Transcription
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Steve Kessler: Good afternoon, everyone
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Steve Kessler: appreciate you. Join us this afternoon. Welcome to our fast forward Webinar series, sponsored by the Infinit-I Workforce Solutions
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Steve Kessler: very much appreciate y’all taking some of your time to join us today. We’ve got a really, I think, very important topic. I know I’ve had conversations with a lot of companies
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Steve Kessler: over time about the DataQ system. Obviously, you all know that it’s there to help you challenge information that FMC is holding that you may think is incomplete or incorrect.
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Steve Kessler: But I will have to say there, a lot of folks have had great luck with it. Some have not had good luck with it, and others have not even tried to use it.
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Steve Kessler: So once again, I think we got a great program and a great presenter today. What I would like you to do, if you don’t mind, is just jump on that chat box down there at the bottom. Let us know who you are and who you’re with, maybe where you’re from, so we can get to know you a little bit.
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Steve Kessler: And while you’re doing that, I wanted to say a couple of things about Vertical Alliance Group in the Infinit-I Workforce Solutions. You know, as a company, we’re we’re really dedicated to empowering and streamlining safety programs for transportation companies.
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Steve Kessler: both for hire and private, across the United States.
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Steve Kessler: You know, with about 850 training videos and a customizable
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Steve Kessler: learning management system that you can automate track and
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Steve Kessler: literally document all aspects of training. It’s really no wonder, why, we have nearly 2,000 companies that have chosen the Infinit-I Workforce Solutions.
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Steve Kessler: So you know, the system not only makes it easy to build an affordable best in class training program for your drivers, but I think even as important. It frees up your administrative time while still giving you the ability to communicate more effectively and train your employees anywhere, anytime.
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Steve Kessler: So if you’re really committed to have a training program that proves you value your safety over just about everything else check us out at infinitiworkforce.com. You can see that link there in the bottom, right hand corner of the screen.
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Steve Kessler: So now I would like to introduce you to our guest today. That’s gonna kind of give us some good information about the DataQ system. I want you all to welcome Richard Goins.
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Steve Kessler: Richard is really an industry veteran.
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Steve Kessler: Gosh, I I’ve met you a couple of times, Richard. Richard has
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Steve Kessler: over 30 years experience as a driver, a fleet manager, a trainer. and then he kind of went on the other side and spent what about 15 years, I believe?
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Steve Kessler: With the Oregon Department of Transportation as an investigator and as an adjudicator of DataQs
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Steve Kessler: Richard has conducted over 5,000 CVSA truck inspections
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Steve Kessler: and has coached dozens, if not hundreds, of new inspectors and law enforcement agencies
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Steve Kessler: from all over the State of Oregon. And I guess today, Richard, you help a lot of your own companies. In your position there with TLC companies
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Steve Kessler: to help them and advise them on regulatory compliance and safety issues, and I’m sure you help them quite a bit with DataQ also.
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Steve Kessler: So, having said all that, Richard, welcome and thanks for joining us today.
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Richard Goins: thank you, I appreciate it. It’s good to be here.
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Richard Goins: Actually, I was with the Oregon Department of Transportation for 10 years. But
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Richard Goins: I overestimate you a little bit sorry about that. I just like to be honest, fair enough.
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Richard Goins: So DataQs are.
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Richard Goins: that was one of the last things that I ended up doing with the State of Oregon and adjudicating a DataQ, or being a
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Richard Goins: analyst
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Richard Goins: who chooses whether or not determines whether or not a violation should be removed or retain.
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Richard Goins: It’s kind of a
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Richard Goins: It’s you’re on kind of a blank slate. What the Feds offer is a very simple
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Richard Goins: set of guidelines for how
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Richard Goins: violations should be kept or removed. There is no certification process for doing that, like there is with
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Richard Goins: becoming a truck inspector, or getting your hazardous materials they figure by the time you’ve done that been in it long enough they’re not gonna have you get set up for certification?
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Richard Goins: the most important thing when you’re getting ready to
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Richard Goins: conduct a DataQ is
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Richard Goins: looking at a truck inspection for what it really is, and it isn’t. It isn’t like a ticket.
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Richard Goins: Where an officer witnesses something, pulls you over and
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Richard Goins: writes a citation with a monetary penalty.
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Richard Goins: What an inspection is! Really, if you go to the next slide.
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Richard Goins: it’s the window and time where the condition of the truck driver are documented to create the correct view of the carrier safety protocols.
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Richard Goins: So.
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Richard Goins: basically, what a good inspector should be doing is not choosing necessarily which violations to write, but just documenting what they’re finding on the truck at the time that they had it stopped.
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Richard Goins: So that means the day of the stop. So if they’re looking at the log, they’re looking at that day the previous 7,
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Richard Goins: and they’re looking at the driver’s condition. Whether
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Richard Goins: they’re compliant with medical, with
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Richard Goins: whether or not they’re CDL’s current things like that next slide.
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Richard Goins: I’ll go over this kind of quick, just because of the fact that I think the most valuable thing is answering questions.
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Richard Goins: so the purpose of the system
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Richard Goins: and a DataQ is to provide industry partners the opportunity to dispute
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Richard Goins: whether or not a violation was written within policy.
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Richard Goins: So if a truck inspections written.
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Richard Goins: and you have a violation written outside of Policy 14 or Policy 15. Those operational policies determine how and when violation should be cited.
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Richard Goins: so it’s really important
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Richard Goins: for
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Richard Goins: inspectors to follow those operational policies. One of the other things that
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Richard Goins: is proposed for this system. One of the reasons is, you know, inspectors like me. I make mistakes. I’ve cited the wrong carrier. I’ve cited the wrong driver, and there are ways that this can happen with the electronic system.
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Richard Goins: And Sometimes truck inspectors are going through, and they’re looking at various violations, and they’ll simply click down the next wrong one.
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Richard Goins: Other things that will happen that will warrant a DataQ
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Richard Goins: will be if a carrier qualified for an exception or an exemption.
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Richard Goins: So we had during
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Richard Goins: Covid we had the Covid exemptions so that we could get certain types of commodities through in a timely manner.
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Richard Goins: and not all inspectors who do inspections are up to date constantly, because there’s a lot going on.
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Richard Goins: Oftentimes, when law enforcement is working in this industry.
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Richard Goins: truck inspections are a very small part of what they do. So sometimes they’ll miss a new exemption.
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Richard Goins: That is an emergency exemption, for whether it’s
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Richard Goins: something like Covid, or it’s something to do with
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Richard Goins: snowstorms, for instance. You’ll see winter exceptions for carriers who are operating, hauling propane.
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Richard Goins: and they have got to get them through. So they’ll do a §395 exception for hours of service
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Richard Goins: slide.
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Richard Goins: Well. sorry about that.
