Safety & Compliance

By Kirsti Correa

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), which requires individuals to have health insurance, could change the way trucking companies handle their healthcare coverage policies for employees. The Truckload Carriers Association held a webinar on May 23 to discuss its analysis of the ACA and the impact it will have on the trucking industry.

Tags: Drivers, Business, Health

By HDT partner, Today's Trucking

New hours of service rules go into effect July 1. Are you ready? The American Trucking Associations has published an easy-to-use, free tipsheet to help you help your drivers understand the new HOS rules.

Tags: Drivers, ATA, Training, Driver Training, Hours of Service

By Deborah Lockridge

If you haven't taken a look at your driver hiring and screening procedures in a while, it's time for a thorough review to avoid running afoul of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Tags: Safety and Compliance

By Thomas Bray, Editor, J.J. Keller & Associates

Despite all of the folklore that has been built around it, at its core, CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability) is simply a program used by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to track and evaluate carriers based on compliance and crash history. Carriers that do not score well in the system are the ones FMCSA will spend time warning or investigating.

Tags: FMCSA, J.J. Keller, CSA, Inspections, Owner-Operators

By Deborah Lockridge

Required driver pre-trip inspections have garnered more attention under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s new Compliance, Safety, Accountability enforcement program. And it’s not only the actual inspections you need to think about – it’s also the paperwork component.

Tags: FMCSA, CSA, DVIR, Pre-trip inspection

By Kate Harlow

With the advent of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s flagship Compliance, Safety, Accountability program, a new premium was put on safety. This required a number of fleets to focus on the issue like never before.

Tags: FMCSA, Con-way Freight, CSA, Safety & Compliance

By Thomas Bray, Editor, J.J. Keller & Associates

Whether you have one truck or 20,000, the FMCSA's maintenance regulations apply to you. The safety and compliance experts at J.J. Keller have tips for owner-operators and small fleets on how to develop a maintenance program that will meet federal standards.

Tags: Maintenance, FMCSA, Owner-Operators

By Bob Rose, Contributor

In December, the FMCSA made good on its commitment to Congress to install refinements to the CSA initiative by implementing 11 changes to the Safety Measurement System. J.J. Keller's Bob Rose has more details.

Tags: FMCSA, Safety, J.J. Keller, Compliance, CSA, Hazmat

By Oliver B. Patton

In the two years it has been up and running, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrations Compliance, Safety, Accountability program has demonstrated many flaws and shortcomings. But the program is credited with the signal achievement of shining a brighter light on truck safety.

Tags: Topics & Trends, FMCSA, CSA, MCSAC

By Oliver B. Patton

Imagine: A truck driver gets a signal on his dash, warning him that a car ahead that he cannot see has slammed on the brakes. Or that he's going too fast for the curve ahead/

Tags: Equipment & Technology, Safety, smart highways

By John Hill, Contributor

In my 38 years of involvement with highway safety, and even more recently as a safety consultant, I have observed a unique situation distinctive to safe and compliant companies: They value their employees by creating a safety culture

Tags: Compliance, Safety, Drivers, CSA

Nearly 100 people participated in a webinar last month on the truck parking shortage and innovative ways this problem can be addressed. The webinar was put on by the Trucking Industry Mobility and Technology Coalition. Several studies dating back to the 1990s have found that there is an inadequate supply of truck parking, especially along key freight corridor

Tags: Topics & Trends, Truckstops, parking

By Deborah Lockridge, Editor in Chief

In the coming days, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will unveil version 3.0 of its Safety Measurement System under the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program, and the changes will mean increased scrutiny of hazmat compliance, even for companies not considered hazmat carriers

Tags: Compliance, CSA, Hazmat

By Kathy Close, Contributor

The Compliance, Safety, Accountability enforcement model has been fine-tuned on multiple occasions since the program's inception by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

Tags: Compliance, CSA, Safety and Compliance, SMC

By Deborah Lockridge, Editor in Chief & Jim Beach, Contributing Editor

In 1986, the Chernobyl-4 nuclear reactor exploded, spewing molten core fragments and radiation. It killed more than 30 people and contaminated 400 square miles around the Ukrainian plant. A "poor safety culture" was identified as a major factor. That was one of the first uses of the term

Tags: Topics & Trends

By Contributed HNi

With a hard market on the way for the insurance industry, it's more important now than ever to shore up your safety program (although developing a safety culture should always be a focus, no matter what the market conditions.

