The ELD Mandate specifies that the carrier must audit the ELD logs (not the driver) to make sure the driver logs are as accurate as possible. Personal Conveyance must be done correctly, annotations must be properly used, corrective action and driver training is required, yard moves, and maintenance must be logged properly, and in the event of team drivers, the ELD must display the data for both co-drivers who are logged into the system. Due to manual entry requirements, no log is immune to the risk of falsification. Due to the requirement of manual inputs into the ELD device itself, there is increased risk or error or falsification. There could also be instances where ELDs are switched off intentionally. ELD’s record engine activity, but often fall short on recording human activity, such as duty status, roadside inspections, fuel stops, etc., all of which must be supplemented to engine data to complete the ELD log. Simply put, HOS driver log auditing remains an important procedure even after the ELD mandate. Review and Monitor ELD Violations The most common violations are usually related to the 30-minute rest break, followed by the 11-hour driving limit and 14 hours driving limit. Drivers who continue to accumulate repeated violations should be reprimanded. They should be able to plan their schedule ahead of time, and if they have problems planning their schedule, they should be re-trained again. Review Unassigned Miles Report Review unassigned miles report on a weekly basis and don’t allow it to accumulate. Reassigned the miles to the driver where necessary and ensure that it gets accepted. During an audit FMCSA auditor will ask for the fleet’s unassigned driver report for the month and identify if there was any event of driver log falsification. The auditor will review other related documents and ascertain if the logs were meant to be assigned to a specific driver and if the logs were not assigned, that driver logs would be considered inaccurate or even worse deemed false. Review Odometer Jumps Report It is important to download and review this report to ensure all driven miles are appropriately recorded. There is always a risk that driver may unplug the ELD device on purpose and the only effective way to identify this is to review this report on a weekly basis and make sure all driven miles are appropriately recorded on his or her logs. If the ELD device are unplug on purpose, drivers should be held accountable and strict disciplinary action must be taken to ensure such incidents do not recur. Establish Personal Conveyance (PC) Policy Personal Conveyance is allowed but based only on certain requirements and it should not be misused. More often than drivers do not annotate why PC was used and during inspection, the officer may deem that the driver misclassified driving time as PC. Its therefore important to review the use of PC on a weekly basis and ensure it is applied in accordance with the company’s Personal Conveyance Policy and not misused to do more loads. How your assigned Freight Analytics Associate can help you manage this process better: Download and report the list of violations on weekly basis for management to review. This can include report on use of Personal Conveyance (PC) and whether each use of PC was appropriate Assist Safety Manager in reviewing list of open unassigned miles and assess where these miles should be assigned too, by reviewing the unit’s movement on that given day and ascertaining if it should be re-assigned to a driver. Download other ELD report such as odometer jump report and violation reports for a given week to ensure all driving hours have been appropriately recorded. Perform Hours of Service (HOS) audits, by comparing the ELD record for the selected driver against the loads hauled, and assess if driver had correctly recorded his drive time and break time by making comparison to supporting documents such as fuel and toll receipts.  

The Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program, run by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), is designed to hold motorists, including owner-operators, accountable for their role in road safety. The FMCSA groups carriers with those who have a similar number of safety events and assigns each carrier a percentile rank. The safety data is held online in the FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System (SMS) and is organized into seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs), which include categories like unsafe driving, vehicle maintenance, and driver fitness. What Goes into a CSA Score? CSA scores are calculated with roadside inspection and crash report data from the Safety Measurement System (SMS) from the last 24 months. The calculations consider factors like crash severity, how long ago the event occurred, and annual vehicle miles travelled. Carriers receive a CSA score for each of the seven BASICs: Unsafe Driving: The Unsafe Driving BASIC pertains to the operation of commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) by drivers in a dangerous or careless manner. Examples include speeding, reckless driving, improper lane change, and inattention. Crash Indicator: the Crash Indicator BASIC considers histories or patterns of high crash involvement, such as frequency and severity. It is based on information from State-reported crashes that meet reportable crash standards (e.g., fatalities, injuries requiring medical attention away from the scene, disabling damage requiring a vehicle to be towed). HOS Compliance: The HOS Compliance BASIC includes violations of the regulations pertaining to records of duty status (RODS) and hours-of-service limits. Examples include a driver operating more hours than allowed under HOS regulations and falsification of RODS. Vehicle Maintenance: The Vehicle Maintenance BASIC pertains to regulations regarding properly maintaining a CMV and preventing shifting loads, spilled or dropped cargo, and overloading of a CMV. Proper maintenance includes, among other things, ensuring that lamps and reflectors are working, and tires are not worn. Examples include operating an out-of-service vehicle, improper loading/securement, or operating a vehicle with inoperative brakes, lights, and/or other mechanical defects, and failure to make required repairs. Controlled Substances/Alcohol: The Controlled Substances/Alcohol BASIC pertains to the operation of CMVs by drivers who are impaired due to alcohol, illegal drugs, and the misuse of prescription or over-the-counter medications. Examples include operating under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Hazardous Materials Compliance: The HM Compliance BASIC addresses the requirements in Part 397 of the FMCSRs as well as those in the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMRs). Examples include failing to mark, label, or placard in accordance with the regulations and not properly securing a package containing HM. Driver Fitness: The Driver Fitness BASIC concerns the operation of CMVs by drivers who are unfit to operate a CMV due to a lack of training, experience, or medical qualifications. Examples include failure to have a valid and appropriate commercial driver’s license (CDL) and being medically unqualified to operate a CMV. Why having a good CSA score is important? CSA scores are calculated on a zero to 100 percentile scale, with 100 indicating the worst performance and zero indicating the best performance. The FMCSA sets intervention thresholds on a per category level, based on the BASIC’s relationship to crash risk. Carriers with scores greater than 65% in Unsafe Driving, Crash Indicator, and HOS Compliance are subject to FMCSA investigations. For hazardous materials and passenger carriers, the threshold is even lower, at 60% and 50%, respectively. The remaining BASIC categories have an 80% threshold for most carriers, after which the FMCSA will intervene. Carriers with good CSA scores will benefit from lower insurance premiums, fewer DOT audits and roadside inspections, and a better reputation with current and potential customers, so staying well below those thresholds can have an outsize impact on your operations and profitability How your assigned Freight Analytics Associate can help you manage this process better: Perform ELD audits to ensure all ELD logs are correctly recorded. This can be achieved by reviewing the Personal Conveyance (PC) use each week and ensure it’s been applied in accordance with company’s ELD policy and that all unassigned miles are reviewed to ensure it gets correctly assigned and that no one truck was driven with its ELD intentionally switched off, when in fact ELD was meant to be used. Reduce maintenance violation by proactively keeping track of items noted in DVIR and ensuring these items are addressed timely, by highlighting to management list of open DVIR or items that requires repairs. Keep track of schedule service and ensure dispatch team allocates necessary time slot for maintenance.       Review and maintain DQ files by ensuring each driver record is up to date, which includes drivers CDL A status and medical card. Ensure that all violation committed are correctly recorded in his or her file to help facilitate the yearly performance appraisal review. Review Fleet Telematics Data and report incidence of unsafe driving event and assist management in ranking drivers’ performance by applying indicators such as unsafe braking and driving speed based on data provided by the telematics system.