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Richard Goins: So some of the things that answer questions that I answer a lot are carriers will want to challenge every single violation, and I strongly suggest not to do that.
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Richard Goins: There’s a lot of reasons when you submit a DataQ.
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Richard Goins: The person that you’re talking to was likely an inspector at one time. In fact, they really should have been, and they should have done a lot of inspections. and every request for review and inspection.
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Richard Goins: right or wrong, creates an impression of the carrier with that agency. So if
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Richard Goins: you dispute every single violation
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Richard Goins: that’s written that are that some of them clearly had to be there. You’re gonna start off with a really bad impression for the individual who’s conducting the DataQ
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Richard Goins: and carriers want to be seen as partners with the FMCSA. And not.
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Richard Goins: you know. It’s it’s important for both sides that we approach everything from a partner point of view.
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Richard Goins: Time spent challenging valid violations not being spent. Correct isn’t being spent correctly. In my opinion. If you know that you had a violation.
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okay.
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Richard Goins: when I’ve run trucking companies and fleets this is really important to me to spend my time correcting errors that I’ve had, and we have some errors. I’ve had quite a few over the years.
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Richard Goins: And that’s a better
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Richard Goins: choice or better priority for the time.
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Richard Goins: Repeated attempts
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Richard Goins: are not necessarily a good idea. Generally the policy allows for a single attempt, and then there’s some new
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Richard Goins: policies coming out now, will they allow 2, and then it will move on to a independent system if the new policy comes up.
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Richard Goins: But
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Richard Goins: it’s really important to remember who the audience is. So when you’re presenting
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Richard Goins: your facts, and that’s really all you want to present is facts
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Richard Goins: per request or review.
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Richard Goins: The individuals probably going to be a long term officer. They’ve conducted thousands of truck inspections. They’ve got dozens of officers that
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Richard Goins: they manage. and that in person is going to be really interested in whether or not
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Richard Goins: policy was followed. Whether or not the inspection was written properly. Sometimes inspectors will write an inspection in such a way that it just doesn’t make any sense.
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Richard Goins: They’ll use the canned verbiage within the system.
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Richard Goins: and then the notes that they make are separate.
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Richard Goins: If that can verbage and the notes they make don’t blend
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Richard Goins: what I strongly suggest is you should provide them facts photos
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Richard Goins: especially if it’s, you know, wrong driver, one wrong carrier. Something to that effect.
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Richard Goins: But this person’s gonna be a really fact oriented individual
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Richard Goins: slide.
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Richard Goins: And this kind of kind of thing. Reviewing officials will be concerned with things like. Did the violation exist
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Richard Goins: at the time of the inspection? Was the violation written within guidelines? Did the inspector correctly interpret the regulation? This is one where you’re writing your DataQ, where
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Richard Goins: you wanna go ahead and copy and paste the regulation, and then go back into the regulations, find the interpretation, and look and see if there’s a question within the interpretation that
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Richard Goins: supports your point of view. And oftentimes there will be. There’s a lot of data within the FMCSA system that you’ll be able to find whether their questions and answers or their fact sheets and use the fact sheets right out of the DataQ system. It’s really hard for an adjudicator to look at that and say, no, you got to keep it.
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Richard Goins: Facts that I wouldn’t consider, you know, and the Feds cover this in their their new policy review that they’re doing at this is
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Richard Goins: requesting leniency, you know. It was the drivers first offense. Beings, that what they’re trying to do is document the condition? It won’t matter whether it it seems fair or was the drivers first offense, or if it was a minor violation.
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Richard Goins: Violations carry different points for a reason so, and some of them carry none at all. If you go in to look at your truck inspections on your SMS profile, you’ll see that some very clearly. Say not included an SMS. And when you see something like that you don’t want to waste your time trying to remove the violation, because it doesn’t really carry any weight.
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Richard Goins: One of the other things is. if a carrier’s having a lot of trouble.
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Richard Goins: And they’re
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Richard Goins: really hoping to get a violation removed. For that reason I can guarantee nobody’s going to remove a violation for that reason that would be in direct, direct contravention of Federal policy.
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Richard Goins: If you’re having a really hard time, and you find that you know this violation is the one that you think’s gonna put you over the top.
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Richard Goins: Find any other reason? Then you’re having a hard time because it’s not gonna really change. What’s happening. It’s unfortunate, but the system isn’t fair. It just simply is
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Richard Goins: you know. So next slide.
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Richard Goins: this is really important violation citations and warnings. so
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Richard Goins: a violation can only be written
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a CVSA truck inspection.
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Richard Goins: It won’t be added to a ticket or a citation that an officer gives you.
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Richard Goins: At last the 2 are written in conjunction with one another.
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Richard Goins: so you can have a violation and no citation. You can have a citation and no violation. For instance, officers that are not trained fmcs. A personnel who are certified to do truck inspections can’t
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Richard Goins: create a truck inspection. They can’t write a violation. They can only cite the driver and the carrier with some type of monetary penalty.
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Richard Goins: Violations written on inspections. They don’t carry any weight on a driver’s DMV Record. They only carry weight as far as the CSA is concerned.
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Richard Goins: Oh.
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Richard Goins: violate or yeah, violations are put on a company’s record for 2 years and on a driver’s record for 3 years.
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Richard Goins: Crash information carried out for 5. Citations are often
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Richard Goins: subject to a State agency. The DMV. For instance, they can be in written like I said, in addition to a violation and any non-certified sworn officer can ride him.
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Richard Goins: and they’re not adjudicated through the DataQ system. The important thing to remember about this
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Richard Goins: is if the driver was cited with a violation, also received a citation before you begin the day to queue process. What you’re gonna want to do is
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Richard Goins: fight the ticket in court. and
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Richard Goins: that carries the most weight. So if a judge removes the citation.
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Richard Goins: Dismisses it, lowers it. I can almost guarantee that at some level something is gonna change depending on the policy and the type of violation
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Richard Goins: with
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Richard Goins: the DataQ. So they will remove or alter the information within the system.
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Richard Goins: What’s supposed to say there on that is warning, not subtitle. I don’t know where that came from
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Richard Goins: Warnings are totally separate from both of these
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Richard Goins: types of
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Richard Goins: citations or or recordings. When a warning is written, you’ll sometimes see. Unfortunately, you’ll see that a violation was put on a truck inspection, and then in the center, where there’s citation, they’ll say warning.
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Richard Goins: Sometimes officers are under the incorrect
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Richard Goins: impression that a violation and a warning of the same thing, and they’re not the violation carries. Wait with this CSA
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Richard Goins: A warning is often used sometimes, in my opinion, just to demonstrate that the officer had PC for the stop. So if they just write a warning, you really don’t want them to put that on the inspection, or you don’t want them to do an inspection and put
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Richard Goins: the site for the warning on there, too.
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Richard Goins: But warnings don’t carry through to the CVSA or the FMCSA. And they don’t affect a driver’s driving record.
