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Author Archives: Steve Bryan
Does your dog bite, Monsieur?
Here at Vigillo, we get a lot of questions about the story that lurks in a carrier’s CSA data. Recently, one of our customers asked about the connection between OOS Driver Violations and high Fatigue BASIC percentile scores. His hypothesis was that carriers with high OOS ratios (driver OOS Violations as a % of all driver Inspections) would likely have higher Fatigue BASIC scores. In other words, his OOS violations were biting him. This very smart fellow thought that he might focus on OOS violations as a lever to drive down his Fatigue BASIC score. I found this line of reasoning interesting, so had a look at the data on the 3/4 million carriers we monitor. Read more
CARRIER SAFETY FITNESS PROPOSAL SUBMITTED TO SECRETARY’S OFFICE
Reported by Rick Schweitzer, NPTC
CARRIER SAFETY FITNESS PROPOSAL SUBMITTED TO SECRETARY’S OFFICE
A draft proposed rule to revise the motor carrier safety fitness standards was submitted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to the Office of the Secretary of Transportation for review on December 19, 2011. DOT plans to send the proposed rule to the Office of Management and Budget for clearance by January 19, 0212, with publication in the Federal Register planned for July 2, 0212.
The rulemaking would revise 49 CFR Part 385 in accordance with the FMCSA’s Comprehensive Safety Analysis (CSA) initiative. Currently, the safety fitness rating of a motor carrier is determined based on the results of a very labor intensive compliance review conducted at the carrier’s place of business. Aside from roadside inspections and new audits, the compliance review is the agency’s primary tool for intervention with carriers.
Under CSA, FMCSA would propose to implement a broader array of progressive interventions, some of which allow FMCSA to make contact with more carriers. Through this rulemaking FMCSA intends to establish safety fitness determinations based on safety data from crashes, inspections, and violation history rather than just the standard compliance review.
State Enforcement Analyzer – New Product from Vigillo’s IQLab
We have blogged here in the past regarding the issue of disparate enforcement of CSA violations state to state. Well, we’ve run some new numbers and its difficult to know where to begin. We could talk about Louisiana seatbelts, Indiana speeding, Texas lights, Georgia logs or Maryland medical certificates… or we could go on at length on the five public BASICs; Fatigue, Maintenance, Unsafe, Substance and Fitness and how their relative importance meanders across the nation like some serpentine beastie. What is a safety professional to do? What in the heck is a driver to do? We decided to package it all up and make the research and data available to anyone who is inclined to dive in and have a look. (Its $99 at the IQLab)
It’s tempting to look for some unifying theory and to stomp our feet and demand consistency…bottom line, ya just gotta know. Disparate enforcement is how the world exists today, and its critical that these state by state enforcement priorities get communicated to your drivers. The Top Violations by State Analyzer shows you what you and your drivers need to know as you cross state lines.
Vigillo has compiled the latest data on inspections and top violations by state, correlated to CSA BASIC, and bundled it up in an Excel Workbook with Pivot Table tools that can be easily sorted, filtered, sliced and diced to give you the view you need into the enforcement mindset of the states in which you operate. We even included some cool maps. You can print em and roll em up as stocking stuffers.
Visit the Vigillo IQLab and order yours today, just click on the “Top Violations by State” link, and we’ll send it to you promptly.
Red Flags, States and GAO focus on drivers
Heading into 2012, CSA is set to bring new levels of focus directly on commercial truck drivers. Today on RoadDog Radio, I’ll be discussing the specifics with Evan Lockridge. Tune in at 2:00 EST.
Red Flag Violations http://blog.vigillo.com/2011/11/see-drew-anderson-in-a-tie/ & http://blog.vigillo.com/2011/05/red-flags/
Disparate Treatment of CSA between States
General Accounting Office Report GAO CSA Findings
Example of Disparate Enforcement – Seatbelts
New ATRI Survey on CSA Perspectives
New research Reveals Motor Carrier csa perspectives
Arlington, VA – The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) today released its report detailing the extent to which CSA has impacted the daily operations of trucking companies. ATRI’s report also describes and analyzes motor carrier attitudes toward and comprehension of FMCSA’s new regulatory program, based on survey data collected from 695 motor carriers.
