and news of a victory would certainly have boosted presidential ambitions.

Dozens of other theories abound, but no doubt Custer used old methods and was unprepared for the battle. Of course, a legal battle pales in comparison to military battles; however, the lessons are applicable:
  • Be overly-prepared
  • Look for new methods to fight the battle
  • Don't get overly confident with yesterday's success
  • Don't get overly burdened by yesterday's failure
By the way, the Trucking Industry Defense Association Advance Seminar in February 2013 will have some unique and practical idea on how to defend the the FIVE-figure case (yes, those less than $100,000). Also, there will be a session on how the good case went bad and how the bad case turned out good.

Plan on being in San Diego for the Advanced Seminar. For more information, check out www.tida.org for more information. 

Postal Service Contracting Workshop in Las Vegas NV - 1/1/6/2013

Thursday, December 13, 2012

2013 Analysis, Research, and Technology Forum at TRB

You are invited to attend a forum presented by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Office of Analysis, Research, and Technology (ART) on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, at the 92nd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Salon 3 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, 2660 Woodley Road, NW, Washington, DC 20008.
The overall 2013 forum program will address FMCSA's safety-first mission and the impact that analysis, research, and technology have on its success in two back-to-back sessions. The first session will present a broad overview of FMCSA's top Agency priorities and the second will provide updates on current analysis, research, and technology initiatives which support FMCSA's safety objectives.
Topics to be presented and discussed include:
  • Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) Data, Research, and Safety Performance
  • Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) and the Motorcoach Safety Action Plan
  • Utilizing FMCSA Safety Data
  • Safetydata.gov
  • Application Programming Interfaces: The Data Behind SaferBus
  • Data User Examples
  • Safety Impact of the Pre-Employment Screening Program Findings from Roadside Inspections Future FMCSA Safety Research Activities (Large Truck Crash Study, Electronic Logging Devices, Driver Fatigue).
If you plan to attend the forum or other sessions of the TRB Annual Meeting, you must register and pay a registration fee. To register for the TRB Annual Meeting, visit www.trb.org.
Mark your calendars for Tuesday, January 15, and we will see you there!

Survey: Speed Reduction, Driver Training, Progressive Shifting Give Best Fuel Efficiency Payback - Truckinginfo.com

Survey: Speed Reduction, Driver Training, Progressive Shifting Give Best Fuel Efficiency Payback - Truckinginfo.com

FMCSA Activates 11 Changes to CSA, Including Hazmat Compliance Proposal

By Eric Miller, Staff Reporter
This story appears in the Dec. 10 print edition of Transport Topics.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said last week it activated previously announced changes to its Compliance, Safety, Accountability program, including the adoption of a controversial proposal to step up hazardous materials compliance, and the elimination of a perceived enforcement bias against flatbed carriers.
FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro said during a Dec. 3 conference call the agency implemented 11 CSA changes, including the creation of a stand-alone hazardous materials compliance category and moving cargo-securement violations into the vehicle maintenance category.

The changes, initially made available to carriers in August, include changes to two Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories the agency uses to monitor carrier performance. FMCSA also renamed another BASIC.
The CSA program uses roadside violation inspection and crash data to help FMCSA identify unsafe or high-risk motor carriers.

FMCSA said when it first unveiled the tweaks in August they would only cause “modest” changes to the program’s Safety Measurement System carrier percentile scores but would “sharpen our focus on the carriers that need our focus.”

But the new hazmat category has been controversial among motor carriers that are not primarily hazmat haulers. Some of those carriers have said a preview of the new BASIC showed their scores would significantly worsen.
However, carrier scores in the new hazmat category will not be available to the public for an undetermined period.
Some in trucking also have said the cargo-securement violations would be de-emphasized because they would get lost in the vehicle maintenance category.

Other modifications that went live last week include changing the name of the Fatigued Driving BASIC to the Hours-of-Service Compliance BASIC, removing 1-to-5 mph speeding violations from carrier and driver safety scores, and assigning the same CSA severity weights to paper logs and electronic logging device violations.
The changes also included eliminating vehicle violations derived from driver-only inspections, and driver violations from vehicle-only inspections, Ferro said.

The changes went public on Dec. 3 as an early update to FMCSA’s monthly update of carriers’ SMS scores. The agency generally updates the scores around the 21st of each month, but chose to update the December scores early using the CSA changes.

Ferro said that after six years of research and stakeholder input, the CSA program has been “a very effective program and a positive change for safety.”

In 2011, roadside inspection-related violations were down 8%, and driver violations for inspections decreased 10%, Ferro said.

“These two figures represent the most dramatic decrease in violation rates in a decade,” Ferro said.
But in a white paper issued Dec. 5, American Trucking Associations said the CSA measurement system lacks sufficient data to render meaningful scores for most carriers.

The white paper pointed to recent research by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute that confirmed that commercial motor vehicle crash underreporting by state agencies has long plagued FMCSA’s ability to accurately measure motor carrier safety performance.