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Richard Goins: when you’re looking at these
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Richard Goins: different enforcement
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Richard Goins: tools, you wanna really watch carefully before you start, because it is really important. Start with the court. If you have a citation and that will give you weight with the FMCSA partner. When you go to the DataQ.
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Richard Goins: I wouldn’t ever mess with a warning because they carry no weight.
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Richard Goins: Oftentimes they’re not recorded for long periods of time.
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Richard Goins: and they’re just used. If
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Richard Goins: if a record is made of the warning, it’ll be used to determine whether or not the next time a driver is stopped. If there’s going to be enforcement action
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Richard Goins: Slide.
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Richard Goins: So really, we’re at a point where I want to do the most
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Richard Goins: beneficial thing for everybody and
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Richard Goins: covering all this material is unimportant if we’re not answering questions, and there’s several resources that are here. But the most important thing is that we take very specific situations.
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Richard Goins: And we attack those
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Richard Goins: DataQ
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Richard Goins: are something that take up a lot of time within a state agency.
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Richard Goins: and they’re taken very seriously. But there is not a uniform system right now in place.
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Richard Goins: and they’re getting ready to change that. As a matter of fact, it’s great that we’re doing this because we really need public comment on this
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Richard Goins: to get the FMCSA. To move on it and make a more uniform system.
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Richard Goins: But I’ve covered the information that I have at the front. Steve, do you have any questions? Thanks for that information, Richard?
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Steve Kessler: one of the questions that came in, and you mentioned it briefly, if a citation was dismissed.
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Steve Kessler: can we DataQ it? And how will it affect the company’s record?
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Richard Goins: So if a citation’s dismissed
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Richard Goins: with the vast majority of citations, the violation should be removed from the inspection, and it will remove those points from their CSA. So what you’ll see is.
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Richard Goins: you might still see the violation in your SMS profile.
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Richard Goins: but the points it. When you look at the end, you click on the hyperlink for that inspection with your near SMS profile, and you’ll see on one of the columns, it’ll say, not included in SMS. And that’s how you know whether or not there were points associated with it. So if it was, if it’s still on there and it says, not included in SMS, it’s in some way they’ve removed it.
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Steve Kessler: Okay? Great
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Steve Kessler: another question from time to time, you know. In a in roadside inspection, for example.
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Steve Kessler: there’s some issue with the equipment that’s written up
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Steve Kessler: is it allowed, or is it important for a driver to actually take a picture of that as some record of what the the problem was with the equipment. Is that, allowed Richard.
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Richard Goins: It’s absolutely allowed. I strongly recommend that drivers always take a picture of what the officers talking about. There are some times when there’s a mechanical issue. And
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Richard Goins: within the ASPEN system that the Feds you have created to do electronic truck inspections.
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Richard Goins: There are some canned references to air leak under truck.
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Richard Goins: and they’ve got that can that way, because we know it wasn’t one of the valves. But we can’t find where it is. So obviously, you can’t take a picture of that. But a video, and you can hear it
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Richard Goins: can help. And especially if you believe it’s coming from one of the valves
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Richard Goins: between the breaks or something like that. It’s it’s really good idea to have that little bit of video from your phone.
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Steve Kessler: right? That’s good to know. Would you suggest, you know from your background, Richard, that
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Steve Kessler: this kind of information would be something that you should
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Steve Kessler: train your drivers a little bit on how to behave and act and participate in an inspection.
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Richard Goins: Every driver that I currently work with I provide this information to.
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Richard Goins: I do my best to train them on
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Richard Goins: how to handle a truck inspection, how to engage with the officer. If you feel like you need to dispute the violation. I train all the drivers that I work with that. If you feel like the inspections being written, an error.
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Richard Goins: I would always approach the inspector.
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Richard Goins: With the questions, could you explain this to me? I don’t think I’m understanding it.
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Richard Goins: And if you have the electronic
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Richard Goins: CFR. And you can point out what the exact regulation states.
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Richard Goins: and just say to the officer, Hey, this is what this says. Could you explain to me how this applies. Here
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Richard Goins: I as an inspector.
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Richard Goins: as long as the driver is being respectful and cooperative, I never have any problem with that, as a matter of fact, I’ve learned a lot more from the errors that I made in inspections than all of the correct things that I did
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Steve Kessler: makes sense.
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Steve Kessler: Here’s kind of a specific question Leo’s asked. I have 2 seatbelt warnings that are showing on our SMS record both our severity weight of 7.
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Steve Kessler: Can you kind of talk about
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Steve Kessler: what kind of circumstance we have here?
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Richard Goins: So what happened was, is the officer probably felt like he was doing the driver a favor by not issuing a citation with the monetary penalty to. So they’ll put that warning there under citation, and it’s going to show up in the inspection.
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Richard Goins: because it’s in the inspection. It’s going to carry those points. If you go to that in your in your SMS profile to where that inspection is, and double click on that hyperlink for that inspection. You’re gonna see a column there under that inspection that says included in SMS. And if it says Yes, you know those points are there for it.
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Richard Goins: I can almost guarantee you. Those points are going to be attributed to your SMS profile.
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Steve Kessler: Very good another question. Now this comes from Leslie. Leslie is asking crash data stays in the system for 5 years. Do the points associated with the crash remain for 5 years
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Richard Goins: kind of a grey spot.
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Richard Goins: I don’t
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Richard Goins: think I totally comprehend. I’m just gonna be honest here, how those points are adjudicated. So I’ve done hundreds of compliance reviews what we in the side of the industry call on a DOT audit
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Richard Goins: and within the
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Richard Goins: what is it called the methodology.
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Richard Goins: I have never reviewed
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Richard Goins: the crash data. When you do a compliance review and you enter it into the current system used to be CAPRI. And now it’s AIM. You go into that, and you enter the crashes that are in the company’s profile.
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Richard Goins: and it automatically
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Richard Goins: adjudicates some level of I don’t wanna say fault, but it does affect the carriers
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Richard Goins: branding.
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Richard Goins: I’ve never seen the exact points associated with a crash because
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Richard Goins: crashes are not listed in the system based on whether or not it’s a carrier’s fault. you know. We’ve probably heard the FMCSA somebody within the the Administration say
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Richard Goins: carriers who have crashes have crashes. So
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Richard Goins: what they’re getting at is that
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Richard Goins: the more crashes the carrier has, the more likely they are to have them. It doesn’t really carry points. But in a compliance review it’s going to affect your review, for sure
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Richard Goins: it will affect what they call rating.
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Richard Goins: I don’t know if that really answers your question.
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Steve Kessler: Well, yeah, it sounds like there’s and like you said, a little gray area there. So
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Steve Kessler: perhaps that can be research some more and find out if there’s any more definitive information.
