Webinar Replay #91: How (and why) Trucks Get Picked for Inspection

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Steve Kessler: Good afternoon. Everyone. Welcome to the INFINITI Fast Forward Webinar Series.

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Steve Kessler: We’re very happy that you took some time out of your busy days to join us today.

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Steve Kessler: My name’s Steve Kessler, and I’m going to be hosting the program today.

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Steve Kessler: So, we have a great topic. Today, I’m going to venture to guess that plenty of you out there have had a truck driver wanting to know why he got picked for a roadside inspection. So, our topic today is how and why trucks get picked for roadside inspections.

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Steve Kessler: So, we got a big group today. So let me touch on a few housekeeping items number one. You are all muted so we can’t hear you. So, if you want to make a comment or ask a question, you can use the chat box. There’s a little button in the bottom tray down there, or you can type a question into the Q&A box.

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Steve Kessler: We can see those here on this side, and we’ll try to answer your questions. We generally try to take questions at the end of the program. So be patient if you have a question. We’ll do our best to get to you.

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Steve Kessler: Matter of fact, why don’t y’all just jump in the chat. Let us know who you are, where you are and who you’re with

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Steve Kessler: that way. We kind of know who’s out there.

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Steve Kessler: So, while y’all are doing that, I’m going to introduce our co-host, Mark ray. Mark has joined us for a lot of our webinars over the years. He’s a veteran in the trucking industry; certified Director of Safety still has a CDL. And I do a lot of consulting work with different groups around the country, especially here in Texas.

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Steve Kessler: So, Mark, what do you think about our topic today?

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Mark Rhea: I think it’s a great topic. I know I’ve worked with a lot of the clients that are online here on custom content for

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Mark Rhea: for roadside inspections. You know what to expect. Why did I get pulled over? How to conduct yourself during a roadside inspection? That 1st impression very trainable, and I would think if you have some content, you might want to update it after we hear from Rob and Todd today, because I’m sure they’re going to give us some insights on

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Mark Rhea: not only where, where, and how, but what can you do to get a better roadside inspection.

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Steve Kessler: Very good. All right. Let me go ahead and introduce our guest. Today. We have 2 fellows that have joined us today. 1st is Rob Abbott. Rob is vice president of corporate strategy for Fleetworthy. That’s a transportation services company that provides industry, leading solutions for fleets to manage safety, compliance, and efficiency.

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Steve Kessler: Rob came to Fleet Worthy from Linux, the largest provider of cloud connected video event recorders to the trucking industry, and there he was, the Vice President of sales for strategic fleets

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Steve Kessler: prior to Linux. He was the Vice President of Safety for the American Trucking Association. So, some of you may have come across, Rob, if you’ve been to any of the trucking association programs, as you all know, that’s the largest trade association that represents trucking.

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Steve Kessler: In this capacity he promoted and defended the interests of the nation’s leading fleets on Issues such as hours-of-service regulations and the compliance safety accountability program.

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Steve Kessler: Rob had previously worked as a safety professional for the trucking industry. Most recently as a vice President of safety for TransForce.

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Steve Kessler: Also joining us today is Todd. James

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Steve Kessler: Todd is a program manager for Drivewyze on the government experience team

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Steve Kessler: Drivewyze is a leader in the transportation technology industry that builds innovative solutions for commercial vehicle fleets, drivers and transportation infrastructure owners and operators.

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Steve Kessler: Todd manages relationships in 7 States trains, officers on the use of Drivewyze technology works on autonomous vehicle related programs and collaborates on the CVSA Level 8 development.

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Steve Kessler: Prior to joining Drivewyze, Todd spent 26 and a half years with Colorado State Patrol retiring as a sergeant in the motor Carrier Safety Section.

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Steve Kessler: Todd has 16 years of commercial vehicle enforcement experience, and upon retiring he was the compliance, safety and accountability program manager for Colorado, which was a national award-winning program.

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Steve Kessler: Todd has conducted roadside inspections, post-crash inspections, compliance reviews, and safety audit audits. Todd is also a court recognized expert in commercial vehicle enforcement.

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Steve Kessler: So, having said all that, I think, Rob, you’re set to go first, so Rob feels free to take it away.

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Rob Abbott: Well, Super, thank you, Steve, and thanks everybody for joining. As Steve mentioned. I’m with Fleetworthy. Many of you may know Fleetworthy historically, because of our DQ. File management vehicles, maintenance, file management, IFTA and IRP and log auditing services.

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Rob Abbott: But you might also know us from our sub brands. So, the best pass by Drivewyze, which is our toll management services and Drivewyze by Fleetworthy, which is our roadside inspection program. So, what we’re going to talk to you about today is roadside inspections, and please know the intent is not to ask you to buy our bypass service. We’re just here to make sure that you understand how and why trucks get picked for roadside inspections.

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Rob Abbott: and we’re going to provide you with some insight into the scoring system that’s used to select trucks for inspection and prioritize them. But we’re also going to talk to Todd, who’s an expert who spends time inspecting trucks and understands what goes on in and behind the way stations. So, let’s get started,

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Rob Abbott: At a high level. The most important or the primary reason trucks and drivers get inspected for roadside inspections is that just about every fleet in the country is assigned an inspection selection system score or an ISS score, and they’re assigned a score in one of 3 categories. So, if they’re in the pass category, they have a score between one and 49. The instruction to the roadside inspector is generally to let them pass to wave them through

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Rob Abbott: if they have a score between 50 and 74. Generally speaking, the instruction is that they’re optional. You can pick them randomly or pick them from time to time, but by and large, if a fleet has a score of 75, or higher, the instruction to the roadside inspector is that generally permitting resources, they should inspect those vehicles. That’s not optional, they should inspect them.

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Rob Abbott: Now this is very general and departs a little bit from the real world. So, I want to dig into how this score is developed. And then, really, what happens and how it’s used.

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Rob Abbott: So why do we have an ISS score. Well, really, they do need to prioritize which trucks and drivers are going to be inspected at the roadside. There’re only enough resources to do about 3.4 to 3.5 million roadside inspections annually. But there’s 14 million trucks out there. So, there’s a lot of trucks that will never get inspected. And so, they really must focus on which ones they should be spending their time on. And the ISS score helps them prioritize that.

