As my pastor said in Church this past Sunday, "What are we waiting for?" In other words, don’t wait until doomsday to get your house in order. If you aren't in compliance with CSA now, take advantage of the winter slowdown to get there. Take 1 step this week to move towards compliance before you get hit. Here are few easy ways to save your company from racking up points. (All citations below to Code of Federal Regulations.)
Pull your drivers’ personnel files and double check everything is up to date:
Medical certificate not up to date – 1 point (391.41(b)(3))
No double-triple endorsement on the CDL – 3 points (383.93)
Operating without a valid CDL -- 3 points (383.23(a)(2))
Allowing driver to operate with a suspended or revoked CDL – 6 points (383.37(a))
Allowing driver under 21 years of ago drive interstate – 6 points (391.11(b)(1))
Hold a safety meeting and remind drivers about necessary details about their log books including:
Failure to sign the log book – 2 points (395.8(d)(5))
Failure to retain prior 7 days of log book – 5 points (395.8)
Hours of service violations – 7 points (various)
Failure to list motor carrier name in log – 2 points (395.8(f)(6))
Remind drivers that safety is priority one:
Failure to wear seatbelt – 1 point (393.16)
Allowing an unauthorized passenger aboard – 1 point (392.60)
Smoking within 25 feet of a HM (hazardous material) vehicle – 1 point (397.13)
As you can see, some of these are heavily weighted, but so easy to prevent. Take the time now to protect your companies, your drivers, and yourself from a potential doomsday.