Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/388078
12 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2014 JOURNAL NEWS Household goods movers apply for HOS exemption T he American Moving & Storage Association last month asked the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to exempt its members from the 14-hour cap placed on drivers' daily hours-of-service limits. The trade group that represents household goods mov- ers asked the agency to allow drivers for its 3,700-member companies to drive at most another 75 miles or 90 minutes beyond the 14th hour to leave residential areas after deliveries and drive "to the nearest place offering safety and security." FMCSA was accepting public comment on the request until Oct. 9. AMSA said that household goods movers, when facing delays, can be stuck on residential streets when their clocks run out, creating safety concerns for drivers, security problems for their cargo and haz- ards on local streets. Drivers still would be required to be off duty for a full 10 hours before returning to work, AMSA said, and drivers would have to notify their carriers each time an extension is used. Household goods movers are unique, AMSA contended, in that its drivers work in private homes and that loads are not palletized, making loading and unloading more time-consuming. Customer needs also dictate that loading and unloading start between 8 and 9 a.m., AMSA said, but times can be shifted, causing delays for drivers. Impractical alternatives, accord- ing to AMSA, either are stopping a moving crew from finishing load- ing or unloading the shipment or to finish and leave the truck parked on an unsecured residential street for 10 hours. – James Jaillet AMSA said that household goods movers, when facing delays, can be stuck on residential streets when their clocks run out. T he Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will test a new automatic failure feature for new entrant audits and extend its testing of offsite new entrant audits until December. FMCSA said the auto-fail functionality will be imple- mented via an update to its technical systems and will fail carriers automatically during a new entrant safety audit if an automatic failure violation is discovered in documents submitted for the audit. The offsite new entrant audit program began last July and was slated to last 12 months, but the agency said it is being pushed through the end of December to allow it to collect more data on which to base any conclu- sions. FMCSA is required by law to conduct an onsite new entrant audit within 12 months of a carrier's receipt of U.S. Department of Transportation operating author- ity, but the agency feels the onsite audits have grown too expensive and inefficient. Performing the reviews offsite may be a better use of resources and allow the agency to better target higher-risk carriers, it said. – James Jaillet T he Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is accepting public comment through October on its planned study to analyze the safety consequences of the method in which drivers are paid, but not necessarily the amount. "Should the study show that there is a relationship between the methods drivers are paid and the methods' effect on safe driving performance, a potential benefit of the study will … help [carriers] make more informed decisions about safe operations," according to a Federal Register notice published in late August. The study will be conducted through an online survey and will try to determine if a connection exists between how drivers are paid and their driving behavior. The agency randomly will select participating car- riers that will be notified with a letter. An email that contains a link to the questionnaire will be sent to the participants. To comment, go to www.regulations.gov and search Docket No. FMCSA-2014-0325. The results will be released sometime next year, FMCSA said. – James Jaillet FMCSA testing auto-fail feature for new entrants Agency study to evaluate pay-safety connection