You're the Safety Manager and you are about to start a driver meeting to go over CSA 2010 and how it relates to the drivers and the company. It's early Saturday morning and all the good donuts have already been picked over. You just made a promise to yourself to never let the dispatchers pick up the donuts again. Your laptop is warming up and you're about to start your very well prepared slide show.

You start by telling them they can be given points for more than 63% of the total CSA 2010 violations listed on the SMS methodology document. As you look at them spread across the classroom, you see that all to familiar deer in the headlights look in their eyes, and their jaw just can't seem to close. The next thing out of their mouth is, “That doesn't matter; the points don't start counting until end of the year.”

In one small statement you've just covered the top two misunderstandings from drivers regarding CSA 2010. Now, let's be honest; not all drivers are this un-aware of the impending doom called CSA 2010, but there are some important issues they should be made aware of. My aim in this short BLOG entry is to share a few of those issues with you so you can pass them on to your drivers, if you deem them fit.

1. Your drivers' history is already established. Three years of inspection history and five years of accident data are now available for carriers to look at in Pre-employment Screening.
2. Driver Fatigue or Hours of Service account for 5 of the top 10 violations written against drivers in 2009 and 2010. Drivers receive points against them for 95% of HOS violations. Drivers should want to move to electronic logs as doing so would reduce their exposure to nearly 50% of all violations under CSA 2010.
3. Drivers need to pay attention when conducting their pre-trip inspections. No more kick the tires and run. Drivers have exposure to 73% of the points issued in the Vehicle Maintenance Basic. Drivers doing complete and comprehensive pre-trip inspections will avoid the foolish inspection. A foolish inspection is any one that could have been avoided by the driver had they made a better decision regarding their vehicle before the opportunity of an inspection occurred.
4. SPEEDING was the number 2 violation issued in 2009. Why? Because drivers pulled over for speeding were subject to an inspection. Speeding is just one more way to receive a foolish inspection.
5. The FMCSA has predicted that as many as 175,000 drivers could lose their job because of their CSA score. In order to maintain a level of job security, there is no better time than now for drivers to get on board with what their company is trying to accomplish regarding goals and improvements to the operation. Drivers with a bad record will soon find themselves in a difficult position when they start looking for a job now that their CSA score is available for all to see.

There are also 11 Red Flag Violations that do just that, “Flag the Driver” for closer scrutiny. Red Flag Drivers will almost certainly be sought out during an on-site inspection, with the inspector likely requesting their records and an update on how the carrier dealt with their violations.

In my humble opinion, CSA has not changed things all that much. There won't be a shortage of drivers, just a shortage of “Good” Drivers”, and now you have a way to tell which is which. The Safety Fitness Determination has yet to be ruled on. Some say it may never include the drivers' scores; but those are the same people that still think CSA stands for “Clean Slate of America”

Let me leave you with this last thought: Treat everybody like you want to be treated and the rest will get along just fine. This is my CSA 2010 blog entry and I'm out.

• CSA 2010
  • www.csa2010.fmcsa.dot.gov
• DataQ
  • https://dataqs.fmcsa.dot.gov
• SMS Methodology
  http://csa2010.fmcsa.dot.gov/documents/SMSMethodology.pdf
• CSA 2010 FAQ's
  • http://www.csa2010.com/articles/CSA2010_Questions.htm#108