Sorry,i didn't know that was the type of inspections you were refering to.

 

I don't think that it is ever safe to stop a truck to inspect it on the side of the road. If they want to inspect trucks they need to have a safe place to pull a safe distance from the roadway. There have been a number of incidents in recent years where state troopers have been killed by cars veering off the road and hitting them. I don't see the need for any cities to have people out inspecting trucks along a road, especially a major interstate. It is nothing but a money grab by cities and states who can't manage their money.

 

The 'Black box' is a figure of speech

All it amounts to is an update via satellite to the Qualcomm already inside the truck.

 

It is a little more involved for those of us who don't have qualcomm. It is also likely to be quite expensive. If you want to have a black box in your own truck or the larger carriers want to have them, then that is fine. I just don't see that the entire industry needs to have them mandated by the ATA or a handful of people or organizations. They are unnecessary and will only increase our cost of doing business which is the last thing any of us need.

 

I read up on these new rules coming down on our industry after receiving an email stating that 175,000 driving jobs at a minimum would be lost within the first year of the CSA 2010 implemetation. I don't know how true this will be, but tagging drivers and equipment for everything under the sun seems to me that it could lead to some heavy losses in employment. Just one angry DOT cop could pretty much ruin a guy if I read the new rules correctly.

The point section is something you guys need to read as far as it applies to drivers. To me, it looked pretty heavy handed and could realy screw up ones SAFER score to the point of putting a small outfit out of business. A bad SAFER score is something that you can yell and scream at a driver about till the cows come home, as that is the side of the industry that they no nothing, if little about. It is factored into your insurance rates and many brokers and shippers check this score to determine if you will haul the freight.

Any comments, or are my reading comprehension skills out of whack?

 

Part of an article I have been reading on the CSA 2010 :

Under article 444,the wording has been changed.It now says:

Carriers and CEO's now have a LEGAL and MORAL obligation to prevent violations.

All persons coming into contact with the driver or having an influence over the driver

are held accountable.



For too long these companies have managed to pull off the perfect crime....keeping the drivers out there doing their dirty and illegal work.

Hopefully those days are coming to an end.

 

There is little that a carrier or owner can do to insure that a truck or driver won't be put out of service. The carrier or owner cannot make repairs unless the driver does his job and a proper pre trip. The driver must also inform the owner or carrier so that repairs can be made. It should be up to the driver to determine if his load is legal and that everything is in proper working order. For instance, if a driver picks up a loaded trailer then it is up to him to determine if the load is legal by finding the first CAT scale and weighing his load. It is up to the driver to determine whether he has enough hours to make a delivery in a timely manner. I understand that there are some carriers who may encourage drivers to push the limit, but it is ultimately up to the driver to determine whether he can legally run a load or not. There has been some discussion about having a driver's record follow him rather than the carrier. The thought is to get the bad drivers out of the business. If a driver constantly has out of service or other violations then he isn't safely doing his job. The feds want to get these drivers out of trucking.

 

No. They're an endangered species thing . .

Trucking firms flip on digital logbooks - JSOnline

"Reiser said the industry consensus seems to be that the wheels are moving toward electronic logging, although it may be some time before there's a government mandate."

"Phoenix-based Swift Transportation Corp., another of the country's largest trucking firms, will move to electronic logging on several thousand of its rigs, according to an executive with Qualcomm Inc., which will provide the equipment."

As a company Driver, if my employer elects to sign on, I reckon I'm signing on. From a safety standpoint, I don't have any problem with this or any new enforcement technology/activity. Unfortunately, neither this nor CSA 2010 are going to do anything to address the issue of the untold numbers of just plain rotten commercial drivers.

 

Have you looked at the scoring that is being proposed in regards to the driver? These are some pretty heavy handed new rules coming down. I always tried my best to run legal, but it is not always possible to do in every situation, this is just a reality of the business. We are not machines, no matter what we know or how good we are at our jobs. And that is how I interpreted the new regs for drivers, we are machines and we will comply. And if we don't, we will be punished to the full extent of the law with SAFER as the weapon.

And yes, get the bad drivers off the road, I have no issues with that line of thinking. But again, I go back to these new rules and how they score a driver. As I said earlier, one DOT cop with an attitude could literally ruin a driver and or company in under an hour if he wanted to. The new scoring system is rather complicated and runs on multipliers along with allowing a DOT officer to make assumptions with no proof. Like MN and their little roadside fatigue survey, do you have a cell phone... This is apart of the new CSA regulations and it is coming to your neighborhood soon.

I would not take this stuff lightly and you guys really need to read up on it. It is already being tested in several states, and so far, it has been a nightmare for more than one trucking company. And it looks like it could honestly take many of the smaller outfits right out of business with the fines alone. Just do some searching, there is allot of info out there.

Here is a good place to start CSA2010

And here, check the left sidebar for all of the scoring, shocking to say the least. http://www.csa2010.com/

 

You need to do a bit of studying in regards to CSA 2010. This is very complicated and convoluted set of new regs coming down.

Start reading here, CSA2010

And here, check the left side bar, as this is the best site I have found on this subject. http://www.csa2010.com/

And I think that 175,000 drivers losing their jobs may be a bit conservative. This is some scary stuff, especially for the little guy.