Don’t throw away your records!

According to 49CFR §382.601, as an employer you have an obligation to make known to prospective drivers meeting the requirements of commercial driver’s license of part 383, that you have a policy on the misuse of alcohol and use of controlled substances.

You must retain for 2 years, the signed Acknowledgment Page of the Drug and Alcohol Policy, proving that you showed them your policy, for all person’s that you pre-employment drug tested, and did not hire.

If you are enrolled in our Level II services, rest assured that we are already meeting the retention requirements for the drivers that you hired.

Minnesota CDL Skills Test to Change September 1, 2010

New Pre-trip Inspection and Basic Skills Requirements Improve Safety
ST. PAUL — DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY

The process of obtaining a Minnesota commercial driver’s license (CDL) will change on Sept. 1, 2010 when the state adopts federally-proposed road-testing procedures that call for a full, walk-around pre-trip inspection and the addition of offset backing to the basic control skills section of the test.

Deb Carlson, exam program manager for the Department of Public Safety Driver and Vehicle Services Division, says the changes will result in more thorough examination of drivers’ knowledge and skills. “A higher quality driver” she says, “ultimately will create safer roads for everyone.”

The pre-trip inspection is the process whereby a driver determines that a vehicle is safe to operate. Under new requirements, the driver will perform an all-inclusive, walk-around vehicle inspection.

In the Basic Control section of the CDL road test, new regulations require a demonstration of “offset backing” skills in which the driver must back the vehicle, either to the right or left, into an adjacent lane.

Addition of the walk-around inspection and the backing requirement will lengthen the road test procedure by at least 30 minutes.

For more information about CDL road-test changes, visit a driver exam station or consult the Minnesota Commercial Driver’s Manual online at www.dps.state.mn.us; click “Driver and Vehicle Services” and select “Manuals” from the left menu. Find the commercial vehicle pre-trip inspection checklist on page 9 of Section 10. An offset backing diagram is located on page 3 of Section 11.

CSA BASIC Thresholds Changed July 2010

The thresholds for the Behavioral Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories, "BASICS" have changed. Of the seven BASICS, three of the thresholds have been lowered; Unsafe Driving, Fatigued Driving (Hours of Service), and Crash Indicator. Four have been raised; Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances and Alcohol, Vehicle Maintenance and Cargo Related.

The change is due in part to adding Vehicle Miles Traveled "VMT" to the scoring methodology.

The thresholds for Unsafe Driving, Fatigued Driving, and Crash Indicators were lowered to: General carriers 65%; HazMat carriers 60%; and Passenger carriers 50%.

The remaining thresholds were raised as follows: General carriers 80%, HazMat carriers 75%, and Passenger carriers 65%.

Midwest Compliance Inc offers web training on CSA, give us a call 800-656-1396.

FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro Address MTA Annual Conference Attendees

The Minnesota Trucking Association (MTA) annual conference, held August 3 - 5, 2010, was packed full of important information. Administrator Anne Ferro provided the following information, which applies to both interstate and intrastate carriers; for-hire and private carriers, and carriers of both property and passengers:

The U. S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is pleased to announce the next step in the phased roll-out of Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 (CSA 2010).

Motor Carrier Data Preview:

In April 2010, FMCSA launched the CSA 2010 Data Preview Website which allowed commercial motor vehicle carriers to view an inventory of their safety performance data by the new Safety Measurement System’s (SMS) Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs).

On August 16, 2010, FMCSA will update the Data Preview Website by providing carriers with an assessment of where they stand in each BASIC based on roadside data and investigation findings. The SMS’s seven BASICs are Unsafe Driving, Fatigued Driving (Hours-of-Service), Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Vehicle Maintenance, Cargo-Related and Crash Indicator. The BASICs will replace SafeStat’s Safety Evaluation Areas (SEAs) in December 2010, and this early look gives motor carriers an opportunity to understand and address their safety compliance issues right away.

Recent Updates to SMS:

The Data Preview assessments will be based on an improved SMS methodology. As a result of input from enforcement personnel, industry representatives, and safety experts, as well as findings from an extensive, 30-month field test, FMCSA is implementing several updates to the SMS that will make it more effective in identifying high risk and other carriers with safety compliance problems. Specifically:

The measure of exposure will be changed from Power Units (PUs) only to a combination of PUs and Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT) in the Unsafe Driving BASIC and Crash Indicator. In addition, these two BASICs will change from using PUs as a safety event grouping (formerly referred to as peer grouping) to using the number of crashes for the Crash Indicator and the number of inspections with a violation for the Unsafe Driving BASIC.

The measure of exposure will change from PUs to the number of relevant inspections in the Controlled Substances/Alcohol BASIC;

Severity weights for some roadside inspection violations will be updated; and The Agency will employ a more strategic approach to addressing motor carriers with a history of size and weight violations rather than counting these violations in the Cargo-Related BASIC; the new approach will include alerts to roadside inspectors when carriers have a history of size and weight violations.

These enhancements will allow the Agency to more effectively identify motor carriers with safety performance and compliance problems thereby raising the bar for safety on the Nation’s roads. For additional details about the Data Preview and the improvements to the SMS, visit:

http://csa2010.fmcsa.dot.gov/Documents/SMSImprovementsFAQs.pdf

To learn more about CSA 2010, and to stay updated during the coming months, subscribe to the CSA 2010 RSS feed or email list at http://csa2010.fmcsa.dot.gov.

Thank You,
CSA 2010 Web Team
USDOT/Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration