Compliance and Regulatory Update: April, 2018

ELD Supporting Docs and Compliance Reviews | Driver Physical Retention and Changes | Hair Testing for Drugs Discussed

Having trouble viewing this email?
Click here

Compliance and Regulatory Update: April, 2018

ELD Full Enforcement

Prepare for Compliance Reviews

Full ELD enforcement has arrived. At this point, any motor carrier who has not complied will find that their trucks are placed out of service during a roadside inspection. After 10 hours the truck may continue, but only to deliver their load, and then the driver cannot be dispatched again until they are in compliance with the ELD regulations.

Both motor carriers and enforcement personnel have experienced difficulties during the transition. Motor carriers, even some who were early adopters, discovered problems integrating ELDs into their back office computer programs. Roadside enforcement personnel have experienced difficulties in interfacing with a myriad of different ELD devices during a roadside inspection.

Avoid Roadside Inspection Problems

To help avoid roadside inspection problems, make sure your drivers are carrying the following documents:

ELD user’s manual
Data transfer instructions
Malfunction instruction sheet
Blank log sheets (minimum of 8)

Supporting Documents Are Still Important

Also keep in mind that with ELDs the supporting document requirements have changed. You must retain up to eight documents per day from the following categories:

Bills of lading, itineraries or equivalent documents that indicate the origin and destination of each trip.
Dispatch records, trip records, or equivalent documents.
Expense receipts related to any on-duty not-driving time.
Electronic mobile communication records reflecting messages transmitted through a fleet management system.
Payroll records, settlement sheets, or equivalent documents.

The primary purpose of supporting documents is to verify the driver’s on-duty time. The motor carrier must have a system in place to audit ELD information to ensure that the driver has not logged working time as off duty. If the driver is using a paper log then you must also retain toll receipts. In order to be considered a supporting document it must contain the following:

Driver name or carrier-assigned identification number
Date
Location, including name of nearest city, town, or village
Time

If a driver has fewer than eight documents that include all four elements, a document that contains all of these elements except “time” is considered a supporting document. If there are more than eight documents for a given day you must retain the first and last and six others. During a roadside inspection the driver is required to provide any supporting documents in their possession to the inspector for review.

Compliance Reviews

ELDs do not prevent hours of service violations, they merely do a good job of recording them. Each motor carrier still needs to have a robust hours of service compliance program in place as well as a disciplinary program. In the event of an on-site compliance review, the inspectors will concentrate on violations of greater than 15 minutes and will also be looking for patterns of violations. Additionally, they will want to verify that the motor carrier has adequate safety management programs in place to monitor compliance.

Use this link for more information

Driver Physical Form

Retention Period & Upcoming Changes

When a driver sends in a new physical, how long must you retain that document in the Driver Qualification file? The answer is 15 days. (For CDL drivers)

You may be surprised by that answer. The explanation is related to the fact that the physical is now tied to the CDL. Each time the driver’s physical is renewed a copy must be sent to the state so that they can update the driver’s MVR with the new physical expiration date. If this fails to happen, the CDL is downgraded to an operator’s license until the new physical is received.

The motor carrier must then obtain an MVR that shows the new expiration date and place that in the driver’s qualification file. The copy of the physical that the driver is given by the medical examiner is only valid for 15 days. During that time period if the driver is stopped at a roadside inspection he/she can show the inspector the paper copy of the physical. After that the physical is verified by the inspector looking at the MVR for the status of the driver’s physical.

In actual practice, motor carriers don’t dispose of the physical paperwork, they keep it in the DQ file, and most drivers choose to still carry a copy of the physical even though they are not required to do so after the 15 days. However, the MVR that was obtained to verify the physical expiration date must be retained for three years and then it can be removed.

Keep in mind that motor carriers are required to verify that the medical examiner who performed the physical is listed on the National Registry. The motor carrier must place a note regarding this check in the driver’s DQ file.

More information on Driver Qualification files and retention periods can be found in 49 CFR 391.51

Now that we’ve gotten this far, the process is scheduled to change slightly in June, unless the government delays things which is always a possibility. Here’s how it should work:

1. The driver gets a new physical

2. The Medical Examiner uploads the physical at the end of the business day to FMCSA

3. FMCSA pushes the data out to the states so that the driver’s MVR can be updated

4. The state updates the driver’s MVR

5. The Motor Carrier obtains an updated MVR to verify the new expiration date and files that document in the Driver Qualification file. The motor carrier does not need to verify that the Medical Examiner is on the national registry.

Under this scenario it is no longer the responsibility of the driver or motor carrier to send the new physical to the state. In fact, under this scenario the Medical Examiner doesn’t even have to provide a copy to the driver since technically it isn’t needed. Most likely they’ll still hand them out. There’s no guarantee that this will happen as scheduled in June, especially since the National Registry web site was hacked and is still experiencing problems.

Note: Non-CDL drivers requiring medical certification will still receive their medical card from the Medical Examiner and must keep it on their person. Motor carrier employers must file a copy of the medical card in the non-CDL driver’s Driver Qualification file.

Finally, a last thought about physicals. If during the physical examination the medical examiner discovers a medical issue that prevents them from issuing a new certification, the driver’s previous physical, even though not expired, is no longer valid and this information will be reported to FMCSA. The driver cannot drive a commercial motor vehicle until the medical problem is corrected.

Hair Testing Discussed

Would Affect Pre-Employment Testing

Under current regulations hair testing for drugs is not recognized by the DOT. Some motor carriers are utilizing hair testing, but they are also performing the standard urine test to remain in compliance.

The proponents of hair testing point to the fact that it offers a longer drug detection window, up to 90 days. Also, the samples are collected under observation which prevents drivers from cheating. Discussions have been ongoing and recently the Federal Drug Testing Advisory Board met to review a proposed rule which would allow trucking companies to conduct pre-employment drug testing using hair samples.

There is no time line for implementation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration cannot publish a proposed rule in the Federal Register until it’s approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. At this point it seems that we’re still several years away from implementation.

However, you can implement hair testing now provided you also perform the standard urine test. Motor carriers who have gone this route have experienced an increase in the number of pre-employment positives.