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Trucking Business Tidbit – Debt is Evil Because… Part 2 of 2
Thursday, March 11, 2010
posted by 18 Wheeler 12:05 AM
Hello, Fellow Drivers, Today I want to finish up with this two-part blog about debt. For all the drivers that want to start a trucking business or want to prosper even more in their present trucking business, here are some more tips from Dan Kennedy’s book, “Wealth Attraction For Entrepreneurs”.
Wealth Magnet 19 – Independence
Debt is EVIL because…
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Every dollar you being in is instantly diminished in value by its need to contribute to servicing your debt.
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It compels you to do things you would otherwise not do. Debt produces need. Need is completely counter-productive.
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It leaves you vulnerable to Short-term competitive or marketplace challenges,, economic slumps, aberrant events (e.g. 9/11), etc. that you might otherwise painlessly withstand.
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It is habit-forming. it is easy to get good at juggling debt, comfortable living in debt. You can get so good at survival skills that they are in the way of developing success skills.
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It is a source of worry, anxiety, and frustration that interferes with wealth attractions, productivity , and even physical health.
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It lengthens the time required to get to your Financial Independence Number, sufficient assets and investments that you never need work or earn another dollar for the rest of your life.
Everybody needs to be cautious of need. After all, if you ask most people why they go to work in the morning, they say, “to pay bills.” Very high income people say the same thing. And they are still slaves, just better dressed, because they are working for debt.
Entrepreneurs need to be especially cautious of expanding need by piling on employees, infrastructure, overhead, people, places, and things. bigger is not necessarily better. More gross may not only produce less net but also may move you from master to slave before you realize it.
Whether through debt-reduced or debt-free living, other strategies, psychological techniques, or all of the these things, I can assure you that the less you need the next deal, the next sale, the next client, or the next dollar, the easier it will be to attract all the deals, sales, clients, and dollars you could ever desire or imagine, times ten.
I hope you enjoyed the blog and that you come away with useful information for you trucking business. Remember to be sage out there!
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Hello Fellow Drivers,
Let’s talk about the changes that the FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) is putting into place for those in the trucking business. If you have trucking authority or want to get trucking authority, then this article is a MUST read. The article came from a quarterly supplement from J.J. Keller & Associates. Remember to be safe out there.
WHAT’S ALL THE BUZZ ABOUT CSA 2010?
If you have not yet heard about CSA 2010, it’s time to lend an ear to the buzz! This is a new enforcement initiative planned for rollout in mid-2010. CSA – Comprehensive Safety Analysis – is about the FMCSA taking a closer look at more motor carrier data and bringing a problem area to the carrier’s attention sooner than under the old system. If the carrier doesn’t respond to initial interventions, more serious interventions will result.
KEY PHRASES TO PAY ATTENTION TO IN THE ABOVE PARAGRAPH ARE closer look…more data…carrier’s attention sooner. FMCSA’s objective with this approach is to become more proactive with lowering crash risk.
A CLOSER LOOK
The closer look phrase means carrier and driver data will be categorized more narrowly – into seven Behavioral Analysis Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) instead of the four broad Safety Evaluation Areas (SEAs) under the current system. More of the data will come to the surface under seven categories than under four categories.
MORE DATE
A big difference between the current data measuring system (SafeStat) and the new Safety Measurement System, or SMS, is that ALL safety-based violations will be entered into the system – not just out-of-service violations. This, of course, results in more data becoming subject to review. All safety violations listed on a Roadside Inspection Report will become part of the carrier’s data, and be weighted according to the seventy of the violation and the currency of the inspection (violations from more recent inspections will be weighted more heavily).
Carriers’ data will stay in the SMS for 24 months and drivers’ date will stay for 36 months.
CARRIER’S ATTENTION SOON
Under the new initiative, enforcement will have more methods than just the compliance review for dealing with a motor carrier. Poor performance in any one of the BASIC areas could result in an intervention from law enforcement – ranging from a warning letter to a rquest for documents, to getting an appointment to discuss the problem area at a DOT office, to getting a compliance visit froom the DOT. More intervention options will allow enforcement to bring a problem area to a carrier’s attention sooner.
HOW CAN YOU PREPARE FOR CSA 2010?
There are some things you can do now to help assure a good outcome for your company under CSA 2010.
* Review your Carrier Profile information,(MCS-150 on the FMCSA website), monitor crash and inspection report data that get attributed to your company. Keep your profile information up to date and challenge crash and inspection data that is incorrect. Us the FMCSA’s “DataQ’s” tool to have incorrect data fixed so it doesn;t negatively affect you.
* Educate your drivers on the CSA 2010 initiative. Emphasize the greater impact that roadside inspection results will have, not only on your record, but on your drivers’ records too. Driver violations and crash data will also be scored in a driver database.
* Develop radside inpsection and corrective action policies. Put procedures in place for drivers to report roadside inspection results to you immediatly and for transmitting the Roadside Inspection Report. Set up procedures for correcting problem areas discovered during roadside inspections. Do the same for any kind of accident, no matter how minor.
The bottom line is that, under the new system, enforcement agencies will tract more data, have more contact with motor carrers, and will have more intervention tools available to use.
Trucking Authority – The FMCSA Goes High Tech – Part 1 of 3
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
posted by 18 Wheeler 10:26 AM
Hello, Fellow, Drivers! I hope you are moving along with holiday plans that you’re looking forward to. I saw this article in the latest issue of Land Lind Magazine by OOIDA, of which I’m a member. It seems that in 2010 to get trucking authority you will have to be aware of these new high tech additions to the FMCSA’s enforcement of trucking authority compliance. I want to share this article in three parts. So for the next two days, I will be posting another part of this lengthy article on my blog.
