Thursday, January 14, 2010
You can check truck brakes,Now easily
A in exspensive truck brake adjustement guide. 5 minutes and install it on your truck.
There is a great little tool that is on the market. Maybe a little pricey but it is worth having on your truck It can pay for itself, saving you, from one ticket.
Simply put, these easy to install brake adjuster indicators tell you within a minute wheather your brakes are out of Service.
What did you say: You do not need this because you have automatic self adjusting slacks. Well I hate to break the news to you but automatic slacks can fail and be out of adjustment like manuel slack adjusters.
Most drivers probably do not know that. The DOT FMCSA Regulations require vehicles to be equipped with brake adjustment indicators that conform to the requirements of Federal Commercial Vehicle Standard 121.
This indicator meets that requirement!and you can get a discount on ordering
for your fleet.
The DOT is not going away anytime soon, and neither is out of service violation. So why worry about out of service ticket when this little item can keep you out of trouble and safe at the same time.
This also gives you something to go by.If the DOT is ins question about your brake adjustment you can show them quickly the distance that the rod moves just by putting on the parking brake.
So it does not hurt to have a little gauge to keep you from an out of service ticket.
More importantly keeping you safe on the road
For More
information Click here Get a discount on this Brake Inspection Guide.
http://edgeolite.com/more-info.htm
Now watch this video below,
Remember Edgeolite is always trying to keep you informed with new device coming to market . That can make your job a little easier
I Also wanted to show you this "SELF ADJUSTING SLACK ADJUSTERS VIDEO"So oyu can understand how they work. THEY ARE NOT SUPPOSE TO BE ADJUSTED IF THE TOOL SAYS YOUR BRAKES ARE OUT OF ADJUSTMENT. CHANCES ARE THE AUTOMOTAIC SLACK ADJUSTERS ARE BAD.
Ontario CAL: TA truck stop/ gang stalking CA style
Becuz there is little remote influence here guess what you get? You got it- lots of in person real time gang stalking from live human beings. Good old fashioned perpdom all over again. Its like the bad old days during the Bush administration when it was like this everywhere a TI went and you couldnt get the hell away from it.
The funny thing about that is most TIs who made it through that era are now so battle ready that it has little effect. I also believe that the extreme torturous kind of remote influence is something that is no longer used as it was during Bush and the height of the war. I havent tested this theory becuz I stay out of targeting 'hot spots' like Boston or all of MA, NY and St Louis MO...places I know the remote influence is so severe each and every time I return there, that the only goal of those places seems to be to kill the Target or get them institutionalized.
There is a major truck stop in Ontario CA. First of all you will not get a ride especially south or north as most people here are going east. No one will pick up hitchers here because hitchers here tend to be hijackers and many truckers have been robbed and killed giving rides to people. Plus your dealing with new school morons and the new generation of person who once they here a story about crime they parrot it all over the place to inject drama into thier veins Jerry Springer style. If truckers had this thin skin in the old days there wouldnt be any more truckers.
I am tired of people thinking that the world has changed so much..guess what geniuses? BAD THINGS HAPPENED IN THE OLD DAYS BUT THERE WAS NO NEWS SERVICE FAST ENOUGH OR DETAILED ENOUGH IN INFO TO TELL YOUR ISOLATED SORRY ASSES ABOUT IT, ALSO NO INFO HIGHWAY(INTERNET). This is why at heart I am an elitist that thinks there should be an IQ test to use the internet. So the public gets there hands on the www and realizes how life really works and all of a sudden the world is a bad place "in the day and age we live in". WTF? All the old school truckers just take one look at me and say "Yeah but you dont look dangerous no one is worried about you". What these guys have to understand is that most people nowadays get into trucking becuz ITS NOT AS HARD AS IT WAS IN THE OLD DAYS AND DOESNT TAKE THE INTUITON, BALLS, GRIT OR KNOW HOW IT DID YEARS AGO. Old timer travelers and truckers talk about travel just like it has always been "just scope em out".
It is smart and just easier to not give someone a ride if its an area truckers are getting hijacked out of but as one trucker said "alot of it (the way people think nowadays) is just paranoia". But induced paranoia can be so powerful it can change the minds of men (and wmn) to become thier reality.
If you are a targeted individual you have little choice but to travel from place to place and stay on the run. Its actually worse than being a fugitive due to the fact that you never will get caught and placed in jail and then its finally over. The only place this system wants you is in a pine box or institutionalized where you will most llikely be tortured further. This is why so many people do not want to believe targeted individuals stories and believe thier circumstances are mental illness or delusion.
They honestly believe that in the USA or any other democracy such a thing would not happen and they would be able to spot 'bad people' ..wouldnt they? Use your info highway and look up all the atrocities that have come before as well as human experimentation. If you lived during COINTELPRO or MKUltra when these things were overtly being done you probably wouldnt have known the people involved on sight UNLESS YOU WERE INVOLVED or trained to look for such things. Just becuz its talked about in a historical context as if we can now see it clearly does not mean it was allowed to be seen when is was occuring. That would make it a pretty sh*tty covert operation.