While first year CSA impacts have not been dramatic, carriers who self-reported having one or more BASICs above threshold were markedly more likely to experience negative changes to their shipper and broker utilization. Overall, however, most carriers believed CSA represents an improvement over SafeStat, and that it will remove unsafe carriers and drivers from the industry and improve safety. Carriers also displayed a high level of knowledge on ATRI’s 14-item CSA knowledge test, although knowledge varied with certain carrier traits and attitudes.
This is the second release by ATRI examining CSA impacts; earlier this year ATRI released the results of its commercial driver CSA survey. “Our plan is to conduct both of these CSA surveys annually,” commented Rebecca Brewster, ATRI President and COO, “and believe that both surveys will become key annual indicators of CSA impacts and progress over time.” Later this year ATRI will release its full CSA study, juxtaposing carrier and driver CSA impacts, along with additional CSA statistical analyses.
A copy of the motor carrier and driver survey results are available from ATRI at www.atri-online.org.
ATRI is the trucking industry’s 501(c)(3) not-for-profit research organization. It is engaged in critical research relating to freight transportation’s essential role in maintaining a safe, secure and efficient transportation system.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Dan Murray
(651) 641-6162
November 17, 2011
Breaking news from Transcomp, Atlanta
Breaking news from Transcomp, Atlanta: Jack Van Steenberg, assistant administrator FMCSA, shared some snippets in a presentation on CSA he made this morning at the Transcomp exhibition in Atlanta, GA.
FMCSA reports that the new crash accountability panel, consisting of staff “currently being hired” will operate for two years, then Crash BASIC will be made public.
120,000 crashes per year potentially reviewed by crash panel, current belief is tha 40% are fault of the truck driver
Crash panel challenges will be handled through DataQs
FMCSA will release guidelines for shippers for selecting carriers within the next 2 months
FMCSA reports that 83% of carriers who received warning letters had CSA scores drop in subsequent months.
FMCSA received data from over 3.5 M roadside inspections last year, one third of which were clean inspections.
LATEST ON HAZMAT CHANGE
Mr. Van Steenberg also reported that the agency is looking at removing non-Hazmat violations from the Cargo BASIC, rolling them into Maintenance, and leaving a new HAZMAT BASIC “that would be made public immediately” I asked during Q&A what the agency’s timing is on the release of this new BASIC. A: “We will do two major updates in 2012. one early in the year, one later in the year…it will not be in the first one”
Stubborn Vehicle Maintenance Scores
Contributed by David Mitchell, Director of Risk Control & Safety at Aon
Are stubborn CSA scores giving you nightmares? Shippers are using the scores as a trucking company selection tool, and underwriters are reconsidering pricing for fleets with poor scores. Vehicle maintenance scores are especially stubborn; many fleets have not been able to earn an acceptable score. If your maintenance scores are above the 60th percentile, it’s time to change old habits…..
There are 2 myths that keep maintenance scores high. The first myth is often expressed as “If my drivers would do the pre-trip inspection they should do, our scores would be much better.”
The second myth is “My maintenance department is all over this”.
To fix items discovered during a pre-trip inspection, your driver will need tools, training, time, and pay. Do you have trained mechanics as drivers; provide hand tools, lights, hoses, air compressor; allow 30 minutes to make repairs; and pay your driver for those 30 minutes? If you do all this, your drivers’ pre-trip inspection and repairs can make a nice improvement in your vehicle scores. More typical fleets can expect that better pre-trip inspections may only result in vehicle maintenance scores of 79 instead of 81.
