Opinion: Just Who Is Qualifying Whom?

Tweet

Print This

By Larry Kerr

President

EBE Technologies

This Opinion piece appears in the April 30 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

Carriers have many reasons for maintaining good scores on the new Compliance, Safety, Accountability program introduced by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

First and foremost, CSA scores reflect a carrier’s safety factor, with poor scores impeding its ability to:

• Attract the most profitable loads from shippers and logistics providers.

• Keep freight coming and the bottom line growing.

• Avoid being shut down by FMCSA.

• Recruit and retain the kind of drivers who keep those CSA scores looking good.

That last item is something many carriers haven’t realized yet — the connection between scoring well on CSA and attracting high-quality drivers.

Although most trucking companies have figured out that having bad drivers can drag their scores into the unacceptable zone, many haven’t realized that the opposite is also true: The best drivers are learning — sometimes the hard way — that their own safety records are directly affected by the safety practices of the company employing them. As a result, good drivers aren’t pawns anymore — they’re players who can pick and choose among carriers.

The stakes are high. Through no fault of their own, drivers for carriers with high CSA percentiles risk collecting points on their own records simply because a carrier is lax about maintaining vehicle standards, adhering to a safety plan, abiding by hours-of-service regulations or investing in systems that manage driver compliance, such as electronic onboard recorders (EOBRs).

The return of the driver shortage means the men and women behind the wheel are beginning to avoid the less-stable carriers, and trucking operations that dismiss this effect’s importance may be losing opportunities, not just for hiring new drivers but even retaining the best drivers they already have.

1 2 3 Next >>

Tweet

Print This

© 2012, Transport Topics Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
 
 

© American Trucking Associations, Inc., All Rights Reserved TTNews.com Privacy Statement