Posts Tagged ‘CSA scores’

Identifying Chameleon Carriers

Friday, May 3rd, 2013

fmcsa inspection

Chameleon carriers remain a growing concern in the trucking industry, as existing or pre-existing carriers are registering under new company names and DOT#s in order to hide poor safety records, out-of-service issues, and to avoid paying fines.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is cracking down on reincarnated carriers, issuing Out-of-Service Orders to those believed to have taken on a new identity.

So was the case last week with four Kansas carriers.  Earlier this year, the FMCSA issued an Out-of-Service and Record Consolidation Order against Royal Transport, Nationwide, Inc., Freight, Inc. and Midwest A, Inc.  According to the Final Decision on Petition for Administrative Review of Operations Out-of-Service and Record Consolidation Order document, Nationwide, Freight, and Midwest were found to be reincarnations of Royal in order to avoid negative safety and compliance reviews.  The companies were also found to be utilizing the same drivers.  Additionally, Freight, Inc. had safety scores of 98.2% (Unsafe driving) and 95.2% (Fatigued driving).

Although serving the orders to the companies in January, an administrative review was granted and, upholding the decision, the FMCSA ordered the companies to cease operations last week.

Chameleon carriers pose a large risk to everyone on the road as well as to your freight.  According to the GAO, the risk of an accident is three times higher among chameleon carriers than other new carriers and with over 66,000 U.S. DOT number applications being submitted each year, 98% are not being cross-checked with those previously shut down.

So how are these chameleon carriers identified?

According to the FMCSA, there are 13 main factors used in identifying chameleon carriers.  They are as follows:

-“Whether the new or affiliated entity was created for purpose of evading statutory or regulatory requirements, an FMCSA order, enforcement action, or negative compliance history” 1

-“The previous entity’s safety performance history, including safety violations and enforcement actions” 1

-“Consideration exchanged for assets purchased or transferred” 1

-“Dates of creation and dissolution or cessation of operations” 1

“Commonality of ownership among the entities” 1

-“Commonality of officers and management personnel” 1

-“Identity of physical or mailing addresses, telephone, fax numbers, or email addresses” 1

-“Identity of motor vehicle equipment” 1

-“Continuity of liability insurance policies or commonality of coverage under such policies” 1

-“Commonality of drivers and other employees” 1

-“Continuation of carrier facilities and other physical assets” 1

-“Continuity or commonality of nature and scope of operations, including customers” 1

-“Advertising, corporate name, or other actions through which the company holds itself out to the public” 1

Road Scholar Transport promotes the operation of only safe and qualified carriers on the road, that’s why we are giving you five ways in which you can help reduce the risk of hiring chameleon carriers:

-Research a carrier’s CSA (Comprehensive Safety Analysis) scores. This can be done by going to the FMCSA website (www.fmcsa.dot.gov) and clicking on Safety & Security, Company Safety Record, Safety Fitness Electronic Records System, Company Snapshot, and then entering the carrier’s DOT number, MC number, or name.  By clicking on SMS Results, you will gain valuable information regarding the number of out-of-services and accidents a carrier had as well as citations, helping you choose a safe carrier.

-Receiving daily updated authority/insurance data from carriers through products such as CarrierWatch.

-Research the company’s background. How long have they been in business?  Conducting business with a company who has been operating in the industry for several years and is well-established can help you avoid choosing carriers that are constantly re-incarnating themselves under new names to avoid penalties/out-of-service orders.

-Check the chameleon carrier database.  CarrierWatch grants you the ability to view a list of trucking companies whose operating authority has been revoked.

-Ask around.  Why not go directly to the source of who has experience using a particular carrier?  Referrals are a powerful tool in receiving insider information about a carrier’s reputation.

What do you feel needs to be done to prevent chameleon carriers from operating under a new DOT number and dodging violations?  Do you feel that shippers are not frequently vetting out carriers/checking safety scores?