Your maintenance department has a 20-year history of managing according to CVSA Out of Service criteria and a department budget based on that criteria. CSA measures all perceived vehicle violations— the Out of Service standards never anticipated this tough level of compliance. In general, fleets are finding that their CSA scores have nine violations for every single Out of Service Violation. Your fleet cannot solve nine violations for the same cost as solving the previous one violation.
Fleets with improved maintenance scores are inspecting and servicing all tractors and trailers more frequently. I recently met with a fleet where service intervals were changed from 10,000 miles to 8,000 miles. As a result, their maintenance scores are better, but maintenance costs are higher.
Have you released your maintenance director from old budget constraints? Have you retrained all mechanics on the new inspection and service procedures that are now required? Are you spending 30% more on hoses and lights? Is your Maintenance VP accountable for vehicle scores?
If so, “Your maintenance department is all over this.”
Small Carrier Solution Bundle
Vigillo to Bundle CSA Solutions for Small Carriers
360 Degree CSA Solution for $99 per Month
Portland, Oregon– October 13, 2011— Vigillo LLC, creators of Daylight™, the CSA Platform for Transportation, today announced it has created a bundle of all of its CSA products at a steep discount for carriers under 100 drivers. The bundling includes solutions for the carrier, its drivers and brokerage.
“We look at this bundling as a way for smaller fleets, those with the least available resources to dedicate to the tasks of managing CSA, to have the best-in-class tools that enable them to easily handle all aspects of CSA from pre-hire screenings, to managing violations to brokering due diligence” said Steven G. Bryan, CEO of Vigillo.
The $99 CSA Solution will include:
CSA Scorecard Subscription – Vigillo’s flagship CSA product that includes over 100 interactive reports to gain invaluable insight into a fleet’s CSA performance in an easy-to-read scorecard format.
Inspection Management System – a state-of-the-art technology that works alongside the Scorecards and compares, corrects, and tracks inspection data. Missing and erroneous data on inspections, violations, drivers and vehicles is highlighted and available for immediate correction in all Vigillo Scorecard Reports and for optional submission to FMCSA’s DataQ’s system.
PSP Converter – A downloadable application that converts FMCSA Pre-Employment Screening Program reports into meaningful and valuable analysis of driver candidates. A Scorecard is generated for each driver candidate that includes CSA points by BASIC and Average CSA Points by Inspection, as well as a safety event timeline that graphically displays an applicant’s roadside performance history.
Carrier Select™ - A powerful analysis and monitoring tool providing shippers, brokers and insurers with real-time visibility on a carrier’s insurance status, operating authority and safety performance.
Roadside Resume™ – The only service in the trucking industry that makes CSA scores available directly to individual drivers. Roadside Resume can only be offered to drivers of Vigillo Customers and Affiliates.
Join the Wiser Fleet Movement Today, contact Vigillo Sales at sales@vigillo.com
Roadside Resume available to 300,000 Drivers
This summer, Vigillo partnered with Dan Baker, driver advocate extraordinaire, to bring awareness of Roadside Resume to commercial truck drivers. I am very pleased to give an update on progress and announce that almost 850 motor carriers have joined Vigillo and Dan in agreeing to make their roadside inspection data available to Roadside Resume so their combined 300,000 drivers can have direct access to their CSA Scores.
CSA is designed to improve highway safety, yet has no provisions for making driver data available to drivers. Its as if the teachers know the grades, but we don’t tell the students; a very odd way to improve outcomes.
Carriers only need to agree to share their FMCSA data with Roadside Resume, there is no cost to carrier or driver, and it remains totally confidential. Drivers can only access the information attached to them individually. So a big nod to the 850 carriers who have opted in since the program launched in February. You are the leaders in the industry who understand the importance of educating drivers on CSA and in giving them access to the information collected by the FMCSA on them.
Join the Wiser Fleet Movement and do what is right for the drivers, contact Vigillo and ask how you can provide this critical benefit to your drivers.