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Richard Goins: When you go into the crash preventability program that they have, and you apply to have a crash removed. If it wasn’t a carrier’s fault, they will never remove that crash. because it’s just. It’s just that there was a crash. so I don’t believe that they carry points like a flat tire.
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Steve Kessler: Gotcha.
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Steve Kessler: Okay? Another question here. This comes from Tim. Tim says, what is a reasonable amount of time to expect an inspection, violation, or accident preventability ruling to be reviewed once submitted by the carrier.
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Steve Kessler: And is there anything we can do if an agency takes longer than normal to review.
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Richard Goins: So all crash preventability data challenges
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Richard Goins: are conducted by the FMCSA. They don’t have their state partners
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Richard Goins: participate in that. And there’s way fewer people within the FMCSA than there are
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Richard Goins: with regard to their partners, so you can often see a crash. Take as much as 90 days to review
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Richard Goins: and I’ve seen them reviewed within 30, but they are going to take the longest. I don’t think that a DataQ for a hours of service violation should take more than a week.
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Steve Kessler: Okay.
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Richard Goins: but what happens with that is the individuals responsible for it will receive an email. But there’s a
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Richard Goins: What is it? RDR. In their
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Richard Goins: queue, and they have, I think I had 4 days to respond, but that was always
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Richard Goins: that had to do with a state policy, and that’s one of the things that they’re looking at is because there isn’t really any uniformity.
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Steve Kessler: Okay?
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Steve Kessler: And do you think, is there anything that the the carrier. The the agency can do. If it’s it’s just taking too long. Are you think it’s taken too long? Is there a follow up?
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Richard Goins: I have something right here that I,
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Richard Goins: because I was thinking I might hear this question.
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Richard Goins: apologize. I I’ve got a lot of things open here and hope so. I could help people with us.
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Richard Goins: It’s not there. So the best thing that I can tell you to do is resubmit it
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Richard Goins: just, and I know there’s something in there. I haven’t done a DataQ for somebody for a while. I don’t have a DOT number right now. So I obviously I’m not doing them
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Richard Goins: I help other people with theirs.
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Richard Goins: but it’ll say if you haven’t heard back, don’t resubmit.
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Richard Goins: I don’t know if that’s still in there. but if you don’t get any type of review whatsoever.
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Richard Goins: You might try resubmitting it. One thing you can do, and
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Richard Goins: the FMCSA. Doesn’t like this, and I’m probably gonna get my
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Richard Goins: get chewed out for this, but I’ll work for that. I would call the State Administrator’s office.
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Richard Goins: Oh.
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Richard Goins: some within some Federal agencies.
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What you see is unfortunately,
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Richard Goins: you don’t get any response to your third email. It’s kind of a joke around it’s not a joke. It it does happen but I would go ahead and call the State Administrators office.
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Richard Goins: If you’re in a State like, for instance, State of Missouri, their State police handle it.
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Richard Goins: Calling the headquarters is totally okay. It’s probably the best
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Richard Goins: thing that you can do if you’re in state of Oregon has the DataQ system is not run by the State police should call the Oregon Department of Transportation or Congress and Compliance Division.
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Richard Goins: But you can look these things up. And it’s totally okay to call
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Richard Goins: because it should not be taking weeks and weeks to get a response.
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Steve Kessler: Great we’re getting a lot of questions here. Richard, so hang on. There’s kind of a general question you may have these numbers in your head. Are there any statistics or numbers
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Steve Kessler: on the number of disputes and percentage of disputes approved any numbers on how many passed and how many failed.
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Richard Goins: I have never seen anything that provided
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Richard Goins: that percentage
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Richard Goins: What I can tell you is that
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Richard Goins: when I was conducting DataQs
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Richard Goins: I would review the inspection.
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Richard Goins: I would immediately contact the officer.
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Richard Goins: In some states, the officer will have a
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Richard Goins: canned area where all their notes per inspection are and won’t have to contact them. I can immediately go to where those to that
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Richard Goins: server is, and look up the officer’s notes. If he’s got any photographs, and that way I don’t have to go through the time of waiting for them to get back from work, from vacation, or whatever it is. I can just review the notes and then review the request.
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Richard Goins: If the request submitted deals with exemptions, exceptions, and the carrier has demonstrated that they were
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Richard Goins: I don’t wanna use the word deserve. But if the exemption or exception applied to them, I would automatically just change it. I’d say when I was doing it, about 10% got
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Richard Goins: altered.
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Richard Goins: Now, sometimes that means the correct violation was put in. I don’t really like that practice, but that’s what happens if the drive, if the inspector just wrote the wrong violation.
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Richard Goins: if I see that an exemption or exception applied to them immediately remove it.
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Richard Goins: But I’d say about 10. But I we have a lot of people out doing
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Richard Goins: conducting DataQs. Some are doing it as a business, and I don’t have a problem with that and their charging carriers
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Richard Goins: per DataQ. So they want to do them.
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Richard Goins: So they’ll DataQ things that
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Richard Goins: there’s absolutely no reason to challenge it. And so. you know, you might open up your queue and find 7 in the morning. and all of them were from Joes DataQ service. That’s it.
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Richard Goins: So it kind of throws off the averages, I would say, Yeah, I can see that.
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Steve Kessler: Another question. This comes from Michael. Is there a time limit to when a DataQ must be filed.
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Richard Goins: No, if it is in the system. if it’s still, if you’re a carrier
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Richard Goins: and it’s on your SMS profile, you can challenge it. If you’re a driver
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Richard Goins: and it’s and your carrier, you know the company that you work for has not locked their system, then you can do it up to 3 years because it’s on the drivers. PSP, for 3 years.
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Steve Kessler: Alright, here’s somebody. Comment you were. There was a question earlier about the crashes and 5 years and Tommy saying that the FMCSA Told him
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Steve Kessler: that the points come off the company 2 years from the date of the accident, even if the crash did not post to the portal until months after the accident.
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Steve Kessler: So that’s
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Steve Kessler: that’s from from Tommy. That’s what he was told by FMCSA.
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Richard Goins: well, I know when you’re doing a compliance review.
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Richard Goins: and you go into that system.
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Richard Goins: How it affects the rating.
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Richard Goins: There are crashes that have been in there for 5 years that are not affecting a carrier’s rating. So that sounds accurate to me. Okay.
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Steve Kessler: great. That’s good. We got a little clarity there. Here’s another question. Says we were charged with an accident in which our driver vehicle was not involved.
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Steve Kessler: There was clear video evidence that was provided, but never received a clear answer as to why we were charged.
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Richard Goins: so if it is still in the carriers SMS profile.
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Richard Goins: I would submitted
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Richard Goins: immediately. If if you want there. This is something that’s really common within this. It’s one of the common errors within the system is that the wrong carrier is cited.
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Richard Goins: and there’s a lot of reasons I won’t. It’s a deep can of worms there. There’s a lot of reasons that happens.
