Texting Ban For Commercial Vehicles

[redytrk]

From Land Line magazine

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced during last week’s distracted driving summit that the federal ban on texting for commercial drivers was now the “law of the land.” While his message was clear, the final rule technically didn’t hit the Federal Register until today, Monday, Sept. 27. It becomes enforceable starting Oct. 27.

This means that interstate truckers caught texting could face fines of $2,750, while their carriers could face fines of $11,000. Texting will also become a serious violation on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s list of infractions that count against a driver’s CDL. If anyone is wondering about CSA 2010, texting while driving carries a 10-point severity weight rating and is a driver responsible offense.
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Question can Authorities demand to see and browse your phone?

 

[Jeeper]

From Land Line magazine

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced during last week’s distracted driving summit that the federal ban on texting for commercial drivers was now the “law of the land.” While his message was clear, the final rule technically didn’t hit the Federal Register until today, Monday, Sept. 27. It becomes enforceable starting Oct. 27.

This means that interstate truckers caught texting could face fines of $2,750, while their carriers could face fines of $11,000. Texting will also become a serious violation on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s list of infractions that count against a driver’s CDL. If anyone is wondering about CSA 2010, texting while driving carries a 10-point severity weight rating and is a driver responsible offense.
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Question can Authorities demand to see and browse your phone?

I seriously doubt they can search your phone or vehicle to obtain your phone. You can leave your phone in the truck and they couldnt get it with out probable cause/warrant. And I doubt "sir I believe you been texting on your phone I have to see it " is probable cause to search a truck . But who knows. Our rights are taken away more and more each day so wouldnt doubt one bit if they will add an officer can search your phone/or vehicle to find it.

 

[Brisco]

I seriously doubt they can search your phone or vehicle to obtain your phone. You can leave your phone in the truck and they couldnt get it with out probable cause/warrant. And I doubt "sir I believe you been texting on your phone I have to see it " is probable cause to search a truck . But who knows. Our rights are taken away more and more each day so wouldnt doubt one bit if they will add an officer can search your phone/or vehicle to find it.

Wrong....

Any officer who is enforcing DOT rules and regulations has the right to search any commercial motor vehicle at any time they choose without a warrant or probable cause.

Now, searching through ones actual phone, or obtaining phone records, is something they cannot do. A court order, or "warrant", must be obtained to do so.

Personally, I'd like to see a bill introduced that covers "no warrant" searches for the phones and/or records of the phones of operators of commercial motor vehicles. The way the law reads now, as is the way most of the misdemeanor laws are written, an officer must witness you in the act of breaking the "no texting" law.

If you're traveling down the highway with your head pointed down at the steering wheel with your phone in your hand texting away and an officer witnesses this, a fine can be issued. That's the only way. Now, let's put it in another scenario. An Officer can write you up on a "speeding" violation by judging distance traveled vs time it took you to travel said distance just by calculating time and miles in your logbook. If an Officer has access to your phone itself, or the phone records, and sees that texting took place at 1PM, 1:12PM, 2:55PM, etc, while at the same time your logbook shows you "On Duty - Driving" between 12PM to 3:30PM, I say a Ticket/Violation would need to be issued.

Is this too much Government involved?? My Opinion, Hell No. Whatever it takes to keep the public safe from morons driving 80K lb rigs while texting is fine by me. I still see it every day. Gravel Truck drivers flying down Hwy 10 here by my house with drivers texting plain as day. (yes, you see cell phone in right hand, steering wheel in left hand, headed pointed down reading texts, and truck is going 45-55MPH with the rest of traffic) I am witnessing this, but Law Enforcement is NOT.

If they knew there'd be repercussions by comparing driving times on their logbooks vs phone records, then I can probably guess that Texting in Commercial Motor Vehicles would drop considerably. Know what I mean.

 

[redytrk]

In another thread a driver stated how he likes to listen to streaming radio on his phone. If observed, he could be assumed to be texting, while merely tuning in his station.

