December 2015 Newsletter
posted in Alerts, Blog, Newsletter, Uncategorized by Brian Gray
Merry Christmas From All of Us At Glostone!
From our family to yours, may this holiday season be joyous, safe and bring happiness and prosperity to the New Year.
5 Things Drivers Should Never Do at the Scene of an Accident
It is officially the Holiday season, which means the roads are busy and the weather can make driving dangerous. So, now is the time to plan how you’re going to respond at the scene of an accident before you are involved in an accident. How a truck driver responds on the scene has a major impact on the outcome of any claims that may follow.
Here’s a list of five things drivers should never do at the scene of an accident:
1. Do not leave the scene.
Drivers should stay on the scene of an accident until police and emergency responders arrive and tell them they can leave. Sounds like common sense, but it happens.
2. Do not get argumentative or physical.
Picking a fight — verbal or physical — is a surefire way to make a bad situation worse. How the driver conducts himself on the scene can have a major impact on whether the bystanders become a witness for or against a motor carrier. The emotional response of those involved in the situation will have an impact on how they remember the “facts” — it’s just human nature.
3. Do not discuss facts regarding the accident with anyone other than your company and the police.
There will be people who show up on the scene and start asking questions. Some may be innocent bystanders, some may be ambulance chasers sniffing for a big dollar verdict. We’ve run into situations where people working for attorneys have approached a driver saying “I’m from your insurance company, can you explain what happened?” The only people a driver should discuss the situation with is his or her own company. Only make a statement to law enforcement is legally required to do so.
4. Do not admit to liability at the scene or volunteer to make payments — allow your company to make that decision after full investigation.
It’s human nature to want to say “sorry” when something goes awry — but even saying “I’m sorry this happened” can be twisted by a prosecutor into an admission of guilt. While your driver will certainly feel bad, reinforce that who’s at fault and who has liability will be determined following a full investigation.
5. Do not delay reporting an accident, no matter how minor it may seem.
The quicker a driver reports an accident, the quicker you can be prepared to respond. Days, hours, and minutes matter when it comes to collecting evidence and gathering witness testimony. Even a fender bender that seems minor needs to be reported right away — we have seen several accidents that seemed small blow up when the motorist has time to stew over it.
In some cases, drug testing may be required following an accident, either by the DOT or your insurance company. Controlled Substance Tests must be conducted within 32 hours and alcohol tests must be conducted within two hours. If the test is not performed within these time frames, you must provide documents stating the reasons why.
Ensuring that your drivers are well trained on how to respond at the scene of an accident is vitally important. Take the time now to review these important steps with them!
Pitfalls of Applying Common Sense To Managing Your
DOT Drug & Alcohol Program - Part 2
Every year, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has authorized and set the testing rate for both drug and alcohol testing for motor carriers and consortiums. These testing rates have remained unchanged for the past 30 years: 50% of a pool of drivers must be randomly chosen and tested for drug use and 10% must have their breath-alcohol concentration tested. Carriers and consortiums have met this requirement by managing their random selections in one of two ways: either by making one random selection for drug testing and another for BAT (Breath Alcohol Testing) or by making a selection for drug use and then randomly choosing 10% of the drug testing applicants to also undergo BAT.
Many carrier or consortium choose to use the second method because it reduces the amount of authorizations and chains of custody that must be managed. The downside of using this method is that some collectors are so used to handling single authorizations – and usually for drugs, not alcohol – that when they get an order for both drugs and alcohol, they fail to test for the latter.
Why is this important for you? Don’t count on your collector to read and implement your authorization correctly just because they are DOT certified. And while you should also inform your driver what kind of tests they will be taking, unless your DER personally accompanies all of your drivers to the collection site, don’t count on your driver to carry out your authorization correctly either. Finally, if you are using a consortium to direct you to an appropriate collection site, be aware that they might send your driver to a site that is only equipped to test for drugs but that cannot perform a BAT. Any of these lapses in attention can lead to a driver getting a positive test result for unwittingly refusing to test if they arrive at a testing site with an authorization for both drug and alcohol testing.
How can you avoid this pitfall? Read More Here
Free Ebooks Available at Glostone.com
- 6 Ways Noncompliance is Costing You
- Licensing and Permits The Essentials
Top 10 Critical Issues for Trucking Industry in 2015
Respondents included industry stakeholders, carriers, and drivers. Here are the top 10 issues highlighted in the report:
1. Hours Of Service
2015 marks the third year in a row that hours of service rules have been ranked as the industry’s top concern.
2. CSA
Questions still surround the seven Behavioral Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories under which carriers and drivers are scored and many industry experts believe that current CSA rating algorithms are not a good predictor of a carrier's crash risk.
3. Driver Shortage
4. Driver Retention
5. Truck Parking
The growing scarcity of available truck parking creates a dangerous situation for truck drivers who are often forced to drive beyond allowable HOS rules or park in undesignated and unsafe locations. In one of their latest surveys, ATRI asked drivers if and how much they would be willing to pay for reserved truck parking. The answer was revealing:
• 48% of drivers said they would never willingly pay for truck parking
• 20% said they would pay $1.00 to $5.00
• 19.8 said they would pay $6.00 to $10.00
• 9% said they would pay $11.00 to $15.00
• 2% said they would pay $16.00 to 20.00
• 0.9% said they would pay $21.00 or more
Read More Here
