schlimm RME So I expectantly await the specifics on what programs, BASICs, etc. are involved in this reported heavy penalty for single seat-belt violation. I have little expectation of that. Usually when rather unlikely claims are made without any evidence or with claims of secrecy, it's because they are empty rhetoric or the claimant misunderstood. Of course, this could be the exception.
RME So I expectantly await the specifics on what programs, BASICs, etc. are involved in this reported heavy penalty for single seat-belt violation.
I have little expectation of that. Usually when rather unlikely claims are made without any evidence or with claims of secrecy, it's because they are empty rhetoric or the claimant misunderstood. Of course, this could be the exception.
I find your lack of faith . . . disturbing . . .
https://safer.fmcsa.dot.gov/
You are accessing a U.S. Government information system. This information system, including all related equipment, networks, and network devices, is provided for U.S. Government-authorized use only. Unauthorized or improper use of this system is prohibited, and may result in civil and criminal penalties, or administrative disciplinary action. The communications and data stored or transiting this system may be, for any lawful Government purpose, monitored, recorded, and subject to audit or investigation. By using this system, you understand and consent to such terms.
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
RME If it is correct, someone will have to explain where the double secret probation points are assessed, because the FMCSA does not describe anything of the kind. Here, for example, is one of the FMCSA pages that deals with the CSA program. Note that the whole structure of the system that deals with 'violations' is different from what has been described. On the other hand, I find it reasonably unlikely that there is some secret vicious oppression whose details are secretly accessible only by the trucking companies it afflicts. So I expectantly await the specifics on what programs, BASICs, etc. are involved in this reported heavy penalty for single seat-belt violation.
If it is correct, someone will have to explain where the double secret probation points are assessed, because the FMCSA does not describe anything of the kind.
Here, for example, is one of the FMCSA pages that deals with the CSA program.
Note that the whole structure of the system that deals with 'violations' is different from what has been described. On the other hand, I find it reasonably unlikely that there is some secret vicious oppression whose details are secretly accessible only by the trucking companies it afflicts. So I expectantly await the specifics on what programs, BASICs, etc. are involved in this reported heavy penalty for single seat-belt violation.
The problem with "fact checking" and insisting "do you have a source for that" is that there are many things in life for which their are multiple perspectives and points of view. I think there was a Japanese movie called "Rashomon" about just that -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashomon.
One point of view is that there are people working for trucking companies who are complaining that they are singled out for rigid and heavy handed enforcement of seemingly arbitrary rules.
Another point of view is that heavy trucks and other large commercial vehicles are a menace on the roads and a person in a personal vehicle could be crushed at any moment. Think of entertainer Tracy Morgan, travelling to his next comedy engagement, not in some flimsy compact car but in a stout luxury limousine-bus with a professional driver, hit from behind by a fatiqued semi-truck driver to see his friends killed and himself facing a multi-year recovery from serious injuries.
Even if one can't readily dig up on the Internet the penalty for a commercial driver seat-belt violation, one could use one's imagination that our government, through the Federal Motor Carrier Administration (FMCA) is "on top" of the Tracy Morgan situation. I mean who wants to see an entertainment star, or any of us, smashed up or worse because a commercial trucking company can't keep their drivers obeying the rules?
What I gather is that there is this database thingy called SAFER that collects "incidents" involving commercial drivers and the trucking companies that hire these drivers. No, there are no Federal Marshals patrolling the Interstates handing out seat-belt violation tickets. Yes, individual states enforce their laws and write violation tickets, with some states "tougher" than others (cough, Ohio, cough), but any and all of these tickets must get reported to the Federal authorities through that database.
When something getting a lot of publicity like Tracy Morgan's injury happens, there is a lot of outcry to "do something", and people point out "that trucking company had that long list of violations and no one did anything about it."
Not having direct corroboration of this, I take a fellow Forum participant's word that the FMCA is indeed "doing something about this." From their own Web site, one can gather that they have this database that has been mentioned where they keep a running tally of violations. From the FMCA's own website they explain that there are various "red lines" that one can cross that result in actions ranging from a stern warning letter to the shutting down of the offending trucking company.