Anyway stay away from this truck stop unless you are with someone and leaving with them or meeting someone there. The cops are cool if they find out you wandered into the area and an uninformed traveler. The TA west is strict and wont let you back on the lot once your ride leaves. TA east is a bit more open to people walking on the lot if you get stuck with no ride you cant sit in overnight. The cops are the least of your worries here and dont seem to be at all into the gang stalking. They have that way that Cali cops have where they are pleasant as long as your story is honest and dont piss them off. They dont seem to be trying to prove anything like back east..I have heard bad things about LA but I stay the f*ck out of LA as my ex is there and I want all my detractors to understand that he does exist. Also LA , with 85000 homeless seems like a baaad place to be a vagrant. The cops will stop you and check you out if you look at all scruffy or houseless, like with a backpack but like I said they are cool about it.
The problem with this area is gang stalking...lots of it. There are truckers in on it, and it will become known that there is a targeted person around looking for a ride. Be prepared to find another way out of here as you will have to deal with smirks and other run of the mill bullshit to make you feel bad about your situation. Be prepared for the place to be covered with the ability to know where you are every moment- such as if ypou do find a trucker to hang with and you look out the small window of the sleeper, you will see a greybeard look right at you and point and other hand signals acknowledging that the system knows where you are. Then when you go inside the truck stop BE PREPARED FOR SUBTLE BUT EFFECTIVE GANG STALKING TACTICS that are frighteningly effective due to being tailored to your specific situation with attention to detail and the ability to not be detected by anyone but the Target.
This is gaslighting central and is one of those places that will drive YOU nuts while anyone you are with will not see a damn thing. We are talking about down to the music played on the radio in the bathroom and the timing of its airing. People coming into the bathroom with very subtle mind games that you have to be a seasoned TI to have lived through and now know how to sut out.
Bring earphones.
This says something about this truck stop. Most other truck stops are not this perp infultrated or not as obvious and do not pay attention to such detail. its like this area is infultrated and covered so well that any TI can be targeted with harassment tailored down to the finest detail. I wonder why this is...well, its a very Asian area, So Cal and this style reminds me of Oriental subtlety. An Asian did stop and stare me down and nod in gang stalker acknowledgement in the very beginning. It could be thier mafia runs this area I dont know.
I was informed that the Hells Angels allegedly runs this stop and I was never harassed before with my driver friends going through there but as a traveler with no ride perhaps the rules change I dont know.
There is a Greyhound station just north of there at 888 South Indian Hill Blvd Claremont, CA 909-624-4564. There are no homeless shelters and the cops will not drive you somewhere safe. If you have a bit of cash there is a motel there for 50 a night.
CA is notoriously paranoid about travelers anyway. I have never been able to navigate effectively through California...perhaps if you are from here you understand how it works. Strangely I have found the cops to be the least involved in gang stalking in an overt manner while in marked cars in uniform..but this is the land of out of work actors and people who live to be seen as 'gangsta' or dont know any other mentality.
I believe if the cops are involved it is done very well here via outsourcing or like in other cities undercovers do the harassment so no badges become tarnished with direct association.
Unlike Boston or NY city, the police in many parts of the US dont wish to be feared as psychopathic thugs who are equal to thier organized crime counterparts. But Boston, being Irish or Italian Catholic, Jewish and old money WASP, is the absolute height of neurosis and funcional insanity in the USA anyway.
As far as gang stalking goes I have yet to experience So Cal style. I was in Freemont during the beginning campaign when most gang stalking is very overt on a TI due to the fact that he person doesnt understand what is happening- that was in Freemont CA and it sucked believe me. A shelter and its residents were involved as well as the local church across the street that gave out food. This is where there was directed conversation about "the victim witness thing" and them not wanting to harbor me due to someone blaming them for helping me (still cant figure that out). This is also where that old man giving out food at the church across the street sat down with me for an interview to get food and instead used it to arrogantly f*ck with me, saying things like " Sooo, Rachel what are you doing in Freemont? Running from the FBI?" It was so great the next day when a white limo pulled into the church lot and then left after someone visited them, and upon our next meeting the same old man looked like he was pissing himself in adult diapers out of fear. Either I do indeed "have friends" as one bitch working at WOMENS LUNCH PLACE hissed in my face, or he was blowing the operation by being too overt and thus tipping off the TI, thus breaking the brainwashing 'spell'. I have seen people end up dead under mysterious and very fishy circumstances, for simply saying something that wakes the TI up our of the brainwash- something that is too close of a clue that allows the Target to see fully into the whole operation. DEAD like within days.
So anyway there you have it. Youll get messed with and you wont get a damn ride. So stay out of Ontario CAL USA if you are trying to get a ride.
The funny thing about that is most TIs who made it through that era are now so battle ready that it has little effect. I also believe that the extreme torturous kind of remote influence is something that is no longer used as it was during Bush and the height of the war. I havent tested this theory becuz I stay out of targeting 'hot spots' like Boston or all of MA, NY and St Louis MO...places I know the remote influence is so severe each and every time I return there, that the only goal of those places seems to be to kill the Target or get them institutionalized.
There is a major truck stop in Ontario CA. First of all you will not get a ride especially south or north as most people here are going east. No one will pick up hitchers here because hitchers here tend to be hijackers and many truckers have been robbed and killed giving rides to people. Plus your dealing with new school morons and the new generation of person who once they here a story about crime they parrot it all over the place to inject drama into thier veins Jerry Springer style. If truckers had this thin skin in the old days there wouldnt be any more truckers.
