by Bruce Mallinson
Learning how to take care of certain maintenance items without the help of a shop is paramount to an owner-operator’s success.
After
working with owner-operators for the last 37 years, I’ve concluded
there are at least nine items that struggling owner-ops usually are
missing:
Turbo boost gauge: Driving
without a turbo boost or manifold pressure gauge is like driving blind.
The boost gauge will inform you when you have a leak in the charge air
system, a failing turbo, clogged fuel lines, a faulty ECM, dirty air
filter(s), a dirty fuel filter or are using too much throttle on the
level, resulting in a fuel mileage loss.
Exhaust gas temperature gauge (or pyrometer): This
gauge works in conjunction with the turbo boost gauge and will inform
you if the exhaust gas temperature is too high or if there is a boost
leak. If you’re lugging the engine, the fuel filter is dirty or there is
a power problem, you’ll need to know the differences in the boost and
pyrometer gauges.
Kevin Rutherford’s Scan Gauge: This
gauge will give you an instant readout of your fuel mileage and about
63 other useful bits of information from your truck’s data link.
Fresh fuel filters: Many
owner-operators are not changing their fuel filter soon enough. We get
many trucks in for dyno testing for low power complaints and find dirty
fuel filters. Back in the 1980s, we used to change the fuel filter once a
week. Now, it’s at oil change intervals, and 30,000 miles is way too
long to run a fuel filter.
New crankshaft torsional vibration damper: This
part is located on the front of the crankshaft and removes torsional
vibration from the engine. They absolutely do wear out, regardless of
what your mechanic has to say, and must be replaced every 500,000 miles.
Usually,
mechanics don’t change them, and that is wrong. This is a wear item
just like a tire and must be replaced. It has a large steel ring that
rides on a Teflon bearing and floats in a thin layer of silicone. At
about 380,000 miles, the Teflon bearing starts to wear, and that
impregnates the silicone. At 500,000, the silicon has gotten hard, and
the steel ring won’t be able to “float” and absorb the torsional
vibration.
Engine parts likely to
break because of this include the AC condenser brackets, alternator
brackets, flywheel bolts, bell housing bolts, accessory driveshafts, air
compressor crankshafts, engine crankshafts, transmission input shafts
and clutch disc springs. Need I say more?
Rebuilt driveshaft: Driveshafts
should be rebuilt every 500,000 miles, especially if the truck is in a
heavy-haul application or spends time in the mountains. Driveshafts
bend, carrier bearings wear out, and U-joints get out of balance.
Cruise control awareness: Driving
with cruise control on all the time will rob the engine of at least ½
mpg when in rolling hills or mountains. Use your right foot and drive by
the turbo boost gauge – the less boost you can get the job done with,
the better your fuel mileage – and pre-accelerate for hills. Cruise
should be used only in level terrain.
Aftermarket muffler: Stock
mufflers are more restrictive than aftermarket ones, and you can rob
yourself of at least ¼ mpg by not installing a straight-through
performance muffler.
Mechanical skills: I hear this sentiment often: I just want to drive the truck and don’t want to do maintenance in my off time.
Labor
rates are high today, and you can cost yourself thousands of dollars a
year by not keeping up with some of your own maintenance. One pleasure
of vehicle ownership is performing simple routine maintenance. Repairing
items as they fail or before they fail, cleaning the truck, changing
the oil, greasing the chassis, changing the fuel filter and spending
time looking for potential problems go hand-in-hand with ownership.
These
are all simple steps you can do at home, and a little sweat equity will
make you feel better about your truck and probably prevent a long list
of problems.
From Overdrive Magazine;
I frequently am asked when it is permissible to
record time spent driving a commercial vehicle as “personal conveyance”
on a record-of-duty status.
Although
a log line designated as PC is a relatively new phenomenon, the
permissible recording of personal use of a commercial vehicle as
“off-duty time” has been around since I dispatched trucks while I was in
law school.
You can use a truck
to drive your family to church, run to the grocery store or take a
fishing trip so long as you are not doing so at the direction of the
employer. Determining compliance can be a little more fuzzy, though,
when driving to or from shippers or receivers, or the carrier’s
terminal.
