Training

Driver error is the primary cause of 87% of all accidents.  Thorough  driver screening is essential to verify that the new driver candidate is  qualified and has the proper experience and skill set for the driving  that you are hiring him for.  Studies have shown what most of us know  intuitively: Past behavior is a good predictor of future behavior.  For  most accident categories, the same accident will happen again unless the  driver has specifically been retrained to improve his/her deficient  skill or poor habit.  Driver hiring is an intentional process to  investigate everything we can learn about the new driver before we  commit to hiring them.  DOT has mandated a very intense driver file  containing at least eight DOT forms to verify that you conducted a good  faith effort to screen to an established set of standards.  We will  learn the screening process by reviewing the required driver file  components.  Incidentally, during an audit, it is likely that these  files will receive a large percentage of the auditor’s time.

Hours of service records and limits have always been the DOT’s primary focus during both the roadside  inspection and the compliance review.  Some studies in the past have  estimated that as many as 50% of all accidents could be fatigue  related.  Fatigue is a serious risk to every driver and the associated  training and records can be essential to the driver’s survival.  Hours  of service rules have so many considerations and requirements, we will  offer three (2 hour) sessions on rules and records associated with  managing your driver’s fatigue.  Note that this aspect of our  transportation responsibilities for both drivers and managers will have  substantial changes during the next 2 years.  These changes will be  addressed in the second session. 

This session will set the foundations for managing your hours of service  challenges by providing an understanding of the definitions and  exceptions used throughout Part 395 of the FMCSR.  We will ensure that  the attendees know exactly who is subject to these rules and how to  utilize exceptions designed for your operation.  Generally, we would not  want to do logs if we are not required to; but we have to know exactly  what conditions have to be met before we stop preparing them.

During this session, we will spend the entire two hour session learning  how to do logs if we need to.  When we study 49 CFR §395.8, we will  discover that if we do logs they must be done “perfectly”.  Very few  drivers will be accused of preparing their logs too well.  It is  management’s responsibility to audit and motivate poor performance to  improve.  In order to do that, it is essential that all managers and  administrative assistants as well as even dispatchers understand how to  do logs themselves.  In this session we will teach how to prepare a log  and then practice by creating a log of a trip as if the attendee was the  driver.  There are 11 mandatory entries on a log page and if not  completed properly, the entire log could be in violation and charged up  to $1000 per day.  This session will focus entirely on the log page.

Bonus:  Electronic On-Board recorders has been mandated on all  commercial motor vehicles by 12/18/17 with a few exceptions.  We will  look at the requirements and explore features of a few already on the  market.

We will look at the physiological needs that we all have for sleep.   This is where we see the common practice of “sleeping at the wheel”.   Many of us have dosed while driving our cars—driver’s bodies are no  different than ours.  Without adequate rest, every driver has the  propensity to sleep while driving.  This is the most dangerous situation  in the trucking industry.  There is a high probability that a driver  will not wake up in time to save their lives or those involved with him  in the accident.  We will cover the daily and weekly hours limits that  all commercial drivers nationwide are subject to.  We will also talk  about how we can reset these hours or monitor their recap of the last 8  days.

"Maintenance Records Requirements" may be the most complicated of all of the files we talk about in the  FMCSR. Part 396 mandates four separate files for maintenance related  records and retention periods can vary as well.  Further complicating  this for the motor carrier is the requirement that these records be  maintained where the vehicle is either housed or maintained which can  easily be an outside vendor shop. Good luck getting ready for an audit  if these records are scattered and unorganized.  Again, as with logs  above, the maintenance requirements can be extensive and the records  quite involved.  We will present the DOT’s maintenance requirements in  three separate sessions.

The focus during this session will be on the individual vehicle file and  its contents.  Section 396.3 specifically mandates “systematic  maintenance” on all commercial motor vehicles.  Push out windows,  emergency doors and emergency lights must be inspected every 90 days for  buses.  Though the DOT does not say what service intervals look like  nor what they include, managers must be able to describe the process and  these records must prove that they were done on time.  The frequency  and content of these inspections will dictate the success of roadside  inspections and subsequent CSA scores.

In this session we will cover the requirements for a thorough pre-trip  inspection and the subsequent post trips’ Daily Vehicle Inspection  Report.  This is possibly the most dangerous report from a liability  perspective and historically the least understood.  The written record  DVIR is done after the post trip inspection at the end of the driver’s  shift, not after the pre-trip.   If a defect has been identified but has  been driven before the repair of all “safety defects”, it could result  in a large out of court settlement and the DOT classifies it as an acute  violation.  Your entire maintenance function could fail the audit if  these DVIRs are not prepared, monitored every day, and repaired as  necessary.  The flow of the paperwork can be essential to its proper  functionality.  Professional drivers will always start their day with a  thorough pre-trip inspection of their vehicle/s prior to driving on the  road.  They should have a guilty conscience if they short cut this  process and ask themselves “what critical safety component did I miss  which could result in an accident today”.  This session will portray the  entire process as defined in 396.11 and 396.13.

DOT Safety Plus is honored to have two consultants who are recognized  nationwide specialists on the roadside inspection and associated  Appendix G requirements.  They are the best in the business and will  host this session.  It is targeted at the annual inspection requirement  for every commercial vehicle but will include the roadside inspection  process which uses the CVSA’s North American Out-of-Service (OOS)  criteria.  The annual inspection standards are defined in Appendix G to  FMCSR and correspond very closely to the above OOS.  We will cover the  major component areas and discuss the inspector’s certification process.