Can one seat-belt violation bring the FMCA down like "a ton of bricks" on our fellow Forum participant's trucking company. I suppose it could if that company has racked up a list of violations in the Federal database, and one more seat-belt violation puts them past a certain red line. In light of what happened to Tracy Morgan along with many other people, I think there would be an outcry if the Feds didn't have a system like that -- "that trucking company had racked up a long ist of violations and no one did anything about it?"
So yes, I find it entirely plausible that a trucking company is under "double-secret probation" and under a zero-tolerance policy for any additional violation. Trucking is very highly competitive, the temptation is always there to cut corners, and in the absence of rigorous enforcement, there will be and has been mayhem on the roads. Does not wearing your seat belt mean you are inclined to rear-end Tracy Morgan's luxury bus? No, but being casual about seat belts could be one of those "Big Data" statistical indicators that you don't have a strong safety culture.
Yes, it is entirely possible that our fellow forum participant is "trolling" us with tales of seat-belt tickets resulting in huge fines to a trucking company. But why are others on this Forum on a hair-trigger to just-short-of-accuse a fellow forum member of making this stuff up?
If those of us who are scholars and academics proclaim solidarity with working people and the common man, do you suppose we could stop to listen to a person's point of view of what a trucker and a trucking company encounters in their daily life? Can't we just listen to what a person has to say, even if this challenges our own life experience and prior assumptions. Do we need to act like an anonymous reviewer of a controversial journal article with everyone we encounter?
It is not us that mandates we use the freaking Federal point system it is OUR insurance company. When your boss has to write out a payment and this year it was for over 6 Million bucks for the fleet you listen to them. Why because the number of Inusers for Haz-Mat Carriers can be listed on 1 hand. We hate that point system that was forced upon us by the FMCSA is what the Inusers in the industry base who or What we can hire drivers on. Yesterday I had to deny a 22 Year experienced driver that had 2.5 Million accident free miles a job. Why his current SAFER score was 2 points over what our Insurance company would allow at least for another 90 days. So he was lost to us.
One of my friends husbands just got hammered in CA with a 268 Safer Point Inspection Yet he had Zero Logbook Violations every Thing that they found wrong was stuff that failed after he had done his through Pre Trip Inspection. He got hammered for about everything possible under the sun. His carrier is appealing it to the FMCSA saying that CA was being way to nitpicky. They wrote him up for 1 LED in a 10 LED cluster being out and he has the doumentation for all of those. Yeah if the DOT wants to find something they will and you and your Carrier will pay for it. His fines and his Carriers fines totalled 34 Grand. Gotta love the CA DOT Officers in Banning. I guess they want to pay to rebuild Cajon Scales on the back of Truck Fines.
Like it or not, the long-haul trucking business does not enjoy a favorable rep with the public at large. Several high-profile accidents with fatalities involving poorly trained and supervised drivers or drivers beyond their Hours Of Service time have contributed to this poor rep. Consequently, the various law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies are under public pressure to do something about this. It may not seem fair but it is the reality.
I can post you tube link after link showing how cars act around OTR trucks on a daily basis including Brake Checking drivers all over the USA. I can also include Federal Highway Transportation Stats that show that in all accidents involving OTR trucks 85% of the time the Car in the collision was deemed to be at fault in the collision. That includes all rear end Collisons with a Semi hitting a car in the rear.
