Overdrive

August 2015

Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info

Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/550385

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 56 of 111

August 2015 | Overdrive | 55 C omparatively speaking, Wisconsin doesn't perform a lot of truck or driver inspec- tions. The three inspections for every lane-mile of national highway system roadway in its borders that it con- ducted in 2014 puts it down in the lower tier of states for inspection intensity in Overdrive's analysis. But in another metric, it's almost tied for fi rst in the nation: violations per in- spection. It joins Connecticut, which we profi led in the October 2014 issue, at the top of the rankings for toughest states for truckers, with more than three violations issued for every inspection performed. However you slice it, the state's clearly taking a targeted-enforcement approach that leaves little room for improvement of carriers' Compliance, Safety, Accountability scores with clean inspections. J. Webb Kline, owner of the Pennsylvania-based Cream of the Crop small fl eet, saw once again earlier this year how a single adverse inspection can send one or more of the program's Behavior Analysis and Safety Improve- ment Category (BASIC) measures into the veritable stratosphere. Seemingly overnight, Cream of the Crop shot up above the 90th percentile in the Hours of Service Compliance BASIC. With an hours score above the "intervention threshold," signaled by the golden triangle in the carrier's CSA Safety Measurement System profi le, Kline's fl eet automatically will be placed in the "inspect" category in the federal Inspection Selection System, with a score above 75. Hours of Service is the only single CSA BASIC treated this way in the ISS. The problematic inspection occurred when a sheriff , in concert with the Wis- consin Department of Transportation, wouldn't let a driver correct a log book mistake he'd made prior to a single-vehi- cle, no-fault accident. Ultimately, more than one hours violation was issued. If anything, the only violation should have been form and manner, Kline concluded Targeting enforcement for violations Only one state does it better – or in some truckers' perspectives, worse – than Wisconsin BY TODD DILLS CSA's DATA TRAIL STANDOUT STATES Wisconsin TOP 10 MOST INTENSE STATES FOR VIOLATIONS The usual suspects at the top of the rank- ings didn't change much between 2013 and 2014. Wisconsin neighbors Minnesota and Iowa were close in violations per inspec- tion, but Minnesota took the 10th spot. 11. Iowa — 2.14 violations per inspection 1. Connecticut 3.19 2. Wisconsin 3.18 3. Texas 2.93 4. Virginia 2.83 5. Arizona 2.71 6. Massachusetts 2.52 7. Rhode Island 2.52 8. Idaho 2.49 9. South Carolina 2.45 10. Minnesota 2.18 Top 10 toughest states for violations per inspection

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Overdrive - August 2015