The Fleet Business Authority
Issue link: http://heavydutytrucking.epubxp.com/i/221397
WASHINGTONreport D.C.briefs Bills would permit hair testing for drugs T wo bills in Congress would let trucking companies use hair testing as well as urinalysis to screen drivers for illegal drugs. The House and Senate bills tell the Department of Health and Human Services to recognize hair testing as an optional method to comply with Department of Transportation drug testing requirements. Supporters of the legislation say the number of driver applicants who pass a preemployment urine test but fail a subsequent hair test is alarmingly high. They say this is why some trucking companies rely on hair testing, which is more expensive than urinalysis. The House bill (H.R. 3403) was introduced by Rick Crawford, R-Ark. and is cosponsored by Tom Cotton, RArk., Steve Womack, R-Ark., Tim Griffin, R-Ark. and Reid Ribble, R-Wisc. Its counterpart in the Senate (S.1625) was introduced by Mark Pryor, D-Ark and is co-sponsored by John Boozman, R-Ark. FMCSA tests changes on safety data website T he Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is test-driving an improved version of its Safety Measurement System website. The SMS site is where carriers and the public go to 18 HDT • DECEMBER 2013 get the safety performance data the agency uses to determine which carriers pose a risk and need to be investigated. Last year the site hosted nearly 48 million user sessions, the agency said. The agency is proposing some improvements to the site that have been suggested by users of the system. The changes can be previewed online at https://csa.fmcsa. dot.gov/SMSPreview. The agency said carriers can preview their own data in the proposed redesign, and the public has access to simulated data. Defense carriers get hours exemption T he agency granted a rest-break exemption from the hours-of-service rules to carriers serving the Department of Defense. Carriers serving the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command are exempted from the 30-minute break requirement until Oct. 21, 2015. This gives contract carriers that haul weapons, munitions and classified cargo the same flexibility that explosives haulers have, the agency said. The exempted drivers may use 30 minutes or more of attendance time to meet hours-of-service rest break requirements, as long as they don't do any other work during the break. NTSB found that FMCSA inspectors had completed an oversight review of Highway Star five days before the crash. It was a focused, non-rated compliance review that did not examine records related to driver compliance with hours-ofservice regulations. The inspectors did this focused review, rather than a full compliance review, even though previous reviews had found driver-related violations, and the carrier had a longstanding history of hours-of-service violations. After the crash, the agency did a full compliance review. It gave the carrier an unsatisfactory rating and issued an "imminent hazard" out-of-service order for not monitoring driver hours, permitting drivers to falsify records of duty status and failing to preserve records of duty. In Murfreesboro, Tenn., on June 13, a truck operated by the Louisville, Ky.-based carrier H&O; Transport, collided with eight other vehicles that had slowed in the eastbound traffic lanes of Interstate 24. The collisions killed two in a car that overturned and burned, and injured six people in other vehicles. The driver was out of hours and had numerous previous violations, according to the NTSB. In addition, several other H&O; drivers had similar violations that FMCSA knew about through roadside inspections and previous compliance reviews. Before the crash in June, the agency had conducted four full and one focused compliance review of H&O;, rating the company either conditional or satisfactory. The post-crash review rated the company conditional. "For carriers that have a history of violations in more than one (CSA safety category), limiting the intervention to a focused CR is an obvious shortcoming in compliance oversight," the Board said. House bill would suspend 34-hour restart pending review a A trio of House legislators introduced a bill that would suspend the 34-hour restart provision of the hours-ofservice rule, pending an assessment by the Government Accountability Office. The bill would put carriers back under the 34-hour restart provision that was in force before July 1 while GAO looks at the methodology the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration used to write the new provision. GAO would have a year to complete the work. The new provision could not be re-implemented until six months after GAO submits its report to Congress, and only if the www.truckinginfo.com