1http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=FMCSA-2013-0079-0004.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Trucking Industry News | Comments Off

Foodbourne Illness Outbreaks

Friday, April 12th, 2013
outbreaks

Click Image to Enlarge

Foodborne illnesses affect 1 in 6 people annually, claiming nearly 3,000 lives.  But where are they occurring?  Which products had the most outbreaks?  Which were the most dangerous?  These are all questions recently answered by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) in their white paper, Outbreak Alert!  2001-2010 A Review of Foodborne Illness in America, released last month.

The CSPI analyzed 7,194 unique foodborne outbreaks documented within a 10-year period (1991 to 2010), accounting for 205,867 cases of illness.1

Outbreak Locations

According to the CSPI’s analysis, cases of outbreaks were greatest in restaurant settings, accounting for 1,786 outbreaks and 32,919 illnesses, while household settings resulted in the second highest number of illnesses (12,666) in 922 outbreak incidents.  Prisons contained 77 unique outbreaks with 10,660 sicknesses, the third largest, with 1,644 of those occurring in a single incident in 2006, in which contaminated milk was served resulting in the largest single-source outbreak of the decade. 1

Food Product Type

According to the white paper, four food product categories resulted in the most outbreaks, making up 51% of all cases.  These products were as follows:

#1  Produce:  696 outbreaks (17%), 25,222 illnesses (24%)

#2  Seafood:  657 outbreaks, 5,603 illnesses

#3  Meat

-1.  Poultry:  458 outbreaks, 11,338 illnesses

-2.  Beef:  363 outbreaks, 7,528 illnesses

-3.  Pork:  176 outbreaks, 3,794 illnesses

#4  Dairy:  193 outbreaks, 5,524 illnesses

Highest-Risks Foods

The product with the greatest number of outbreaks does not mean that it is the highest at risk food.  In fact, in this case, it’s the exact opposite.  Produce was found to be one of the safest foods to consume, along with fruit and dairy.  CSPI ranks seafood as the most hazardous product when analyzing risk of illness-per-pound followed by poultry, eggs, beef, and pork. 1

To read the CSPI’s white paper visit http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/outbreak_alert_2013_final.pdf.

How to Prevent

Although foodbourne illnesses will always be an ongoing problem, there are several strategies that can help prevent products from being at risk.

-Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)

On January 4th, 2011, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed into law by President Obama, making it the first significant food safety reform in over 70 years.

According to the new Act, the Food and Drug Administration will be granted the authority to “regulate about 80 percent of the food supply with the exceptions of meat and poultry,” with the capability of issuing mandatory recalls, analyzing irrigation water, requiring “credited third party certification for high-risk foods,” and deny entry of products to “foreign companies who do not allow the FDA access to their facilities.” 2,3

According to Food Safety Magazine, “Food companies should begin getting ready now before the FSMA is fully implemented so they can be adequately prepared for new inspection standards since the FDA will be much stricter.” 3

-Safe Transport

It is very important to stress safety throughout the entire supply chain, including transportation.  Entrusting your freight in the hands of unsafe drivers, poor equipment, and shady carriers can lead to an unruly number of risks.  Here are a few ways Road Scholar Transport offers to keep your food products safe:

Aluminum Floor Trailers:  Wooden trailer floors serve as a means of contamination, as spills within the trailer from previous freight, unsanitary objects and materials being carried on from shoes and forklifts, among many other means penetrate the flooring, building up chemicals and bacteria which can enter future freight.  Road Scholar’s aluminum floor trailers create a more sanitary environment for your products.  We conduct regular sweeps on all trailers to ensure that your freight is being transported in a clean, and therefore safe, environment as well as have record of what was inside the trailer before your freight, before that, within the last month, and so on, as well as what has been transported since the last time the trailer was cleaned.

