Source: http://bentonparker.olhblogspot.com/2013/05/
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 14:16:54+00:00

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Trooper Gordon Roberts sat behind a pair of Ray-Bans, a steering wheel and about 15 different gauges as he merged onto Interstate 75. He looked out the driver’s side window and scanned across the three lanes in front of him, left to right, looking for his first catch of the day.
Tennessee State Trooper Gordon Roberts uses the department’s “No Zone” semi to spot people texting while driving on I-75 Thursday afternoon. Roberts relayed the offenders vehicle make and model information to a fellow state troopers who pulled the individuals over for citation. This is the Tennessee Highway Patrol’s second day using the 18-wheeler to deter texting and drinking while driving. Photo by Dan Henry.
“We should be able to nab some people here,” he said in an accent forged through a childhood in Rhea County.
From the cab of a Tennessee Highway Patrol-owned tractor-trailer, he looked down into cars and minivans and smaller trucks, searching for seat belts that rested unbuckled, fingers that tapped text messages and beer can tabs that popped open.
Roberts snaked his way up and down the Chattanooga highways, picked out lawbreakers and relayed the information to other troopers, who chased the drivers down in patrol cars and passed out tickets.
Lt. John Harmon asked Roberts to drive the semi as part of “Stay Alive on 75,” a THP promotion to raise awareness about crashes on the highway. The promotion ends this week.
“The Tennessee Highway Patrol will be utilizing every resource available in the Chattanooga district to make our highways safer,” Harmon said in a statement.
The stepped-up enforcement of highway laws came as a new study, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, showed most U.S. drivers reported talking on their cellphone and about one in three read or sent text or email messages when driving.
The study’s finding that more than two-thirds of U.S. drivers reported cellphone use and a third had reported texting or emailing is consistent with previous studies.
A national telephone survey by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety conducted in 2010 found that 69 percent of drivers had used a cellphone while driving and 24 percent had texted while driving during the previous 30 days, The Associated Press reported. Similar estimates have been reported from surveys carried out by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
“To me this says we still have a huge distracted driving problem. It’s a cultural problem, and we haven’t convinced the country yet that this is a serious issue,” said Jonathan Adkins, deputy executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, told the AP.
Roberts, who usually steers a motorcycle or standard patrol car in Meigs, McMinn and Rhea counties, is one of 97 troopers statewide who hold a commercial driver’s license that allow them to use a semi truck. On Wednesday, Roberts spotted seven people breaking the laws below him.
But Thursday morning was quiet. He thought he saw a Volkswagen driver texting, but he wasn’t sure; maybe she was just dialing a number. He saw someone else fidgeting with his phone at a stoplight, but no troopers were nearby.
Around 10:45, though, he caught someone in East Brainerd. He was sure. The man cruised right past Roberts on the left, phone in front of face. Roberts reached for the speaker to a THP radio.
“Go ahead,” a voice cracked through the speakers.
About two minutes later, the driver exited toward Hamilton Place mall, and a patrol call followed, lights flashing. It was Roberts’ first ticket Thursday; there would be seven more.
Distraction occurs when a driver voluntarily diverts attention to something not related to driving that uses the driver’s eyes, ears, or hands.
Most distractions involve more than one of these types, with both a sensory — eyes, ears, or touch — and a mental component.
How often are drivers distracted?
Driver distraction is common in everyday driving and in crashes.
* Drivers on the road: A study that observed 100 drivers continually for a full year found that drivers were distracted between one-quarter and one-half of the time.
* Cellphone use: In recent surveys, about two-thirds of all drivers reported using a cellphone while driving; about one third used a cellphone routinely. In observational studies during daylight hours in 2009, between 7 percent and 10 percent of all drivers were using a cellphone.
* Texting: In recent surveys, about 12 percent of all drivers reported texting while driving. In observational studies during daylight hours in 2009, fewer than 1 percent of all drivers were observed to be texting.
* Drivers in crashes: At least one driver was reported to have been distracted in 15 percent to 30 percent of crashes. The proportion of distracted drivers may be greater because investigating officers may not detect or record all distractions. In many crashes it is not known whether the distractions caused or contributed to the crash.
Decreased health care and worker’s compensation costs, greater control of insurance premiums, and improvement of safety records are just a few of the reasons to invest in a wellness program.
We have officially entered the CSA era of regulation from the U.S. Department of Transportation. With this, we will see changes in commercial driver s license standards and driver qualification — and likely an increased emphasis on driver wellness.