Here are some common questions:
1. What is personal conveyance?
PC
is the personal use of a commercial motor vehicle while off duty. You
are off duty only if you are not responsible for performing work for the
carrier at that time.
2. How far may I drive on PC?
You
can drive as many miles or hours as you want, provided you are really
off duty. If the carrier is asking you to record time spent transporting
a load from Bangor, Maine, to Long Beach, California, as PC, you would
be falsifying your log. Transporting a load at the direction of the
carrier is “driving time” as defined by the hours of service
regulations.
3. May I pass the
terminal to make a delivery knowing I will run out of hours and then
record time deadheading to the terminal as PC?
No. Time spent driving back to the terminal fulfills a business purpose, not a personal use.
4. May I record driving time as PC when the carrier is directing me to travel in the direction of my next pickup?
No. Again, this is for a business purpose.
5. What is the penalty if I record driving time as PC due to coercion by the carrier?
The
carrier is violating the coercion rule, 49 C.F.R. Section 390.6, and
could be subject to five to seven years in prison for the felony of
intentional falsification of a log. Likewise, if you falsify your log in
this way, you face a possible felony charge for not resisting the
coercion. The better course is to resist the coercion and “blow the
whistle” to law enforcement about the carrier.
6. May I record as PC time spent driving my truck home or somewhere else without having a dispatch?
Yes.
In that circumstance you are off duty, provided you are not doing so
for a business purpose at the instruction of the carrier.
7. What are my rights if I refuse my employer’s illegal instruction to record time under a load as PC?
The
Surface Transportation Assistance Act prohibits retaliation against a
driver for recording on-duty time accurately. STAA provides monetary and
nonmonetary remedies for drivers against whom carriers have retaliated.
8. Does the carrier get to choose where I go to take my 10-hour break?
Motor
carriers may, but are not required to, authorize drivers to use a truck
while off duty for PC to take their FMCSA-mandated breaks. FMCSA
recommends that carriers have a policy in place on what they allow
regarding PC.
The FMCSA requires the following DOT driver
training: Entry-Level driver training (Part 380), Longer Combination
vehicle training (Part 380), Hazardous Materials training (Parts 172 and
177), and Reasonable Suspicion Training for Supervisors (Part 382).
However, there are also areas of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Regulations (FMCSA) where training is implied.
Entry-Level Driver Training (ELDT)
ELDT
has been around for many years and will be getting an update in 2020,
but the current requirements are found in subpart E to Part 380.
An entry-level driver is one with less than one year of experience. The entry-level driver must be trained on:
· Hours-of-service and fatigue
· Driver qualifications
· Health and wellness
· Whistleblower protections
Additionally,
entry-level drivers must have a certificate that shows they completed
the training or the carrier must provide the required training and
certificate.
The new ELDT
requirements will be in effect on February 7th, 2020 and will require
the driver to be trained at an entity (carrier or school) that is on the
Training Provider Registry (TPR). This puts the onus on the training
facilities to train the drier correctly according to Subparts F and G to
Part 380. Training must include Theory (classroom) and Behind-the-Wheel
(range and road).
The driver
must pass a test on all the required topics and skills. Furthermore, the
driver will not be able to take the CDL skills test until FMCSA has a
certificate of completion on file from the training entity. These new
requirements apply to anyone that gets their Commercial Learner’s Permit
(CLP) on or after 2/7/20.
Hazardous Materials Driver and Employee Training
Hazmat
training is required for any driver that transports hazardous materials
and for any other employee that is involved, directly or indirectly,
with the transportation of hazardous materials, and must be conducted
within 90 days of hire and before doing unsupervised hazmat-related
work.
Training needs to be
specific to what the employee does – the more involved the employee is
in hauling hazmat, and the more dangerous the hazmat is, the more
in-depth the training will need to be.
Instruction must include:
1. Training on general awareness and familiarization when it comes to hazmat,
2. Function-specific training based on the employee’s job,
3. General safety training when it comes to preventing and dealing with incidents,
4. Basic security awareness,
5. In-depth security training if the carrier must have a security plan, and
6. Modal specific training, such as how to drive when hauling hazmat.
Drivers
and affected employees must be retrained every 3 years or when the
regulations or job function changes. A certificate of training,
including a copy of training materials noting the person/company doing
the training, should be issued to the driver upon completion. A Carrier
must retain a copy of the training certificate for three years.