Proper Temperature Conditions:  The upcoming summer months pose a large risk for shippers whose food products must maintain specific temperature ranges or face spoilage and contamination risks.  Therefore, it is important that you ensure that carriers are properly maintaining these conditions throughout the entire process.

With Road Scholar’s ReeferTrak system, we can provide our customers proof of the exact temperature inside the reefer any time, even months after delivery.  Our ReeferTrak immediately alerts our team of even the slightest change in the temperature allowing our team to change the temperature of the trailer while in transit from our main terminal.

Security:  It goes without saying that stolen products, even if recovered, run a high risk of contamination concerns.   We cut back on the handling of your products, which could lead to contamination, by offering 24-hour expedited service, dock-to-dock with NO transfers.  We can provide the exact route that the truck took with a time log noting every door opening/closing, temperature conditions within the trailer at any given time, and its exact location (right down to the breadcrumbs), along with protecting your freight with security features including Navalock.

To learn how you can check a carrier’s CSA scores, contact at www.roadscholar.com.

What do you find to be the number one factor of foodborne outbreaks during the transportation process?  Is it poor equipment?  Theft?  Improper handling?  Etc.

1http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/outbreak_alert_2013_final.pdf

2http://www.thetowntalk.com/article/20130407/NEWS01/130407010/New-standards-intended-improve-food-safety

3http://www.strategicsourceror.com/2013/04/new-fda-regulations-could-have-large.html

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Services, Trucking Industry News | Comments Off

Companies Sell CSA Scores

Friday, February 22nd, 2013

CSA 2010’s Safety Measurement System (SMS) rating, which scores a carrier and driver’s safety performance in seven BASIC categories, placing those with a score of 65% or higher on an “alert” status, has been a topic of concern in the trucking industry as many carriers are losing business due to a crash weighting system accused of rendering inaccurate scores.  In fact, small fleets have reported losses of “more than 25% of revenue in the first year alone,” due to shippers vetting out carriers and awarding shipments based on CSA scores. 1

Shippers are slowly turning away from the carrier who can provide the lowest rate and instead are using a carrier’s safety scores to help make a decision, understanding the risks of vicarious liability, which states that shippers are now liable in cases where “the plaintiff can show (1) the carrier caused injury to the plaintiff’s property or person through negligence, recklessness or intentional misconduct and (2) the shipper did not exercise reasonable care or perform proper due diligence when it screened, vetted, and selected the carrier to move the shipper’s freight.” 2 To learn more about vicarious liability visit Responsibility No Longer Rests Solely on Carriers-Shippers at Risk of Vicarious Liability.

While some carriers are concerned about losing business due to their CSA scores, others are embracing the care that shippers are taking and using it as a selling tool for their company.

A recent article posted by James Menzies on Truck News Blogs calls CSA a competitive weapon” as carriers are utilizing their CSA score in the following ways:

*Presenting their score to their customers while comparing it to their competitors. 3

*Describing the consequences of not properly vetting out carriers and encouraging the shipper to utilize the scoring system, emphasizing a shift from cheapest rate to safety which can save money in the long run.

Unfortunately, CSA scores are often becoming a deciding factor after several carriers share a similar “cheap” rate. 3

Should pricing come AFTER CSA scores when choosing a carrier?  In your experience, do you find this to be the case, especially among brokers?

Learn how to vet out carriers by clicking the video below.

1http://transportation.qualcomm.com/poor-csa-status-could-reduce-your-revenue-25

2www.qualifiedcarriers.com/why-risk-management.aspx

3http://discover.bigroad.com/blog/bid/266884/CSA-Scores-a-Competitive-Weapon-for-small-fleets

Tags: , ,
Posted in Trucking Industry News | Comments Off

Should Mexican Carrier be Granted Access into Program? FMCSA Wants Your Comments

Friday, August 10th, 2012

Last October, Transportes Olympic became the first Mexican carrier granted access into the U.S., ending Mexican tariffs placed on U.S. goods as part of the Mexico/U.S. Cross-border Agreement.