I am tired of people thinking that the world has changed so much..guess what geniuses? BAD THINGS HAPPENED IN THE OLD DAYS BUT THERE WAS NO NEWS SERVICE FAST ENOUGH OR DETAILED ENOUGH IN INFO TO TELL YOUR ISOLATED SORRY ASSES ABOUT IT, ALSO NO INFO HIGHWAY(INTERNET). This is why at heart I am an elitist that thinks there should be an IQ test to use the internet. So the public gets there hands on the www and realizes how life really works and all of a sudden the world is a bad place "in the day and age we live in". WTF? All the old school truckers just take one look at me and say "Yeah but you dont look dangerous no one is worried about you". What these guys have to understand is that most people nowadays get into trucking becuz ITS NOT AS HARD AS IT WAS IN THE OLD DAYS AND DOESNT TAKE THE INTUITON, BALLS, GRIT OR KNOW HOW IT DID YEARS AGO. Old timer travelers and truckers talk about travel just like it has always been "just scope em out".
It is smart and just easier to not give someone a ride if its an area truckers are getting hijacked out of but as one trucker said "alot of it (the way people think nowadays) is just paranoia". But induced paranoia can be so powerful it can change the minds of men (and wmn) to become thier reality.
If you are a targeted individual you have little choice but to travel from place to place and stay on the run. Its actually worse than being a fugitive due to the fact that you never will get caught and placed in jail and then its finally over. The only place this system wants you is in a pine box or institutionalized where you will most llikely be tortured further. This is why so many people do not want to believe targeted individuals stories and believe thier circumstances are mental illness or delusion.
They honestly believe that in the USA or any other democracy such a thing would not happen and they would be able to spot 'bad people' ..wouldnt they? Use your info highway and look up all the atrocities that have come before as well as human experimentation. If you lived during COINTELPRO or MKUltra when these things were overtly being done you probably wouldnt have known the people involved on sight UNLESS YOU WERE INVOLVED or trained to look for such things. Just becuz its talked about in a historical context as if we can now see it clearly does not mean it was allowed to be seen when is was occuring. That would make it a pretty sh*tty covert operation.
Anyway stay away from this truck stop unless you are with someone and leaving with them or meeting someone there. The cops are cool if they find out you wandered into the area and an uninformed traveler. The TA west is strict and wont let you back on the lot once your ride leaves. TA east is a bit more open to people walking on the lot if you get stuck with no ride you cant sit in overnight. The cops are the least of your worries here and dont seem to be at all into the gang stalking. They have that way that Cali cops have where they are pleasant as long as your story is honest and dont piss them off. They dont seem to be trying to prove anything like back east..I have heard bad things about LA but I stay the f*ck out of LA as my ex is there and I want all my detractors to understand that he does exist. Also LA , with 85000 homeless seems like a baaad place to be a vagrant. The cops will stop you and check you out if you look at all scruffy or houseless, like with a backpack but like I said they are cool about it.
The problem with this area is gang stalking...lots of it. There are truckers in on it, and it will become known that there is a targeted person around looking for a ride. Be prepared to find another way out of here as you will have to deal with smirks and other run of the mill bullshit to make you feel bad about your situation. Be prepared for the place to be covered with the ability to know where you are every moment- such as if ypou do find a trucker to hang with and you look out the small window of the sleeper, you will see a greybeard look right at you and point and other hand signals acknowledging that the system knows where you are. Then when you go inside the truck stop BE PREPARED FOR SUBTLE BUT EFFECTIVE GANG STALKING TACTICS that are frighteningly effective due to being tailored to your specific situation with attention to detail and the ability to not be detected by anyone but the Target.
This is gaslighting central and is one of those places that will drive YOU nuts while anyone you are with will not see a damn thing. We are talking about down to the music played on the radio in the bathroom and the timing of its airing. People coming into the bathroom with very subtle mind games that you have to be a seasoned TI to have lived through and now know how to sut out.
Bring earphones.
This says something about this truck stop. Most other truck stops are not this perp infultrated or not as obvious and do not pay attention to such detail. its like this area is infultrated and covered so well that any TI can be targeted with harassment tailored down to the finest detail. I wonder why this is...well, its a very Asian area, So Cal and this style reminds me of Oriental subtlety. An Asian did stop and stare me down and nod in gang stalker acknowledgement in the very beginning. It could be thier mafia runs this area I dont know.
I was informed that the Hells Angels allegedly runs this stop and I was never harassed before with my driver friends going through there but as a traveler with no ride perhaps the rules change I dont know.
There is a Greyhound station just north of there at 888 South Indian Hill Blvd Claremont, CA 909-624-4564. There are no homeless shelters and the cops will not drive you somewhere safe. If you have a bit of cash there is a motel there for 50 a night.
CA is notoriously paranoid about travelers anyway. I have never been able to navigate effectively through California...perhaps if you are from here you understand how it works. Strangely I have found the cops to be the least involved in gang stalking in an overt manner while in marked cars in uniform..but this is the land of out of work actors and people who live to be seen as 'gangsta' or dont know any other mentality.
I believe if the cops are involved it is done very well here via outsourcing or like in other cities undercovers do the harassment so no badges become tarnished with direct association.
