Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/358493
38 | Overdrive | August 2014 SHIFTING TARGET says. "We've passed them all, but they put that warning in" on every one for a moving violation, he says. Rudy Supina of the DATTCO bus company remarked on the phenomenon at the February meeting of the CSA Subcommittee of FMCSA's Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee. "We're seeing a huge increase in officers not writing a ticket but only writing [the moving violation] on a motor carrier safety report," Supina said. Supina suggested the practice was a result of FMCSA's announced decision to honor court adjudications of citations by discounting the associated violations' weight in carriers' CSA scores. It's part of the agency's attempt to fix a well- known problem with the DataQs sys- tem, as related litigation brought by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association alleges a lack of due process for violations associated with a citation. Put forward as a proposal late last year, after a court decides in favor of a driver and throws out a citation, the discounting in the CSA SMS will take place through the DataQs violation appeals process from Aug. 23, according a June FMCSA announcement. In Overdrive's 2014 CSA survey, however, a majority of drivers report- ed no discernible change in officers' citation-writing practice since the Da- taQs-change announcement. One-third saw the announcement as resulting in a greater likelihood that a citation would be issued. If Carlson's example is any indi- cation, such results might show some wishful thinking, given drivers at least can challenge a citation in a court of law. Moving violations marked without an attendant citation won't appear on drivers' individual Motor Vehicle Re- cords, but prospective employers will be able to access the violations via drivers' Pre-Employment Screening Program reports. The only way to contest viola- tions from that record is via FMCSA's DataQs appeals process. The state where Carlson's incident took place, Indiana, ranks No. 5 on the list of states least likely to issue a clean inspection. Only 18.5 percent of its to- tal 2013 inspections uploaded without a single mark against the carrier or driver. On the other hand, 51 percent of the inspections issued by Pennsylvania enforcement were clean in 2013. The truck enforcement program there in some ways resembles that in Indiana, however. More state and local officers are certified to perform driver creden- tials inspections to "capture the moving violations," says Cpl. Rick Koontz of the Pennsylvania State Police Commer- cial Vehicle Safety Division. It's what "really causes CMV crashes – not the lights, the brakes or the tires. It's driver error." With about 700 inspectors, Pennsyl- vania in 2013 also changed the makeup of officer-required minimum inspec- tions to include more Level 3 inspec- tions. There was some success last year. Pennsylvania's issued moving viola- tions stood at 7.7% of its violations in 2013, up a full percentage point and then some from 2012. The total number of inspections performed was way up from 2012, launching the state to No. 2 in Overdrive's inspection intensity analy- sis, behind only neighboring Maryland. Despite a high-priority grant the state received from the MCSAP program in 2011 to focus on bus inspections and safety, Koontz says "the majority of our increase in inspections are not of pas- senger vehicles – they are trucks." As of Aug. 23, there will be relief from violations thrown out in court in the CSA SMS and/or the Pre-employment Screen- ing Program, as shown in this chart. In order to get a violation removed, drivers and carriers will need to provide docu- mentation of court judgments relative to the citation and associated violations via FMCSA's DataQs system: dataqs.fmcsa. dot.gov. Violations issued before Aug. 23 will not be eligible for dismissal. Revising adjudicated citations Convicted of a lesser charge Append inspection to indicate violation "resulted in conviction of a different charge." In SMS, change severity weight to 1. COURT ACTION RESULT IN SMS/PSP Citation dismissed with fine or punitive court costs Violation not removed Citation dismissed without fine or punitive court costs Remove violation Not guilty verdict Remove violation online extRas Visit OverdriveOnline.com/csa to find updated versions of CSA activity: • Violation priority lists for hours and maintenance violations, among other ranked state data. • An interactive U.S. map plotting clean inspections and violations by state. • Free downloads listing in greater detail the states' inspection numbers and violation priorities.