 

[Turtle]

Dialing a number, even a single button press for a quick-dial, could be viewed as texting, by someone who looks over and sees it, or by a camera (which are ubiquitous these days). Just holding the phone and looking at it to get the time can be viewed as texting. I've done it, and I'm sure most people have, where you look over and see someone texting. But are they texting, or merely dialing a phone number, or looking at the time, or their navigation app?

Or maybe live streaming video of the NFL Network?

 

[Ragman]

Or maybe live streaming video of the NFL Network?

Or the naked people channel.

 

[Slo-Ride]

Thats over 13,000 $ in fines for a violation.
How much is a 4 wheeler fined or are they just singling out CDL holders here?
I totally agreed it shouldn't be done,(and I dont text anywhere)but to create a law with these kinds of fines is obviously nothing more then Revenue enhancement. I cant count the number of times a patrol car has past me with a phone stuck in his ear or he was looking at his phone assuming he was reading or texting. Ive even seen Yahoo web pages on their laptops.
Brisco how could you agree with something like this?
Maybe we should also include a law making the parents of a new driver responsible and fine them up to 11,000$ each time their children get caught texting..
Just another law to make us all criminals

 

[iceroadtrucker]

Texting rule published, this time for real
From Land Line magazine

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced during last week’s distracted driving summit that the federal ban on texting for commercial drivers was now the “law of the land.” While his message was clear, the final rule technically didn’t hit the Federal Register until today, Monday, Sept. 27. It becomes enforceable starting Oct. 27.

This means that interstate truckers caught texting could face fines of $2,750, while their carriers could face fines of $11,000. Texting will also become a serious violation on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s list of infractions that count against a driver’s CDL. If anyone is wondering about CSA 2010, texting while driving carries a 10-point severity weight rating and is a driver responsible offense.

Get the rest of the story here.


CVSA’s Operation Safe Driver set for Oct. 17-23
From Land Line magazine

You may see extra law enforcement out on the highway come mid October. The annual Operation Safe Driver campaign put on by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance focuses on trucks and also on four-wheelers driving dangerously around trucks.



Good Now when I dont answer the text while driving I no longer will here yell and scream about it so put it where the sunn dont shine as its againist the Law.

Glad now I can save some money and get rid of the dum Text crap.

TY

 

[Brisco]

Thats over 13,000 $ in fines for a violation.

How much is a 4 wheeler fined or are they just singling out CDL holders here?

CDL holders should be held to a higher standard and should be professional in all manners when it comes to safety. ie-their standards when operating CMVs should have public safety in mind at all times.

....these kinds of fines is obviously nothing more then Revenue enhancement.

If everyone would abide by the laws in play, there would be no revenue to collect, right?

I cant count the number of times a patrol car has past me with a phone stuck in his ear or he was looking at his phone assuming he was reading or texting. Ive even seen Yahoo web pages on their laptops.

Just about every law enforcement officer out there has a city cell phone issued to them. Those phones are monitored as to why they were used during the time the officer is on duty. Most officers are restricted when it comes to using cell phones for personal use while on duty. In most cases, if you see an officer on a cell phone, he's probably talking to an ADA about a case he's involved with, his dispatch, or another officer.

An officers job does not only entail driving the streets issuing citations. There's a LOT more to being an oficer than just sitting behind the wheel of a Police car. You don't want an officer just sitting in an office for 4-5 hours of his 8 hour shift trying to get all he needs to get done done do you?

I know for a fact you've never seen a "Yahoo" webpage on an MDT in an officers vehicle. The MDTs only connect to City/Police servers, they're not just Laptops out there with internet connections. No city in it's right mind would put their liability in jeapordy by having such access in patrol units.

Maybe we should also include a law making the parents of a new driver responsible and fine them up to 11,000$ each time their children get caught texting..

My opinion, the streets would be safer if this would happen. Parents would do 1 of 2 things. First being not putting their new drivers behind the wheel of a car until they're mature enough to abide by the rules and regs of driving. And second, not providing their new drivers with cell phones that have texting capabilities at all. As someone with 4-500,000 miles driven under his belt, I'd be all for this fine/penalty.