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Rob Abbott: So, we talked about how the score is loosely based on your CSA data. And so, I want to explain that a little bit. Most of you are familiar with CSA and its safety measurement system. I certainly won’t walk you through all of that. But I want you to understand how the CSA safety measurement system is used to inform the ISS score.

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Rob Abbott: Those familiar with CSA know that in the safety measurement system there are these 7 categories we call basics behavioral analysis, safety improvement. Categories and violations are routed into the appropriate bucket. So, for instance, the driver has a violation of a falsified log, we’re exceeding the driving time limit that goes into the hours of service. Basic or bucket, if you will, vehicle defects will go into the vehicle. Maintenance bucket. Right?

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Rob Abbott: So, fleets have scores in each of these categories, and the question is.

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Rob Abbott: what is that score? And why does it matter? And how does it inform the inspection selection system score.

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Rob Abbott: Well, a fleet score in each category is really a percentile ranking. It reflects how they have performed compared to other fleets of similar size and exposure. So, a percentile ranking is a sign. So let me give you an example.

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Rob Abbott: Let’s say that Steve Kessler had a trucking company, and their percentile ranking and unsafe driving was the 80th percentile. That’s another way of saying that 79% of fleets of similar size and exposure had better performance. Fewer violations and only 19% were worse. So, it’s really a ranking in terms of comparing you to fleets of similar size

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Rob Abbott: based on these rankings. CSA and FMCSA impose intervention thresholds. This is the line above which they decide that a fleet should be should have an intervention and an intervention could be, hey, they’re continuing to monitor your behavior. They send you a warning letter. They might do a compliance review or an audit on site.

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Rob Abbott: but the intervention threshold is different in each category.

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Rob Abbott: So, let’s take unsafe driving. For instance.

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Rob Abbott: anybody with a score percentile rank over the 65th percentile is in the above the intervention threshold. So, they’re perceived to be unsafe in that category, and they’re being monitored right? But the thresholds are higher in other categories, like in vehicle maintenance, the threshold set at 80%. Because there’s a lesser correlation between vehicle maintenance, violations, and crashes than there are, for instance, with unsafe driving and hours of service compliance.

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Rob Abbott: So why does that matter

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Rob Abbott: when we’re developing the ISS score? Right? They’re looking at these categories, these 7 categories, but not all of them feed into the ISS score, because, quite frankly, some of them relate to things that can’t be correlated or addressed during roadside inspections. So roadside inspection generally involves the vehicle, its defects. The driver. Whether or not the driver is qualified

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Rob Abbott: credentials, etc, so you can’t address things like speeding and following too closely during a roadside inspection. But you can look at other things like their compliance with the logbook requirements and their vehicle maintenance program by looking for vehicle defects. So, we categorize some of these categories for the purposes of the ISS score as which categories are best addressed at roadside, or what you and I might just call bar

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Rob Abbott: for sure.

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Rob Abbott: So, here’s the magic! Here’s the nut of it.

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Rob Abbott: The ISS score is between assigned between 75, and 100 to a fleet. If either the fleet is over the threshold in multiple categories, with at least one of them being one of those best addressed at the roadside. Or if the fleet is over threshold in the hours of service, basic alone. And that’s because hours-of-service have a strong correlation to crash risk.

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Rob Abbott: If those 2 things aren’t true, this carrier might be in the optional category. If they’re over the threshold in a single category, any category, it doesn’t matter if it’s 1 of those bar categories right. So, if you’re over the threshold in a single category, you’ll generally be optional unless you’re over the threshold in hours of service, which case you’re going to be in the inspector. Right?

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Rob Abbott: If you’re below the threshold in all the basics, all the categories, and you have sufficient data to be verified. You have enough inspections that can validate you. You’ll generally have a passing score, and for the most part you’ll be allowed to bypass way stations and inspection sites.

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Rob Abbott: but not always right.

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Rob Abbott: So, here’s a couple other things you might want to know.

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Rob Abbott: while the FMCSA. Might assign a score of 90 to the fleet, or 90 hypothetically, let’s say 96. That’s in the mandatory inspection category. But even then, the States don’t have sufficient resources to inspect every truck that has an ISS score of 96, and so, based on their state resources, they pull in a percentage of them.

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Rob Abbott: But it depends on each state. So, let’s and this is a depiction of what that looks like on the screen here. So, for instance, let’s say you had a score of 96 at Kessler, trucking Steve. Purely hypothetical, I’m sure you run a very, very safe, purely hypothetical, Steve, but let’s say you have an ISS score of 96 in Mississippi. You’re going to get pulled in 90% of the time

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Rob Abbott: in Missouri. They’re going to pull you in one out of every 4 times, or one out of every 4 trucks with a score of 96. Same thing in Montana, in Nevada, 50 50, right? So, it really varies by State depending on what their enforcement resources are. The States have the authority to set these. So, the ISS is really guidance to the States to say, Look, here’s the safety performance. Here’s what we recommend. But the States, based on their own resources, set their own pull-in rates what they can support in their state.

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Rob Abbott: There’s a couple other things you need to know. Looking at the right side of the slide here, there’s random selection fleets. Will, Random States will randomly select fleets for inspection just to validate their continued safety performance. The other is that officers will always have discretion to select vehicles for roadside inspection if they see something that causes them concern. That’s usually a visual item when they see something on the vehicle that causes them concern, or perhaps in the way the driver is behaving when he’s out on the road.

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Rob Abbott: So, there’s a few other ways. ISS isn’t the only way, but it’s the primary way, so there’s some other ways you can be selected. One is if the fleet is placed out of service, that is, if they’ve had an audit, and because of safety violations. They’re declared high risk, and they’re put out of service. They shouldn’t be operating if the fleet is out of service. That dot number is listed as a mandatory inspect, so they will be pulled in

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Rob Abbott: if they are audited but not placed out of service. If they’re, for instance, they have other violations that are deemed serious, but not so egregious. They’re placed out of service. They’ll be in the optional category

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Rob Abbott: top right of your screen if there’s not enough data to validate their performance, they might be safe. They might be unsafe. We can’t assume, then those fleets will then likely be prioritized on a random basis in the ISS algorithm, so they will pull some of those in periodically to create data on them to validate their safety performance. And finally, there’s random selection, even fleets safe fleets will be selected randomly from time to time again, just to validate their safety performance.

