Be Part of the Ultimate Safety & Compliance Community
Trending news, knowledge-building content, and more – all personalized to you!
SAFETY & COMPLIANCE NEWS
Keep up to date on the latest developments affecting OSHA, DOT, EPA, and DOL regulatory compliance.
The DOT will not look the other way during an audit if you misunderstand or neglect your obligations to drug and alcohol test commercial drivers.
In 2023, five of the top ten acute violations found during motor carrier audits involved noncompliance with drug and alcohol requirements. And drug and alcohol violations held two spots in the top ten critical violations for the same year.
Setting up a compliant DOT drug and alcohol program requires appointing knowledgeable employees to carry out the duties. The responsibilities may be farmed out to multiple individuals and departments, or you can contract with a consortium/third-party administrator to assume some of the roles.
Employee drug and alcohol training is required, sort of.
Part 382 only requires training in two situations:
However, a general rule, 390.3(e), requires that motor carrier employees know and comply with the safety regulations. The rule, unfortunately, doesn’t spell out how to accomplish this. That’s when you look to the term “safety management controls” contained in the definition of Review in 385.3. It is referenced during DOT audits.
This definition is very high level and encompasses “…the systems, policies, programs, practices, and procedures used by a motor carrier to ensure compliance…” This is taken to mean training, policies and procedures, monitoring and tracking of compliance, and the like. The safety management cycle used in the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) enforcement model expands on this concept.
If you are looking for resources to learn more about DOT testing, Compliance Institute contains several articles on the topic. The following resources can help get you started:
If you have a question on DOT drug and alcohol testing or any other regulatory topic, we encourage you to reach out to our compliance experts using Expert Help. Our team of experts is always happy to assist.
Roadside truck and bus inspectors are ramping up enforcement against drivers who abuse the “personal conveyance” (PC) provision. Are your drivers using it properly?
The PC provision allows drivers to log commercial vehicle driving time as “off duty” rather than “driving.” Such off-duty driving is allowed only to “convey” or transport the driver for personal reasons, such as to commute to or from work or to get to a restaurant or grocery store.
The provision is subject to widespread abuse, however, because it can be used to mask time that should otherwise be logged as normal “driving.”
Though PC violations have occurred for decades, officers only had a way to single them out on inspection reports beginning in August 2021, by citing “395.8E1PC” as a distinct type of log falsification. Over 2,500 PC citations were issued in the last five months of that year.
Citations for PC abuse have only grown since then.
In 2022, the first complete year for which PC violations were cited, officers wrote up 11,026 occurrences. Last year, that figure rose to 14,562, a 32-percent increase (despite a less-than-one-percent increase in the number of roadside inspections). It was the 24th most-cited driver regulation in 2023.
Officers are not required to use the distinct PC citation, so some may still lump PC violations under 395.8(e), the catch-all rule for log falsification and the third most common driver violation of 2023.
In the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) scoring system, the violation carries seven points, the same as any other violation for falsifying a log.
PC violations are not categorized separately from log falsification during audits, but log falsification was the number one violation cited during audits in 2023, with the average fine being over $7,000.
The hours-of-service regulations themselves do not mention personal conveyance. Instead, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) describes how to use PC in its official guidance for 49 CFR 395.8, Question 26.
To use a vehicle for personal conveyance, the driver:
Typically, acceptable PC usage will be a round trip, where the “personal use” starts and ends at the same location and the “business use” picks up where it left off.
Acceptable as PC | Not Acceptable as PC |
Driving from an en-route lodging (e.g., motel or truck stop) to and from restaurants, entertainment facilities, stores, etc., for personal reasons. Commuting between home and a terminal or a trailer drop lot. Driving to the first reasonably available and safe location to get required rest after running out of hours while loading or unloading and ordered to move the vehicle. Moving a vehicle at the request of a safety official during the driver’s off-duty time. Transporting personal property while off duty. Driving home from a remote jobsite or “base camp” where the driver was stationed for a period of time (such as when working for a construction or utility company). | Driving to a company terminal, the normal work-reporting location, or home after loading or unloading at a shipper or receiver. Driving that “enhances the operational readiness” of the company, such as by skipping an available rest area to get closer to the next work destination. Driving to or from a facility for maintenance or to get fuel. Continuing a trip to fulfill a business purpose, such as bobtailing or pulling an empty trailer to retrieve another load or repositioning a tractor or trailer at the company’s direction. After delivering a trailer, returning to the point of origin under the direction of the company to pick up another trailer. Driving to get rest after being placed out of service for exceeding the hours-of-service limits |
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a final rule on April 22, 2024, regarding the privacy of individuals’ reproductive health.
The rule, entitled HIPAA Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy, amends the Health Insurance Portability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) privacy rule by prohibiting the disclosure of protected health information (PHI) related to lawful reproductive health care in certain circumstances.
The HIPAA privacy rule requires most health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses, and business associates (collectively, “regulated entities”) to safeguard the privacy of PHI and sets limits and conditions on the uses and disclosures of such information.
The final rule:
This applies where regulated entities have reasonably determined that one or more of the following conditions exists:
The final rule is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on April 26, become effective 60 days after that, and regulated entities must comply 240 days after publication.
Employers that sponsor group health care plans should be familiar with this change, work with their brokers on any related changes, and be ready for questions from employees.
Key to remember: HIPAA-regulated entities have more protection under a final rule regarding reproductive health care but should retrain those who work with PHI to understand when it may be disclosed and to whom.
