Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/148061
Logbook Hours confusion: 30-minute break Representatives from the enforcement community have said in the brief time the new hours of service rules have been in effect that the 30-minute break requirement has drawn the most queries. Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance Executive Director Steve Keppler and other sources say the have fielded nearly as many questions over that change as they have the 34hour restart. Keppler also said CVSA anticipates having enough data on the new rules to discuss by its annual conference in September. Some truckers are unsure if both the restart changes and the required break apply to their situation, said Lt. Thomas Fitzgerald, head of commercial vehicle enforcement for the Massachusetts State Police. Traffic stops currently are taking longer than usual because drivers are seeking assurance they are applying the new rules correctly. Troopers have discretion in enforcement, especially if the violations of the new rule are minor and the driver has no history of offenses, said Fitzgerald. Maine is conducting soft enforcement during the first month of implementation, said Lt. Shawn Currie, who heads the state police's commercial vehicle enforcement division. Troopers were issuing out-of-service orders but were "not summoning people to court unless they are repeat violators," he said. While more specific information was not available, Currie reported a drop in violations for truckers in the first week of new HOS compared to the previous seven days. – Jill Dunn New regs and outof-service orders Violation of the mandatory 30-minute break that went into effect last month will bring with it a severity weight of 7 in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Compliance, Safety, Accountability system, but it should not be counted as an out-of-service violation, enforcers say. The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance said in a memo that if it were counted as such in the CSA system, the driver and fleet should pursue removal of the extra points via the agency's DataQs review system. Violating the 60/70-hour rule due to an improper restart, however, will be an out-of-service violation, said CVSA. — Todd Dills Pilot settles lawsuits, agrees to repay with interest Pilot Flying J has agreed to a settlement for the roughly 20 classaction lawsuits brought against it since allegations surfaced in April that the company had defrauded carriers out of millions of dollars in fuel rebates. A judge in Arkansas court approved the settlement agreement July 16. According to court documents, Pilot agreed to pay all of the amounts owed to the lawsuits' plaintiffs plus 6 percent interest on the principal owed. Moreover, Pilot is responsible for paying administrative and accounting fees, attorneys' fees and court costs. Jimmy Haslam, Pilot Flying J Pilot Flying J's settlement agreement is not an admission of guilt, court documents say. owner and chief executive officer, wrote an open letter to customers July 12 saying the truck stop chain already had performed internal audits on all of its 3,000 diesel contracts and had sent checks to customers who were owed money, repaying them in full and with interest. He also said the company had as of June 30 ended all manual rebate calculations. Those calculations were the source of the alleged fraudulent activity, as rebates were not calculated automatically but by a Pilot salesperson. In a July 16 statement, Haslam said Pilot would issue supplemental checks to customers for "any additional interest not included in the original calculation." According to the class-action settlement, any Pilot customer can join the class of plaintiffs and have Pilot perform an audit on their account. – James Jaillet 14 | Overdrive | August 2013 Logbook_0813.indd 14 7/29/13 8:13 PM