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Richard Goins: and it’s not incompetence. It’s more like fat fingered keyboard.
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Richard Goins: but
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Richard Goins: it’s it’s always a good idea to get a hold of the State agency that was involved in the crash. Investigation. If there was a crash investigation.
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Richard Goins: Whoever the crash was reported to contact them.
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Richard Goins: document the contact that you had with them and go go back to the crash preventability program and apply under it wasn’t us, basically.
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Steve Kessler: Okay, let’s see, we got several more questions popping in here. why are there such limited options when trying to submit a DataQ about an accident.
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Richard Goins: Well, I’d say the crash preventability people who develop that program.
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Richard Goins: We’re hesitant about doing it in the first place.
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Richard Goins: So what they did is they set up crashes that they believe are not preventable whatsoever, and just used those crashes.
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Richard Goins: And it’s important when you’re looking at the crashes, to not think about it as
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Richard Goins: them faulting the carrier for the crash.
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Richard Goins: What they’re doing is they’re documenting that the carrier was involved in a crash.
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Richard Goins: That’s it’s it’s not like a ticket.
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Richard Goins: It is simply that they’re documenting what that carrier did in that 5 year period.
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Richard Goins: And oftentimes it’s definitely not the carrier’s fault. but that’s how the Part 385 with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety regulations
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Richard Goins: issues points as if the carrier, if one carrier has a hundred crashes in a 5 year period
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Richard Goins: and another carrier has 10.
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Richard Goins: Obviously there’s something going on there now they’re not writing citations. There’s no monetary fines. If a compliance review is done, there is not a
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Richard Goins: site within the review to penalize a company for the crash. It’s simply a measure of what’s happening within the company. Does that make sense?
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Steve Kessler: Yeah, I think it does absolutely.
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Steve Kessler: Well, there, there are lots of questions coming in. Let’s
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Steve Kessler: whoops. So here’s another question. This comes from Scott, says New York is known for giving seatbelt violations when they are being warned.
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Steve Kessler: How do you recommend that we DataQ a he said, she said. Violation like this.
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Richard Goins: I don’t. If they put a warning. if they issued the driver a warning
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Richard Goins: and cited on the the inspection.
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Richard Goins: Then they they just chose to do an inspection at the same time, and documented the condition of the driver at the time of the stop. So what they’re doing there is, they’re choosing not to give the driver a monetary penalty.
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Richard Goins: and there’s nothing within the DataQ system that would allow for challenging a seat belt violation
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Richard Goins: when the driver also received a warning.
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Steve Kessler: Okay.
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Richard Goins: generally, I don’t like it when they give warnings
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Richard Goins: and violations because they’re really not connected.
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Richard Goins: It really shouldn’t, in my opinion, be part of the inspection process, because it creates this confusing
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Richard Goins: situation.
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Steve Kessler: Okay?
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Steve Kessler: Lena is asking how to DataQ the out of service for maintenance. If the driver was staying on the shoulder waiting for the road service to come
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Steve Kessler: when DLT officers were called by the local police and gave him a lot of hours of service violations for this.
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Steve Kessler: That’s questions. A little confusing.
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Richard Goins: just if you could talk in general about queue for hours of service.
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Richard Goins: A driver can be in violation of the hours of service unless they were operating in excess of them. So if, before the driver stopped, they were already in excess. The driver committed the violation, and it wasn’t that out of service violation.
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Richard Goins: I’d be happy to look at the inspection
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Richard Goins: and tell you what I think. But you, you wouldn’t want a DataQ
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Richard Goins: anything where you know the violation that occurred when an inspection took place. and whether or not a vehicle was broke down doesn’t really have anything to do with the truck inspection?
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Steve Kessler: Okay?
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Steve Kessler: next question.
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Steve Kessler: this comes from Bruce.
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Steve Kessler: Upon submitting a DataQ challenge are they not supposed to give it to a different officer.
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Steve Kessler: I had one in Missouri that they gave it back to the same officer twice.
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Steve Kessler: It was on an ABS Light on the trailer that was being pulled by a non-ABS truck
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Steve Kessler: manufactured before 90-97 officer maintained the trailer. Light was supposed to work period and refuse to look at the year model of the tractor.
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Richard Goins: Well, I’m what I’m curious about is if they actually
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Richard Goins: and I’m not disputing what you’re saying. But I’m wondering if it actually
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Richard Goins: was given to the that inspector to dispute, or they questioned that inspector twice
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Richard Goins: and just included their their email response.
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Richard Goins: Generally speaking, if they, if a DataQ is conducted
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Richard Goins: and no changes made, and you
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Richard Goins: submit the request again for somebody else to look at it. Either that individual who looked at it will look at it again, and
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Richard Goins: collaborate with another inspector
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Richard Goins: or
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Richard Goins: you know, analyst, or they will give it to another analyst.
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Richard Goins: but sometimes it might look like. They gave it to the same person. And it was just the officer who conducted the inspection who is responding an email to
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Richard Goins: the analysts question. So it that can be confusing if it’s going to the same person. I don’t like that. I don’t. I don’t think that’s a good thing. It’s one of the things that they’re reviewing right now.
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Richard Goins: And if you have something like that, I strongly suggest
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Richard Goins: that you get into the system they’re accepting. Public comments bring this kind of thing out. This is important because the DataQ system is flawed.
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Richard Goins: Very
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Richard Goins: but it is. It’s
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Richard Goins: it hasn’t been around for a really long time. So there’s gonna be things wrong with it. But I strongly suggest that you get in and
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Richard Goins: make a comment on it.
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Richard Goins: You can contact Missouri State Patrol and asked to talk to a captain and I’m certain that they would be happy to talk to you about it and present it to them. But
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Richard Goins: I don’t think that. I don’t know if I think that that’s 1 point and if you don’t deserve it. You don’t deserve it, but it is.
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Richard Goins: and sometimes you want to weigh
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Richard Goins: the effort versus, you know, reward
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Steve Kessler: that makes sense. Alan’s asking if a driver receives a violation and then quits, can the violation be DataQ?
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Richard Goins: Nope.
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Steve Kessler: Simple. Answer to that one?
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Richard Goins: Well, it. The thing is is that the driver, if the driver did something wrong.
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00:45:06.130 –> 00:45:08.480
Richard Goins: and it was documented at the time.
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00:45:08.640 –> 00:45:14.820
Richard Goins: That is the condition of that truck and that driver at that time. So
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Richard Goins: whether they, whether you terminate the driver for it, or you find them for it, or whatever you do to the driver. It doesn’t change that moment in time.
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Steve Kessler: So you could. If it’s on the motor carrier’s record, then it could be DataQ. Yes.
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Richard Goins: no, it’s it’s still, it’s it’s still belongs to the motor carrier because the driver was working for the motor carrier at that time.
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Steve Kessler: You’re saying the driver couldn’t DataQ it.
