Forming a Motor Carrier Safety Class in Pennsylvania
We are looking to form a Motor Carrier Safety class at PMTA HQ in Harrisburg PA later this year. We need at least 25 students, but will accept no more than 35 students. Cost will be $725. The class will start Monday morning and end Friday noon. We will be using the same FMCSA National Training Center materials used to train FMCSA investigators.
Course Topics:
• Part 380 – Special Training Requirements
• Part 382 – Controlled Substances/Alcohol Testing
• Part 383 – CDL Requirements
• Part 385 – Safety Fitness Program
• Part 387 – Financial Responsibility
• Part 390 – Applicability
• Part 391 – Qualification of Drivers
• Part 392 – Driving of Motor Vehicles
• Part 393 – Parts & Accessories/Out-of-Service Criteria
• Part 395 – Hours of Service/Auditing
• Part 396 – Inspection, Repair, Maintenance
Upon successful completion of the course you will receive USDOT Transportation Safety Institute certificate.
Let me know if you are interested and we will put you on the list.
Background Checks that are EEOC Compliant
Hiring drivers and other employees is perhaps the most critical function of any fleet. You need to know that the rules have changed.
Individual assessment is the bottom line of the EEOC’s recently released “enforcement guidance”: Blanket policies that automatically reject job candidates with criminal records are illegal. Such policies have been found to have a disparate impact on minorities, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Employers have to make hiring decisions on applicants with criminal histories using three criteria.
They are:
1. The nature and gravity of the offense or conduct
2. The time that has passed since the offense or conduct and/or completion of the sentence
3. The nature of the specific position.
The agency “recommends” that employers go through an extensive “individual assessment” on each candidate.
Here’s a list of the things EEOC says you should consider:
1. The facts or circumstances surrounding the offense or conduct
2. The number of offenses for which the individual was convicted
3. Age at the time of conviction, or release from prison
4. Evidence that the individual performed the same type of work, post conviction, with the same or a different employer, with no known incidents of criminal conduct
5. The length and consistency of employment history before and after the offense or conduct
6. Rehabilitation efforts (such as education or training)
7. Employment or character references and any other information regarding fitness for the particular position
8. Whether the individual is bonded under a federal, state, or local bonding program.
If the applicant doesn’t cooperate by providing the background information the employer seeks, the company can make the hiring decision based on the information at hand.
The EEOC’s list of suggested best practices for employers using criminal background checks:
1. Eliminate policies or practices that exclude people from employment based on any criminal record.
2. Train managers, hiring officials, and decision makers about the federal prohibition on employment discrimination
3. Develop a narrowly tailored written policy and procedure for screening applicants and employees for criminal conduct.
4. Identify essential job requirements and the actual circumstances under which the jobs are performed.
5. Determine the specific offenses that may demonstrate unfitness for performing such jobs.
6. Identify the criminal offenses based on all available evidence.
7. Determine the duration of exclusions for criminal conduct based on all available evidence.
8. Include an individualized assessment.
9. Record the justification for the policy and procedures.
10. Note and keep a record of consultations and research considered in crafting the policy and procedures.
11. Train managers, hiring officials, and decision makers on how to implement the policy and procedures consistent with the law.
12. When asking questions about criminal records, limit inquiries to records for which exclusion would be job related for the position in question and consistent with business necessity.
13. Keep information about applicants’ and employees’ criminal records confidential. Only use it for the purpose for which it was intended.
Fleet panel: Experience with e-logs overwhelmingly positive By Jack Roberts
Fleet executives speaking at the CCJ Summer Symposium in La Jolla, Ca., today said their experiences implementing electronic logging devices have been overwhelmingly positive for their businesses, customers and drivers.
The panel was moderated by CCJ‘s Technology Editor, Aaron Huff, and consisted of Neil Smith, Vice President, operations, Western Area, Con-Way; Jim Gomez, Jr., Vice President, operational compliance, John Christner Trucking and Scott Baker, Vice President, recruiting and driver development, Swift Transportation.
The first point all three participants agreed upon was that the process of implementing e-logs was not cheap and did not occur quickly. In the case of Swift – an admittedly large carrier – Barker noted that the process to introduce e-logs took six quarters – a full year and a half – to complete.
Smith noted that a mandate is likely coming and, based on Con-Way’s experience, said he would recommend that fleets get ahead of the curve now before they “have a gun to their head” and have to meet government-implemented deadlines.
“It’s a lengthy, complicated process,” he noted. “And it’s hard enough to do without having to worry about meeting a deadline to be in compliance with federal regulations.”
Training and equipment installation were two implementation bottlenecks all three panelists experienced.
“We wanted our own technicians trained to install the equipment,” Barker said, “so that added some time to the process. But once they were ready, we began installing equipment as our trucks came through the shops for maintenance. It was a constant flow of activity over a year and half. But even though it was a very extensive process, that went off very well. Honestly, after a time, even most resistant drivers saw what e-logs could do for them and today, they don’t like it all if the system goes down and they have to go back to keeping paper logs.”
According to Gomez, e-logs have become a powerful management tool for John Christner in that they allow quick and accurate matching of drivers with available hours and loads.
“To better manage our data flow, we contracted with a third-party company that provides a service platform showing us our driver’s virtual hours in real time,” he says. “We can also use this system to project those hours out over coming days to see what a particular driver’s hours look like right up unto the load is delivered. We’ve never had that capability before.”
Smith agreed, adding that initially drivers pushed back against the e-log initiative drivers.
“They felt it was a ‘Big Brother’ issue and wanted to know why we needed the government watching everything we did,” he said. “But, they found that it actually enhanced their productivity and paychecks. Because it allowed us to manage them better by matching them up with loads while they still have hours left in the day.”
Bill with HOS Provisions Pulled from Senate Floor: Commercial Carrier Journal – June 20 By James Jaillet
The Senate bill that would have suspended two of the 34-hour restart provisions included in the 2013-implemented federal hours-of-service rule was pulled from the Senate floor June 19 after disagreements over procedural rules prevented the bill from moving forward for debate.
The annual Transportation, Housing and Urban Development bill – which provides the Department of Transportation with its 2015 fiscal year funding – came to the Senate floor this week with an amendment that would have halted the requirement that a driver’s 34-hour restart include two consecutive 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods and the once-per-week limit on the restart, pending a study. That amendment – proposed by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) – was added by the Appropriations Committee earlier this month.
Freshman Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), however, had filed an amendment for consideration by the full Senate to strip the bill of the Collins amendment but keep the requirement for further study of the rule’s efficacy.
After Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) couldn’t agree on how to move the bill forward for debate and into the amendment proposition phase (a highly partisan procedural issue over the number of votes needed), Reid pulled the bill from the Senate floor.
It’s unclear when the bill will make its way back to the floor for debate and advancement.
The White House released a statement this week saying it did not support the Collins amendment, but it did not say whether President Obama would veto the bill over it.
The American Trucking Associations this week said it was “very confident” the Collins amendment would prevail. It also said it was confident the amendment would hold through the conference committee process, when the House and Senate confer to work out differences between their two versions of the bill.
ATA did say it was “disappointed” that the bill was pulled, adding that the Collins amendment is “sound policy.”
“It is overwhelmingly bipartisan and when it’s ultimately enacted into law, it will help keep our nation’s highways safe,” ATA said in a statement.
The House’s version did not include the suspension of the restart provisions, but it did include language that would prevent the agency from moving forward with its rule to increase the minimum amount of liability insurance motor carriers are required to have.
It also did not include language in the Senate bill that would require the agency to produce a Safety Fitness Determination rule by December and a final electronic logging device mandate rule by Jan. 30, 2015.