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Rob Abbott: So that takes us back to where we started right. There are 3 categories in which you could get a score, pass optional or inspect. They’re all loosely based on the CSA safety measurement system data and the logic around whether you’re over the threshold.

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Rob Abbott: the higher the score, the greater prioritization for inspection. But the States can’t inspect everybody with high scores, and so there’s always going to be some pull-in rate by the State. And that’s something you need to know depending on where you operate.

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Rob Abbott: So that’s a lot to explain. There is a complete FMCSA multi-page, multi-word methodology explaining the inspection selection system. You shouldn’t have to read it because we’ve done it for you, and we’ve created a short, plain English summary just 3 4 pages. I think this is explaining it in very simple terms, available, free of charge

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Rob Abbott: on our website. I’ll put the link for this in the chat window, Steve, so that participants today can pull up this easy-to-read Guide. That explains all of what I just did in several slides.

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Rob Abbott: But before we go to the next section, what I want to do is introduce you to Todd. James so

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Rob Abbott: Todd is a member of our team. We have several people who have a law enforcement background here. Commercial motor vehicle enforcement background. Here at Fleet worthy Todd’s. 1 of them. He spent 26 and a half years with the Colorado State Patrol, 16 years in motor carrier safety. So, he’s done it all. He was a State CSA. Program administrator. He was a driveway. He’s also a Drivewyze program manager for us.

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Rob Abbott: But most importantly, he knows the secrets about, if you will, about what goes on inside and behind the way stations which trucks are selected for inspection, and why and what happens next

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Rob Abbott: but overarching message to you is that he’s a good dude, right? So, Todd will tell you how it is right. He’s also very friendly. He’s happy to help people, so if you have followed up questions or things you want to know about. You’ll find Todd to be a very helpful guy. So, Todd, I have now reached the peak of my professional capabilities. I’m going to flip my slides for you.

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Rob Abbott: and perhaps you can tell us a little bit about bypass, and then how people get pulled in for roadside inspections.

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Todd James: Yeah, absolutely. Hey, thanks everybody for joining us. I think this will be informative for everybody that’s out there listening like Rob said. Thanks for the introduction. That was very nice. I did do 26 and a half years with the Colorado State Patrol, retired on the trooper side as a sergeant.

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Todd James: I did lots of neat things from field Patrol to supervising a human smuggling and human trafficking task force. But frankly, the most rewarding part of my career was commercial vehicle enforcement. That’s, you know. That’s why I spent 16 years doing said jobs. So, I really enjoyed it. I like the technical aspect of it. And upon retiring I was the CSA program administrator. Now, my role within Drivewyze, I’m on the government experience side. So basically, what that means Drivewyze by Fleetworthy.

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Todd James: We’re on infrastructure side. So, we deal with the government entities that use our products for bypass as well as some other roadside screening equipment, such as thermal imaging cameras, tire pressure sensors

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Todd James: today. Specifically, what I want to just give you a high-level overview of is how bypass works.

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Todd James: Why is it relevant to inspection selection and just to give you an understanding of the systems that are out there. So, within the Drivewyze bypass system, we’re based on infrastructure. We’re based on geofencing, and we give notifications into the cab to the driver via their ELD with specific ELD partners

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Todd James: that will either tell the driver, hey, you need to pull into this facility, or hey, you get to bypass this facility. Why is that important? Well.

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Todd James: fleets enter into an agreement with Drivewyze to participate in the preclear program.

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Todd James: and states, allow us at Drivewyze to provide bypass services in their State through a memorandum of understanding.

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Todd James: So, what that means is, each State has a very specific set of rules that they put into place to allow a fleet carrier driver to bypass a fixed facility.

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Todd James: and some of those provisions are relative to registrations. IFTAs, safety scores. If you’re an out of service carrier, there’s a lot of provisions that come into play

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Todd James: for somebody to be allowed to bypass, stay on the main line and bypass a facility.

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Todd James: What we’re going to really focus on today

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Todd James: with this little slide. Right here is just the basic premise of a bypass truck approaches facility.

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Todd James: If said truck meets all the screening prevention. Information specified by the State.

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Todd James: the vehicle will be allowed to bypass. There’s a caveat to that. Each State has the purview to change their pull-in rates from a set pull-in rate of 2 to 5% to 100%

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Todd James: based on their discretion. Again, this is their program

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Todd James: that they’re allowing us to operate in their state. So, what that means is

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Todd James: just because you’re participating in a bypass program. If a State decides to change the pull-in rate to 100% at a fixed facility for a given time.

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Todd James: Then 100% of all the vehicles driving past that facility is going to be told to pull in.

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Todd James: This is this week, for example. I’m sure many of you out there have fleets operating on interstate systems

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Todd James: have had drivers pulled into facilities that may have normally gotten a bypass. It’s because it’s road check. And this is the last day of road check

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Todd James: which is sponsored by CVSA. This is a big event. It’s all available hands-on deck.

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Todd James: What we need to be cognizant of with roadside inspections and your ISS scores again, like what Rob was addressing with ISS scores is basically it’s an alphabet soup of safety data that goes into the inspection selection system

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Todd James: that gives an officer a snapshot overview of a carrier’s safety management practices. So, this is a bigger picture

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Todd James: of what is going on at a carrier. It’s affected by roadside inspections. It’s affected by crashes.

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Todd James: The higher the ISS score that the officer sees on the screen.

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Todd James: the more likely a carrier is going to be pulled in and potentially be subject to an inspection.

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Todd James: Go ahead, Rob, to the next one, and we’ll start

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Todd James: really getting into the to the nitty gritty of ISS and inspection.

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Todd James: One thing to remember is a lot of states have what is called a way in motion.

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Todd James: basically, that is bending plates like you see in this picture on the right side of the screen that are embedded into the interstate or highway system and vehicles. Commercial vehicles are required to roll over those to give the officers and the facilities.

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Todd James: Basically, the weight as the vehicle is in motion. If there is a deviation from allowed percentages.

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Todd James: the vehicle is going to be told to pull into the facility to the static scale to verify the weight.

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Todd James: So that’s just a high overview of what a whim is. Again, it looks like. There’re bending plates. And there’s also

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Todd James: there’s loops that that go into the freeway system, and they look similar, like what you would see at a traffic light when you come up to a red light.

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Todd James: So that’s that’s just an overview of way in motion. It’s another screening parameter for the bypass program.

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Todd James: Go ahead, Rob.