As the summer months approach, workplaces prepare for rising temperatures and the associated difficulties that come with maintaining safety – both indoors and outside. While employers often prioritize heat stress prevention, they need to be on the lookout for a variety of weather-related hazards. From the threat of wildfire smoke to the unpredictability of tornadoes and hurricanes, implementing strong summer safety protocols becomes paramount. By proactively addressing these various weather dangers, employers can successfully mitigate risks and safeguard the health and safety of their workforce.
Wildfires have become a major concern for much of the country in recent years. Once ignited, a combination of dry conditions, high winds, and challenging terrain means these fires may get out of control very quickly and burn hundreds of thousands of acres of land. The resulting smoke that fills the air presents a health risk to outdoor workers from the accompanying chemicals, gases, and soot.
Even though Federal OSHA doesn’t have a comprehensive regulation for wildfire smoke, employers still have a legal obligation under the General Duty Clause to protect their workers from exposure to unhealthy levels of smoke emissions. EPA has stated that harmful amounts of particulate matter occur when the air quality index (AQI) reaches 151 or higher. To reduce exposure to wildfire smoke, OSHA suggests the following protective measures:
Tornadoes can occur with little or no warning. They bring intense and often destructive winds. Although tornadoes are most common in the Central Plains, the Midwest, and the Southeast, they have been reported in all 50 states. OSHA doesn’t have a standard for tornadoes or require a severe weather shelter. Instead, they provide preparedness guidance, which includes:
Hurricanes are capable of causing severe damage to businesses and communities near the Atlantic Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, and parts of the Southwestern United States. Similar to tornadoes, OSHA doesn’t have a specific standard for hurricanes, but rather provides preparedness guidance, including:
During the summer months, employers should be aware of the various weather-related hazards that may impact their employees and proactively develop the appropriate safety protocols.
In recent months, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has taken steps to enhance its registration system. The goal is to improve the transparency and efficiency of registration procedures and implement statutory requirements related to the registration program. The changes impact carriers, brokers, freight forwarders, insurance companies, financial institutions, process agents, and third-party service providers. The idea to update the systems has been gathering momentum for over a decade.
In August of 2013, the FMCSA published a Unified Registration System (URS) final rule. The rule was ambitious – to scrap the current registration systems i(MCS-150, OP-1, BOC-3, etc.) and replace them with the entirely new URS. The rule would also have impacted the entities affected by the process agent and financial responsibility rules. The launch was fraught with problems from the start, with several initiatives pushed back until the entire action was finally suspended in January of 2017. Many of the envisioned provisions were unrealized, and the rule suspension created over 30 suspended regulatory sections which were replaced by rolled back temporary sections.
Regulators hoped to eventually complete the initiatives of the URS rule and further them via a URS 2 rulemaking at an undisclosed future date.
Fast forward to January of this year. The FMCSA held a “Registration Modernization Stakeholder Day” in Washington, D.C. In attendance were FMCSA officials, carriers, brokers, freight forwarders, insurance companies, financial institutions, process agents, third-party service providers, other stakeholders, and the author of this article.
It appeared that FMCSA officials already had a good idea of the direction they were headed and that they may have already been exploring options and possible rule changes. The administration hoped to roll out the new system in 2025.
In March, at the Mid-America Trucking Show, the FMCSA rolled out some of the enhancements already made to the system, dropping “Unified Registration System” and replacing it with the working title of “New Modernized Registration System” and further expanded on the vision by adding “and Fraud Prevention.”
While the agency now hopes to roll out the full implementation of the new system, they are not waiting until 2025. Already completed or in the works include the enhanced fraud prevention measures of:
The next fraud prevention action items involve verifying the identity of the applicant and the business, essentially answering the questions, “Is this a real person?” and “Is this request for a real entity?” Every new and existing carrier will go through the verification process to clean up bad actors through revocation proceedings.
The planned implementation year will go fast. The FMCSA has an action item list and is checking things off. Near the end of May, the FMCSA will touch back with their next FMCSA Registration Modernization Stakeholder Day II. Stay tuned, these changes will likely affect you and your operation.
Canada’s hours-of-service (HOS) regulations for commercial drivers are some of the most important regulations in the trucking industry. To avoid the consequences of HOS violation penalties, out-of-service orders, and negative scores on your company and driver profiles, drivers must understand and follow these regulations.
Let’s delve into the 10 most common HOS violations in Canada and then address strategies you can use to avoid them:
For many carriers, using ELDs is required. This means that you must train drivers on how to use the ELDs, including how to enter data into the unit. Training and ELD use are some of the best ways to keep the duty status record current and avoid form and manner violations.
When it comes to falsification or accessing previous days’ worth of logs, again, an ELD can help. Educating drivers on when they’re able to use special driving statuses and how to operate the ELD unit is critical in avoiding these types of violations. Finally, drivers need to understand the hour limits established in the regulations. ELDs can help alert them to when they need to stop driving, but still, drivers need to know at a minimum, the maximum driving hours allowed per day and work shift, the point at which they must stop driving after accumulating on-duty hours in the day and work shift, and the total on-duty hours allowed in their cycle.
Proper training of your drivers is the ultimate key to avoiding hours of service violations.
Drivers or carriers who breach motor vehicle transport regulations, including the Canadian hours-of-service rules, can face steep penalties. For example, knowingly falsifying a log can lead to a penalty of up to $20,000, an out-of-service order, and even a downgraded safety rating for the carrier.
It’s in your best interest to try and prevent violations before they occur and address situations directly with your drivers. In some cases, just a simple refresher on the rule is all that’s needed.
Key to remember: By staying informed, and proactive, and through proper driver education, you can effectively navigate and avoid the top 10 Hours-of-Service violations.
Did You Know You Can Ask Unlimited Questions to Our Compliance Experts?
Get answers to your most puzzling compliance questions from the industry’s top experts!