The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announces a package of enhancements to the Safety Measurement System (SMS) website. SMS is an automated system that quantifies the on-road safety performance of commercial truck and bus companies that is used to identify and prioritize high-risk carriers for enforcement interventions, including increased roadside inspections and compliance reviews.
The enhancements provide clearer descriptions and easier, more intuitive navigation features. The enhancements were derived from feedback solicited from motor carriers, law enforcement personnel, industry representatives and other stakeholders who were given an opportunity to critique various website enhancement proposals.
The changes to the SMS website do not alter the SMS methodology or affect a carrier’s safety rating, which is subject to 49 CFR part 385, Safety Fitness Procedures. The enhancements are a continuation of FMCSA’s efforts, first announced in April 2010, to provide the motor carrier industry and other safety stakeholders with more comprehensive, informative, and regularly updated safety performance data.
FMCSA will implement the SMS website enhancements by August 4, 2014. To assist users in adapting to the SMS website enhancements, FMCSA will hold three educational webinars, with two on August 20, 2014 (10:00-11:30 a.m. and 2:00-3:30 p.m.), and a third to be held on August 21, 2014 (2:00-3:30 p.m.). Webinar participants will be able to ask questions and receive real-time responses. Additionally during the webinars, FMCSA staff will discuss and answer questions on the Agency’s new adjudicated citations policy, which takes effect August 23, 2014. A full copy of the Federal Register notice is available here.
To register for one of the upcoming three educational webinars, visit:
http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/sites/fmcsa.dot.gov/files/docs/SMS_Display_Changes-New_Adjudicated_Citations_Policy_Webinar_2014.pdf
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) announced that up to $7.7 million in grants is being made available to encourage entities that operate large fleets of vehicles in Texas to replace diesel-powered vehicles with alternative fuel or hybrid vehicles.
The TCEQ Texas Clean Fleet Program (TCFP) grants are part of the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan, and are available to owners of fleets of 75 or more vehicles operated in Texas. Grant applicants must commit to replace at least 20 diesel-powered vehicles with hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles.
Application deadline is October 3, 2014, 5:00 p.m. CST.
For more information on the grants, go to www.terpgrants.org or call 800-919-TERP (8377).
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.
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.
By a 21-9 vote, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved an amendment introduced by Senator Susan Collins of Maine at the behest of ATA as well as the federation and HOS coalition partners that would suspend two provisions that limit the use of the 34-hour restart.
The provisions, limiting drivers to one restart per week and requiring the restart include two periods of rest between 1am and 5am, have caused unjustified harm to the trucking industry and to drivers but their impacts were not fully studied by FMCSA prior to issuing the rule.
The amendment to the annual funding bill for the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development in committee is the first step in the process. The bill now goes to the Senate floor, where once passed it must be reconciled with a similar bill in the House. ATA will continue to press for the amendment’s inclusion in the final bill that will fund DOT for the 2015 Fiscal Year.
Today’s success is one important step in the process, but it would not have been possible without the hard work of many ATA members, Federation partners, and ATA professional staff who reached out to many, many Senators on the industry’s behalf.
To read ATA’s press release on the amendment’s passage, click here.
Get ready – approximately 10,000 inspectors from federal, state, and local agencies will be conducting a 72 hour blitz at 1500 inspection stations across the US.
Get ready by downloading and reviewing the CVSA Roadcheck Checklist here.