Unlike Boston or NY city, the police in many parts of the US dont wish to be feared as psychopathic thugs who are equal to thier organized crime counterparts. But Boston, being Irish or Italian Catholic, Jewish and old money WASP, is the absolute height of neurosis and funcional insanity in the USA anyway.
As far as gang stalking goes I have yet to experience So Cal style. I was in Freemont during the beginning campaign when most gang stalking is very overt on a TI due to the fact that he person doesnt understand what is happening- that was in Freemont CA and it sucked believe me. A shelter and its residents were involved as well as the local church across the street that gave out food. This is where there was directed conversation about "the victim witness thing" and them not wanting to harbor me due to someone blaming them for helping me (still cant figure that out). This is also where that old man giving out food at the church across the street sat down with me for an interview to get food and instead used it to arrogantly f*ck with me, saying things like " Sooo, Rachel what are you doing in Freemont? Running from the FBI?" It was so great the next day when a white limo pulled into the church lot and then left after someone visited them, and upon our next meeting the same old man looked like he was pissing himself in adult diapers out of fear. Either I do indeed "have friends" as one bitch working at WOMENS LUNCH PLACE hissed in my face, or he was blowing the operation by being too overt and thus tipping off the TI, thus breaking the brainwashing 'spell'. I have seen people end up dead under mysterious and very fishy circumstances, for simply saying something that wakes the TI up our of the brainwash- something that is too close of a clue that allows the Target to see fully into the whole operation. DEAD like within days.
So anyway there you have it. Youll get messed with and you wont get a damn ride. So stay out of Ontario CAL USA if you are trying to get a ride.
Do you know a truck driver?
My husband is a truck driver for a local lumber company. He has been with the company for 21 years. For the past several years he has mostly been on heavy equipment in the woods or building streets or on some sort of equipment job each day. Occasionally he will have to crawl back in a truck and haul logs if they are behind or lumber if gets behind. This company has so many trucks that it is hard for the few mechanics to keep up with the work that these trucks need to have done on them daily must less the big stuff that needs to be repaired.
Each time Danny crawls in one of these trucks he about strokes because of the stuff that is wrong with the vehicle. Until now any faulty equipment tickets, over weight tickets or any tickets that is not the drivers fault, the company had to pay the fine. As of July 2010 new federal laws are going into effect where any CDL holder who gets a ticket for anything...let me stress here anything, the driver and the company will have to pay the fine and points will be issued per violation. In July they will go back on each driver for 3 years and total up the points that he already has against him and if they have 30 points at that time they will lose their CDL. When they reach 30 points they will lose it then. It is estimated that 175,000 will lose their license in July alone. Danny has no tickets against him in the past 3 years thank goodness!
Can you imagine what the trickle down effect will be from this? I know that this will take some crappy drivers off the road but it will also take some really good drivers who are working for companies who can not or will not keep there equipment up to par. The clincher here is the fact that those points go with the driver when he leaves a company and then he can't get a job with another company either. The good drivers for the really big companies who do spend the time and money on taking care of their rigs will be OK but forget the little man again.
Also between now and July if a driver gets a new ticket the point value will triple!!!!! Danny has been trucking this week hauling pulp wood and of course he was stopped this morning by the DOT to weigh him. Thank goodness no ticket!!!!! Another driver was stopped today and was given a warning for a few different little things that he would ordinarily bring home a ticket for. This other driver will not have a job come July due to 2 different tie down violations and a couple speeding tickets with in the past 3 years anyway. Actually most of these drivers will be gone in July due to the points from overweight tickets alone. Truck drivers can't afford to pay for these tickets themselves and the companies can't afford to stay in business if they can't keep good drivers either. What is this world coming to? We need to drop to our knees and pray really hard for our country.
Please go to the CSA 2010 website and read all these stupid rules and let me know if you have someone that you are close to that this will effect.
Danny also has his own bulldozing business on the side and needs a CDL to be able to drive his own dump truck and move his equipment around.
Each time Danny crawls in one of these trucks he about strokes because of the stuff that is wrong with the vehicle. Until now any faulty equipment tickets, over weight tickets or any tickets that is not the drivers fault, the company had to pay the fine. As of July 2010 new federal laws are going into effect where any CDL holder who gets a ticket for anything...let me stress here anything, the driver and the company will have to pay the fine and points will be issued per violation. In July they will go back on each driver for 3 years and total up the points that he already has against him and if they have 30 points at that time they will lose their CDL. When they reach 30 points they will lose it then. It is estimated that 175,000 will lose their license in July alone. Danny has no tickets against him in the past 3 years thank goodness!
Can you imagine what the trickle down effect will be from this? I know that this will take some crappy drivers off the road but it will also take some really good drivers who are working for companies who can not or will not keep there equipment up to par. The clincher here is the fact that those points go with the driver when he leaves a company and then he can't get a job with another company either. The good drivers for the really big companies who do spend the time and money on taking care of their rigs will be OK but forget the little man again.
