Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/911782
42 | Overdrive | December 2017 A SILVER LINING to e-logs and the virtual elimination in such operations of so-called "form and manner" hours violations, the largest category of hours violation. Hours violations in 2016 broadly were down by 15 percent compared to 2014, when they reached a recent-years peak. Unless an operator using e-logs obvi- ously is over hours or has disconnected his ELD in the past eight days, there isn't a lot roadside can argue with other than finding evidence to prove inaccurate ac- counting of non-driving time – an often cumbersome process. Most truckers with fleets using e-logs, Preston argues, have become less concerned with roadside officers inspecting logs than with "some safety manager's phone going off" to report the driver's over his hours. In short, Preston and CVSA's Mooney believe ELDs will continue to lead a fall- off in hours violations. With vehicle-re- lated violations also falling off – the 2016 vehicle violation total was 8 percentage points less than that recorded in 2014 – and with increasing focus on improving the data well for CSA to score carriers, expect attention to continue to focus on moving violations. Those violations had been rising as a share of the total for years, even though the number of the violations kept drop- ping. 2016 was no exception, but for the first time in the last few years, the raw numbers of moving violations recorded actually increased in 2016 by 2 percent. Mooney says a lot of ticket-writing activity at the roadside isn't captured in these numbers today because many state jurisdictions employ people who are out- side the CMV-enforcement umbrella. A citation for speeding from a trooper who is not CVSA-certified, for instance, won't be accompanied by any inspection and thus "does not make its way to CSA." Not so for CVSA-certified inspectors, but depending on the time available, they may not complete an inspection report themselves. The congressionally mandated Nation- al Academy of Sciences report on CSA, issued this year, recommended identifica- tion and use of new sources of data for the system that underpins carrier scores. MOST INTENSE ENFORCEMENT * Maryland 16 California 16 Texas 10 New Mexico 10 2 Arizona 8 1 Washington 8 1 Kentucky 6 Indiana 6 8 Mississippi 6 1 Missouri 6 7 LEAST INTENSE ENFORCEMENT 1 North Dakota 1 Idaho 2 Wyoming 2 Virginia 2 Oklahoma 2 Massachusetts 3 Wisconsin 3 Minnesota 3 Michigan 3 Vermont More than 60 percent of inspec- tions conducted at roadside. More than 60 percent of inspections conducted at a fixed location. INSPECTIONS PER LANE-MILE In 2016, total inspections counted by Overdrive sister company RigDig Business Intelligence (RigDigBI.com) rose by more than 130,000 to 3,264,342 inspections, a 4.4 percent rise over 2015 totals. As the list illustrates, there was considerable vari- ation at the state level. RigDig mines data from all inspections of trucks and drivers for carriers with an associated U.S. DOT number. *Ar ro ws indicate the number of places the state's tr uck enforcement unit moved up or do wn the rankings in 2016. " There is a concerted effort among the states to complete inspection reports when no violations are found. " — Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance Executive Director Colin Mooney