I can also include links to what we call the Suicde by truck stats those accidents are NOT Safe for Work. Yes some drivers are not properly trained and HOS regulations are an issue. However when under the Current ones the Mega Fleets like Swift JB Hunt Knight they are some of the worst can force a driver to work 98 hours in 8 days it is an issue. Our drivers are told NEVER more than 70 in 8 Peroid as we try to get them home on weekends. How do they do that. Driver is coming out of the house has a fresh 70 hours to use. Carrier forces 70 hours used in 5 days. They then force a reset where he is at. 34 hours later he picks up a fresh 70 now there is still 14 hours in that day they make him use 28 hours in the next 2 days. Here is how the Trainers at a Mega Carrier work my boss does train a few drivers also. Driver gets hired by Swift is put in a truck with a driver with 6 months OTR exp. I doubt that driver has enough knowelege to even figure out which end of the trailer goes into the dock at times. Our trainers must have 15 Years OTR exp 2 Million miles Accident Free before they are considered. Mega Fleet trainers run team from the second they get that trainee to maximize the miles they get paid for. Our trainers are paid a set salary regardless of how many miles they run a week and it is a pretty high one. They are required to be in the passenger seat logging on duty not driving for the first 2 months of the 3 month training peroid. After 2 months of doing that then the driver is allowed to start teaming on overnight runs of 900 miles only with the trainee doing most of the driving. The last week we run them as a full team.
We have a 50% failure rate in our training program meaning 50% of the drivers we hire as trainees do not make it out of our Training program. Why our Trainers are given total authority to make that decision and if they see anything that is a safety issue they can fire the trainee on the spot.
We strive to train our drivers the best we can. Why because some of the stuff we haul is TIH in nature. We do haul pressurized chlorine gas and pure hydrochorlic acid on a daily basis. The drivers picked to haul that have to go thru the training program even if they have been with us for years. We do not screw around with either of those 2 chemicals and that is why our training standards are so strick. Walmart drivers have trouble getting on with us and they are considered the best of the best on hiring standards.
CSSHEGEWISCH Like it or not, the long-haul trucking business does not enjoy a favorable rep with the public at large. Several high-profile accidents with fatalities involving poorly trained and supervised drivers or drivers beyond their Hours Of Service time have contributed to this poor rep. Consequently, the various law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies are under public pressure to do something about this. It may not seem fair but it is the reality.
That is why I believe someone who tells me that that truck drivers and trucking companies are under the microscope, and that the persons scoffing at these accounts are being silly.
There appears to be this belief that all regulation and actions taken by enforcement officers are for the common good and that enforcement is never capricious or heavy handed, and the only people complaining about enforcement are at the far-Right (and far-Left) wing.
Back on the topic at hand, I can understand regulating soot and smoke from Diesel engines. The leading cause of lung cancer is smoking, but a non-trivial fraction of lung cancer cases is in non-smokers making non-smoker lung cancer a significant health risk.
But NOx from Diesel engines? The word among the engineers at a Leading North American Automobile Manufacturer back-in-the-day more years ago than I care to admit to was that both NOx and HC (hydrocarbons) contributed to forming ozone near cities, the respiratory irritant in photochemical smog, but if you really wanted to be scientific about it, you could trade off relaxed NOx emission if your HC was low, but the regs are set in stone and you cannot do that.
Diesels are naturally much lower in HC on account of their lean combustion conditions but higher in NOx on account of their higher combustion temperatures. But I guess NOx must be eliminated from all sources at any level and at any cost in discombobulating the trucking industry and now the railroad industry. I guess any kind of pollution goes against a religious tenant and this religion makes no distinction among grades or seriousness of different offenses.
The punishment should fit the violation -- no good comes from punishing people out of proportion to what they have done wrong. That kind of treatment eventually leads to corruption followed by the need to violate laws just to get anything done.
What makes it so screwed up is the NEW engines actually burn More Fuel to move the save amount of goods. 15 years ago based on my bosses own IFTA and that stands for Interstate Fuel Tax Reports his fleet averaged 8.5 MPG the one we filed for CY 2015 we got 5.7 MPG as a fleet. That is a 33% decrease in fuel Economy with trucks that have better Areodynamics than the ones from 15 years ago. What has changed since then the Emissions Regulations that have been Mandated on us. When one of our trucks goes thru a DEF Regeneration it consumes almost 4 gallons of diesel to burn out the soot that was in the filter. We carry 160 gallons of fuel almost 3 percent is used in each regeneration and the engines go thru one every 40 hours of Running so about 10% of our fuel burn is dealing with Emissions in a week. Then for more fun those Regens we have to endure are hot enough if they happen when we are stopped to literally catch asphalt on fire from sitting let alone the truck. They run at over 1800 degrees of heat. Yeah they are that freaking hot. There have been drivers killed by regen fires why their truck caught fire going down the road during a regen and the DPF was cracked. Yet the EPA says we have to run something that can kill our employees. You see why I hate them. It is an unsafe piece of equipment that sooner or later is going to fail costs thousands of dollars to repair does not last its intended lifespan and oh yeah can and does literally burn you to death if it malfunctions.
