90-DAY BIT INSPECTIONS. The California Governor recently signed Assembly Bill No. 3278, amending California’s mandatory 90-day vehicle inspection program. Currently, motor carriers must conduct systematic inspection, maintenance, and lubrication services at least every 90 days on any vehicle based in California and used to transport property for compensation. Effective January 1, 2025, only commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 26,001 lbs. or more will be subject to the mandatory 90-day BIT inspection requirement. Vehicles under 26,001 lbs. GVWR are not subject to the 90-day BIT inspection, but still need to comply with the federal requirement under 49 C.F.R. 396.17, requiring annual inspections.
NAVIGATING COMPLIANCE REVIEWS. This one comes from our friends at Scopelitis Transportation Consulting (STC). One of the services they provide is conducting mock DOT compliance reviews for motor carriers seeking an outside assessment of their compliance posture and processes. Over the years, they have reviewed thousands of driver qualification and vehicle maintenance files, assessed many drug and alcohol testing programs and reviewed countless records of duty status’ in search of hours of service (HOS) violations. Here, they will focus on the top HOS violation cited over the last five years – false reports of records of duty status (RODS).
This violation has been on the rise since electronic logging devices (ELDs) were implemented, which made identifying hours violations much easier. As a result, serial violators have found new ways to hide these violations and law enforcement has changed its focus to identify them. In our experience, most of these violations are found in one of these scenarios: 1) improper use of personal conveyance; 2) inappropriate use of common exceptions like “adverse driving conditions” or the “big day” exception found in 395.1(o); and 3) not adjudicating unidentified driving time when it occurs.
To combat this, STC recommends conducting regular internal compliance checks of driver logs to ensure accuracy. Of course, it can be a monumental task to manually audit every driver’s log every day, which is why some carriers start with an exception-based auditing process that launches a close review of driver RODS based on specific events. For example, when a driver receives an HOS violation during a roadside inspection, when a driver is involved in an accident, or when ELD reporting shows excessive use of personal conveyance or any other unusual unidentified driving events, these could all be good reasons to conduct a more detailed review.
As carriers refine their internal auditing processes, this list of exceptions can be expanded and, eventually, regular manual auditing of a sample of all drivers can also be implemented. In their search for log violations, carriers can focus on off-duty and on-duty not driving (ODND) duty statuses by comparing mileage and location data from these events with that of the next driving event. Any discrepancy should warrant a more detailed investigation to understand the root cause. Often, these discrepancies can be attributed to honest, correctable mistakes that can be addressed through additional driver training. But if these mistakes are found by law enforcement, they may not accept the “honest mistake” defense and write a violation.
It’s also worth mentioning that critical violations of the HOS rules are double weighted under FMCSA’s safety rating methodology, meaning the best safety rating a carrier can obtain when a critical HOS violation is discovered is “Conditional” under the HOS factor. This makes it imperative that carriers discover and address these violations as soon as possible.
While compliance dashboards provided by ELD vendors can be a useful tool to understand your general fleet HOS compliance, they are only as good as the data on which they rely. Unassigned driving time and improper use of exceptions or personal conveyance can conceal potential violations, intentional or otherwise. While an exception-based auditing approach may not find every violation, it is a good place to start and, as violations are discovered and addressed, can send an important signal to drivers that RODS accuracy is important and false logs will not be tolerated, improving compliance and strengthening the carrier’s overall safety culture.
MORE REVOKED ELD DEVICES. FMCSA recently revoked three more devices from the agency’s list of registered electronic logging devices, or ELDs. The Keep Tracking, Rollingtrans ELD – ACCURATE ONE, and RT ELD Plus – ACCURATE PLUS devices were all placed on the Revoked Devices list due to the companies’ failure to meet the minimum requirements listed in 49 CFR part 395, subpart B, appendix A. The removals are effective as of November 18, 2024. If the providers correct all identified deficiencies for their devices, FMCSA will place their ELDs back on the list of registered devices and inform the industry of the update.
Motor carriers that use these revoked ELDs must stop using these devices and revert to paper logs or logging software to record required hours of service data. They must also replace the revoked ELDs with compliant ELDs from the Registered Devices list before January 17, 2025, as motor carriers have up to 60 days to replace the revoked ELDs with compliant ones. During this time, safety officials are encouraged not to cite drivers using these revoked ELDs for 395.8(a)(1) – “No record of duty status” or 395.22(a) – “Failing to use a registered ELD.” Instead, safety officials should request the driver’s paper logs, logging software, or use the ELD display as a back-up method to review the hours of service data.
Beginning January 17, 2025, carriers who continue to use the revoked devices will be considered as operating without an ELD and the driver can be placed out-of-service (OOS) in accordance with the CVSA’s OOS Criteria. This is just another reason to switch over to the NorthAmerican Transportation Association’s ELD. NTA is the only transportation association that has its own ELD! Go to our website (www.ntassoc.com) to find out more about it or call us at (800) 805-0040.