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Todd James: So, let’s talk about if a vehicle is pulled into a fixed facility. So, I really want to address.

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Todd James: There’s several ways that that your commercial vehicle will be stopped for an inspection. We’re going to focus right now on a fixed facility.

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Todd James: And then I want to talk about mobile enforcement operations to where there may be mobile troopers out there that are conducting enforcement.

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Todd James: Be mindful to everybody that’s listening to this webinar. It’s not only State Enforcement officers that are conducting commercial vehicle inspections. It can be a city police officer, a county sheriff, a county constable. If they have been certified by FMCSA. And the commercial vehicle, safety alliance to conduct commercial vehicle inspections.

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Todd James: If they’re a certified inspector, they can list violations on roadside inspections that absolutely will affect your safety score, and we’re going to talk a little bit about that here in just a minute. So, if purposes of the fixed facility.

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Todd James: if your vehicle is pulled into the facility. It’s not granted a bypass. For whatever reason the driver is told to pull in.

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Todd James: the officer is got all kinds of things going on inside of the facility they might already have drivers in there that they’re dealing with a ELD Issue or registrations. So, they’re balancing all kinds of different tasks inside the enforcement facilities. What they will use

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Todd James: is the ISS, the inspection selection system as a screening tool to

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Todd James: basically, thin through the vehicles coming through their facility that they probably should focus on for inspection. That does not mean

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Todd James: that just because you have a high ISS score that you’re 100% of the time going to get an inspection again. This is a tool that officers with very limited resources and staffing across the country again, are using as a tool to prioritize who they inspect.

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Todd James: So, there’s several things that that go on. When the vehicle is pulled in the inspection facility.

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Todd James: the vehicle may just get waved through and not even get looked at. And then, obviously, the driver or the inspector may decide I’m going to. I’m going to conduct an inspection on this.

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Todd James: on this vehicle that’s typically at the fixed facilities.

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Todd James: 100%. It’s officer discretion, and that is officer discretion that is based on state and agency policies.

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Todd James: Its officer discretion based on volume of traffic and current workload. So just be mindful

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Todd James: when you pull into a facility even with a high ISS score. You may not get pulled in for an inspection just because of sure volume. In that facility.

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Todd James: The flip side of that is.

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Todd James: if you are a carrier with a low ISS score, which again, that’s what you want, as a carrier is low. ISS scores.

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Todd James: You, in fact, may be the next one they pick for an inspection, regardless of what your ISS score is. So just be mindful of that. I’m going to talk a little bit about the interaction between driver and an inspector here in just a minute. So, this is at the fixed facility. So, let’s talk about mobile enforcement.

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Todd James: Mobile enforcement is going to be the vehicles that are set up on the side of a road outside of a normal, fixed facility. They’re going to be the Rovers that are.

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Todd James: that are, that are not assigned permanently. They operate similarly, as it relates to selection of vehicle inspection.

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Todd James: but they have a little bit more freedom and leeway with the vehicles that they’re going to pick, just because of the volume of where they’re going to choose to work

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Todd James: is going to be significantly different than at a fixed facility.

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Todd James: So, let’s jump to the next one, Rob.

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Todd James: So, let’s talk about the levels of inspections, the types of inspections. And why is that important for everybody attending this webinar? Look, this is simple, this you know, the days of the cat and mouse game of trying to evade in enforcement facilities and

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Todd James: and the games that that have gotten played with, that those are long gone. There’s a significant impact for everybody listening to this webinar, as it relates to inspections, and how inspections affect your carrier, your safety scores.

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Todd James: and ultimately your assessment of your very own culture of safety. Roadside inspections are an outstanding tool

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Todd James: for you as the safety personnel in your fleets

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Todd James: to evaluate how effective is your safety. Culture.

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Todd James: All too often. I saw on the Enforcement side, and now, especially on the industry side, that

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Todd James: you know a fleet, a fleet would say, Yeah, we have this great culture of safety.

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Todd James: However, there would be breakdown process breakdowns in who’s responsible for tracking, tracking certain activities? Who’s responsible on the back end

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Todd James: for looking at these roadside inspections.

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Todd James: So, you want to take advantage of roadside inspections, especially in an in a time like this week, with road check

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Todd James: and the opportunity to go through a roadside inspection.

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Todd James: The double-edged sword in this whole thing is, if you’re not running operations above the

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Todd James: regulatory guidelines. You run the risk of getting violations on your roadside inspections, and then that’s going to directly affect

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Todd James: your SMS and your CSA intervention selection.

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Todd James: So, it’s twofold. I highly encourage everybody that’s on this call

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Todd James: to have this discussion with your drivers and really create that culture to where you want your drivers going through roadside inspections.

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Todd James: The more inspections you have, the fewer violations, the better. Your rating in the system is going to be compared to other carriers of your similar size across the country. So good roadside inspections really have an impact on your operations. So, let’s talk about

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Todd James: the levels of inspection. And it’s relative to what’s going on this week. Again, road check is this week. The focus during road check is level. One inspections officer does have the discretion during road check to conduct a level 2 or a level 3. Inspection entirely on what they, what they have going on at their facility, or where they’ve made the traffic stop so level one inspection again, these are certified officers certified by CVSA. To conduct inspections

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Todd James: and list violations on roadside inspections that will have an adverse effect on your safety scores. So, a level one inspection is a full inspection. It’s a driver inspection. And with the driver’s inspection there’s credentialing. There’s CDL, there’s a medical card. There are skills, performance, and evaluation. There’s an examination of the ELD and all the other permitting that is required. That driver is required to have, as well as shipping papers.

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Todd James: Now the rest of the inspection is mechanical as part of the level one. The officer will conduct a thorough walk around the vehicle, and they will be looking at all the lighting components. Everything that’s specified in Federal motor carrier safety regulations. Officers are going to be inspecting, lighting, steering wheels, brakes, tires, coupling devices, suspension, retro, reflective, sheeting. Everything specified in Part 3 93 is going to be looked at on the walk around

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Todd James: the last component of a full inspection level. One inspection is a complete inspection of the undercarriage of the commercial vehicle that’s from the front of the vehicle all the way to the rear of the trailer. They’re looking at the frame. Suspension brakes drive shaft

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Todd James: all mechanical components that are under underneath the vehicle.

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Todd James: These are very time intensive.

