Waynes World - Decenber 2005

DEFINING A PREVENTABLE ACCIDENT, NEW LIGHT
AND REFLECTOR RULES, AND...

WHAT THIEVES WILL DO
TO GET YOUR CARGO
By Wayne Schooling

Q: Last year I started my own trucking business and got my own insurance. When I received the quote, I saw that they had considered two accidents that I had but one was not my fault. I think it was an excuse to increase my premium. This year I got a letter from the insurance company putting blame on the other party. The letter helped, but not much. Is this just a bad practice of the insurance company? Can I sue them? Can the insurance commissioner help?

A: First off, all truck drivers who did not receive their initial driver training from a professional truck driving school must understand two extremely important things: the definition of an accident and the ensuing involvement of a truck driver as used in the transportation industry. All truck drivers must understand there is no such thing as “who was at fault” in an accident. Now before you have a conniption fit, let me explain why.

In the transportation industry, way back when truck drivers were called “Knights of the Road,” it was established that they were to be called professionals. This is because they had to take special tests and training and had to carry a special license. Truck drivers are held at a higher accountability than average civilian drivers. The National Safety Council (NSC) decided that since truck drivers were professionals, there were only two types of accidents: preventable and non-preventable. Thusly, the “who was at fault” accidents went by the wayside and were used only for the lowly civilian drivers.

The NSC defines a Preventable Accident as, “Any accident involving a vehicle which results in property damage and/or personal injury, regardless of who was injured, what property was damaged, to what extent, or where it occurred, in which the driver in question failed to exercise every reasonable precaution to prevent the accident.”

Now, let’s explain the role of the Professional Truck Driver in such a situation. “Every accident in which a driver is involved shall be considered preventable unless there was no action which the driver could have reasonably taken to avoid the accident and that his actions in no way contributed to the occurrence of the accident. The driver must drive in such a way that he commits no errors himself and so control his vehicle to make due allowance for the condition of the road, the weather or the traffic, and so that mistakes of other drivers do not involve him in any accident.”

So, without knowing the particulars of your accidents, only you can decide if you could have prevented them. Maybe now you can understand why it is such a huge feat when a truck driver has driven a million miles or more without a preventable accident, especially with all the nuts on the road.

A: Let me clarify that a hazmat employee is any individual, including a self-employed individual (independent contractor), who, during the course of employment, performs ANY function subject to the Hazmat Regulations. Every person must be trained prior to performing any hazmat work and recurrent training is required once every three years.

The Federal Motor Carrier Administration (FMCSA) recently updated its lighting and reflector regulations in 49 CFR 393.11, making the rules easier than ever to understand, and including a variety of illustrations to clarify how the rules apply to various types of vehicles out there. Now is the time to review these rules and make sure your lights, reflectors, and conspicuity tape are in compliance.

Checking your older vehicles against the new illustrations may be especially important. If you have a vehicle manufactured between December 25, 1968 and March 7,1989 and have made changes to the lights or reflectors or have not otherwise maintained them, your vehicle may be out of compliance. Also, if you are engaged in driveaway-towaway operations, be sure to review the new illustrations in 393.17 as well.

Some individuals who were involved in drug trafficking have found it more lucrative to convert their energies to stealing anything they can get their hands on – electronics, cigarettes, clothing, etc. Here are a couple “tricks of their trade” which you should be aware of to help protect your cargo.

Information-gathering is a big part of their enterprise. One means of gaining intelligence on distribution centers is to acquire bills of lading and other important documents from petty thieves who have stolen a small quantity of sought-after products. This information is used to find out where the major warehouses are located and to find out what’s inside.

Leakage is another tactic used by cargo thieves. Leakage is violating the integrity of a load by prying open the doors of a cargo container. The thieves remove part of the contents, replacing it with sand bags so that there is no change in the overall weight of the container. They then replace the door hinges so that the crime is not discovered until the doors are opened and the seal is broken.

To protect your enterprise from these criminals, it is important that you anticipate anything and everything. Drivers, managers, dispatchers and any other drivers/employees involved in shipping and receiving should always safeguard proprietary information such as bills of lading, routes, client lists and so forth. A little forethought in what is said and done by your drivers, on and off the road, may foil the attempts to obtain information and/or gain access to your shipments.

~ Send your questions to Wayne Schooling via e-mail at wayne@ntassoc.com or call NTA at (562) 279-0557 or (800) 805-0040.