Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/573961
COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2015 55 COVER STORY: DECREASING INSPECTIONS he believes a "sea change" is coming in two to three years so that CSA "some- how becomes useful to industry." Chief among the program's prob- lems today are the percentile-ranking, nationally comparative nature of the CSA SMS' categories of measurement and the fact that the rankings/scores are available publicly. The problems are due in part to the widely diverging tactics and approaches to inspection selection and other enforcement at the state and local levels. As Murray noted, results of ATRI's relatively recent shipper survey on CSA showed that 96 percent of shippers "were checking existing carrier accounts' scores, and 100 percent were checking prospective accounts." Since its introduction in March, not much seems to have happened with H.R. 1371, the House bill that would require a concerted study and revamp of the program, including pulling SMS per- centile rankings/scores from public view. Attempts to move similar language into drafts of the highway reauthorization may surface again during the next round of talks. Nonetheless, CSA's irregularities remain a topic of large concern. Though inspections fell in 2014, the intensity spread among state enforce- ment departments continued to range widely. Measured by inspections conducted per lane-mile of National Highway System roadway, it was as high as 17 in Maryland and as low as one in Vermont. Also extremely divergent among states are violation profi les. If there's any trend, it's "defi nitely a movement to more moving and hours- of-service violations," says Steve Keppler, Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance executive director. PEACH STATE PULLS BACK Among top-10 enforcement-intense states with the biggest declines in inspec- tions was Georgia. The state dialed back on overall inspections from 81,183 in 2013 to 69,188 in 2014, a 15 percent decline. The reason? Continuing man- power issues, says Capt. Jeremy Vickery of the Georgia Department of Public Safety's Atlanta headquarters. From a high of about 300 dedicated State Patrol troopers involved in com- mercial vehicle enforcement, the state now has 242 offi cers. "The goal is to get back to 300 by 2017," Vickery says. As in other budget-hampered areas across the nation, Georgia is focusing on doing more with less. Part of that solu- tion is relying on technology. The department has put 150 TruCam Lidar guns in operation. The speed-ra- dar guns also have photo, video and GPS capabilities to provide solid evidence of vehicles following too closely. Vickery touts the state's GTACT pro- gram, its version of FMCSA's national Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks ef- fort. With the TruCams in place, "if you can see that video [of a car] 0.2 seconds off the truck's bumper," Vickery says, or vice versa, the notoriously fuzzy offense has a much better chance of sticking in court. With video capability, speeding offenses proceed likewise. Georgia's also one of 11 states that has a performance-based brake tester, a device that measures overall and individual-axle brake performance. North Georgia-based Lt. Lee Robertson says the PBBT is used occasionally by a mobile unit in hilly country with a predominance of log trucks and other units "where they are really using those brakes a lot." It was used at an I-85 scale in Lavonia, Ga., during an unannounced May 6 national brake check blitz. Such units are proving to be a boon for fi nding brake problems, particularly in disc-brake systems where a lot of the components are encased and not easily inspected visually, says Keppler. "Brakes are still the number one issue" nation- wide for inspectors. Brakes also rank high on most states' violation-priorities lists. (In Georgia, brake violations trail only lights and hours of service violations.) Brake viola- tions "used to be predominantly related For further detail on state rankings regarding inspec- tions and violations, visit CCJDigital.com/CSA. ONLINE EXTRAS • CSA's Data Trail — Visit CCJDigital. com/csa for updated maps and full 48-state downloads with 2014 rankings for inspection and violation intensity, from moving violations to clean inspections, hours violations and maintenance subcategories for brakes, lights and tires. • "How to infl uence enforcement actions at roadside" — Search that phrase at OverdriveOnline.com to read inspectors' and owner-operators' tips to communicate e ectively and make your next stop a non-event. For more on the subject, search "discretion is a big word" for an analysis of how o cer discretion plays out in roadside enforcement situations. • Podcast: Latest on the SFD rulemaking — Due later this year, an FMCSA rulemaking will seek to tie inspection/violation data to a carrier's safety tness determination. Dave Heller of the Truckload Carriers Association believes the proposal will represent the industry's best opportu- nity to speak out broadly on the CSA program. Search "industry with a voice" to hear his address at TCA's Safety and Security meeting in April.