Also between now and July if a driver gets a new ticket the point value will triple!!!!! Danny has been trucking this week hauling pulp wood and of course he was stopped this morning by the DOT to weigh him. Thank goodness no ticket!!!!! Another driver was stopped today and was given a warning for a few different little things that he would ordinarily bring home a ticket for. This other driver will not have a job come July due to 2 different tie down violations and a couple speeding tickets with in the past 3 years anyway. Actually most of these drivers will be gone in July due to the points from overweight tickets alone. Truck drivers can't afford to pay for these tickets themselves and the companies can't afford to stay in business if they can't keep good drivers either. What is this world coming to? We need to drop to our knees and pray really hard for our country.
Please go to the CSA 2010 website and read all these stupid rules and let me know if you have someone that you are close to that this will effect.
Danny also has his own bulldozing business on the side and needs a CDL to be able to drive his own dump truck and move his equipment around.
Pre Assignment for Monday
We were able to stop and see family wintering in Yuma, AZ. We were able to pull the truck right up to their camper which was really nice. They took us around town and showed us what snow birds do in the winter. We attended a HUGE flea market which I had never done before. It is an amazing place. We also went and checked out the RC Airplane Airfield with which they are heavily involved with. I can see why after coming from the cold of the Midwest they enjoy their time in Yuma as much as they do. As usual though our truck drew a lot of attention and many of the neighbors stopped by for a tour of the truck and to ask a lot of questions. A few of them wanted additional information on expediting and how to get into the trucking industry. We always keep extra copies of the Expedite Now magazine to hand out in these situations. We always enjoy showing off our truck and listening to new acquaintances on their amazement at how many miles are on the truck (696,000), how many miles are on our rear tires or drive tires (331,000). We will continue south on Sunday and have heard that another one of our trucking friends is picking up a load at the same location we are, so we plan on spending the evening with them- once again proving what a fun and goofy life style we lead.
Fleet Execs Wary of the CSA 2010; System to Assign Safety Ratings
By Rip Watson and Daniel P. Bearth, Senior Reporters
January 4, 2010
Some freight executives say they are concerned that the Department of Transportation’s new Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 program – which is intended to boost carrier and driver safety – could be undermined by inaccurate data, flawed methodology and unintended commercial consequences when it begins in July.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has been working on the program commonly referred to as CSA 2010, for several years. It is designed to replace FMCSA’s existing safety rating and data collection system known as SafeStat, which includes violations information from state and federal inspectors.
FMCSA will use CSA 2010 to assign safety ratings to all carriers based on their highway performance, rather than infrequent compliance reviews that are currently done by agency inspectors and included in SafeStat.
Carriers Wary of 2010 Safety Analysis Rating System
In addition, CSA 2010 will rate the nation’s more than 3 million drivers for the first time, also using a performance-based formula. No date has yet been set for active enforcement efforts based on driver ratings. Freight executives, all of whom said they supported the program’s goals, used words like “flawed,” “a challenge,” “huge impact” and “terrible” to illustrate their concern about the effect of the new rating procedure, which incorporates questionable SafeStat data.
Data Issues
“Everything I have heard about CSA 2010 in general pleases me,” said Jeff Tucker, president of Tucker Cos., a third-party logistics company in Cherry Hill, N.J. His comments were echoed by all officials interviewed for this article, “There are certain adjustments that have to be made,” he said. “The general understanding by anyone looking at the data is that it is flawed, and most likely incomplete. It’s better than nothing, but we need states to regularly and promptly update their data. Certain states are notoriously poor at that.”
“There is a wide variability of data today,” said Don Osterberg, senior vice president of Schneider National, Green Bay, Wis. “Over time, FMCSA will have to work hard to ensure timely and accurate reporting. Will CSA 2010 make that issue worse? Definitely not.”
SafeStat has been criticized since 1999 for inaccurate and incomplete data in government reports, including one in October by DOT’s inspector general. A 2006 study commissioned by FMCSA found that just half of accidents that occurred in nine surveyed states were actually reported. Today’s SafeStat’s Web site contains a disclaimer saying the data “may produce unintended results and not be suitable for certain uses.”
FMCSA acknowledged when launching CSA 2010 that only about 2% of fleets per year get a safety rating through those compliance reviews that include on-site inspections of carriers.
FMCSA did not respond to requests for comment on the companies’ concerns, though officials in charge of implementing the program said during two webinars last month that data is becoming more accurate and the methodology will be effective.
Driver training and education will be a key focus as implementation approaches; pilot tests of the program are drawing mixed reviews, and American Trucking Associations has raised many questions about the program.
During the second half of 2010, FMCSA will begin training law enforcement officers and issuing warning letters to carriers, as well as using the new data system. Driver ratings will begin at an unspecified future date.
“The data reporting is a challenge — this is not something the states can wave along and fix quickly,” said Dave Osiecki, vice president for safety, security and operations at American Trucking Associations. Osiecki said he’s concerned about data accuracy because it is so uneven.
For example, he said, state police typically are better trained in accident investigation and reporting techniques than are local police departments, and submit more and better quality information. ATA, which supports the CSA 2010 concept, also is concerned about the formula used to create the new carrier ratings.
Data from SafeStat will be turned into a new three-tiered rating system, using a formula based on severity of violations, with the worst violations rated 10 and the mildest rated 1. The new ratings will be “continue to operate,” “marginal” and “unfit,” supplanting the current “satisfactory,” “conditionally satisfactory” and “unsatisfactory” rankings. That formula essentially will count the number and severity of infractions and divide by the number of trucks a fleet operates.