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Richard Goins: Well, I’m saying nobody could. Well, you could. I just don’t. I don’t believe it would get anywhere.
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Steve Kessler: Okay. Alright.
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00:45:49.760 –> 00:45:59.430
Steve Kessler: here’s another question. Do State laws come before FMC regulations at certain States.
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Steve Kessler: I received an answer from the officer from Pennsylvania. That annual periodic inspection decals are not valid, and Pennsylvania State inspection detail is required. The driver had forms, but decals were washed off.
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Steve Kessler: Do state laws come before us from FMC regulations and in certain States?
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Richard Goins: So
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00:46:26.950 –> 00:46:31.950
Richard Goins: what the regulations basically say in on some things
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Richard Goins: is that once a State adopts the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, whether they choose not to adopt one portion or not?
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00:46:39.930 –> 00:46:47.230
Richard Goins: they can write the violation under Part 392 local laws.
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Richard Goins: So if it was written under that it probably could not rewritten under the 396.17 violation. because that very well specifies annual
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00:46:59.030 –> 00:47:03.530
Richard Goins: but, for instance, California, I believe there’s this quarterly
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00:47:03.550 –> 00:47:22.449
Richard Goins: I just recently found this out with Pennsylvania, and I was trying to help out a carrier with it, and I couldn’t get any response from Pennsylvania at all. But I do know that they can make laws that go above and beyond. And what you wanna do is when you look at the truck inspection under the site.
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Richard Goins: it will either say for this particular violation, it’ll either say 396.17,
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Richard Goins: and that will be the annual inspection or periodic is what the regulation state
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00:47:35.040 –> 00:47:36.779
Richard Goins: but it is an annual.
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00:47:36.890 –> 00:47:46.259
Richard Goins: or, it will say, 392 local laws, and they’ll give, you know, 392.77 one, or whatever it is and it will cite the State
391
00:47:46.330 –> 00:47:48.850
Richard Goins: regulation. So
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00:47:49.220 –> 00:47:57.750
Richard Goins: it does. What they’re doing is they’re adding a violation that doesn’t occur within the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.
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Steve Kessler: Okay.
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Steve Kessler: I need to make quick announcement here, folks, we have a lot of questions here, and we generally try to keep our program in under an hour.
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Steve Kessler: So I’m gonna keep going until we reach right at 3 0’clock, and then we we have record of all of your questions here, and we’ll try to sort those out and get them to the right people to get some of your questions answered
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00:48:29.350 –> 00:48:38.670
Steve Kessler: but I knew we’d have a lot of questions here. But we have. I’m still looking at 25 or 26 of them here that I haven’t even asked.
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00:48:38.750 –> 00:48:44.479
Steve Kessler: So we’re gonna do the best we can. to get through as many of these as we can.
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Steve Kessler: Here’s a question from Christian, considering the ongoing, or at least a start of reform.
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Steve Kessler: What changes do you foresee to be done to the DataQ system? That’s a good question.
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00:49:00.720 –> 00:49:10.320
Richard Goins: I just made my public comment this morning on it. And I had read what the proposed a
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00:49:10.770 –> 00:49:15.989
Richard Goins: rule was, and I suggested that they have a
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Richard Goins: independent board
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00:49:18.140 –> 00:49:24.419
Richard Goins: conduct this rather than the individual states. And that’s very much what they’re looking at, doing
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00:49:24.610 –> 00:49:30.110
Richard Goins: for DataQs that have been denied the first 2 times.
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00:49:30.150 –> 00:49:38.390
Richard Goins: and that’s the biggest change that I think is going to happen. I applaud it. I really hope they don’t back off on it because
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00:49:38.440 –> 00:49:41.469
Richard Goins: I won’t say to which States, but I know
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00:49:41.500 –> 00:49:45.970
Richard Goins: some States. The data cue goes to the inspector who conducted the inspection.
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Richard Goins: and
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00:49:48.740 –> 00:49:51.530
I believe that some inspectors
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00:49:52.050 –> 00:49:55.570
Richard Goins: sunglasses have the mirrors on the inside. So
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00:49:58.320 –> 00:50:03.360
Richard Goins: okay, I’m hoping they do that independent review board.
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00:50:04.550 –> 00:50:06.609
Steve Kessler: So it’s important to
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00:50:06.660 –> 00:50:11.870
Steve Kessler: make your voice heard. And you know, make some comments. Otherwise.
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00:50:12.120 –> 00:50:19.810
Steve Kessler: we have to help change this. If there are problems with it, it’s gonna be up to us in the industry to do something about it.
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Richard Goins: I plead with everybody listening to this to make a public comment.
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Steve Kessler: Yeah, we can’t expect change if they don’t hear from you and know what your problems are. Eric’s asking is 4 months waiting on a determination
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00:50:34.890 –> 00:50:39.990
Steve Kessler: for a crash preventability to make a decision a common time period.
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00:50:40.800 –> 00:50:45.010
Richard Goins: I’m sorry to say I think it is. I think they’re about far behind.
419
00:50:45.940 –> 00:50:54.220
Richard Goins: It’s not good. but yeah, I think that’s not out of the realm of possibility. It’s the longest I’ve ever heard.
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00:50:54.620 –> 00:50:57.370
Richard Goins: But I’ve heard 98 days.
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00:51:00.660 –> 00:51:05.199
Steve Kessler: Okay, let’s see, we got another question here
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00:51:05.280 –> 00:51:19.199
Steve Kessler: says when challenging crash data, what is best practice to present the crash to be considered non-preventable. I recently had a crash which is in this category due to a deer strike.
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Well, if you have
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00:51:24.850 –> 00:51:33.799
Richard Goins: well, I think it should just be remote, should just be considered non preventable. But if if you have evidence of the deer strike
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00:51:33.900 –> 00:51:35.900
Richard Goins: whether you have photos?
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00:51:36.120 –> 00:51:42.370
Richard Goins: If you have an accident report. If there was an officer on scene and they say, did it stated anything.
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00:51:42.500 –> 00:51:46.400
Richard Goins: Oh. I would simply just include the evidence.
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Richard Goins: Choose that
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00:51:49.110 –> 00:51:57.479
Richard Goins: scenario when you’re conducting the DataQ on the crash and submit all of that evidence.
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00:51:58.010 –> 00:52:04.239
Richard Goins: It’s gonna take a little while, but I would. I can’t imagine them not removing any gear strike.
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00:52:04.490 –> 00:52:14.410
Steve Kessler: Yeah, here’s somebody, Holly responded. Says I’ve submitted a request, showing hair in the grill, so I guess that would be the hair from the deer.
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00:52:15.120 –> 00:52:23.720
Richard Goins: I would, if well, I’ve never done them with crash, because I work for State Agency, but if I were doing that, I would consider that
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00:52:24.540 –> 00:52:27.449
Richard Goins: better evidence than just hearsay.
