Why Comply?

Let's say that you are the safety, compliance or even human resource person for a small but growing company. You are not a traditional trucking company but you do have a few straight trucks, pick-ups and trailers for local delivery and occasionally they are sent out for miscellaneous material.

One day a foreman tells one of his men to take the flat bed truck across town and pick up some material including 3 compressed gas cylinders and 2-5 gallon containers of mineral spirits. On his way back he is involved in a fatal accident, two people were severely burned and the materials mentioned directly increased the severity of the accident.

After all of the normal and awful aftermath, litigation begins and you find out that your employee, who had worked all night, tested positive for controlled substances. The substances you were transporting were hazardous materials. There was no evidence of proper shipping papers or proper securement of the material. The flat bed truck had weak brakes. Next, you are told that a Department of Transportation inspector is at the front office asking a lot of questions and wanting to see the president of the company.

This could happen! And it is not the best time to learn about the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR). The so called, "Safety Regs" are a part of the larger Department of Transportation (DOT) 49 CFR requirements. These regulations were originally promulgated in the 1930s to promote safety in motor carrier highway operations that involve interstate and foreign commerce. In 1986, the "Safety Regulations were revised under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Act and all states were required to adopt the regulations into law or develop even stricter requirements. The states faced loss of highway revenues for failure to comply. In July of 1987, these regulations became effective for not only conventional trucking companies but any company who had trucks of a certain axle rating.

Reasons for Congress to Act

The goal of the Act was to 1) Prevent Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) drivers from concealing unsafe driving records 2) ensure that all CMV drivers demonstrate knowledge and skills needed to safely operate a CMV, before being licensed and 3) subject CMV drivers to new, uniform sanctions for certain unsafe practices.

The FMCSR primarily regulate drivers and vehicles when they are on public ways. They apply to any company in commerce which operates vehicles greater than a gross vehicle weight rating (gvwr) or combination truck and trailer rating greater than 10,000 pounds. The use of the weight rating of axles to determine whether or not vehicles fall within the requirements has generated confusion among companies who have trucks but do not consider themselves to be "trucking" companies. Then, certain parts of the FMCSR apply only to drivers who operate a vehicle in excess of 26,000 pounds gvwr. However, any size vehicle that transports hazardous materials even in small quantities, are regulated by these requirements.

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