Methodology
Using the number of trucks as a basis for safety ratings is wrong, Osiecki said, because safety performance is measured by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and throughout the trucking industry on the basis of vehicle miles traveled.
Using fleets’ truck count for safety ratings “is a terrible decision,” Schneider’s Osterberg said. “It is not an effective relative measure of carrier safety.” In addition, Osiecki said, the number of trucks listed on a form that must be filed every two years isn’t likely to match the number of trucks a fleet actually has in service.
Severity ratings also are an issue. Osterberg highlighted inconsistency in rating tire defects, such as exposed ply belts that are an 8, whether the flawed tire is on a tractor’s steer axle, which is critical to safety, or on a trailer, where that defect is unlikely to cause a crash. On the other hand, potentially serious problems such as cracked wheel rims are a 2, while driving without a commercial license is a 3, he said.
Commercial Effects
“This is going to have a huge impact on the industry,” said Harry Kimball, vice president of risk management for Freymiller Inc., an Oklahoma City, trucking company. “There will be driver loss,” he said. “When the smoke clears, however, the drivers left will reap the rewards” because it probably will lead to a smaller driver pool.
Stephen Renshaw, director of safety for broker and carrier Megatrux Inc., Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., said carriers could be taken off the road because a failure to carry proof of preventive maintenance is a 10. That score can put a cash-squeezed owner operator in a tight spot.
“To the extent CSA 2010 identifies unsafe drivers, it may tighten capacity, but it will improve safety,” said Osterberg. “If it serves to elevate the standards of commercial drivers, that will be a good outcome.”
A spokeswoman for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association said she feared a different outcome from increased driver scrutiny. “We are concerned about drivers not being provided with documentation of good inspection results that could help with having a good overall score,” said Norita Taylor, an OOIDA spokeswoman. “In other words, only the ‘bad’ things are reported and never the ‘good’ things.”
Taylor cited other fairness issues — the lack of recourse to challenge violations and the fact that crashes that aren’t the driver’s fault still will count against his score.
Osterberg agreed. “If a drunk driver crosses the median and is killed in an accident with a truck, the truck driver will be hit with the full effect” under CSA 2010, Osterberg said. “The onus should be on law enforcement to say who is at fault. FMCSA has to try to come up with a solution to that.”
CSA 2010 also will affect competition. “The vast majority of the carrier industry is made up of small businesses,” said Mark Walker, senior vice president of C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. “We feel strongly that FMCSA needs to ensure that CSA 2010 does not unfairly cause safe, good operators to inadvertently become uncompetitive.” He said carriers without a rating today will need to be especially concerned about how CSA 2010 affects them.
“FMCSA should clearly articulate to the public if they feel that ‘marginal’ carriers pose a greater safety risk to the public than those in the ‘continue to operate’ category,” Walker said.
Tucker said that as carriers, brokers and shippers increase use of CSA 2010, they probably will choose not to use carriers with poor ratings and those choices eventually will drive unsafe carriers out of business.
Original Article found in Transport Topics
January 4, 2010
Some freight executives say they are concerned that the Department of Transportation’s new Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 program – which is intended to boost carrier and driver safety – could be undermined by inaccurate data, flawed methodology and unintended commercial consequences when it begins in July.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has been working on the program commonly referred to as CSA 2010, for several years. It is designed to replace FMCSA’s existing safety rating and data collection system known as SafeStat, which includes violations information from state and federal inspectors.
FMCSA will use CSA 2010 to assign safety ratings to all carriers based on their highway performance, rather than infrequent compliance reviews that are currently done by agency inspectors and included in SafeStat.
Carriers Wary of 2010 Safety Analysis Rating System
In addition, CSA 2010 will rate the nation’s more than 3 million drivers for the first time, also using a performance-based formula. No date has yet been set for active enforcement efforts based on driver ratings. Freight executives, all of whom said they supported the program’s goals, used words like “flawed,” “a challenge,” “huge impact” and “terrible” to illustrate their concern about the effect of the new rating procedure, which incorporates questionable SafeStat data.
Data Issues
“Everything I have heard about CSA 2010 in general pleases me,” said Jeff Tucker, president of Tucker Cos., a third-party logistics company in Cherry Hill, N.J. His comments were echoed by all officials interviewed for this article, “There are certain adjustments that have to be made,” he said. “The general understanding by anyone looking at the data is that it is flawed, and most likely incomplete. It’s better than nothing, but we need states to regularly and promptly update their data. Certain states are notoriously poor at that.”
“There is a wide variability of data today,” said Don Osterberg, senior vice president of Schneider National, Green Bay, Wis. “Over time, FMCSA will have to work hard to ensure timely and accurate reporting. Will CSA 2010 make that issue worse? Definitely not.”
SafeStat has been criticized since 1999 for inaccurate and incomplete data in government reports, including one in October by DOT’s inspector general. A 2006 study commissioned by FMCSA found that just half of accidents that occurred in nine surveyed states were actually reported. Today’s SafeStat’s Web site contains a disclaimer saying the data “may produce unintended results and not be suitable for certain uses.”
FMCSA acknowledged when launching CSA 2010 that only about 2% of fleets per year get a safety rating through those compliance reviews that include on-site inspections of carriers.