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Steve Kessler: Alright.
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00:52:34.800 –> 00:52:47.869
Steve Kessler: Another question from Michael says, when you request the DataQ you get your response. You are told that CVSA needs to change the rule because the officer is following their guidelines.
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00:52:47.940 –> 00:52:56.489
Steve Kessler: You contact. CVSA and they tell you they can’t get FMCSA review. This, but they agree with you. What do you do?
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00:52:58.090 –> 00:53:01.350
Richard Goins: I would take every opportunity to make a public comment.
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00:53:01.850 –> 00:53:04.029
Richard Goins: When there’s a proposed rule change.
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00:53:04.180 –> 00:53:09.860
Richard Goins: make a public comment. Contact your state administrators office regularly
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00:53:09.980 –> 00:53:12.080
Richard Goins: with these kinds of issues.
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00:53:12.300 –> 00:53:14.940
Richard Goins: I
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00:53:15.390 –> 00:53:19.980
Richard Goins: I know I’m rehashing the same thing. But this is how we change it.
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00:53:22.280 –> 00:53:35.179
Steve Kessler: Okay, here’s another question, and we’re getting close to our timeframe here. Our driver got caught in crosswinds while driving, and tilted to its side, almost flipped.
444
00:53:35.260 –> 00:53:38.689
Steve Kessler: but not completely. Yet there was damage to the truck
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00:53:38.810 –> 00:53:49.549
Steve Kessler: and was towed. But when the officer made its report. It registered points to our SMS. No ticket was given to the driver. Can we challenge it?
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00:53:55.290 –> 00:54:04.810
Richard Goins: I would like to review that by itself. If you’ve got my email, I’d like to talk to you about it. You can challenge it.
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00:54:05.000 –> 00:54:08.729
Richard Goins: But I’d I’d want more information before I
448
00:54:09.290 –> 00:54:10.739
Richard Goins: responded to that.
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00:54:12.060 –> 00:54:15.929
Steve Kessler: Yeah, I put, I just put the email up here on the screen
450
00:54:16.060 –> 00:54:19.549
Steve Kessler: few more minutes. It says,
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00:54:20.760 –> 00:54:29.209
Steve Kessler: once the 2 year timeframe expires and it falls off the carriers MC does the safety score go up?
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00:54:30.070 –> 00:54:32.200
Richard Goins: Yes, heard improves.
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00:54:33.240 –> 00:54:37.280
Richard Goins: It should affect the inspection selection score
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00:54:37.490 –> 00:54:39.540
Richard Goins: and
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00:54:40.060 –> 00:54:43.229
Richard Goins: any other thing adjudicated within your SMS profile.
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00:54:45.690 –> 00:54:51.399
Richard Goins: and it will lower your if it was not a service violation, it should also lower your out of service rate.
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00:54:53.250 –> 00:54:54.000
Steve Kessler: Okay?
458
00:54:54.470 –> 00:54:59.270
Steve Kessler: Here’s another question. Can an officer cite a company
459
00:54:59.340 –> 00:55:07.049
Steve Kessler: because of refur temperature fluctuation when the bill of lading has a specific temperature
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00:55:11.340 –> 00:55:16.729
unless it’s a hazardous material. I don’t see. I don’t know of anything within the regulations
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00:55:16.840 –> 00:55:22.589
Richard Goins: that provides that kind of authority, and I would want to see the exact regulation that they cited.
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00:55:22.750 –> 00:55:27.229
Richard Goins: If they recited if they cited something like
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00:55:28.230 –> 00:55:38.389
Richard Goins: For instance, there’s a 396 violation that says that has to do with save operation. If they use something that covers a bunch of area that isn’t specific.
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00:55:38.570 –> 00:55:40.780
Richard Goins: I would definitely dispute that.
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00:55:43.540 –> 00:55:57.270
Steve Kessler: Okay, great. Here’s a another question. when an investigation is done. There’s generally 2 parts. There’s the report, and also the notes
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00:55:57.280 –> 00:55:58.940
Steve Kessler: from the officer.
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00:55:59.030 –> 00:56:03.050
Steve Kessler: What do I do if I don’t get the notes
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00:56:04.060 –> 00:56:05.420
Steve Kessler: or a?
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00:56:05.530 –> 00:56:09.199
Richard Goins: Generally speaking, if you’re if you’re referring to a truck inspection.
470
00:56:09.390 –> 00:56:14.510
Richard Goins: the notes, they’re likely not going to provide them to you.
471
00:56:14.560 –> 00:56:18.379
Richard Goins: or they’ll be resistant to do so unless you file a FOIA request.
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00:56:19.130 –> 00:56:22.409
Steve Kessler: So you’d have to use a FOIA request in order to get those.
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00:56:23.100 –> 00:56:24.210
Richard Goins: Absolutely.
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00:56:24.780 –> 00:56:37.389
Richard Goins: That’s interesting. Okay, within the regulations. And within 385, I have not seen anything that says that they have to provide those notes. I used to believe that they did have to.
475
00:56:37.630 –> 00:56:42.250
Richard Goins: I looked it up, and the regulation that I was reviewing.
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00:56:43.550 –> 00:56:54.349
Richard Goins: I mean ultimately, if you want them, you can get them. But you’re gonna have. Unfortunately. they’re gonna make you follow that route.
477
00:56:56.560 –> 00:56:58.220
Steve Kessler: Okay? Alright.
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00:56:58.720 –> 00:57:00.450
Steve Kessler: Let’s see
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00:57:01.220 –> 00:57:08.140
Steve Kessler: somebody asked, how do you request the notes? Is there? You’ve you’ve said a couple of times here about
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00:57:08.260 –> 00:57:09.330
Steve Kessler: a
481
00:57:09.830 –> 00:57:13.339
Steve Kessler: commenting is, where do they go to do that
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00:57:13.410 –> 00:57:17.550
Steve Kessler: is that one of is that this Richard?
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00:57:17.990 –> 00:57:22.760
Richard Goins: So yeah. So within within a truck inspection at the end of the inspection
484
00:57:22.880 –> 00:57:35.840
Richard Goins: within the electronic database that they use, which is called ASPEN. There is a section for officer notes. and generally, unless the officer clicks the button that says, print notes, you won’t see? Em.
485
00:57:36.000 –> 00:57:45.659
Steve Kessler: okay? And where would a person go to? Make comments like we’ve talked about for the DataQ system.
486
00:57:45.700 –> 00:57:51.840
Richard Goins: Is there a website? What you want to do is go directly to the FMCSA,
487
00:57:52.380 –> 00:57:53.620
Richard Goins: website.
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00:57:53.850 –> 00:58:02.100
Richard Goins: And if you just Google FMCSA public comments, it’s gonna bring up whatever current rulemaking they’re discussing.