Reasonable Suspicion Supervisor Training
Carriers
are required to train supervisors on the reasonable suspicion process
of driver alcohol and drug use, one hour for each topic. This includes
recognizing and documenting the signs of drug use and alcohol misuse, as
well as company procedures for conducting reasonable suspicion testing.
The
supervisor only needs to be trained once. However, if your supervisors
don’t use the knowledge and skill they learned in the initial training
frequently, consider doing refresher training in this area on a regular
basis.
Implied DOT Training Requirements
Parts
390-393 and Parts 395 and 396 do not have training requirements
proscribed in detail but do imply that training is necessary. Let’s look
at these regulatory areas starting with Section 390.3(e):
Every
driver and employee shall be instructed regarding, and shall comply
with, all applicable regulations contained in this subchapter,
More
simply stated, the driver needs to understand the federal motor carrier
safety regulations. What the regulation does not specifically state is
what the instruction needs to look like, the frequency of instruction,
or the testing of knowledge. What is implied though, and what will be
looked for during an audit or compliance review is if a carrier has a
safety training program in place.
Two critical areas included in the above regulations are driver qualification and hours-of-service.
These areas carry the potential of severe consequences and you’ll want
to make sure your drivers understand the rules and what you require of
them.
Additionally, Part 391
requires that drivers must, by way of training or experience, be able to
safely operate the vehicle assigned to them. If the driver does not
have the experience (based on a background check) you’ll need to
demonstrate that the driver was trained to operate the vehicle safely.
Here again, the regulations do not specify how the driver is to be
trained, or who must provide the training.
A
good way to show compliance is to document the training. All
documentation should include the five “W”s: what, when, where, who, and
why. It’s critical that you are able to prove that the driver had the
necessary training and/or experience. Due diligence can be shown by
ensuring:
· The driver’s previous experience is noted on his or her application and that it is verified, and
· That all your training is correctly documented.
Finally,
Parts 393 and 396 require that all drivers be “conversant” on the
vehicle and vehicle inspection requirements. While this requirement is
vague, it seems to imply that a company should train drivers on vehicle
requirements and inspections.
Your
drivers are your day-to-day safety mechanism when it comes to
preventing unsafe equipment from being operated on the road. If they do
not know the rules you greatly increase your odds of an unsafe piece of
equipment being operated on the road. If you want more guidance,
download our Driver Inspections: Critical Vehicle Maintenance Practices whitepaper.
The biggest threat to your small business or home network is those internet-connected devices without screens. You don’t see them and you don’t think about them.
Wired magazine has an excellent article, check it out here.
By Mark Jones December 13, 2019
Make the switch with me today. Get 2 months free with the purchase of an annual plan at IdentityGuard.com/Kim
In
the increasingly connected digital world, the threat of having your
identity stolen is greater than ever. Things are really bad out there.
According
to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as many as 9 million Americans
have their identities stolen every year. It’s one of the fastest-growing
crimes in the U.S. today.
Identity
theft isn’t just someone stealing your credit card or rifling through
your mail. Criminals are getting more sophisticated and have come up
with plenty of ways to rip us off.
That’s
why we found nine clever ways thieves can steal your identity. Use this
information to avoid these pitfalls and stay protected.
1. Be careful what you share
We
live in a generation of oversharing. People have been oversharing the
details of their personal lives on reality TV shows for years.
These
days, it seems everyone shares everything on social media platforms
like Facebook. It’s often innocent oversharing, like your friend who
“checks in” to every restaurant so you always know where she is and what
she’s eating.
Unfortunately,
it’s easy to overshare with hackers, too. How often do you mindlessly
click through buttons that say, “Allow Access?” If you’re playing an
online game or entering a contest, it’s understandable because you want a
chance to win.
But
stop and think about what you’re doing before you give away your
information. Plus, you should NEVER post your address or other personal
information on social media sites. Platforms like Facebook are too
careless with our privacy as it is, and you don’t want your sensitive
information in the wrong hands.