FMCSA did not respond to requests for comment on the companies’ concerns, though officials in charge of implementing the program said during two webinars last month that data is becoming more accurate and the methodology will be effective.
Driver training and education will be a key focus as implementation approaches; pilot tests of the program are drawing mixed reviews, and American Trucking Associations has raised many questions about the program.
During the second half of 2010, FMCSA will begin training law enforcement officers and issuing warning letters to carriers, as well as using the new data system. Driver ratings will begin at an unspecified future date.
“The data reporting is a challenge — this is not something the states can wave along and fix quickly,” said Dave Osiecki, vice president for safety, security and operations at American Trucking Associations. Osiecki said he’s concerned about data accuracy because it is so uneven.
For example, he said, state police typically are better trained in accident investigation and reporting techniques than are local police departments, and submit more and better quality information. ATA, which supports the CSA 2010 concept, also is concerned about the formula used to create the new carrier ratings.
Data from SafeStat will be turned into a new three-tiered rating system, using a formula based on severity of violations, with the worst violations rated 10 and the mildest rated 1. The new ratings will be “continue to operate,” “marginal” and “unfit,” supplanting the current “satisfactory,” “conditionally satisfactory” and “unsatisfactory” rankings. That formula essentially will count the number and severity of infractions and divide by the number of trucks a fleet operates.
Methodology
Using the number of trucks as a basis for safety ratings is wrong, Osiecki said, because safety performance is measured by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and throughout the trucking industry on the basis of vehicle miles traveled.
Using fleets’ truck count for safety ratings “is a terrible decision,” Schneider’s Osterberg said. “It is not an effective relative measure of carrier safety.” In addition, Osiecki said, the number of trucks listed on a form that must be filed every two years isn’t likely to match the number of trucks a fleet actually has in service.
Severity ratings also are an issue. Osterberg highlighted inconsistency in rating tire defects, such as exposed ply belts that are an 8, whether the flawed tire is on a tractor’s steer axle, which is critical to safety, or on a trailer, where that defect is unlikely to cause a crash. On the other hand, potentially serious problems such as cracked wheel rims are a 2, while driving without a commercial license is a 3, he said.
Commercial Effects
“This is going to have a huge impact on the industry,” said Harry Kimball, vice president of risk management for Freymiller Inc., an Oklahoma City, trucking company. “There will be driver loss,” he said. “When the smoke clears, however, the drivers left will reap the rewards” because it probably will lead to a smaller driver pool.
Stephen Renshaw, director of safety for broker and carrier Megatrux Inc., Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., said carriers could be taken off the road because a failure to carry proof of preventive maintenance is a 10. That score can put a cash-squeezed owner operator in a tight spot.
“To the extent CSA 2010 identifies unsafe drivers, it may tighten capacity, but it will improve safety,” said Osterberg. “If it serves to elevate the standards of commercial drivers, that will be a good outcome.”
A spokeswoman for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association said she feared a different outcome from increased driver scrutiny. “We are concerned about drivers not being provided with documentation of good inspection results that could help with having a good overall score,” said Norita Taylor, an OOIDA spokeswoman. “In other words, only the ‘bad’ things are reported and never the ‘good’ things.”
Taylor cited other fairness issues — the lack of recourse to challenge violations and the fact that crashes that aren’t the driver’s fault still will count against his score.
Osterberg agreed. “If a drunk driver crosses the median and is killed in an accident with a truck, the truck driver will be hit with the full effect” under CSA 2010, Osterberg said. “The onus should be on law enforcement to say who is at fault. FMCSA has to try to come up with a solution to that.”
CSA 2010 also will affect competition. “The vast majority of the carrier industry is made up of small businesses,” said Mark Walker, senior vice president of C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. “We feel strongly that FMCSA needs to ensure that CSA 2010 does not unfairly cause safe, good operators to inadvertently become uncompetitive.” He said carriers without a rating today will need to be especially concerned about how CSA 2010 affects them.
“FMCSA should clearly articulate to the public if they feel that ‘marginal’ carriers pose a greater safety risk to the public than those in the ‘continue to operate’ category,” Walker said.
Tucker said that as carriers, brokers and shippers increase use of CSA 2010, they probably will choose not to use carriers with poor ratings and those choices eventually will drive unsafe carriers out of business.
Original Article found in Transport Topics
"Concerning the Spiritual in Art"
Third time is a charm, I hope. I am done with graduate applications for the year 2010 and now can worry about something else, like if my flannel shirt makes me look too redneck or something.
Yesterday was a good day. I managed to get my graduate applications sent out on Tuesday and yesterday was the first day that I was able to work on some things without the feeling that I should be completing or tweaking my proposal. I do think that my applications look good this time, which is great, because actually getting in to graduate school is definitely more the goal than merely applying, but all of that aside, yesterday, I got to work on new concepts.