“Indeed, in 37 evaluations of 35 states, UMTRI found reporting rates ranging from under 10% of reportable crashes to over 80%,” the white paper said. “This wide disparity undoubtedly creates vast discrepancies between the safety measurements of carriers with similar crash performance operating in different states.”
FMCSA said it has sufficient violation data to assess 40% of active carriers in at least one safety rating category but only enough to “assign a percentile rank or score” in at least one category to 12% of active carriers, ATA said.

But ATA said the vast majority of these carriers are assigned a score in only one category. The agency contends this weakness is not problematic because “those carriers are involved in 83% of the crashes.”
“This statement concerns us since FMCSA doesn’t really know how many commercial motor vehicle crashes are occurring or who is involved in them,” said ATA President Bill Graves. “Many crashes simply don’t get reported to the agency,” he said.

Dave Osiecki, senior vice president of policy and regulatory affairs for ATA, said the federation appreciates the agency listening to industry and making the changes.

“Clearly, CSA remains a work in progress, though,” Osiecki said. “In some cases, the recent changes were made with little or no underlying crash risk analyses. The Hazmat Compliance BASIC is a good example.”

However, Ferro dismissed concerns over recent research by the American Transportation Research Institute that concluded at least two of the BASICs don’t directly relate to crash risk.

“Compliance and accountability together yield the strongest safety benefits,” Ferro said. “It’s absolutely accurate that all of these BASICs identify noncompliance, or focus on compliance. Several of the BASICs have a much higher correlation to crash risk.”

Court Sets March 15 Date for Hours Of Service Arguments

American Trucking Associations will argue its case against the hours-of-service rule for truck drivers on March 15 before a federal appeals court in Washington.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said Wednesday it will hear arguments from ATA against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s HOS rule, which the agency issued last December.

The HOS rule, set to take place in July 2013, mandates that truck drivers can only use the 34-hour restart to reset their weekly driving limits once every seven days, and the restart time must include two periods between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. It also requires that drivers take a half-hour rest break before driving more than eight hours in a day.

ATA sought to overturn the rule with its lawsuit, claiming that the cost-benefit analysis FMCSA used to justify the rule was flawed and overstated the prevalence of truck driver fatigue.

Public Citizen, along with other interest groups, also sued to overturn the rule, though they sought a rule that further restricts driver hours. Their lawsuit was combined with ATA’s, so they will also present oral arguments on March 15. 

By Timothy Cama
Transport Topics Staff Reporter

Monday, December 10, 2012

Seven Steps to Effective Decisions

Various military branches have guidelines for complex operations in stressful environments - which I have adapted to transportation operations.  The last two months of the year are critical for most transportation operations.  Most of our clients are running at capacity, weather is changing, and everyone wants to go on vacation at the same time.  
How do you make effective decisions in your operations?  Let me know your thoughts and ideas.  Below are 7 components to consider for your fleet operations:
1.  Analysis.  Conduct an assessment.  Each job, each load is different. 
How critical is it for that load, that postal trip, or that drilling rig to be on site, on time?  You’ve assigned people - how capable are they for this particular job?  What is the risk of weather?   
Develop contingency plans for problems that may arise.
Conduct another assessment when the situation changes.
2.  Situational Awareness.  To make good decisions, we must know what’s going on around us.  Plans are critical to success, but we must be ready to change those plans when the situation changes.   
Some examples; you have planned a lengthy postal run with 5 driver changes each way.  What are your plans if weather forces the third driver to shut down for 12 hours?  You have 6 people and 3 vehicles servicing an oilwell - what happens to that next scheduled job if the crew gets snowed in for a day? 
Complacency and boredom inhibit our situational awareness, causing us to become lazy, stop monitoring, and not create contingency plans.  
Highly stressful situations cause us to hyper focus - in the truck and in the office.  This extraordinary focus causes us to lose sight of what’s going on around us - and to disregard some good advice.  
Maintaining an awareness of our environment helps us to catch those little mistakes before they become big errors.  
3.  Adaptability.  With proper situational awareness, we are able to detect and respond to changes cause by driver failures, equipment failures, changing customer demands, or weather events.  
Are we flexible, and ready to listen to differing opinions?  Do we think we have all the answers, or do we listen to those who may be closer to the situation than we are?  
4.  Communication.  Clear communication is ensuring that people have a clear understanding of what we wish to convey.  It is the sender’s responsibility to make sure communications are received and understood.
However, good communications involves a feedback loop - asking for feedback, monitoring behavior, or watching key performance indicators to make certain the message was received.  In this two-way communications environment created when you ask for feedback, both parties are responsible for the message is received, understood, and effective.
5.  Leadership.  Leaders find a way to accomplish the goal.  Leadership is not about giving orders.  Leadership is not about your position.  Anyone can be a leader - we all have that opportunity.  Through hard work and example, leaders achieve the respect, confidence, collaboration, and loyalty of those we work with.  
6.  Assertiveness.  Assertive people care more about the goal, mission, or job.  Aggressive people are motivated by ego or self-image.
Assertiveness is about communicating concerns and striving for a reasonable resolution.  
7.  Decision Making.  When we lay the foundation as described in the first 6 steps - we have the information and ability to make good decisions.  Some decisions take 20 seconds, and some take 20 months.  The process remains the same.