2. Do you remember MySpace?
Remember MySpace accounts? From about 2005 to 2008 it was the most popular social media site in the world. Not so much anymore.
Most MySpace users have moved on to newer, more popular sites. Unfortunately, many forgot to delete their accounts.
Leaving
old accounts active like this can be a security nightmare. Think about
all the personal information you have just sitting there, waiting to be
scavenged by cybercriminals. Let’s face it, Tom from MySpace probably
isn’t keeping up with security protocols.
MySpace
isn’t the only old account to worry about, there are many others as
well. It’s critical to be proactive and delete all of your old accounts
you no longer use.
Thankfully,
there is a site that can help make the process easy. It’s called
AccountKiller and will help you wipe the slate clean. Tap or click here to learn more about AccountKiller and easily get rid of those old accounts.
3. Some things are supposed to stay between you and your doctor
According
to a survey by security company Carbon Black, a frightening 84% of
healthcare organizations say they have seen an increase of cyberattacks
over the past year. Cybercriminals have been targeting hospitals and
clinics due to the sheer amount of data these places store.
It’s
not all just patient information, either. There’s also data on doctors
and insurance companies. Stolen information is sold on the Dark Web and
ranges mostly from forgeries to health insurance credentials.
4. Do you know where that email came from?
When
criminals first started sending phishing emails, they were pretty easy
to spot. Tons of grammatical and spelling errors tipped us off to the
fact that no, our banks couldn’t possibly have sent that message.
However,
today’s crooks have learned that lesson and are now sending
professional looking messages. They spoof logos that look so real they
can be difficult for even experts to spot.
The
most important rule to outsmarting phishing scams is to avoid clicking
malicious links. That means you shouldn’t click on web links or open PDF
attachments found in unsolicited email messages — ever.
If
you need to conduct business with a company, it’s always best to type
its web address directly into your browser. Never trust a link inside a
message.
5. Sometimes easier doesn’t mean safer
Shopping
online is super convenient and takes out all the hassles associated
with heading to the mall. But, have you ever heard of e-skimming?
It’s
when your credit card information is skimmed by a criminal while you’re
buying stuff online. You don’t even know it’s happening until it’s too
late.
This
epidemic is getting worse as hackers have figured out how to skim
credit cards from ordinary online retailers without being detected. They
do this by using tricky bits of code while they lie in wait and capture
your data as you’re typing it in. Tap or click here to learn more about this type of scam.
6. Stay off those unsecured networks
One
of the biggest mistakes people make is connecting to unsecured Wi-Fi
networks. Sure, everyone wants to save on data, but joining a public
Wi-Fi network at the coffee shop or airport is a terrible idea.
Crooks
are always trolling these public networks, watching and waiting for new
victims to can rip off. If you must use a public network, always use a
VPN when you connect.
7. Saving money on tech could cost you more in the long run
Shelling
out over a grand for the latest and greatest smartphone isn’t very
economical. But if you are using a super old device that can’t support
updates, you could be putting your personal data at risk.
That’s
because many operating system updates come with critical security
patches that keep crooks from stealing your information. Without these
patches, you’re a serious contender for identity theft, which could wind
up costing you more than what you’d pay for a new phone.
If you don’t need the top of the line smartphone, there are less expensive options. Tap or click here to learn about the 7 best phones that cost under $400.
8. Old school tricks still work
Though
criminal have sophisticated hacking tools at their disposal, there are
old-fashioned spying tricks that still work to this day.
We’re
talking about the common thief rummaging through your trash, hoping to
find personal information you may have written down and thrown away.
Take the time to shred any sensitive documents before carelessly
throwing them in the trash.
Also,
be careful of what you say out loud. If you’re in public making a
payment over the phone and reading your credit card information out loud
can lead to eavesdroppers stealing that data.
9. Can you really trust Uncle Phil?
It’s
sad we have to mention this, but unfortunately we must. It’s not just
hackers who could steal your identity. It could be a family member or
friend.
That’s
why it’s very important to keep passwords and important documents in a
safe place. Don’t just leave things with information like Social
Security numbers and banking information sitting around the house.
Always hide your information to protect your bank accounts and identity.
