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% [?]

More Government Control Can Be Good?

Why the governement should take more control rather than less of trucker’s hours of service.

This issue is one of those narrow niches where the government actually could do something of benefit to all by virtue of pushing recalcitrant trucking firms to put down the 19th century buggy whips they still use and move into the 21st century in driver management (and net business bottom-line profits as well). Here’s some of the issue and why this may indeed be one of those laws that will do more good than harm.

Fatigue already figures as a factor in a lot of commercial vehicle accidents. The industry already has an extensive and comprehensive set of regulations known as the Federal Hours Of Service rules. The rules are proven, comprehensive (even arguably over-comprehensive) and difficult to comply with.

Since rigid compliance with the rules will limit the miles a driver can run in a day or week … which affects the take home pay of the driver and the profits of his employer .. the rules are, at the very least, skirted on a regular basis. To a large extent the rules are broken and various schemes are used to try to hide the unlawful deviations from the law and good sense.

Drivers must maintain a “log book” which is designed to document their activities every hour of every duty day … driving … on duty but not driving … off duty (but awake) and sleeping. If used a designed the log book provides the driver a way to know his status at all times and allows a law enforcement official to instantly check the drivers HOS legality as well. All sounds good and regulatory enough, doesn’t it?

The problem today is the average driver doesn’t even call the log book a “log book”. The common name in the trade is the “swindle sheet”. Drivers routinely fill out the log book after the fact or even keep two or more sets of log books so that when stopped for a check they an present a wholly fictitious document that purports they are legal when, in fact, they often are not. The trade papers are routinely full of employers who get caught participating in or even forcing these scams on drivers as well … and that is only the ones who get caught … the tip of the iceberg.

Today, simple and cheap digital recording devices could take the place of these notorious pager scams easily and cheaply. You can bet I would recommend a recorder which also provides GPS tracking information. Using GPS along with HOS regulation will provide the following benefits:

• Enhanced safety (immeasurable costs savings)
• A minimum of 10% (often much higher) fuel savings (thousands per year for a big rig)
• 10% reduction in off-route miles driven
• Near-foolproof protection of drivers and company owners from false claims of HOS violations, dangerous driving, violation of truck route restrictions, etc.
• Enhanced driver/employer relations (proven good drivers get reworded, proven bad drivers get a pink slip)
• Enhanced company/customer relations … no more arguments about when the truck arrived for loading or unloading or where the truck has been for the past three days.
• Early detection of expensive engine and chassis faults … avoiding thousands in repair bills.

A decent system can be purchased, installed and properly implemented for well under $1,000 per vehicle. Depending on the model and features chosen the monthly cost can be as low as nothing, nada, zero. The payback (ROI) will occur typically in 6 months or less … I’ve had clients who made back their investment in well under 90 days … a great rate of return). If you are a driver, company owner or investor, act now and save the possibility of being harassed by even more regulations. If you’re a private citizen … get on your law makers about making the roads safer and saving big money on transportation charges, which we all pay, even when we buy a can of beans at the supermarket.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Are These Radius Maps Free?

All about Air Mile Radius Maps and why we are here.

Some months ago I made a series of posts about managing you business vehicles using special purpose air mile radius maps.  Here’s one of the introductory air mile radius maps articles, and another that has had quite a few ‘reads’ and search ‘hits’.

I’ve been offering this service as a freebie for my readers and frankly, I’m delighted by the response … but the service has become so popular I have to do something to bring it under control … I spent several hours today alone researching, generating and mailing out requested maps, and I have to get some other, profit-producing work done as well.

So regretfully, I’m announcing that from this date forward I’m going to have to ask a small charge to defray my costs for this service.  I’ll still be happy to make a radius map for anyone who wants one, but I’m going to ask you to email me via my contact for, or leave a request for the map(s) you want in the comments section and I will respond back with some clarification questions and a cost proposal for the work you need done.  It won’t be any sort of astronomical charge, but reluctantly I feel the time has come to start putting this on a professional basis … it’s just grown too popular and time consuming, so I have to charge a nominal free to do these special purpose radius maps from now on.

Complete information, including pricing will be on our Radius Maps Order page (coming soon)

Popularity: 61% [?]