Although there are challenges with creating a wellness program that drivers will actually adopt, the rewards of improving employee wellness are great. Decreased health care and worker’s compensation costs, greater control of insurance premiums, and improvement of safety records are just a few of the reasons to invest the time in a wellness program for your drivers.
There are unique challenges in designing a program that works for drivers. A shortage of healthy food options, ergonomically unfriendly workspaces and extreme fatigue are just a few barriers to driver wellness.
These should not be excuses to avoid investing in a wellness program, just things to take into consideration in designing a program.
The following tips can help any trucking company looking to start a wellness program.
Driver input should help guide the content you develop. Some over-the-road drivers do not come into the office for weeks at a time. It’s often difficult to get face time with those drivers.
Make it a priority to talk to these drivers when you can and ask them what will work for them. Finding out how you can help them and then following through has proven successful.
Over-the-road drivers or long-haul drivers are allowed to work up to 70 hours in an eight-day period. Once they log in to start the day, they have to stop within 14 hours. During that period they are allowed to drive a maximum of 11 hours, so by law you have a minimum of three hours to help them use that time to improve their health.
Provide suggestions on stretching, exercise and healthy eating that they can incorporate into this demanding schedule.
Drivers can walk around their trucks. 34 laps around a big rig is a mile. They can use kettle bells, or do a stretching program all within their trucks. Some TA/Petro truckstops have put in workout rooms and/or offer maps suggesting nearby places for a walk.
Stretching is key to back safety and overall driver wellness and health. Participating in a stretching program can help with long hours of being in a cab. It might also help with bouncing back if injury should occur.
Have a professional demonstrate proper stretching during a safety meeting to help drivers see what they should be doing.
Grassroots support is key to making any wellness program work. Having just one driver advocate to help communicate the message amongst the other drivers will go a long way.
Create a way for drivers to share information with one another, such as which truckstops are the best places for a walk or offer healthy food options.
This can be as simple as asking drivers for input and then distributing the information.
Many companies have designed “wingman” programs encouraging employees to work out together or check up on how the other is doing.
Drivers are at an increased risk for a host of health challenges. Extreme fatigue, sleep apnea, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, loneliness and anxiety are just a few areas where drivers may need extra help.
Screenings and preventive measures can identify these problems early and allow for treatment or behavior changes that will lessen the severity or onset of these conditions.
Smoking is a major problem among driver populations. A focus of communication can be tips to stop smoking as well as factual information on the effects. Beyond this, look for ways to reward those that have quit or those who have never smoked at all.
Management commitment to a healthier workforce is essential, so executives should actually participate in the wellness program themselves.
Things like dedicating company time to focus on wellness, allocating resources and time for your staff to develop programs, and providing the right coverage and incentives will demonstrate a sincere commitment to the wellbeing of employees.
What are the rules, and who’s responsible for what — especially when you’re both the driver and the carrier?
The hours that count toward the 14- and 11-hour limits are started and stopped by a break of 10 hours or more (§395.3(a)(1)).
Once you reach the end of the 14th consecutive hour since coming on duty from your 10-hour or more break, you cannot drive a commercial vehicle. You can work, but you cannot drive. If you started your day at 7 a.m., you cannot drive a commercial vehicle any more as of 9:00 p.m. Waiting to load or unload, meals, other breaks, breakdowns, etc., do not impact the 14-hour limit.
There are only a couple of exceptions to the 14-hour limit, but they are fairly narrow exceptions requiring certain conditions be met. The first exception applies only to drivers of vehicles that do not require a CDL to operate and stay within 150 air-miles of, and return to, the work reporting location. This exception allows the driver to drive up to the 16th hour twice during every seven days.
Within the 14 hours, you can drive a total of 11 hours. Any time at the controls of a commercial vehicle while on the roadway counts as driving.
There is only one exception to the 11-hour driving limit, and that is the “adverse driving conditions” exception at §395.1(b). This allows a driver to complete his/her run or reach a place of safety using up to an extra two hours of driving time if delayed by adverse conditions that could not have been known at the time of dispatch. However, this exception does not allow the driver to go over his/her 14-hour limit.
Please note that drivers driving in Alaska and passenger-carrying drivers (bus and motor coach drivers) have different daily hours-of-service limits.