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Todd James: Average time for a level, one inspection

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Todd James: 45 min. If you mix in an ELD and an inspection that now has mechanical violations, they can run upwards to an hour. So be mindful of those as you’re having drivers out on route.

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Todd James: The level of inspection that they go through may affect their delivery. Times may affect their hours of service.

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Todd James: could lead to unavailability of parking. So be mindful of that. How much time does this take level 2. Inspection

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Todd James: is all the credentialing that I explained in the level one for the driver and just the walk around. Okay, the one thing I neglected to mention is part of the level. One inspection is loading securement, and that’s load securement inside enclosed vans. It’s load securement on dump bed trailers load securement on flatbeds. Basically, all the regulatory guidelines out of Part 393 for load securement

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Todd James: level. 3. Inspection

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Todd James: is a credentialing inspection. Only so again, that’s all. You’re all of the paperwork related to the driver, CDL, medical card, SPE,

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Todd James: and ELD.

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Todd James: So

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Todd James: those you know those times vary depending on. You know the cooperation of the driver in all honesty. And I really want to. I really want to address.

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Todd James: you know conversations that I feel like that you should be having, with your drivers to help expedite inspections to make the make this a relationship and not an adversarial thing with the Enforcement officials.

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Todd James: Go ahead, Rob, to the next one.

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Todd James: So, we’ve listed on here the most common violations from roadside inspections. And then I’m going to give everybody here. I pulled off some data from

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Todd James: last year’s operation road check. That, I think, is cool for everybody on this call to hear here in just a minute. But the most common violations discovered on roadside inspections are brakes, brake systems, lighting tires, ELD, and then hours of service and personal conveyance. I mean, this isn’t a class on.

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Todd James: You know how to how to complete an ELD, but for everybody that’s on here, I really encourage you to completely understand how personal conveyance works

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Todd James: Really reiterate with your drivers when they can use personal conveyance.

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Todd James: and that they have a thorough understanding of what personal conveyance is because it does get abused, and it does cause fleets some Issues with the ELDs. So, before we go to the next slide.

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Todd James: the statistics I’m going to give you here were from last year’s CVSA operation road check, and these are cool. This is some kudos to everybody that’s on this call right now, this is specific to the fleet. This is, you guys are doing a good job. So

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Todd James: couple of statistics that I pulled up

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Todd James: there’s over 40,000 inspections that were conducted last year during operation road check. So, okay, so that’s a lot of inspections.

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Todd James: Here’s where it’s really cool for everybody that’s on the fleet side.

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Todd James: So, 77% of vehicles that were inspected.

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Todd James: No, out of service defects that’s cool now. There were defects that didn’t get me wrong. There were violations for mechanical Issues.

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Todd James: but 77% there were not out of service. That’s impressive. That means that means we’re doing things right on the industry side.

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Todd James: Here’s another cool Stat from the very same enforcement wave. 95.2%

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Todd James: of drivers inspected did not have an out of service

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Todd James: again. Drivers are doing what they need to be doing

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Todd James: with what they’re required to cooperate with. So those are some cool statistics for you all to take away from this presentation. Go ahead, Rob, we’ll get into the interaction here.

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Todd James: So, when an inspection is done, an officer will list violations

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Todd James: on a truck inspection report, and each State had their format looks a little bit differently. You know each State’s used some different systems for their roadside inspection

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Todd James: paperwork.

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Todd James: but what they will, what they’ll do is with the roadside inspection. They’re going to list violations of regulatory violations from FMCSR. And for those of you, transporting Hazmat. They’re going to list violations for the hazardous materials regulations.

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Todd James: Once a violation, whether it’s a driver, violation, a vehicle, violation, or a hazardous materials violation

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Todd James: as listed on a roadside inspection. The officer is going to verify

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Todd James: through the commercial vehicle safety alliance out of service criteria. Is this driver, or is this vehicle out of service, based on what is specified in the commercial vehicle safety alliance out of service criteria. So, this criterion is the set standard

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Todd James: that is used by certified inspectors in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

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Todd James: to determine whether your driver or your vehicle is placed out of service for certain violations of the regulations. Now, don’t not every violation in the FMCSR. Is it going to result in out-of-service? It would be things like

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Todd James: false records of duty, status, inoperative breaks.

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Todd James: maybe oil saturated brake linings. Basically.

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Todd James: these are these are violations that are voted on through committees by industry and enforcement officials as ones that potentially lead to crashes and accidents. So, what happens if your driver and or vehicle are placed out of service.

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Todd James: you may have an inspector that’s going to not let you leave the side of the road with that vehicle and especially depending on the egregious and egregiousness of the out of service.

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Todd James: You may have to send another driver out there. If it’s a driver violation, you may have to get a tow truck out there and have it towed to a repair facility.

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Todd James: Inspectors do have the discretion

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Todd James: to decide what they will allow to the nearest repair, repair facility for certain out of service violations again. That’s completely the officer’s discretion but beam. But you got to know if you have an out of service defect.

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Todd James: your vehicle is going to be tied up for a significant amount of time.

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Todd James: None of this is super sneaky. Everybody on this call can join the commercial Vehicle safety, Alliance.

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Todd James: and you all can purchase the CVSA out of service criteria, and I would encourage you to do that.

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Todd James: especially for your maintenance staff.

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Todd James: so that they understand on top of the regular FMCSRs that there are other things out there that affect the movement of your vehicles. So go ahead, Rob.

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Todd James: so, this is what this thing looks like this is just a snapshot of a roadside inspection. It’s got some violations listed on there.

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Todd James: These violations that are listed on there will

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Todd James: affect your safety scores will affect your SMS. The primary

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Todd James: items that affect your safety. Scores are going to be roadside inspections and accidents. Again, I encourage you and your drivers to participate in roadside inspections.

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Todd James: because the more you get with the fewer violations.

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Todd James: the better off that your carrier is. So once the inspection is done, it’s uploaded into the federal system, and it’s that federal system now starts to mine. The data off the roadside inspection and the system will then start to determine. All right. Is this carrier approaching these thresholds

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Todd James: to elevate their ISS score and elevate their scoring, and the 7 basic categories as it relates to CSA.

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Todd James: So just because you have one road roadside inspection with violations

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Todd James: doesn’t automatically mean it’s going to spike your scores. It doesn’t automatically mean

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Todd James: that you’re going to have an investigator coming to your facility to conduct an on-site compliance review.

