Air Mile Radius Maps

This is a sample, do not use for navigation or rules compliance, please:

Apparently I struck a chord a couple days back when I posted about the 100 and 150 "air mile" commercial driver hours of service rules. People have been searching for an easy utility to make/view radius maps around their business to see if they qualify for these rules, or to keep themselves legal.

I wish there was an easy on-line source, but I haven’t found one. Feel free to let me know if you have.

I’ll make you an electronic map like this, to any radius you need if you just click on our "Orders" page (coming soon)

Popularity: 73% [?]

What You Don’t Know About Air Miles Can Bite — 2

A recap in case you didn’t read the first part of this series … here … we are talking about what a commercial vehicle actual is, as defined by the FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) and what commercial vehicles might be exempt from the general FCMSA requirement for RODS (Record Of Duty Status), commonly known in the business as a “Logbook”.

If your vehicles fall into one of the groups that do not require the maintenance of driver logbooks, don’t jump to another subject too quickly. Many activities your vehicles are engaged in might “cross the line” into RODS territory at a moment’s notice. Work hour records are almost always required as well … and if a vehicle or driver goes into an activity that does require RODS, remember that you are going to have to be able to “reconstruct” the work hours of the driver, perhaps as far back as the preceding 10 or 11 days (7 or 8 workdays and the last time the driver can be shown to have been “free of duties” for 34 continuous hours) in order to prove he or she is “legal” to drive. These rules aren’t like criminal law, where the state has the obligation to prove guilt. The FMCSA can assert that you and/or your driver violated the rules and the burden will be upon you to prove them wrong. This is one reason I have always been surprised at the reluctance of so many businesses to maintain detailed and provable records … the cost of not doing so can be far, far greater than the cost of keeping the records.

OK, enough philosophy.

• NON-CDL Vehicles: If you have vehicles that do not require a CDL (Commercial Drivers License) to operate but that are engaged in Interstate Commerce you can still avoid keeping RODS if the vehicles do not exceed a radius of of operation (from a single location where the drivers start and end their workday) of 150 Air Miles. Take an accurate business planning software product such as Microsoft MapPoint and draw a circle with a radius of 172.6 statute miles around your business location. This is your “non-CDL 150 air mile zone”. If you can assure yourself … and perhaps an investigator … that your vehicles don’t leave this zone .. no RODS are required.
• CDL-required vehicles: If you have vehicles that do require a CDL and thus would otherwise require RODS but those vehicles do not exceed a 100 Air Mile radius of operation (115 Statute Miles) then make the appropriate circle for them and you are also “safe” to operate without logbooks for those drivers. You do get an extra hour per duty day of driving time, be sure to note that basically all rules are still 100% in effect, the only part of the requirements that are waived is that the drivers do not have to maintain RODS while operating solely “within the zone”.

So, what do these semi-obscure mileage provisions mean to your business? Well, they could mean a lot for certain operators. Are they something you should be considering? By all means, if they fit at all into your operations. But, as I have tried to point out, “the bold print giveth and the fine print taketh away”. Many folks who routinely rely on these exemptions could be in serious trouble if an accident cause3d authorities to “dig into” their operation. I suggest, as always, that businesses take advantage of inexpensive, high rate of ROI GPS Tracking systems to measure the performance of their business and, at the same time, assure that accurate,, automatic records of driver and vehicle activity are on file … just for safety’s sake. A comprehensive FAQ on these exemptions is here:

Nest section of this series I’ll cover a number of commercial vehicle activities that are exempt in other ways from the “normal” RODS rules. Until then:

Popularity: 26% [?]

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.

Popularity: 27% [?]

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