489
00:58:02.700 –> 00:58:14.729
Richard Goins: and it will take you to an area where there’ll be a a hyperlink. You can click on that hyperlink if you don’t see any rules that are are assigned to
490
00:58:15.180 –> 00:58:22.629
Richard Goins: the issue. You wanna talk about I would email, the State Administrators office and those
491
00:58:22.900 –> 00:58:25.780
Richard Goins: email addresses are all right
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00:58:25.940 –> 00:58:36.080
Richard Goins: within the Federal system. You can. Google, Minnesota Dot or Minnesota FMCSA State Administrator’s office. And you’ll get
493
00:58:36.360 –> 00:58:39.870
Richard Goins: the Fmca. Say, Administrator’s email there
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00:58:41.150 –> 00:58:42.930
Steve Kessler: fantastic.
495
00:58:43.670 –> 00:58:53.330
Steve Kessler: I gotta. I gotta tell you, Richard. There’s a lot of good information, and I’m sure if we run for another 2 – 3 hours there’d be this many more questions.
496
00:58:53.490 –> 00:58:56.229
Steve Kessler: Maybe we could go back and do it again.
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00:58:56.350 –> 00:59:01.849
Steve Kessler: Well, I think maybe what I may do is just set this up as a
498
00:59:01.920 –> 00:59:07.260
Steve Kessler: a panel discussion. And let people ask the experts about DataQ questions.
499
00:59:07.480 –> 00:59:13.139
Richard Goins: Let people ask questions.
500
00:59:13.410 –> 00:59:35.050
Steve Kessler: That’s great. So one thing I do wanna mention, I think in a lot of cases a lot of the things here we’ve talked to talked about, Richard. You know, having some training available for your drivers on. You know how to conduct and what to do when they are being expected, or certainly at scene of an accident.
501
00:59:35.740 –> 01:00:05.700
Steve Kessler: and training those people in your company that are responsible to do these DataQs to get as much knowledge as you possibly can. And having said that a lot of you probably know that we provide a learning management system that could help you make that training possible. And I was just gonna throw this out here, if any of you would like for us to provide you with a little demo of our service.
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01:00:05.750 –> 01:00:16.510
Steve Kessler: We would be happy to do that and help you out. So Richard. Great information. Thank you so much
503
01:00:16.700 –> 01:00:32.560
Steve Kessler: sadly we’re running out of time here, but I really appreciate your input. And I am going to get back with you and see if we can put together a a panel of people to have a really good discussion and get a lot of folks questions answered.
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01:00:33.000 –> 01:00:34.010
Richard Goins: Sounds good.
505
01:00:34.270 –> 01:00:38.069
Steve Kessler: Appreciate it very much. Thank you all very much for joining us.
506
01:00:38.090 –> 01:00:48.990
Steve Kessler: We hope that you can join us again. on our next webinar. By the way, I want you to write this one day down on November the seventh.
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01:00:49.120 –> 01:00:55.720
Steve Kessler: I believe it’s at 2 pm. And you all get invitations. We’re gonna have Rebecca Brewster
508
01:00:55.770 –> 01:01:21.309
Steve Kessler: from ATRI is gonna present the top 10 industry issues which were just recently presented at the ATA MCE conference. So look for that that invitation, and I hope that you can join us on a next webinar. Richard. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it, and everybody be safe out there. Thank you all for joining us.
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Richard Goins: Have a good day.
510
01:01:22.620 –> 01:01:23.689
Steve Kessler: Thank you.
Infinit-I’s Top Takeaways
This webinar led by Steve Kessler discusses the DataQ system, a tool for transportation companies to challenge the information held by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) that they believe could be incomplete or incorrect. Steve emphasizes the importance of the DataQ system and shares his experiences with its use among different companies.
Main Points
- Steve introduces the Infinit-I Workforce Solutions, a company dedicated to empowering and streamlining safety programs for transportation companies. The system offers a learning management system with about 850 training videos that automates, tracks, and documents all aspects of training.
- Richard Goins, an industry veteran with over 30 years of experience as a driver, fleet manager, and trainer, shares his insights on the DataQ system. Richard spent 10 years with the Oregon Department of Transportation as an investigator and adjudicator of DataQs.
- Richard explains the purpose of the DataQ system, which provides industry partners the opportunity to dispute whether a violation was written within policy. He stresses the importance of not challenging every single violation and focusing on correcting errors instead.
- Richard advises carriers to remember their audience when presenting their facts per request or review. The individual reviewing the DataQ is likely to be a long-term officer who has conducted thousands of truck inspections and manages dozens of officers.
The webinar offers valuable insights into the use of the DataQ system for transportation companies. It emphasizes the importance of understanding how the system works, when to use it, and how to effectively communicate with reviewers. These insights can help companies navigate the FMCSA regulations and maintain a strong safety record.
FAQs
What is the ASPEN system?
The ASPEN system is the electronic database used by officers to log truck inspections. It includes a section for officer notes.
What is the DataQ system?
The DataQ system is a way to challenge and correct information related to your safety data, including inspection and crash reports, that you believe is incorrect. Click the following resources for more information on how to navigate the DataQ system and we have a guide to disputing DataQs.
How can I get officer notes from a truck inspection?
Typically, officer notes from a truck inspection are not provided unless the officer chooses to print them. If you want the notes, you may need to file a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request.
How can I submit public comments to the FMCSA?
You can submit public comments to the FMCSA by going to the FMCSA website and searching for “public comments.” This will bring you to the current rulemaking discussions where you can submit your comments.
What happens when the 2-year timeframe for an issue expires?
Once the 2-year timeframe expires and it falls off your MC (Motor Carrier), your safety score should improve as it will affect your inspection selection score and any other thing adjudicated within your SMS profile.
How can I challenge a citation given to my company due to reefer temperature fluctuation?
To challenge a citation, you’ll need to review the exact regulation that was cited. If it’s a general regulation that covers a lot of area without being specific to your situation, then it could be worth disputing.
How do I present a crash to be considered non-preventable in the DataQ system?
To present a crash to be considered non-preventable, you should include any evidence you have of the incident (e.g., photos, accident reports) when conducting the DataQ. Click the following resources for more information on how to navigate the DataQ system and we have a guide to disputing DataQs.
How can I get changes made to the DataQ system?
To get changes made to the DataQ system, it’s recommended to make public comments when there’s a proposed rule change, contact your state administrators office regularly with these types of issues, and make your voice heard within the industry. Click the following resources for more information on how to navigate the DataQ system and we have a guide to disputing DataQs.
Is 4 months a common time period to wait for a crash preventability determination?
Unfortunately, it seems that a 4-month waiting period is not out of the realm of possibility due to backlog in the system.
What should I do if I don‘t receive the officer’s notes from an investigation?
If you don’t receive the officer’s notes from an investigation, you might need to file a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request to obtain those notes.
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