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Todd James: you know. Be mindful that you know each State and each investigator.

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Todd James: They’re going to have the discretion of how they prioritize investigations.

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Todd James: For example, if you had a roadside inspection with a driver that was under the influence of alcohol.

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Todd James: and certainly, that’s going to spike some of your scores.

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Todd James: But there are states out there that that may that one violation right there

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Todd James: may cause an investigator to show up at your facility to figure out what’s going on. So, you know, there’s all kinds of moving parts, as it relates to intervention, and the data that comes off of these inspections in the system

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Todd James: go ahead.

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Steve Kessler: Hey, Rob?

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Steve Kessler: Before you go on you were just talking about the out of service inspection report, and a couple of questions have popped in about that.

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Steve Kessler: One of them says, on inspection reports in the out of service column officials sometimes write

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Steve Kessler: what determines whether a U is used, the letter U.

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Todd James: Oh, boy, that’s a good question, and off the top of my head I cannot remember

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Todd James: what that means. There’s 1 of the codes for repaired on scene.

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Todd James: and I don’t know if it’s that you or not, I’d have to do a little research on that. I don’t remember exactly.

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Steve Kessler: Okay, okay. The other question about that was

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Steve Kessler: Hang on.

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Steve Kessler: Oh, somebody, I guess, would ask a question about what the d means, and I think that means the driver right.

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Todd James: Oh, yeah, that’s a good question. So yeah, as you’re looking at those columns, you can see units. And we’ve got it. And we got it where the cursor is out, it says D. And then I think that’s a.

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Steve Kessler: Target 3.

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Todd James: That’s a 3. So that would be unit 3. So D is the driver, unit one is power unit and then trailers. Subsequently thereafter.

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Steve Kessler: Great.

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Mark Rhea: I’ve got a quick comment on that inspection report. I don’t know how they get their hands on it, but our friends in the plaintiff’s attorney’s world can get their hands on these out of service inspections that have your driver’s name, the date, the time, the vehicle, all these details.

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Mark Rhea: and have been very successful using those against our carriers in the event they haven’t done follow up training based on some of the out of service issues that are there?

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Mark Rhea: Is it? Is this public information, or do they go through a 3rd party to get these reports?

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Mark Rhea: Well, how does it.

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Todd James: That, you know, that’s a good question. So, I’ll elaborate on that, because I you know, I had to deal with some of those requests as a supervisor.

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Todd James: So, this information is available through a State open record request.

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Todd James: So, an attorney’s office can file open record requests asking very specific information.

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Todd James: Each agency has got a records division that will vet through the Open record request and decide what information is given to that attorney’s office or not. But, boy, that’s you know, you brought up a good point.

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Todd James: you know. There are some studies that have been done out there by ATRI with nuclear verdicts, with crashes and the smaller truck study.

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Todd James: And you know, after I’ve reviewed those, I have a consulting business as well, and I’ve reviewed these

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Todd James: these studies for some of my clients, as it relates to litigation.

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Todd James: And what’s interesting is the smallest deviations from the regulations can cause the biggest issues in court.

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Todd James: But conversely, and this is where the culture of safety is so important, and why I’m encouraging everybody on this call to participate in inspections.

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Todd James: Conversely, in these studies. What they have found is that juries are becoming sympathetic

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Todd James: with carriers that are going above and beyond the regulations to prove that they’re doing the follow-up training to prove they’re doing things beyond what is regulatory required. So, it was interesting that you brought that up

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Todd James: with this inspection.

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Steve Kessler: Do you have other questions? Did you have gone ahead with your presentation time unless you’re ready for questions?

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Todd James: Yeah. The one thing I really wanted to address, you know, we talked about office driver interaction.

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Todd James: or even if it’s if it’s officer safety staff interaction.

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Todd James: It all starts with the very initial contact between officer and driver.

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Todd James: If officer is adversarial and confrontational with driver. Human nature as drivers is now going to escalate same behavior. Right? And it’s the same way. If the Driver pulls in with attitude and escalating the system with the officer. It just could lead to a miserable inspection for both people so reiterate with your drivers that this should be a positive experience for them.

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Todd James: And it’s important that you can use these inspections to impact your cultures. So, I really wanted to hit on that before we started taking any questions.

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Steve Kessler: Very good.

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Todd James: So, I’m ready, Steve, whenever you want to.

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Todd James: Okay, well, there’s a few here.

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Todd James: Okay.

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Steve Kessler: So, let me see if I make sure I don’t miss any.

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Todd James: Oh!

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Steve Kessler: 1st question was is, where do you find the ISS score?

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Steve Kessler: Think that’s in their portal, right?

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Rob Abbott: That is, you must have. You must register with FMCSA. For PIN access, because it’s otherwise hidden from public view. Once they validate that you’re the motor carrier that you have authority to get it you can access that number.

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Steve Kessler: Okay.

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Todd James: That’s a great question and a great point, Rob. You know everybody on the call. Make sure that you have access to your portal account, and you need to watch the activity there. This specifically roadside inspection. That’s all. Too often on compliance reviews, we would find drivers getting roadside inspections never turn them into the carrier

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Todd James: carrier side. They were never monitoring the portal, so they had no idea what was going on with drivers. So that’s a good point.

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Mark Rhea: And you also can get an out of service from the wrong carrier number.

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Todd James: Correct.

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Mark Rhea: And again, DataQ that obviously. But.

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Todd James: Absolutely.

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Mark Rhea: Got to be watching that, or it’s going to show up on your records.

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Todd James: Yep.

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Steve Kessler: Alright. Next question, how many inspections are required to get the ISS basis from insufficient safety.

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Rob Abbott: I’m reading the question as it was written.

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Rob Abbott: I’d have to look at the methodology again. It’s either 3 or 5, but I can’t remember, because I reached that age, Steve.

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Rob Abbott: reach that age.

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Todd James: I think it’s 3, 3, yeah.

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Steve Kessler: Very good.

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Steve Kessler: Okay. Here’s the question again, why does my ISS in my FMCSA portal say pass for safety?

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Steve Kessler: But when I look at my basics. It says, past and insufficient.

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Rob Abbott: So, there’s a different threshold for data sufficiency for basics than there are for the ISS score.

