Tom Bray
Due to litigation over the past several years, many shippers and brokers are modifying how they do business. Like insurance companies, they are becoming concerned with the risks posed by potentially unsafe motor carriers.
This trend means they are now avoiding carriers with questionable safety records. So how do you prevent this from happening to your operation? First, understand shipper concerns and risk. Then, work towards being seen as a safe carrier.
What is Happening?
Under Tort Law, the plaintiff needs to prove:
- There was a duty to act,
- The defendant did not live up to the duty (they were negligent and failed to do what a reasonable person would have done),
- There was a real injury or loss, and
- The failure to act is what led to the injury or loss.
Liability can be assigned to anyone involved in the loss through various principles, including vicarious liability under the theory of respondeat superior (a superior, such as an employer or hiring entity, is responsible for the actions of the subordinate) and joint and several liability (the parties involved are inseparable when it comes to the injury).
Person vs. Broker (Miller vs. Robinson)
In this landmark case, a court determined that a broker was liable for hiring an unsafe carrier. The unsafe carrier was involved in a crash, resulting in severe injuries.
During the proceedings, the broker claimed they verified the carrier was licensed and properly credentialed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), meaning they had followed their duty to act.
They also claimed they were exempt from the claim due to the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994, as the practice of allowing state courts to decide such cases runs afoul of the preemption of state laws related to a price, route, or service of carriers and brokers. Both arguments were unsuccessful from the local court to the supreme court.
As a result of this case (and others since), many brokers and shippers are becoming more selective in the carriers they use.
Solution
As risk-averse shippers and brokers trend toward using FMCSA-provided data to make decisions, this is where the answer lies.
To avoid being painted as a potentially unsafe carrier, you need to:
o Ensure your drivers obey the safety regulations, especially the hours-of-service regulations.
o Track your drivers’ qualifications and performance.
o Have an effective vehicle maintenance program.
o Review your roadside inspections for accuracy.
- Take steps to avoid crashes:
o Create realistic delivery schedules. Using vehicle tracking devices can help you give your customers accurate delivery estimates.
o Adjust operations to poor conditions.
o Have safe and well-trained drivers (including doing specific defensive driving training).
o Track your drivers’ performance and skills using dash cameras.
o Allow only safe vehicles on the roadway.
Remember, you want to be viewed as a safe carrier by all shippers and brokers. If you are not, you may suddenly find it harder to find and keep customers.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) is hosting an online “5.9 GHz Safety Band Stakeholder Forum: Leveraging Existing V2X Investments in a Changing Spectrum Environment” to discuss the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) First Report and Order, which significantly reduced the amount of spectrum available for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) applications in the Safety Band. The event is scheduled for December 16, 2020, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. ET.
As the U.S. DOT continues to evaluate the safe, secure, efficient, and interoperable use of the 5.9 GHz spectrum for transportation safety, it is critical that we garner input from industry, the public, and government partners, as well as other stakeholders. We recognize that stakeholders seek to derive as much value as possible from current deployments, minimize investment losses, and/or realize V2X technology’s intended safety and mobility benefits despite deployment challenges.
EVENT OVERVIEW
This forum serves to identify areas that can assist deployers, developers, and investors in V2X technologies in next steps for the use of the 5.9 GHz spectrum for transportation safety and congestion mitigation. The Department seeks to gain a greater understanding of industry leaders’ current and future investment strategies and to discuss participants’ views on considerations for fostering the most efficient use of V2X spectrum and continued progress toward life-saving deployments.
This conference is open to the general public by pre-registration only.
To attend, please register by December 15, 2020.
EVENT DETAILS
Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Time: 3:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. ET
Location: Virtual
Registration Deadline: December 15, 2020
Registration Link:https://forms.gle/Y8gdvWLv2Nb6mFPs9
Advance questions are encouraged. Please submit questions through the registration link, or you may email 5.9GHzSpectrum@dot.gov.
To learn more about the 5.9 GHz Safety Band, please visit: www.transportation.gov/content/safety-band.
September 10
9 AM – 10:30 AM EDT
Topics will include:
- The purpose of roadside inspections.
- Why it is imperative to successfully pass these inspections.
- How motor carriers and drivers must prepare for inspections and what to do if selected.
- What to do following the inspection
- How to properly DataQ. How to lower CSA scores.
Learn more and register for the webinar.
Seminars will discuss the four key revisions to the existing HOS Rules:
•The 30-minute break rule requiring a break after 8 hours of consecutive driving
•The sleeper-berth exception to allow drivers to split their required 10 hours off duty into two periods
•The adverse driving conditions exception
•Changes to the short-haul exception available to certain commercial drivers
Dates & Times
September 10, 2020 @ 9:00AM
September10, 2020 @ 1:00PM
September 22, 2020 @ 9:00AM
September 22, 2020 @ 1:00PM
To Register for a Seminar, go to:
https://forms.gle/VwKeHUJok14Yr9x47
FMCSA announces a public meeting: “The FMCSA 2020 Trucking Safety
Summit.” This meeting will be held virtually on August 5, 2020, to solicit information on improving the safe operation of property-carrying commercial motor vehicles on our Nation’s roadways.
The virtual meeting will provide interested stakeholders—including
motor carriers, drivers, safety technology developers and users, Federal and State partners, safety advocacy groups—as well as members of the public—an opportunity to share their ideas on improving trucking safety.
The event will be hosted virtually by FMCSA from the U.S. Department of Transportation headquarters building in Washington, D.C.
DATES: The virtual public meeting will be held Wednesday, August 5, 2020, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., EDT.
A full agenda of the meeting is available online at
https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/safety/fmcsa-truck-safety-summit.
Learn more or sign up here.
Attend a live Hours of Service (HOS) Question and Answer session with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) subject matter expert Tom Yager, Chief of the Driver and Carrier Operations Division, and Peter Chandler, Lead Transportation Specialist in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Passenger Carrier Division.
Go here for more information……