There are few things quite as stupid as 'regenerating' DPFs by richening up the mixture to torch them out. Cheap, yes. But stupid. Note that the more sensible Johnson-Mathey continuous filters are made less effective by the tiny permissible NOx levels of Tier 4, and the damn things don't capture most of the nanoparticles that are the actual acute health hazard from diesel particulates.
But remember, this comes from the public-health philosophy that, in an earlier incarnation, decided to address the problem of recreational ethanol consumption by adding a mandatory ingredient that produced blindness, insanity and death.
Shadow the Cats owner We have lost long term employees that are not able to retire due to all the Regulations that have been rammed down our throats in the last 7 years. My boss had to let loose 20 drivers that where with the carrier for 20 years becuase the FMCSA decided that Sleep Apnea is more of a Hazard for a driver than the lack of safe Parking and even with a CPAP machine they could not meet the new guidelines. We as a company lost another 10 long term Owner Operators people that owned their own trucks and leased them to us with the New Emissions Rules. Why they could not afford the repairs to their Trucks when the equipment went off of Warrenty and started to shatter Injector Cups or blow an EGR every single Month. We also lost 3 shop employees when since we are a Haz-Mat carrier all our Employees had to be able to pass a Federal Background Investigation for a TWIC card. 3 of our Mechanics that had been with the carrier since before my boss took the reigns one of which had been with the company since 1980 where forced out the door. The worst one for us however is the freaking costs of doing business are. Our cost of doing business have almost doubled for maintance insurance of all kinds we spent close to 10 million on insurance for health and Liability last year alone. Then throw in permits and Tolls that are 20X what they were just 15 years ago. For my bosses trucks to go across the George Washington Bridge it is effective Nov 1 now going to be 200 dollars going into the city. We lose money on loads now going into the Northeast. Yeah you heard right we can not cover our costs going into Boston NYC or anywhere into that area with Tolls figured in. Yet there is no effective Intermodal Service into or Out of that area.
We have lost long term employees that are not able to retire due to all the Regulations that have been rammed down our throats in the last 7 years. My boss had to let loose 20 drivers that where with the carrier for 20 years becuase the FMCSA decided that Sleep Apnea is more of a Hazard for a driver than the lack of safe Parking and even with a CPAP machine they could not meet the new guidelines. We as a company lost another 10 long term Owner Operators people that owned their own trucks and leased them to us with the New Emissions Rules. Why they could not afford the repairs to their Trucks when the equipment went off of Warrenty and started to shatter Injector Cups or blow an EGR every single Month.
