Some tidbits presented to the ATA Conference

OntarioVanMan

Retired Expediter
Owner/Operator

greg334

Veteran Expediter
How many vans are there?

How many trucks are there?

How much freight do you think go on trucks compared to vans?

The feds respond to the trucking industry, when there is such hard regulations that can't be worked, then they will relax the regs again because that is their bread and butter.
 

ConfusedMuse

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
"Trucking executives fear CSA 2010 will make it harder to find and hire qualified drivers and 25.2 percent of the executives said it was their leading concern." This is why if YOU make the cut, and are still out there running your company's freight, it only makes sense that YOUR rate of pay needs to go up! Stop running for cheap freight rates, YOUR now one of the BEST, get paid with something that reflects your ability to be the BEST.
 

greg334

Veteran Expediter
Frankly, the issue with the CSA2010 is a non-issue.

The percentage of inspections done by inspectors who are in the field would not increase the chances of mitigating the issues caused by poor drivers and cause any mass removal of drivers. One of the issues that needs to be addressed are the needed resources which are now limited. I heard a number from the FMCSA that the truck average inspections are at a rate of .03% per 10,000 trucks, so unless they shut down freeways and inspect every truck on them at that time, the CSA 2010 won't do a lot other than get people to become better conformist.

The truth is no where to be found with the premise that with a clean CSA score, you are in the top of your class and deserve a better rate. It is still too easy to get a license, to drive the truck and to keep your score low. Rates are rates which are set by the shipper, not the industry that serves them. Unless we fight for a limitation of drivers/trucks servicing the industry, than rates will progress up a bit and fluctuate.

The intended target from every discussion about the CSA 2010 is not the drivers but the carriers who employ/contract poor drivers. Companies who can even qualify for prepass or have a very poor safety record and get the dreaded audits yearly.
 

jelliott

Veteran Expediter
Motor Carrier Executive
US Army
Frankly, the issue with the CSA2010 is a non-issue.

The percentage of inspections done by inspectors who are in the field would not increase the chances of mitigating the issues caused by poor drivers and cause any mass removal of drivers. One of the issues that needs to be addressed are the needed resources which are now limited. I heard a number from the FMCSA that the truck average inspections are at a rate of .03% per 10,000 trucks, so unless they shut down freeways and inspect every truck on them at that time, the CSA 2010 won't do a lot other than get people to become better conformist.

The truth is no where to be found with the premise that with a clean CSA score, you are in the top of your class and deserve a better rate. It is still too easy to get a license, to drive the truck and to keep your score low. Rates are rates which are set by the shipper, not the industry that serves them. Unless we fight for a limitation of drivers/trucks servicing the industry, than rates will progress up a bit and fluctuate.

The intended target from every discussion about the CSA 2010 is not the drivers but the carriers who employ/contract poor drivers. Companies who can even qualify for prepass or have a very poor safety record and get the dreaded audits yearly.

While the drivers are not the current targets, every driver now has a psp score, that carriers will look be looking at. Every driver is being rated in the FMCSA data base. They may not be doing direct driver interventions today, but I believe that is the next step in this whole process. Wait and watch.....
 

greg334

Veteran Expediter
They may not be doing direct driver interventions today, but I believe that is the next step in this whole process. Wait and watch.....

I agree it is a wait and watch scenario but see John many make this out as something big when it isn't.

The issues I see has to do with the grey areas and how the carriers individually will mitigate those areas. I don't see it as an issue where the driver who has a poor record will just be booted but rather many drivers will face a situation where the carrier may write their own rules, take things out of context to mitigate risk and subject the driver to them in all sorts of fashion - legal or not.

The other issue is resources, because the CSA 2010 is not a proactive approach to reducing the problem targets but rather a reactive approach, resources are not utilized to the point that they can be as effective as they should be. MOST of the CSA 2010 stuff comes from roadside inspections and like I said unless there is a big push to improve those numbers, drivers will slip through the system undetected and the notion that this will improve things for our bottom line is dispelled.
 

OntarioVanMan

Retired Expediter
Owner/Operator
ask ya this...will a brand new driver NO experience be better off point wise then a 20 year veteran with say 2 minor penalties?
 

jelliott

Veteran Expediter
Motor Carrier Executive
US Army
ask ya this...will a brand new driver NO experience be better off point wise then a 20 year veteran with say 2 minor penalties?

Sadly, that is part of the fault of the system. Carriers are now starting to review a drivers CSA score, just like they do an MVR record.
 

jelliott

Veteran Expediter
Motor Carrier Executive
US Army
I am not totally sure. I think a time weighted factor would help. But that has flaws as well. A driver who runs local will have less chance of getting points than an over the road driver.
 

OntarioVanMan

Retired Expediter
Owner/Operator
I don't think the system is fair...or the proposed system when it over looks the experience factor and kind of rewards the inexperienced drivers...inexperienced should be a minus factor as well....

say one drives a year and no infractions or just gets lucky...maybe a point plus system..
 

greg334

Veteran Expediter
I think if experience and other soft factors are involved, then it will become a big mess.

Again the issue isn't an issue for those who are proactive in making things run right, following the rules and staying on top of their truck and safety. If this means that a few don't like it, oh well.
 

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
CSA 2010 is about making carriers with a history of safety violations clean up their act. You see it all the time, a big truck gets into an accident and soon thereafter it comes out that the driver, the truck or the carrier has a history of violations to the point where the violations are a pattern. Until now, those patterns were never really observed as a whole, or even on an individual cases unless an audit was performed on a specific carrier. CSA 2010 creates the database where those with a problem pattern in safety can be identified and corrected, whatever the corrective means might be.

Like many drivers, there are many carriers who are just freakin' out over this. Some carriers are going to want perfect records, and they'll get rid of drivers who aren't perfect even if their driver record is, comparatively speaking, just fine and not an indication of a problem pattern at all.

We've been getting weekly updates as to the number of infractions in the fleet, and what they are, and which states seem to be the most gung ho about it. If you look at the numbers within the narrow scope of those numbers, you'll freak out, cause they sure look like a lot of infractions. OMG! But when compared to other carriers, it's about average, probably better than average, no indication of a systemic problem at all. Except for the carriers who overreact, it's basically a "move along, nothing to see here" type of thing.
 

jelliott

Veteran Expediter
Motor Carrier Executive
US Army
Tough on the carriers for sure. Michigan, Indiana and Ohio are 3 of the highest enforcement states. So when a carrier runs a high percentage of miles in these states they are unfairly held to a different standard on CSA. They should have a weighted system for states with high enforcement versus states that do 75% less inspections and tickets for instance.
 

OntarioVanMan

Retired Expediter
Owner/Operator
Tough on the carriers for sure. Michigan, Indiana and Ohio are 3 of the highest enforcement states. So when a carrier runs a high percentage of miles in these states they are unfairly held to a different standard on CSA. They should have a weighted system for states with high enforcement versus states that do 75% less inspections and tickets for instance.

The old cliche.."the cost of running your business"
 

greg334

Veteran Expediter
You do know there is a little talk about more Carrier Enforcement officers being brought online in the near future due to the money maker it is. With 8% of the tickets being contested from out of state truckers, they see dollar signs on every truck coming into the state.

However, they do now have pre-pass.
 

Jack_Berry

Moderator Emeritus
moz-screenshot-23.png
hey john, how will csa 2010 count this violation?

swifttrailer.jpg












okay a tornado turned it over back home yesterday, but still the police will be called......
 
Top