Since then, a total of four Mexican carriers have been granted this authority.  Now, Juarez, Colimia, Mexico’s GCC hopes to be next.

With GCC’s recent passage of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Pre-Authorization Safety Audit, the FMCSA will now seek comments (the final step in granting the carrier U.S. operating authority).

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) has already expressed its concerns and disapproval of granting GCC access.

One issue, OOIDA President Jim Johnston explains in a letter addressed to the FMCSA’s Anne Ferro, lies in the fact that the GCC failed to properly disclose up to five affiliations on its application, a task in which carriers are required to “disclose affiliations or relationships with carriers registered with FMCSA in the past three years, noting that their affiliates were “not available.” 1

According to the rule, “Incomplete applications are to be rejected from the program, while any willful misstatements or omission of material facts are punishable by imprisonment,” OOIDA explained. 2

The FMCSA, on the other hand, reported that GCC’s affiliates were reviewed and found to be in good standing.

But this was not the only concern that OOIDA reasoned the company should be refused access.  According to the association, GCC’s CSA scores posed a risk to safety with a “Driver Fitness score which far exceeds the threshold for intervention at 87.9 percent.” 1

In looking at the companies CSA score (available at http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SMS/Data/carrier.aspx?enc=cNprkJWf/qe2Oh1vcIkU+Q= =), within the last year, GCC had numerous violations which included 53 violations of a Non-English speaking driver, along with violations for a driver not understanding English highway traffic signs/signals and not having a medical certificate.

Additionally, the carrier had a Vehicle Maintenance score of 66.3%, which included 66 different types of vehicle maintenance violations including:

-79 violations of “No/defective lighting devices/reflective devices/projected.” 3

-31 violations of “Axle positioning parts defective/missing.” 3

-71 violations of “Torsion bar cracked and/or broken.” 3

-94 violations of “Failing to secure brake hose/tubing against mechanical damage.” 3

-19 violations of “Tire — tread and/or sidewall separation.” 3

-16 violations of “Tire — flat and/or audible air leak.” 3

FMCSA rebutted OOIDA’s safety concerns, explaining that “the drivers proposed by the carrier for participation in the pilot program were tested for English language proficiency during the PASA and were found to be proficient,” while two of these drivers were required to obtain “additional training to improve their English language proficiency.” 1

gcc

GCC’s safety scores available at fmcsa.dot.gov.

GCC’s safety scores available at fmcsa.dot.gov.

Do you think that Mexican carriers should be allowed to operate in the United States?  Should GCC be granted access into the program?  List your comments below.

Learn how you can check a carrier’s safety scores in 7 easy steps by clicking the video below.

csa

1http://www.thetrucker.com/News/Stories/2012/8/8/FMCSAseekscommentsonGCCOOIDAprotestscarrierscrossborderapplication.aspx

2http://www.landlinemag.com/Story.aspx?StoryID=23987

3http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SMS/Data/carrier.aspx?enc=cNprkJWf/qe2Oh1vcIkU+Q= =

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Trucking Industry News | Comments Off

Government Seeks Mandatory Electronic Stability Control Systems on Trucks by 2016

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012

How many times have you sat in traffic on the interstate, anxious to get to where you were going only to find out that there has been an accident that is going to detain you and cause you to be late?  The accident, you later find out, was the outcome of a tractor trailer taking a turn too fast, resulting in a rollover that closed both lanes of traffic and involved several cars.

Unfortunately, situations like this occur every day, resulting in delays, injuries, and even fatalities.  But the federal government is hoping to crack down on rollovers through a proposal announced last week.

stability control system

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is seeking a regulation that would require electronic stability control (ESC) systems on heavy-duty trucks with a manufacturing year of 2016 and onward.

The agency plans to have the rule active within the next four years and will hold a comment period this summer.