We also lost 3 shop employees when since we are a Haz-Mat carrier all our Employees had to be able to pass a Federal Background Investigation for a TWIC card. 3 of our Mechanics that had been with the carrier since before my boss took the reigns one of which had been with the company since 1980 where forced out the door. The worst one for us however is the freaking costs of doing business are. Our cost of doing business have almost doubled for maintance insurance of all kinds we spent close to 10 million on insurance for health and Liability last year alone. Then throw in permits and Tolls that are 20X what they were just 15 years ago. For my bosses trucks to go across the George Washington Bridge it is effective Nov 1 now going to be 200 dollars going into the city. We lose money on loads now going into the Northeast. Yeah you heard right we can not cover our costs going into Boston NYC or anywhere into that area with Tolls figured in. Yet there is no effective Intermodal Service into or Out of that area.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
We are a smaller carrier so we do not get the massive discounts that the Megas like Swift Prime Schiender JB Hunt Conway and the others get on things like Parts Trailers New Trucks FUEL and oh yeah Repairs on equipment. Prime and Scheinder both have Tanker fleets when they order new liquid tanks they order 500-600 at a time we order 10-20 at a time. We pay our drivers more than they do also. Why they use mostly new hire drivers fresh out of Driver Training Schools. They are mostly Self Insured up to 30 million Dollars for an accident then their secondary insurance kicks in. We on the other hand have to buy our insurance. When they buy new trucks for their fleets they buy 2000-4000 at a time. Who is going to get a bigger discount that is 3-4 months of steady work for a maker of OTR trucks. We order 50 a year in 2 batches of 25. We used just over 150 Million gallons of Diesel Fuel last year Schiender used over 6 Billion Gallons of Fuel. Who is getting the lower price from the Truck stop chains it is not us. We lost a customer for a couple months last year for 3 months Prime undercut our rate. We where charging 2.25 a mile it covered all costs for us and made us about 20 Cents a mile profit. Prime undercut it to 1.50 a mile. We got it back when Prime was late with delivery and also bringing dirty trailers to get loaded. Sometimes the good carrier gets and keeps that customer. So yeah we have higher costs but our service sells it. Our customers know that when our drivers show up he is going to be on time professional looking and if he is hauling Haz mat in a tanker fully equipped with all required Personal Protection gear up to and inculding a full air pack. Yes we haul stuff that nasty. Our plastics customers know if they ordered a custom blend that it will be correct dry and ready to go into their equipment. My boss and his father started this company in 1971 with 1 truck to grow it into what it is now is saying something.
It sounds like it's not the regulations that are hurting you. It's the competition that is hurting you.
Murphy Siding It sounds like it's not the regulations that are hurting you. It's the competition that is hurting you.
Economies of scale always work against the 'little guy'. The little guy has to make it up to his customers with service they can't get anyplace else. They have to make the customer feel he is #1 and will stay #1, whereas the big guy just makes them feel like a 9 digit ID number that means nothing special to the big guy.
The problem is that many 'big' customers have no idea what good service is and accept shoddy service if it comes with a low price.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD Murphy Siding It sounds like it's not the regulations that are hurting you. It's the competition that is hurting you. Economies of scale always work against the 'little guy'. The little guy has to make it up to his customers with service they can't get anyplace else. They have to make the customer feel he is #1 and will stay #1, whereas the big guy just makes them feel like a 9 digit ID number that means nothing special to the big guy. The problem is that many 'big' customers have no idea what good service is and accept shoddy service if it comes with a low price.
Sounds about right. [BTW, the OP never showed the actual language/citation for the claim about seat belt violations.]
I might be wrong, but I seem to recall someone on here who was knowledgeable about the trucking industry saying one of the problems was some of the small outfits. They have lower costs because they cut corners on regs, have low pay, use old equipment. They can undercut the prices of the large outfits but their poor service, etc. give the industry an undeserved bad reputation. There may be a pejorative name for them. Dunno.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
We are lucky we have several Fortune 500 companies that refuse to work with the Mega Fleets. Why they know that they will not get the level or professional service that we do offer them. Heck we had 2 times in the last year when a Mega Carrier lost contracts to us even though we charge more why our drivers show up on time do not tear up the plant have the right equipment needed for loading unloading on the truck with them. Heck one plant we are their ONLY carrier they will use as the Megas have pulled out of the area why they can not beat our service. We have 10 decidated drivers just for that one customer. All they do is run back and forth between IL and NY 3 rounds a week. They make alot of drink mixes and alot of Peanut Butter and Syrup for various grocery chains. We have a Polystyene bead plant near us that on a normal week ships out close to 100 loads between van and in Plastic tanks. We have drop trailers there and they have their own spotter tractors. Why we can survive is simple my boss and his father before him saw a niche have expanded it bought carriers out and also sell the hell out of the service they offer to their customers. Our drivers bust their butts to provide that service for our customers and are rewarded well for their serivce. However with what the EPA FMCSA and other Alphabet agencies keep ramming down our throats in the name of Climate Change and for so called safety improvements anymore are getting to the point were it is starting to cost my boss MONEY in revenue and there is not much more he can absorb before he has to pass those costs onto his customers and they will have to raise their prices to their customers meaning US.