To offset the effects of cumulative fatigue, drivers are not allowed to drive if they have been on duty for 60 hours over the last 7 days, or 70 hours over the last 8 days. Companies that operate vehicles seven days a week are allowed to use the 70-hour limit, if they choose to.
Much like the other limits, the driver can continue to work once the 60- or 70-hour limit is reached, but the driver cannot drive.
As of July 1, drivers can only take a restart if the driver has not had a restart in the last 7 days (168 hours) and if the 34 hours include two 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods. If the 34 hours did not include these two periods, it is not a restart even if it is 34 hours long (§395.3(c) and (d)).
Also new for July is that a driver cannot drive if it has been 8 hours since the driver’s last off-duty break of 30 minutes or more. Basically, a driver will need to stop and take a 30-minute break if it has been 8 hours since the last break of 30 minutes or more and the driver wants to continue or start driving (§395.3(a)(3)(ii)).
Off duty: Driver has no responsibility to the carrier, the vehicle, or the cargo, is performing no work for the carrier (or anyone else), and is free to pursue activities of his/her choosing.
Sleeper berth: Time spent is the “bunk” (sleeper berth) on the truck.
Driving: Time spent at the controls of a commercial vehicle on the road.
On duty: The driver is performing any work for, or has any responsibility to the carrier. Waiting to load or unload, loading and unloading, inspecting the vehicle, fueling the vehicle, standing by, and taking a drug test (including driving to and from) would all be examples of on-duty time.
As well as the grid graph accounting for the time, the log must contain other information. This includes the date, miles driven, driver’s signature, co-driver’s name (if there is one), shipment number (or shipper and cargo), starting time, carrier’s name and address, total hours on each duty line, and the remarks section where the location of any duty change is recorded. A duty change is any time the driver changes duty lines.
The driver’s log must be current at all times to the “last duty change.” If the driver changes duty from on duty to driving at 3 p.m. at Toledo, Ohio, and the driver’s log is checked at 6 p.m. by an officer, the log will need to show the driver driving since 3 p.m. starting at Toledo, Ohio.
There are electronic versions of logs available. These fall into two general categories, automatic on-board recording devices (AOBRDs), and electronic logging applications (apps) and programs.
AOBRDs are connected to the vehicle and automatically determine when the driver is driving. If the driver is using an AOBRD, the officers will only ask to see the screen, smartphone, or tablet that is used to display the data the AOBRD has recorded. These are discussed in the regulations at §395.2 and §395.15.
Electronic logging apps and programs that are not getting movement data from the vehicle to determine when the driver is driving are basically an electronic version of a paper log, and are regulated under the “regular” log requirements in §395.8. One key point to using such electronic logging apps and programs is that the driver must be able to print his/her logs on demand during a roadside inspection.
There are a couple of exceptions in the regulations that allow the driver to keep time records rather than having to complete a log. These apply to drivers that stay within 100 or 150 air-miles of their work reporting location and return nightly. There are other requirements, so if you think one of these exceptions might apply, check §395.1(e).
There are other “specialized” exceptions as well. These apply to driver-salespeople, drivers involved exclusively in oilfield operations, drivers specializing in transporting construction materials and supplies, and certain drivers transporting agricultural products. Each of these exceptions has certain requirements that must be met to use them, and they only exempt the driver from specific hours-of-service regulations (see §395.1).
The driver is not able to present a log or an acceptable electronic record from an AOBRD for today and the previous seven days at the time of the inspection.
The driver’s log is not current to the last change in duty status at the time of the inspection.
The driver is operating over a limit or has operated over a limit in the past seven days.
The driver has falsified a log entry.
Drivers submit the completed logs within 13 days.
Drivers are operating within the limits.
Drivers are submitting logs that are true and correct (not false and containing all information).
The logs are retained for 6 months.
To verify that drivers are obeying the hours-of-service regulations, the company must have a mechanism in place to verify compliance, and catch and prevent violations. This is referred to as a “safety management control.” The safety management control must at least be able to make sure that drivers are obeying the limits and not submitting false logs.
Comparing the logs to supporting documents (such as fuel receipts, toll receipts, inspection reports, accident reports, etc.) to verify that the logs have not been falsified.
Any violations discovered can result in the company being fined. In some cases, the driver may be fined for violations discovered during an investigation as well. If the violations are frequent and serious enough, the company may end up with a lowered safety rating, or worse, ordered out of service.
The company is also responsible for making sure that any assignment given to the driver can be completed legally. As the hours-of-service limits are what determine how many miles a driver can drive and how much work a driver can do, it is something that must be considered with every work assignment.