When I say new concepts, I am not really sure that is entirely accurate. My proposal for graduate school involved a lot of planning around working on the types of pieces that I was working on in 2006 and 2007. I had something going with those pieces, but they were not well received in the second showing. The first show was at Gallery 110 which is to this day the best show that I have had for sales. A lot of that is probably due to the location of the gallery, however, so I am not going to stress that show, but the second showing was at Lunar Boy Gallery. I thought the pieces were great, unfortunately the public was not of the same mind set. It was about there that I started to try to work on more cute things. I thought to myself, "what sells here, is the cute stuff" and I also thought of a man who had said to me, "well if you're living in Maine and what sells is paintings of lobsters, why aren't you painting lobsters?" So I started painting birds. I love my birds. I think they are unique and 100% my happy and fun side, but I am a Virgo, which I have learned means that I am a moody cuss. I like to make pieces with a lot of depth, and disguise them as cute.
So anywaaaaay. Moving on to 2010. I don't make New Years Resolutions. It seems silly to me to make a goal based on a calendar, but when I really started to get into my paper and started to pour through some books again looking for the right vernacular to speak about my proposal, something started to click into place again. So now, I bring you some random sketches from yesterday, because yesterday, I spent in my new sketchbook, which I love.
I'm sure you remember stuff like this, and if you liked it, fear not, there is more to come, and not only is there more to come, but it will all be connected, like NY Telephone. Sorry, there was a jingle for NY Telephone when I was a kid that went something like "We are all connecteeeeed, NY telephooooooone". I think of it nearly every time someone is talking about all of us being connected. For instance with the 6 degrees of separation. Anyway.
I was doing some sketches with these before, but I wasn't paying much attention to composition or color in how it produced a mood. My colors have been kind of the same on every piece for a little while here. I wouldn't expect that for too much longer. I actually started a painting of this guy yesterday. We'll see if I get enough of it done to post it later today. It's a little different, but not too different. I really want to make the palette work for me. If successful this will just be the start to a much larger project which I will tell you about if and only if stage one is completely successful. There you go, I'm keeping a secret from you, you'll have to check back and see if I tell you what it is.
I also purchased a Kandinsky book yesterday, "Concerning the Spiritual in Art". I haven't even made it to Kandinsky's text yet but the introduction by M.T.H. Sadler was enough to make me purchase the book. His discriptions of the post impressionist and Munich scenes of art are fascinating, and it is interesting to really think about the different schools of thought that are prevalent during certain art periods. How, really their art was all about breaking rules, but they made new rules, to set how you broke the rules. Very interesting.
Things are happening here in Lewis Acrylic land. And it's mostly good. I will catch you soon.
peace
Mike
Yesterday was a good day. I managed to get my graduate applications sent out on Tuesday and yesterday was the first day that I was able to work on some things without the feeling that I should be completing or tweaking my proposal. I do think that my applications look good this time, which is great, because actually getting in to graduate school is definitely more the goal than merely applying, but all of that aside, yesterday, I got to work on new concepts.
When I say new concepts, I am not really sure that is entirely accurate. My proposal for graduate school involved a lot of planning around working on the types of pieces that I was working on in 2006 and 2007. I had something going with those pieces, but they were not well received in the second showing. The first show was at Gallery 110 which is to this day the best show that I have had for sales. A lot of that is probably due to the location of the gallery, however, so I am not going to stress that show, but the second showing was at Lunar Boy Gallery. I thought the pieces were great, unfortunately the public was not of the same mind set. It was about there that I started to try to work on more cute things. I thought to myself, "what sells here, is the cute stuff" and I also thought of a man who had said to me, "well if you're living in Maine and what sells is paintings of lobsters, why aren't you painting lobsters?" So I started painting birds. I love my birds. I think they are unique and 100% my happy and fun side, but I am a Virgo, which I have learned means that I am a moody cuss. I like to make pieces with a lot of depth, and disguise them as cute.
So anywaaaaay. Moving on to 2010. I don't make New Years Resolutions. It seems silly to me to make a goal based on a calendar, but when I really started to get into my paper and started to pour through some books again looking for the right vernacular to speak about my proposal, something started to click into place again. So now, I bring you some random sketches from yesterday, because yesterday, I spent in my new sketchbook, which I love.
I'm sure you remember stuff like this, and if you liked it, fear not, there is more to come, and not only is there more to come, but it will all be connected, like NY Telephone. Sorry, there was a jingle for NY Telephone when I was a kid that went something like "We are all connecteeeeed, NY telephooooooone". I think of it nearly every time someone is talking about all of us being connected. For instance with the 6 degrees of separation. Anyway.
I was doing some sketches with these before, but I wasn't paying much attention to composition or color in how it produced a mood. My colors have been kind of the same on every piece for a little while here. I wouldn't expect that for too much longer. I actually started a painting of this guy yesterday. We'll see if I get enough of it done to post it later today. It's a little different, but not too different. I really want to make the palette work for me. If successful this will just be the start to a much larger project which I will tell you about if and only if stage one is completely successful. There you go, I'm keeping a secret from you, you'll have to check back and see if I tell you what it is.
I also purchased a Kandinsky book yesterday, "Concerning the Spiritual in Art". I haven't even made it to Kandinsky's text yet but the introduction by M.T.H. Sadler was enough to make me purchase the book. His discriptions of the post impressionist and Munich scenes of art are fascinating, and it is interesting to really think about the different schools of thought that are prevalent during certain art periods. How, really their art was all about breaking rules, but they made new rules, to set how you broke the rules. Very interesting.
Things are happening here in Lewis Acrylic land. And it's mostly good. I will catch you soon.
peace
Mike
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