If you think my boss is going to absorb the cost of his power units aka the Tractor going up another 30 Grand each and that is what we expect for 2018 without passing that cost on your dreaming the extra cost to him is 1.5 Million a year on fleet replacement cost. He can not absorb that and survive. He either raises his Revenue or cuts his costs. We are already running lean in the office as we can. We need 2 more dispatchers 1 more log auditor 1 more in payroll but the money is not there to pay their wages. We also need more mechanics but again lack of revenue to pay them. He has cut everything he can to keep his profit margin at 3% yeah after he pays all expenes total in the company he makes 3% profit which is given to the employees as profit sharing bounses at the end of the year. Yet we are being asked to spend more for what the new standard is a less than 1% improvement over what we have now. For the extra 30 Grand it is not worth the cost to the industry. Or the freaking MPG standard that was imposed on us Physics alone says we will never meet that. No way in HADES can a vechile that ways 80K pounds reach a CAFE of 15 MPG. We run every areo device we can and our best drivers barely break 7 now. Our trucks are not High Horsepower either only 450 HP is the Fleet standard. Yet we have an Owner Operator who bought a Glider Kit meaning he could stuff a Pre Emission Reman into it Legally and get away with it he gets 10 MPG with his engine set for 550 HP. So where are we going to find that 8 MPG there is nothing left to improve Aero wise especially with a Peumatic tank or Liquid tank. These regulators are living in a Dream world I swear. We have APU's on all our equipment also so next to zero idle time and we can not do better than 5.7 as a fleet on a year to year basis with the current Emissions regulations. What they are mandating we do is physically impossible to do.
schlimm BaltACD Murphy Siding It sounds like it's not the regulations that are hurting you. It's the competition that is hurting you. Economies of scale always work against the 'little guy'. The little guy has to make it up to his customers with service they can't get anyplace else. They have to make the customer feel he is #1 and will stay #1, whereas the big guy just makes them feel like a 9 digit ID number that means nothing special to the big guy. The problem is that many 'big' customers have no idea what good service is and accept shoddy service if it comes with a low price. Sounds about right. [BTW, the OP never showed the actual language/citation for the claim about seat belt violations.] I might be wrong, but I seem to recall someone on here who was knowledgeable about the trucking industry saying one of the problems was some of the small outfits. They have lower costs because they cut corners on regs, have low pay, use old equipment. They can undercut the prices of the large outfits but their poor service, etc. give the industry an undeserved bad reputation. There may be a pejorative name for them. Dunno.
Being a Drunk Driver in a CMV is less of an offense than not wearing your seatbelt according to the Federal Government.
Balt we call those carriers that have very old equipment Zombie carriers they are barely running to cover their Fuel costs most of the time. They are one breakdown from being out of business. They are the ones that will take a load reagardless of what it pays just praying they can keep moving. Their drivers are also adept at stealing fuel from other trucks and permits and such. We have had to start putting plates on the bottoms of our tanks to prevent drivers from drilling into the tanks to steal the fuel in them. Or they will have a pump and hose they will drop in your tank and literally pump it out of your tank. We have a screen in our filler necks that prevents that now. We also mount our permits behind 1/4 thick poly sheets that we pop rivet to the truck. Lets just say we hate those carriers with a passion around here.
Shadow the Cats ownerDirect from the FMCSA website. They are multplied x3 for the first year.
And let's not forget the civil penalties:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/part-386/appendix-B
or download the 'helpful' software from this valuable resource page...
I'm sure the larger firms have "legal representation" to get them out of some of these provisions.
Where is the specific documentation and description in the FMCSR of the triple-penalty imposition "for the first year"? Is that supposed to act as a kind of barrier to entry for 'new' companies? I think the Feds intentionally make this stuff hard to find to encourage inadvertent violations - that certainly happened to apartment complexes after passage of the ADA amendments.