You would also be responsible for making sure that your driver (you) remains in compliance with the regulations and is not assigned runs that he/she cannot complete!
Efforts to create a national “truck parking” management system may soon be getting some extra help from the U.S. Department of Transportation, according Dan Murray, vice president for the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), as truck parking is increasingly being viewed as a way to address driver fatigue issues.
In his keynote address at the Pegasus TransTech User Conference in Safety Harbor, FL, last week, Murray said that while truck parking doesn’t rank high on the industry’s list of top concerns – the tops slots taken by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program, hours-of-service (HOS) reform, the health of the U.S. economy, and the driver shortage – lack of parking is seen as growing problem due to HOS rest period requirements.
The shortage of truck parking – which has been a growing problem for over a decade – is only projected to get worse as freight volumes are expected increase by some 25% by 2021, according to research by the American Trucking Assns. (ATA).
To combat the parking shortage issue, ATRI is working with several groups to help develop a “truck parking reservation system” so drivers and fleets can check on parking availability along an interstate corridor in real time using wireless devices, Murray said.
One program launched with the help of the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) and the University of Minnesota involves two public rest areas on I-94 in Minnesota and is expected to expand over the next several months to include private truck stops as well.
MnDOT said the system uses a network of cameras to monitor parking availability at the rest stops, automatically identifying available spaces and then notifying drivers and carriers about parking availability in real time via a website, in-cab messaging, and variable message displays a few miles ahead of the rest area on the highway.
By providing information about the available number of parking spaces at each stop, MnDOT explained that the “reservation” system should help drivers determine if it is safe to continue to the next rest area or if they should stop at their current location. The ability to determine when and where to stop within hours of service requirements could help drivers and carriers make better overall trip and operations decisions, the agency stressed.
With several Wisconsin rest stops coming online later this year, Murray expressed hope that the system will ultimately extend the length of I-94, which runs 1,585 miles from Detroit, MI, to Billings, MT.
However, such a system would necessarily be fee-based, so thereal trick to fostering wider use of such technology is convincing the trucking industry to pay for it, explained Dave Miller, founder and COO of Gnosis Management and formerly senior VP for LTL carrier Con-way, Inc.
Miller added that cost effectively operating a truck parking reservation system, as well as disseminating accurate and reliable information to drivers without distracting them, are other key challenges as well.
After topping the list of the trucking industry’s most critical issues from 2009 to 2011, the economy is no longer the most pressing industry issue, according to the latest American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) Top Industry Issues Survey.
This year, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability) safety monitoring program eclipsed the economy, which fell two places to third. The federal commercial driver HOS regulations ranked second this year, unchanged from last year.
ATRI is the trucking industry’s not-for-profit research organization. The annual survey of more than 4,000 trucking industry executives, now in its eighth year, is an important tool for increasing awareness of industry needs.
Last year’s top industry issue, the economy, fell two spots this year to third place. That issue topped the list for a record three consecutive years and remains a source of concern for many in the industry.
6. Electronic onboard recorder/electronic logging device mandate.
9. Driver health and wellness.
10. Tie: congestion/truck bottlenecks and highway infrastructure.
As a result of the methodology changes to the 21012 ATRI Top Industry Issues Survey, it is now possible to determine the issues fall just beyond the top ten ranking.
Those issues, in order, were: driver distraction, tolling/vehicle mileage, taxes, tort reform and independent contractor.
The results of American Trucking Associations (ATA)-commissioned survey, plus the proposed strategies to deal with the critical issues, will be utilized by the ATA Federation to better focus its advocacy role on behalf of the U.S. trucking industry and ATA Federation stakeholders.
“ATRI’s annual survey of critical industry issues gives ATA, and all trucking stakeholders, a clearer understanding of the challenges our industry faces,” said Dan England, chairman of the board, C.R. England, Salt Lake City, UT, and chairman of ATA – the largest national trade association for the trucking industry.
“As we all know, the trucking industry operates in a complex and evolving environment and we must constantly work to understand how economic and regulatory changes will impact the industry,” ATA president and CEO Bill Graves said. “By improving our understanding of the issues, we can be better stewards of the important job our industry is tasked with.
A copy of the survey results is available from ATRI by visiting atri-online.org/2012/10/08/critical-issues-in-the-trucking-industry-2012-report-request/.
Honey Wake Up – It’s A Truck!

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