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Rob Abbott: and it varies by basic. It does not vary for the ISS score. So, for the ISS score, it’s several inspections at each. Basic is the number of relevant inspections for that category, and it varies by category.

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Steve Kessler: Okay.

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Steve Kessler: hey? Rob, could you do one thing? Someone’s asking to post that link that you put up there looked to me like it was just the name of the Pdf. If there

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Steve Kessler: address.

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Rob Abbott: I’m doing that now you know what I’ve you know this, you’re not. You’re going to put on your surprise. Look, Steve, because it’s not out of character for me, but I screwed up so let me

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Steve Kessler: No worries.

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Rob Abbott: I’m going to find that link, and I’ll put it back in the chat. If not, do you all have a mechanism to do you email out the slides to all the participants. Afterwards.

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Steve Kessler: Sure, if you want to send them to me, we’ll get it out to everybody.

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Rob Abbott: If it’s not a big lift for you, we’ll do that, too.

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Steve Kessler: No problem.

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Rob Abbott: Cool.

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Steve Kessler: Here’s a question from Kevin says, what is acceptable load securement for hoses in a hose bed on a trailer.

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Todd James: I’m not sure what a hose bed is, but

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Todd James: overall under 393, 11 cargo has got to be prevented from moving and shifting.

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Todd James: and with the cargo securement rules, there’s cargo specific

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Todd James: securement. There is general cargo securement.

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Todd James: and then you must make sure that you’re securing for the working load limit as well as the length of whatever product that you’re transporting. So, without seeing a picture of it, I can’t give you a hundred percent answer.

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Steve Kessler: Okay.

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Steve Kessler: See here.

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Rob Abbott: Steve, can I take one here? There was a there was one about back-to-back, clean inspections that still shows insufficient the system

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Rob Abbott: Todd knows. This is a well-documented problem that sometimes people will have an inspection, no violations. But the inspector, for whatever reason, does not upload to the system a record that there was an inspection

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Rob Abbott: lacking violations. That’s important, right? Because we want that great denominator in the system to show this ratio of violations to inspection is great. So, you know, to the degree that drivers can be assertive. Let’s use that word with the inspector to say, hey, can you know we got no violation. Can you document it and upload it in the system which is called safe spec. They should do so.

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Todd James: You know. Be so.

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Rob Abbott: How assertive can they be? There?

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Todd James: Well, here’s 1 thing to remember.

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Todd James: You may have a driver that’s pulled into an inspection facility, and the officer might not actually conduct a thorough inspection. They might just look at some paperwork and then send the vehicle down the road.

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Rob Abbott: Yeah.

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Todd James: So that might be the clean inspection. Now, if an officer is conducting a level one through 5 inspections.

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Todd James: as specified by CVSA.

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Todd James: they’re supposed to be providing the paperwork for that inspection. The other thing to be mindful of is, is a non-certified officer can make a traffic stop on a commercial vehicle for a violation of State equipment laws or for a traffic law. They’re probably not going to fill out an inspection report.

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Todd James: but there is a violation of a state law. So, there’s.

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Rob Abbott: Yeah.

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Todd James: Kind of some weird little nuances there.

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Rob Abbott: This has been a long problem is that they do these screenings and the screening might say, hey, I looked at 3 or 4 things, and the screening tells me I don’t need to inspect you. But arguably it’s kind of like. Well, then, every negative screening is going to result in a bad inspection, right? But this has been long debated right.

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Todd James: It’s your house.

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Steve Kessler: Hi, fellas! There’s another question, says

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Steve Kessler: The driver got violation and out of service for not wearing glasses.

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Steve Kessler: Thing is, the driver’s glasses were on the passenger seat.

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Steve Kessler: so, violation could be corrected immediately. So how can officers still be given out of service.

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Todd James: Still, at the time of the stop the driver violated that very specific provision. It’s going to be shown as an out of service now.

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Steve Kessler: Wasn’t wearing them.

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Todd James: One wearing him. But when you look at the inspection.

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Todd James: and we were talking about where those sites were in the unit numbers where it says Oos, it says verified, if there’s a y in there, that means it was fixed

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Todd James: before the vehicle left. But if there is an out of service violation.

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Todd James: When the driver is contacted, it’s going to show on the inspection.

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Steve Kessler: Okay.

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Rob Abbott: The Todd, will they? Will they sometimes look like? I’ve been told that, hey? As a driver is approaching the inspection site, they might look through binoculars to say, hey, is the guy wearing a seatbelt wearing glasses, you know. Sometimes the driver will pull up, take the glasses off to go, you know, pull his logbook or do something right? So, it’s important that they keep them on right.

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Todd James: Yeah, I mean, I’m sure that happens where officers are doing that, I’ve never seen it happen. But the best thing is

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Todd James: to save yourself. Griefs with violations on roadside inspections. Have your drivers, if they’ve got restrictions on their on their CDL, or any medical card restriction.

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Todd James: Make sure that they have their hearing aids in or their glasses on, as they’re rolling in the facility, and then, once contacted by the officer. They can take off their seatbelt. They can remove glasses, right? That’s that should be the process.

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Rob Abbott: Yeah.

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Steve Kessler: Here’s another one

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Steve Kessler: Austin’s asking. During a recent inspection the officer noted. The driver is out of service, but not, but did not specify the time until it was marked as a record of duty. Status made current.

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Steve Kessler: What does this mean? The driver was

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Steve Kessler: received a violation for their logs. It was placed out of service, but no specific time was provided.

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Todd James: Again. I need to see the inspection report of how it was written.

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Steve Kessler: Yeah.

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Todd James: You know, if a driver is placed out of service for an 1114, 6070 H rule false log. There will be a time specified there. I’m suspecting, just in the language that I’m hearing.

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Todd James: that the driver’s logbook was not current.

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Todd James: so, the officers, if the logbook’s not current, for I believe it’s 1 day, and then you go back a day.

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Todd James: There are the drivers allowed to make that record of duty status current. I suspect that that was the violation listed there. But

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Todd James: yeah, I would need to see the roadside inspection.

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Steve Kessler: Yeah, that’s what it sounds like. Okay?

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Steve Kessler: yeah.

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Steve Kessler: Here’s 1 that we recently had an inspection where the driver was marked as out of service and allowed to continue to his home terminal.

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Steve Kessler: Why or how can it be out of service if they are allowed to continue.