Bendix, who “sold the first commercially available ESC for heavy vehicles in 2005,” along with their competitor, Meritor Wabco, support the agency’s crash prevention proposal. 1

Over the years, more and more stability control systems have been utilized by truck manufacturers and carriers such as Road Scholar Transport to prevent rollovers due to unpreventable icy and wet weather conditions and increase safety on the road, and with stricter regulations, are being utilized to help improve a company’s CSA scores.

There are two types of available stability control systems: Roll Stability Control (RSC) and Electronic Stability Control (ESC).  Whereas the two systems contain sensors that will reduce the throttle and apply the brakes when necessary to prevent a rollover situation, RSC only detects roll instability while ESC detects both roll and yaw instability.

ESC systems are also more expensive to install than RSC, costing an additional average of $1,160 per new truck. 2 However, due to greater safety benefits, the NHTSA chose to support the mandatory use of ESCs.

Is the higher cost worth it?  You decide.  Let’s look at an example.

On September 8, 2008, a fatal accident occurred on the Donner Pass.  According to reports, a trainee was driving as the trainer slept in the back.  The trainer was driving too fast, causing a horrific rollover that killed them both.

video

According to the NHTSA, this technology “would help prevent 40-56 percent of untripped rollovers (generally attributed to vehicle top-heaviness, roadway slope, curves, and other factors) and 14 percent of loss-of-control crashes caused by severe oversteer or understeer conditions.” 2 This breaks down to the prevention of “up to 2,329 crashes, elimination of an estimated 649 to 858 injuries, and avoidance of between 49 and 60 fatalities a year.” 3

For a better understanding of how ESC systems work, check out the video below.

video 2

Should electronic stability control systems be required on heavy-duty trucks?  Post your answers at http://gsfn.us/t/2vcnv.

1http://www.ttnews.com/articles/basetemplate.aspx?storyid=29391&page=1

2http://www.landlinemag.com/Story.aspx?StoryID=23652

3http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-05/D9UPVUA80.htm

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in LTL Freight Quotes, Services, Trucking Industry News | Comments Off

Due Diligence and Brand Equity Among Risks You Could be Facing…..Are You Checking Your Carrier’s CSA Scores?

Friday, January 6th, 2012

Danger alert!  Every time you ship a product, regardless of its commodity, you are putting your brand equity and finances at risk.  Make that shipment one that contains food/beverages, pharmaceuticals, or chemicals and you now have the issue of consumer health/safety to worry about with improper temperature conditions contaminating products and accidents involving hazmat materials posing as harmful risks to consumers.

Knowing the dangers of having inadequate carriers transporting your freight has caused the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to put into effect CSA 2010, which monitors carriers and drivers for compliance.

CSA 2010

Road Scholar CSA scores

CSA 2010’s Safety Measurement System (SMS) scores a carrier and driver’s safety performance in seven BASIC categories, placing those who pose as a risk on “alert” status, yielding a yellow caution triangle next to the deficient category alerting of a score that surpasses that considered to be safe.

Ranking from 0-100 (100 being the worst), CSA 2010 has changed the scoring of deficiency from 75 and above to a lower number based on whether the carrier is a passenger, Hazmat Certified, or Other-which includes most trucking carriers.  Scoring reflects a carrier’s BASIC scores compared to other carriers in their group.

The following depicts the score a carrier would need to have to be placed on alert status in each of the BASIC categories:

-Unsafe Driving: ≥50 (passenger), ≥60 (HazMat), or ≥65 (Other).

-Fatigued Driving (Hours of Service): ≥50 (passenger), ≥60 (HazMat), or ≥65 (Other)

-Driver Fitness: ≥65 (passenger), ≥75 (HazMat), or ≥80 (Other)

-Controlled Substances/Alcohol: ≥65 (passenger), ≥75 (HazMat), or ≥80 (Other)

-Vehicle Maintenance: ≥65 (passenger), ≥75 (HazMat), or ≥80 (Other)

-Cargo-Related: Not available to public

-Crash-Indicator: Not available to public

Unfortunately, many shippers do not utilize CSA 2010 when vetting out which carrier(s) to transport their freight, facing serious consequences that could have been avoided with the click of a button.