This is website we use to explain what CSA 2010 means to our drivers and our company when they have interactions with a DOT officer. It makes it easier than trying to figure out DOT leaglize language that even our Atty has problems figuring out at times. It is a PDF so you can see some of the BS I deal with on a DAILY basis. You can see why I am going grey in my 30's when you read crap like this. Its on page 13 of 16
http://thedotdoctor.com/i/u/10035243/i/Debunking_CSA_2010.pdf
Reasons like that are why we have 4 Attorneys on RETAINER at all times. We are fighting a loosing battle with the Regulators anymore. Now they want to restrict all trucks to either 60 65 or 68 MPH they have not decided sure make rolling roadblocks in every dang state. Can you say cluster I will not say the other half for respect. We had a truck get rear ended in CA a couple months ago by someone doing 70 He was doing 55 the Speed Limit required in CA. Sure that will work in TX on 10 where the cars can do 80+ and if they went with 60 what are they smoking in DC I want some of that stuff.
Something I think will be of value to people following this discussion is the CSA discussion of BASIC ratings (which is where that '21 points for a seatbelt violation' came from, not the kind of 'points' that Ohio would assess for a DMV violation). The "3x" is for the most recent year, then it drops to 2x, then 1x, then gone, and it has the effect of greatly magnifying the consequence on drivers' ability to work in a way that is not exactly productive of 'safe behavior' as we'd normally think of it applied to truck driving. (This on top of the politically-motivated feel-good choice to assess more base points for a nominal seat-belt violation than for violating the 4-hour rule on alcohol).
There is a similar scam in real estate, when the tax code is revised so that the rate increases but at the same time the basis (in dollars per $100 of assessed valuation) is dropped. At the same time, the basis is jiggered away from 'fair market value' (again, nominally, for voter-friendly reasons) by assessing the value of 'improvements' (meaning the house or building on the property) on a basis of rooms rather than quality or size -- often, in Bergen County, involving little more than a guesstimation from a drive-by eyeballing. So all the excess 'fair market value' actually observed in selling and remodeling winds up ... in the land rate per acre. Now when taxes are raised again, the increase will be leveraged 5x or greater to the disfavor of larger plot owners ... whether or not they are schoolteachers in their '80s buying a house bought in the early 1930s.
A non-Democrat way to assess "violations" would be to give the severity weight on an absolute scale, and then decrement it fractionally over time -- which, to me, is how common sense would do such a thing if the whole Chinese puzzle of CSA BASICs could involve common sense in the first place.
Note the helpful instructions on deportment, rigorous daily pre-trip, and not least kowtowing to Government underlings. That is how things are run when special privilege and a lawyer-based government become associated. And while it is far from the only thing that makes so many things in modern America suck, it is one of the most egregious, and the least morally defensible.
Now you see why drivers are scared to death of inspections or even getting pulled over. They are stressed out to the point that they burn out in less than 2 years for a new driver. If they survive the Mega carriers or if they are one of the lucky few that get hired by a carrier that does care about them they guard that license and how they do act like GOLD. Why do you think drivers themselves equip trucks with Cameras or fleets have them. We do every single thing we can to protect our drivers from points on the CSA score because it effects us. We use Elogs and if a dispatcher tries to force a driver over them the Dispatcher is Suspended not the driver. We tell our drivers when you clock the 13 hours gone you better find a place for the night. We pay for reserved parking spots in Truckstops for our drivers in areas with low parking to make sure they have a spot to park if needed. We do whatever it takes to keep our drivers happy. All our trucks have a true refrigarator and microwave in them we supply the best radios that are offered from the factory. Our training trucks are the biggest sleepers that the manufactors make. We do everything possible to make our drivers lives easy on the road. However the stress I deal with is enough to make me want to throw up somedays from dealing with Idiots that if asked could not tell you one end of a trailer from another. I had one DOT inspector say that we ran to much reflective material on our trailers. He wanted to fine us from having a polished stainless steel barrel on our acid tanks.
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