What You Don’t Know About Air Miles Can Bite

I’ve used the premise many times that one of the bona fide paybacks (ROI) of using GPS tracking on your business vehicles is being able to know that you’re complying with the US FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) regulations. The ones regarding HOS (Hours Of Service) for drivers are particularly complex … and thus easy to run afoul of … and enforcement agencies, including State Police are usually well-trained in those laws and quite interested in enforcing them, both from a legal/moral and a financial standpoint. Catch an individual private driver speeding and the state earns a few bucks from the ticket, catch a trucking company in major violations and huge amounts can flow into the sate coffers.

Every one of the 50 states has their own rulers in addition to the Federal rules and you, the business owner is responsible for compliance. I can’t possibly dig them all out for you but the easy part of the task is that the state rules can’t be more lenient than the Federal regs and in most cases are very much a copy.

First you have to understand who is subject to the Motor carrier rules. It is not just the big over-the-road trucker. Those guys are the ones almost all of us think of when Hours Of Service and logbook (RODS — Records Of Duty Status) get mentioned but they are far from the only folks subject to compliance and possible penalties.

All commercial vehicles (meaning any vehicle being used in a trade or business) have to comply. Think the literal definition of ALL to get started and then we’ll see what vehicles might “fall out” along the way. here’s the basic commercial vehicle definition from the US Federal Code:

Commercial motor vehicle means any self-propelled or towed motor vehicle used on a highway in interstate commerce to transport passengers or property when the vehicle—

(1) Has a gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating, or gross vehicle weight or gross combination weight, of 4,536 kg (10,001 pounds) or more, whichever is greater; or

(2) Is designed or used to transport more than 8 passengers (including the driver) for compensation; or

(3) Is designed or used to transport more than 15 passengers, including the driver, and is not used to transport passengers for compensation; or

(4) Is used in transporting material found by the Secretary of Transportation to be hazardous under 49 U.S.C. 5103 and transported in a quantity requiring placarding under regulations prescribed by the Secretary under 49 CFR, subtitle B, chapter I, subchapter C.

So, we can learn a lot from this in 4 easy steps:

• Weight: If you are running passenger cars, minivans, pickup trucks, etc. you may “slide under” the minimum weight and thus “escape” the majority of the rules. But read well here and look at the data plates on your vehicles before you move to that on line poker site you’ve been dying to try out. Many pickups in today’s world sport GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) or GCWR (Gross Combined Vehicle Weight Rating) well over 10,001 pounds. Remember these are weight ratings, set by the manufacturer, not the amount of weight you actually carry. I don’t make the rules, folks, I just follow them.
• More Than 8 Passengers: This is a section of the regulations that can really “bite” a taxi company or a limousine/air port livery service. The regulation catches a business owner both ways … design (what the manufacturer rated the vehicle to carry or actual use, what the operator is allowing the vehicle to be used for. (Of course if you are carrying 10 passengers in a vehicles designed for 8 you probably have other laws to worry about). many passenger vans are designed to carry 8 or more passengers, so it really doesn’t matter under the law that you are carrying fewer, the law specifically states it is the design capacity of the vehicle which governs.
• More Than 15 Passengers: My own interpretation is that this “extra” section allowing larger capacity vans for “not for hire” service is included to give a break to church groups, school sports activities and such. It may, in fact, be a good law … considering the number of tragic accidents with these vehicles and non-professional drivers and safety enforcement, I leave up to the reader.
• Hazardous Materials: OK, you have flown under the radar on weight and/or passenger capacity so you are home free, right? Not quite, until you clear another hurdle … or pass under another limbo bar … Hazardous materials. I can’t present this information in any easy fashion … the codes and lists are far to voluminous. You should know if you are required to placard any of your vehicles because of what they carry. if you do, your vehicle is a regulated commercial vehicle, no matter what the weight or passenger capacity.

Enough for one day? I think so. Remember, when you make the choice of GPS tracking your vehicles or not tracking your vehicles there is a lot more to consider and a lot more at stake than the simple “how much does it cost?” question.

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