Interview with Jay Thomas of Packard Transport on the CSA 2010 Mandate

June 25, 2009

1- Do you think this new mandate will improve the overall safety of the industry?
Absolutely!

2. What is your company doing differently in your safety training to prepare for and adapt to CSA 2010?
We have made several modifications to our discipline policies, to make them stricter. We have to make it hurt more for violations. Since we are 100% owner operator, we found that truck maintenance tends to go first when the economy goes down. We are not getting as much to haul freight as we used to, so the owner operators cut cost by not performing vehicle maintenance as they should. Less maintenance means more failed inspections, which is bad. So we focus more on maintenance with our owner operators.

3. How have you introduced this to your drivers and what are you doing to prepare them for it?
The one thing I did that really got our owner operators attention was to share with them that they will now have THEIR OWN INDIVIDUAL safety ratings. Letting our owner operators know that their safety scores would have consequences that could affect their ability to work or get a job, that got their attention more than anything else that could have been done. Thomas said, “The drivers have to know that with CSA2010, THEY are responsible for their own safety ratings.”

4. Also, how have you presented this to company management and prepared them for CSA 2010?
We shared with our management team, which includes dispatchers and settlement clerks the changes that were taking place and we told them that one key change was made in Article 444. They changed one word in the article. It used to say that carriers had a moral and legal obligation to DETECT violations. Now it says they have a moral and legal obligation to PREVENT violations. Additionally, the article used to say that the CEO of the carrier encompassed all the influence over drivers. The article now states that all persons in contact with the drivers have influence. So management now knows their actions or inaction has a significant impact on our safety rating. They can individually be held accountable, not just the CEO.

5. When an intervention occurs, are carriers given specific instructions on how to remediate that situation?
Thomas said the FMCSA will give some general guidelines on what should be done, but they leave it up to the carrier to design and write a policy to correct a violation. Once they create a written policy they would have to provide that to the FMCSA. Once the feds have approved the policy to correct the problem, the carrier will enforce or carry out the policy, whatever that is. Then it is up to the carrier to prove to the FMCSA that the corrective action was taken. If they can’t prove it, then the corrective action is not accepted.

6. If a driver ends up with an unfit rating, what can they do to be re-certified or is this the kiss of death for their driving career?
There is very little a driver can do to fix an unfit rating. When they are declared unfit, they can NO LONGER DRIVE a commercial vehicle. The only thing they can do is WAIT for some time to pass and hopefully some of the tickets they have will no longer be in the 36 month history they are evaluated on. Most drivers would have to quit driving at that point since they would not be able to make a living driving for a period of time. If a driver has a marginal status, the one thing they can do is have a CLEAN inspection. Clean inspections will take points off of their record. So a marginal driver can improve his safety score. Mr. Thomas also mentioned that the FMCSA has speculated that as many as 175,000 drivers will become unemployable when CSA 2010 goes into full effect. These drivers would be unemployable! Thomas went on to say that he would not be surprised to see the FMCSA develop some sort of re-certification program for unfit drivers. It would be a way for a driver to get back a clean CDL after having gone through the re-certification course.

7. How does CSA 2010 affect intrastate carriers? School bus drivers?
Thomas said that he did not have a lot of expertise in this area, but he did say if a carrier is registered with the DOT and has a DOT number then CSA 2010 applies to them. There are some states that allow an intrastate company to operate with an MC number; not a DOT number and he is not sure how CSA 2010 would apply, but there is no reason to believe that the individual states won’t be fully on board with CSA 2010 by launch date. Mr. Thomas also said that CSA 2010 does apply to any US CDL driver regardless of whether they are interstate, intrastate or a school bus driver. The driver’s ratings stay with the driver (tracked by Social Security number), so even a school bus driver that gets tickets can end up with an unfit rating.

8. How will CSA 2010 and the new driver safety rating affect your driver recruitment efforts?

Certainly most companies will have a minimum safety rating requirement for hiring and firing drivers. Most of which will likely be dictated by the liability insurance carriers. Thomas suspects that most insurance carriers will set a minimum safety score that a driver must have in order to be insured. Should a driver fall below that minimum, the insurance company could no longer insure them and the driver would have to be terminated. New drivers being recruited would also have to meet the minimum safety rating in order to join the company. Mr. Thomas also said that by the end of this year, the driver’s safety ratings would be available through what used to be called DAC. He said that company is now called “Hire Right”. So the drivers safety rating will become a regular part of the background check and will determine if a driver can be hired or not.