Tags: Topics & Trends, Safety, Insurance

By Jim Park, Equipment Editor

There's nothing like a smack up side the head with a two-by-four to get your attention. That's what the Federal Motor Carrier Administration is doing to fleet maintenance with its Compliance, Safety, Accountability program

Tags: Compliance

To prepare for the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance's Brake Safety Week Sept. 9-15, Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems recommends making sure you're familiar with CVSA inspection requirements and procedures

Tags: Compliance

By Don Jerrell, Contributor

Regulations for commercial motor vehicle drivers are changing in regard to medical cards. The rules remain the same as to which drivers need a federal medical certificate (Fed Med card) while operating a commercial vehicle, but drivers will now have to provide an up-to-date copy of this card to the DMV when they obtain it

Tags: Drivers

With just two full-time facilities to handle maintenance on a fleet of more than 2,700 trailers scattered across the lower 48 states and Mexico, conducting regular trailer inspections can be a daunting task for Murray, Ky.-based Paschall Truck Lines.

Tags: Compliance

By Jim Beach, Contributing Editor

Technology plays a role in promoting safety at Maverick Transportaton in Little Rock, Ark. But the technologies deployed "are part of our overall safety program and a part of our safety culture," says Dean Newell, vice president of safety and driver training

Tags: Topics & Trends

By Tom Berg, Senior Editor

A driver grabs an exit and heads into the curve of the ramp too fast. He steers hard to try to make the sharpening turn, but his trailer can't follow. Its rear begins flipping and the motion quickly continues forward, pulling over the tractor

Tags: Equipment & Technology

By Oliver B. Patton, Washington Editor

Topping the list of federal initiatives on truck safety technology is a proposal due any time from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to require stability control systems on heavy-duty tractors

Tags: Equipment & Technology

By Jim Sassen, Contributor

There are two types of carrier reactions when it comes to navigating the new Compliance, Safety, Accountability program launched by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, better known simply as CSA

Tags: Compliance

A study by Instructional Technologies Inc., provider of Pro-Tread online safety training, showed that Pro-Tread clients' CSA BASIC scores averaged 30 point less than average industry CSA scores.

Tags: Compliance

By Genevieve Conti, Assistant Editor

Ron "Big Dog" Sowder has a good reason for his nickname: He's driven 50 years and 4 million miles without a single accident

Tags: Drivers

By Thomas Ziebell, Contributor

Many shippers and transporters of hazardous materials are familiar with the small orange Emergency Response Guidebook. Most associate the ERG with compliance with the Hazardous Materials Regulations (49 CFR), using it to provide emergency response information for a hazardous materials shipment. Yet that is not why the ERG was created

Tags: Compliance

By Jim Beach, Contributing Editor & Deborah Lockridge, Editor in Chief

Driver monitoring has evolved tremendously in recent years. Some carriers still rely on reports from a 1-800 "how's my driving" number to find out when a driver is driving poorly, but many more are putting technology to wor

Tags: Drivers

By Tom Nunlist, Contributor & Oliver B. Patton, Washington Editor

In late 2005 and early 2006, two J.B. Hunt drivers were involved in accidents that claimed three lives. Both drivers had clean records, but both tested positive at the scene for cocaine

Tags: Drivers

By Rolf Lockwood, Editor at Large

One definition of success in driving any sort of vehicle is getting where you're going without hitting stuff. Doing that involves the coordinated use of brakes and throttle and steerin

Tags: Drivers

By Tom Nunlist, Associate Editor

Technology is not only changing what the driver looks for in the job, but also what the job looks for in the driver

Tags: Drivers

By Tom Nunlist, Associate Editor

When Don Lacy implemented weekly safety meetings as one of his first actions as director of safety at Prime Inc.

Tags: Topics & Trends

By Jim Park, Equipment Editor

Open-deck carriers will have a lot on their minds going forward

Tags: Compliance

By Jim Park, Equipment Editor

What do you know about the synthetic web strapping you use to secure cargo? What you need to know is that it has a label, tag or stencil showing the manufacturer's name and/or trademark, and the working load limit of the strap in pounds or kilograms. You've got all that? The label even says the strap is DOT approved. You're good to go, right? Guess what? There are no DOT standards for cargo strapping

Tags: Equipment & Technology

By Guest commentary Christian Schenk, vice president, product marketing, Xata

It's a fact: Fleets with the highest safety performance records also have stringent policies on in-cab cell phone use, according to the recent Strength in Numbers Fleet Benchmarking Study sponsored by the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety

Tags: Equipment & Technology

By Jim Park, Equipment Editor

You're driving down the road and approaching a truck weigh/inspec­tion station. An amber light blinks on the dash, advising that your driver and vehicle credentials, vehicle condition and trip information are being gathered and transmitted to the inspection station's computers for analysis. A few moments later, the light blinks green.

Tags: Equipment & Technology