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Todd James: Again. That goes back to that officer. Discretion it could be. The location of the traffic stop was unsafe for the officer and for the vehicle to be on the side of the road. So, the officer made that decision. Hey? I’m going to allow you to go back to the terminal. But you’re done from there.

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Todd James: I would suspect, is probably what happened.

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Steve Kessler: Okay.

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Todd James: Yeah, and the officer’s not if it’s going to be a hazard for the driver or the motoring public to have a vehicle on the side of the road. The officers, that’s why they do have this discretion of where, within certain, allow certain parameters that they can allow a driver or vehicle to go to.

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Steve Kessler: And here’s a question from David at a sc. Drew. I’m guessing that South Carolina

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Steve Kessler: trooper looked for the lowest section of a tire at or just below 2, 30 seconds on my trailer. My thought was an average from 3 places on the tire. CVS guidelines

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Steve Kessler: is doing a data key worth it.

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Todd James: If they’re measuring from a major tread groove.

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Todd James: depending on how many locations around that tire it was may or may not be a violation, I would get a picture of it and

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Todd James: and verify exactly where those locations were, because remember, with the regulations, they say one thing.

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Todd James: and then CVSA out of service is going to say specifically, with dual tires, that it’s got to be 2 adjacent tread grooves measured in several locations around the tire, so.

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Steve Kessler: It may very well be worth a DataQ if they’ve got enough data.

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Steve Kessler: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That’s the that’s your guy’s purview out there. If you think violations are.

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Todd James: Or incorrect, absolutely file a DataQ. Same with crashes. You know, there’s

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Todd James: there’s a way for everybody on this call to challenge

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Todd James: the preventability of your crashes with FMCSA. And when you can get those crashes removed that are not your fault.

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Todd James: It’s going to have a positive impact on your crash basic.

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Steve Kessler: Very good.

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Steve Kessler: Let’s see, we have another one here, it says, while I understand what ISS is.

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Steve Kessler: I would like to know the actual formula on how to calculate it. Maybe. Did this one. You just responded to Rob.

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Rob Abbott: Yeah, I sent a note back to where I said, look this gets complicated, and I’m trying to make. I’m trying to make it simple. So yeah, Phil, I sent you all a note, you know. Please email me at that address I provided for you, and then we’ll go there.

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Steve Kessler: Good do all violations get put on the driver’s PSP Report.

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Todd James: Yeah.

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Rob Abbott: It’s.

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Todd James: If it’s listed as a violation of the FMCSR.

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Todd James: On the roadside inspection, it should show up on the PSP.

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Rob Abbott: Yeah, keep. Go ahead. No, no, you’re first.

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Todd James: You’re

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Todd James: here’s where. Here’s where there’s where there’s a difference between the PSP. And looking at an MVR. So, a driving record is only going to show convictions. Your PSP is going to show roadside inspections with violations of Federal safety regulations. So, what that means is, you may have a driver with violations on a roadside safety inspection report.

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Todd James: and nothing’s showing up in their Sedlis report. So, PSP. It is extremely important as you’re doing your annual reviews, your annual MVRs. And even in hiring

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Todd James: you want to be reviewing those to see what violations are showing up. So go ahead, Rob, if you had something else on that.

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Rob Abbott: No, that’s a very good point. I was just thinking, too, is not all officers who make violations to drivers are going to be Mixapp officers, and so they might be your

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Rob Abbott: the town sheriff, and he might put something out there that’s going to end up on an MVR. But it won’t show up in a PSP report because it doesn’t flow into the commercial motor vehicle system, right? The MCMIS.

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Steve Kessler: Awesome. I don’t see any other questions popping in right now. I want to take a second to

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Steve Kessler: touch on a couple of things. I’m going to pop a

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Steve Kessler: couple of questions up here on the screen.

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Steve Kessler: you know. Obviously, there’s a training angle to a lot of the things we talked about today. It’s important for you to train your drivers properly, to know how to behave, to make sure they’re buttoned up, that they have all the materials they need that the officer may ask for a certain attitude and talk to them about that.

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Steve Kessler: So, I think training is very important. So, I’m going to tell you now. Ask if anybody’s interested in a demo of our system, which is a learning management system designed to deliver training and information? Certainly, your custom content as well. We’d be very interested in talking to you about it and at least tell you what we have no obligation.

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Steve Kessler: Also, there are several people out there, certified directors of safety under the NATMI program. So, if you need to obtain a certificate, to claim those recertification points.

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Steve Kessler: please mark yes, on a little poll question, and we’ll make sure that you get a certificate sent out.

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Steve Kessler: So, I’m going to leave this up for a second. Do you guys have any final comments before we adjourn.

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Rob Abbott: No, it’s fun. Let’s do it again. What do you say, Steve?

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Steve Kessler: Hey? I’m all for it. It’s great information today, Todd, thank you for.

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Mark Rhea: Got 2 quick things.

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Steve Kessler: Big picture.

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Mark Rhea: I’ve got 2 quick things. Steve. Todd mentioned 77%, 95% on clean inspections. That doesn’t happen from luck. That happens because carriers take this seriously, they do their training, they inform their drivers and use some system like we must

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Mark Rhea: prepare these drivers for how to conduct themselves and what to expect on a roadside inspection. The second thing I’d like to say is, everybody that’s still on the chat.

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Mark Rhea: Let’s give a quick thank you to Rob and Todd for being professionals on, on, and represent not only the Enforcement side, but the industry side of this safer highways game that we’re playing out there. So, send them a thank you. If you don’t mind.

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Rob Abbott: You’re very kind, Mark, very kind.

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Todd James: Alright. Thank you.

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Steve Kessler: Very good. There are a lot of them rolling in, so I’ll make sure I send the chat file to you guys so you can see all the thanks you’re getting here. But this was a great program today. And I’ll keep both of you guys in mind. We may have to kind of run through some other topics here or repeat this one again down the road.

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Todd James: Let’s do it.

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Steve Kessler: So, thank you both very much. Excellent information. A lot of good comments appreciate you taking your time to do this. So, with that, said, I’m going to tell everybody to

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Steve Kessler: join us on the next webinar and thank you all very much for joining us today.

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Steve Kessler: Rob Todd. Thank you very much, same to you, Mark.

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Todd James: Take care!

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Steve Kessler: All right.

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Todd James: See everybody. Bye-bye, bye.