Just another law to make us all criminals.

How can you become a "criminal" if you abide all laws at all times???

 

[Slo-Ride]

CDL holders should be held to a higher standard.



How can you become a "criminal" if you abide all laws at all times???

Every driver should be held to the same set of rules no matter what ya drive. Safety is safety,,If I wreck the only thing thats different is I will have a bigger pile of twisted metal. A wreck in a 4 wheel is just as deadly and properly happens more often then big trucks,,Why arnt we regulating them in the same manner. Why is my broken tail light more costly then the 4 wheeler when it comes to fines?


Thats my point..to many laws being created,,making it near impossible to keep up with..If we all remember basic safety as taught in drivers ed class back when we where 15 years old and stop being such aggressive drivers there would be no need for all this.

On the MDT. Not sure I know what that is..Im referring to laptops just like the one I'm on now.
I'm not down on cops at all,,I just stating they violate the new cell phone laws as much as we do..Its mandatory that I pull off road and legally park this truck before using the QC or any electronic device,,They should to.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

Guess us vans dodge the bullet again...since we are NOT a CMV by definition...

 

[Slo-Ride]

Guess us vans dodge the bullet again...since we are NOT a CMV by definition...

Maybe we need a new law??
Text me and let me know what ya think

 

[highway star]

I'm not down on cops at all,,I just stating they violate the new cell phone laws as much as we do..Its mandatory that I pull off road and legally park this truck before using the QC or any electronic device,,They should to.

They deal with situations that can be life or death and instant communication is vital. We're just truck drivers. It's just common sense that they should be exempt from that type of law in the same way they can speed to a crime scene or accident.

 

[Turtle]

I know for a fact you've never seen a "Yahoo" webpage on an MDT in an officers vehicle. The MDTs only connect to City/Police servers, they're not just Laptops out there with internet connections. No city in it's right mind would put their liability in jeapordy by having such access in patrol units.

Actually, "just laptops out there with Internet connections" is exactly what they are.

A few police departments experimented with 800 mHz closed networks several years ago using Motorola data radio modems connected to laptops, but the 9600-baud narrow bandwidth was extremely limited, limiting data transmission to a few text messages, running license plates, and small data files. The police department with the most extensive of these networks was Leawood, Kansas Police Department, and it only allowed for a maximum of a 30 square mile radius, and allowed for no interdepartmental communication at all which is critical for coordinating multi-jurisdictional responses. And when an officer is not in "line of sight" of a repeater the connectivity is iffy at best. Now, Leawood, Olathe and Overland Park's law enforcement community are in tight communications via the Internet.

Some small and city police departments still utilize the 800 Mhz networks for certain types of communications, but all of them with laptops in the police cars use the Internet to connect via a Web interface to the department's servers via VPN connections. But all of them can surf the Web, including Yahoo, and check e-mail and anything else people do on the Internet (including surfing porn Web sites, as the Columbus, OH police offer got caught doing as outlined in a report by Columbus TV station WSYX on September 6th of this year).

The Philadelphia Police, for example, have 850 police cars, all equipped with laptops using Verizon Mobile Broadband connections. They can surf the Web, follow some punk's Twitter or Facebook account, or log onto state and national law enforcement databases.

There was a story just a couple of weeks ago in the Hendersonville (TN) Star News about the city getting a $19,000 federal grant to help pay for Internet equipped laptops in police cars, which will put them more in line with the surrounding police departments of the Sumner County Sheriff and Gallatin Police.

Maj. Don Linzy of the Sumner County Sheriff’s Department, laptops are in approximately 40 of his department’s cars, and detectives man another 10 or so portable computers.

Linzy cautioned there is an ongoing expense in the form of Internet access, but he said that cost is minimal considering the benefits his department has seen.


“Our officers love it,” he said. “It gives them all that data right at their fingertips.”


Once Hendersonville police officers have Internet access, they can log into the sheriff’s department’s records management system, Linzy said. Jones said they’ll also utilize the state’s new TITAN Records Management System."