I also wanted to ask my faithful readers if they had any specific topics that they would like to see covered here on this site. Please feel free to email me at truckersandtravelers@gmail.com. I welcome your questions and comments. The goal with this blog site is to have a place for drivers to find valuable information that will help with your trucking business success. Enjoy the read and remember to be safe out there!
December 2009/January 2010
Cover story:FMCSA takes enforcement to the digital age in 2010
By Jami Jones
Senior editor
With technology morphing the way we live our lives at warp speed, it’s no big surprise that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has decided to go high-tech with its compliance enforcement.
Currently, the odds of being hit with any substantive on-site compliance review are somewhere between slim and none. Because of the lack of staffing and the cumbersome nature of plowing through mountains of paperwork, each year FMCSA officials are able to conduct compliance reviews on fewer than 2 percent of the motor carriers in the U.S.
Enter the technology knight on a white horse – CSA 2010 – short for Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010.
Back in 2004, FMCSA officials started developing a data-driven system of analyzing all inspection reports on motor carriers and drivers to identify trends of non-compliance.
The mega database system, with all of its algorithms and programs, will spit out monthly safety ratings for companies and drivers. Those who crop up with numerous violations – ranging from the not-so-serious to out-of-service – will pop up on FMCSA’s compliance radar.
That doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get a full-blown on-site compliance review. Depending on the severity of the rating, you could get anything from a letter telling you to straighten up your act to the dreaded on-site review that likens to an IRS audit.
Companies will have a chance to get it together and report back to FMCSA to keep a good safety fitness rating. There are three proposed fitness ratings in the 2010 program: “unfit,” “marginal” and “continue to operate.”
The overall concept is simple enough but, as with anything, the devil is in the details – and with CSA 2010, there are a ton of details.
The program can be broken down into the data, the math behind the number, enforcement, safety fitness determinations, and the possible hiccups that motor carriers and truckers could encounter along the way.
The following is the first in a series of articles that will explain the ins and outs of the new enforcement program bearing down on the trucking industry.
The data
It seems like nowadays everywhere you turn, some group, business or government entity is collecting data on you.
Credit agencies record your every financial move. Grocery stores track your every purchase with their “shopper cards.” And now FMCSA is going to collect every single mark made on your inspection reports – for both the company and the driver – and from crash reports.
FMCSA will calculate the safety performance of motor carriers – which includes owner-operators running under their own authority – based on seven Behavioral Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories. Those seven categories, dubbed BASICs, and the federal regulations they relate to are:
Unsafe driving (Parts 392 and 397);
Fatigued driving (Parts 392 and 395);
Driver fitness (Parts 383 and 391);
Controlled substances/alcohol
(Parts 382 and 392);
Vehicle maintenance (Parts 393
and 396);
Cargo related (Parts 392, 393, 397
and hazmat); and
Crash indicator.
Data from those seven areas will be collected from inspections and crash reports.
Things will change dramatically in how information from inspection reports is handled. While the current system only calculates a compliance rating based on “out-of-service” and moving violations, that won’t be the case with CSA 2010. All violations included on inspections will be entered and considered– no matter whether it was an out-of-service violation or not.
Another significant change from the current enforcement system is that FMCSA is aiming to hold companies and drivers equally accountable for their roles in safety and performance. So CSA 2010 will also be collecting data on individual drivers.
Records on individual drivers will contain data gleaned from inspection and incident reports. The data will follow the driver no matter how many companies he or she works for.
Access to a driver’s profile will not be restricted to safety inspectors, who will have roadside access to those records. Motor carriers are also going to be allowed to review a driver’s record in the pre-employment screening process. That access will start in December.
FMCSA’s goal with the new driver data collection is to target enforcement on individual drivers with serious violations, such as driving while disqualified, driving without a CDL, making a false entry on a medical certificate, and chronic hours-of-service violations.
The system will hold 24 months of citation and violation data on motor carriers and 36 months for drivers.
All of this data will be housed and maintained by a third-party vendor, not FMCSA. NIC Technologies based in Olathe, KS, was awarded the contract in mid-October.
According to FMCSA, if a motor carrier wants to review a driver profile, they must obtain a privacy release from the driver. Drivers who want to review their own profile must contact the third party vendor or file a Freedom of Information Act request with FMCSA.
NIC’s press release announcing the awarding of the contract stated that the company anticipates charging motor carriers a subscription fee of $100 per year for access to driver profiles and a $10 transaction fee for each record pulled. Drivers will not be charged the annual subscription fee; however, additional fees will be charged for fax or mail requests.
As we speak, the national average for diesel fuel prices is hovering around $2.50 a gallon. Just a year ago, that average was set at a staggering $4.50 a gallon. To trucking companies, these significantly lowered fuel prices mean a higher profit margin and more resources freed up to offer more trucking jobs. To an entrepreneur considering the trucking business as a career path, these numbers seem inviting indeed.
Low fuel prices lead to greater potential for economic gain, but they also allow upstart trucking companies to grow their business fast. After all, if you can keep your fuel budget low it follows that you’ll have money left over to hire new employees and purchase state-of-the-art trucks and equipment. Fuel prices tend to fall even more as summer shifts into autumn, which makes this an opportune time to enter the industry.