The Risks

You’re one of those companies who takes pride in saving money by auctioning off lanes in order to find the cheapest rate.  So you utilize a 3rd party, who then contracts a carrier to deliver your freight.  You, however, did not know that this 3pl, like many others, does not always vet out drivers beforehand, checking their CSA scores.  Therefore, your 3pl has now contracted a carrier who, would they have checked, would have found out had several alert statuses against them.  This carrier, who is now carrying your freight, gets in an accident and a picture of your product spilled across the road is displayed on the news, ruining your brand equity and the reputation you spent years building.  Viola.  You are now facing due diligence.

Simply put, due diligence is “the care a reasonable person should take before entering into an agreement or a transaction with another party” (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/duediligence.asp#ixzz1ihFuF6KN).  Did you do enough to make sure the carrier you chose was qualified?

It is your responsibility to put your freight onboard a qualified and safe carrier.  When trusting a 3rd party to find the cheapest rate, you are taking the chance of shipping with some unknown carrier who may be on an alert status in one or more of the CSA’s BASIC categories.  This not only puts your freight at risk, but poses a danger to everyone else on the road.

The saying stands…you get what you pay for but did you really save you a few dollars in the end or cost you thousands on liability along with a priceless reputation?

View Road Scholar Transport’s CSA Scoring at http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SMS/Data/carrier.aspx?enc=Y8fZXERG1J+xGf6mXx3ODG9066yI6×3GHlkVnRjszjw=.

Would you ship with someone who had several alerts against them if you were receiving a cheaper rate?  List your comments below.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Services, Trucking Industry News | Comments Off

Who’s at Fault? FMCSA Contemplates Use of DataQ to Determine Accountability During an Accident

Friday, May 13th, 2011

Debate over the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)’s idea of using the DataQ system to record who is at fault during an accident has stirred a differential of opinions at a recent forum held by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

FMCSA

In a question and answer session, the FMCSA announced the possibility of using the current DataQ system, “which carriers use now to correct mistakes that have gotten into their CSA scores” to record police reports stating who is at fault in an accident (http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/news-detail.asp?news_id=73760).

According to an article in truckinginfo.com, the FMCSA is looking into recording all accidents (“unless a carrier files an accident report through DataQs”) and eventually hire a contractor who will then determine if the carrier is at fault prior to it being entered.

The FMCSA’s consideration has formed a mixture of opinions.

On one side is support of the idea with the belief that it will promote safety and CSA performance by stating if the carrier was responsible for an accident instead of just that a crash had occurred, as well as details about whether the accident could have been prevented, one reason why the American Trucking Association (ATA) favors the idea of hiring a contractor.

On the other side, the ATA, and others, have concerns.

ATA Vice President of Safety Policy Rob Abbott notes, “The approach would put the onus on the carrier to initiate the process and under the CSA system, which measures one carrier’s performance against its peers, it’s important that the database include all crashes and not just those that carriers elect to challenge,” (http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/news-detail.asp?news_id=73760).

Another opinion, given by a member of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, warns that even if the organization hired a contractor to review police reports, the level of knowledge each police officer has in investigating trucking accidents varies, the site explains.

The NTSB, however, is experienced in investigating these types of crashes and aim to discover preventative means.

A Safe Carrier

A Safe Carrier

Road Scholar Transport knows safety.  That’s why we have never been cited for a piece of faulty equipment in an accident due to daily maintenance, newer equipment, and a knowledgeable/experienced team.

Check out our DOT Motor Carrier Safety Certificate at www.roadscholar.com and jump onboard a safe carrier today.

Do you think the FMCSA should use the DataQ system to record accident accountability?

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Trucking Industry News | Comments Off