Ron Parker, deputy with the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office, uses a Lenova laptop
that connects to the Internet and covers the county’s 569-square-mile area. “That’s
the best and most reliable coverage we’ve found to meet the terrain needs we
have,” Maj. Don Linzy said. (Dessislava Yankova/Hendersonville Star News)

 

[greg334]

Actually too, the preference is to use laptops, primaraly Panisonic Toughbooks. Some "adapters" that are made for Panasonic models are also tied into the camera monitoring systems that are in the cars.

The MDT (Mobile Data Terminal) units are a thing of the past. I have three different models here and each of them seems to S8ck at what they should do. Each of the units I got are from the Detroit Police department and seem to be cutting edge at the time they signed the contract. They were stale on delivery, in one case never delivered on time.

As Turtle pointed out, the bandwidth is one major issue, the lack of any possible interdepartmental communication within some states is another but but this also allows satifaction of the issues with the DoH and other federal agencies through mandates that seem silly about multilevel communication.

The laptop actually provides a very good base for municipal operations, like police. In a few cases, the cop shop can file the paper work of any incident, with video and still shots attached, while still on the road.

 

[layoutshooter]

800MHZ is VERY line of site. High power needed too. Not a big fan of high freq comms. Some lower freqs make it MUCH easier to sneak some stuff in. The Soviets knew that and played it to the max.

 

[Brisco]

And this right here is why almost all Counties, States, Muncipilties, and so on limit, or outright ban, all use of "personal business" of department issued Laptops and Cell Phones.

msnbc.com Video Player

I support ALL law enforcement all over this country, but this right here chaps my yaya. The former officer is a moron, period.

As far as Turtles sought out information posted to discredit what I had to say about MDTs, not worth responding too. Anyone that has kept with LEO's knows that MDT is old slang and that Yes, todays MDTs are Laptops that can be removed and taken from unit to unit. Possibly "Post, Texas", population 789, still has the old timey MDT's in their units, but MDTs of today are mainly Laptops. And, every officer knows that their use of those Laptops are being monitered vehemently by their departments. So I still stand by my original opinion that one will not catch any professional LEO using that MDT/Laptop to search Yahoos homepage while on duty.

 

[Slo-Ride]

And this right here is why almost all Counties, States, Muncipilties, and so on limit, or outright ban, all use of "personal business" of department issued Laptops and Cell Phones.

msnbc.com Video Player

I support ALL law enforcement all over this country, but this right here chaps my yaya. The former officer is a moron, period.

As far as Turtles sought out information posted to discredit what I had to say about MDTs, not worth responding too. Anyone that has kept with LEO's knows that MDT is old slang and that Yes, todays MDTs are Laptops that can be removed and taken from unit to unit. Possibly "Post, Texas", population 789, still has the old timey MDT's in their units, but MDTs of today are mainly Laptops. And, every officer knows that their use of those Laptops are being monitered vehemently by their departments. So I still stand by my original opinion that one will not catch any professional LEO using that MDT/Laptop to search Yahoos homepage while on duty.

As tragic as this is, This could happen just as fast while reaching for a piece of gum or a pack of cig.
I didnt think Turtle was trying to discredit anything, but ill read backwards in a bit..I took it as eductating me as to what a MDT's are.
As far as Police officers using cells and putters,,I know it happens, I see all the time.All most everyday I see a patrol officer on his phone while moving and Im sure some of it work related but as your link here proves not all and it can be done.
Case in point on laptops:
While on layover in Sharonville Ohio awhile back, I was attempting to get into a free wifi connection and couldnt hold it while sitting behind the waffle house,after shutting down laptop and walking in for a cup coffee a local cop comes in. I ask him where I might hold a good connection and he states follow me I going to connect now.. He lead me to the Thortons gas station where we both sat in our vechilces and searched the internet..I see and greet this same officer allmost each time Im on layover there.
Like I said Im not down on the police at all,,I support em alot.
Im just saying your link proves it happens. What I gather there was no jail time for this cop??? Wonder what would have happened if this was A CDL holder. I allso understand he didnt set out to do this. Montioring does allways mean enforcement. (just check my log book)