Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/611028
LOGBOOK 18 | Overdrive | December 2015 A rule that takes effect Jan. 29 enacts fines of up to $16,000 for any carrier, broker, shipper, receiver or anyone else in the supply chain that attempts to force drivers to operate their ve- hicles when it would violate federal rules to do so. Such coercive acts generally come in the form of threatening truck drivers with fewer miles, fewer loads or other economic harm. The rule establishes protocol for drivers to report instances of coercion to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for a follow-up investigation and minimum criteria for the agency to investigate such claims. Drivers must file their complaints within 90 days of any alleged coercion and must provide FMCSA with any evidence, such as messages or recorded phone conversations. As of this writing, a rule mandating electronic logging devices awaited publication in the Federal Register. This final version will take effect two years after publication, giving carriers and owner-op- erators that long to comply. The proposed version of the e-log rule was published in March 2014, calling for all drivers currently required to keep paper records of duty status to install and use the devices. The rule will spell out minimum hardware and software requirements and outline provisions to try to put limits on location track- ing and to prevent driver harassment, such as carriers messaging off-duty drivers. The U.S. Department of Transportation projects three other trucking-related rules to be published by yearend: SPEED LIMITERS. A final rule to mandate the use of speed limiters was still in queue at press time. The rule will likely require all new trucks to be limited to a cer- tain speed, but it could apply retroactively to all trucks in the U.S. ENTRY-LEVEL TRAINING. A rule to set standards for entry-level driver training, also in its proposed form, is scheduled to clear the Office of Management and Budget Dec. 18 and be published Dec. 28. The rule has not been made public, so what it will require is not yet known. An industry stakeholder committee that fleshed out its basic form before handing it to FMCSA recommended requiring 30 hours of be- hind-the-wheel training time and establishing certified curricula for commercial driver's license applicants and a registry of driver training providers. SAFETY FITNESS DETER- MINATION. FMCSA's Safety Fitness Determination rule will effectively be an exten- sion of the agency's Compli- ance, Safety, Accountability program. It would allow the agency to produce absolute safety scores for carriers, working at least in part with CSA's Safety Measurement Sys- tem's percentile rankings and drawing from a similar data well of roadside inspections, violation history and onsite inspections. No text of the rule has been released. – James Jaillet Driver coercion rule published A final version of the electronic logs rule will take effect two years after publication. The rule prohibiting driver coercion takes effect next month. XPO LOGISTICS' $3 billion acquisition of Con-way became official Oct. 30, making XPO North America's second-largest less-than- truckload company. All of the acquired operations – Con-way Freight, Menlo Logistics, Con-way Truckload and Con-way Multimodal – now operate under the XPO Logistics brand. FOOD AND DRINKS were the most common type of cargo theft, representing 22 percent of all thefts, in the third quarter. The average loss per cargo theft incident was $199,467, a 7 percent increase over the second quarter, according to FreightWatch International. California experienced 20 percent of thefts nationwide, leading all states. WAL-MART TRANSPORTA- TION'S James Hylan Grise was presented the National Driver of the Year Award by the American Trucking Asso- ciations. Grise began his driv- ing career 42 years ago, and he's logged more than 4.25 million accident-free miles. He qualified for the National Truck Driving Championships in 2005, 2011 and 2012.