Drivers Avoid Drayage Runs Over CSA Violation Concerns

This story appears in the April 15 print edition of Transport Topics.

Drayage drivers are growing increasingly reluctant to pull container chassis because they fear high violation levels on that equipment will hurt their safety records, according to several industry officials.

Eight carrier officials and American Trucking Associations’ Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference last week told Transport Topics how fleets have been hurt by, and are coping with, two federal rules changes that are squeezing drivers.

Intermodal truckers sought and won one rule (known as roadability) that took effect four years ago, hoping it would lift their burden of incurring violations on somebody else’s chassis when they take a load from a port. A year later, the federal Compliance, Safety, Accountability program made individual drivers’ safety performance visible to current and future employers.

The interaction of those two events has been notable, and has varied from fleet to fleet.

Shirley Roebuck, general manager of Gilco Trucking in Ports-mouth, Va., said she’s lost eight drivers in six months. A key reason, she told TT, is that port truckers face higher risk of being inspected at enforcement stations that are often set up right outside port gates.

“Roadability was meant to be a major help for us,” she said, because truckers had been receiving many violations, such as for lights that work when the chassis is picked up but fail soon after.  But today, “It’s still a burden on the trucker.”

Gilco lost more than 50% of its trucks since CSA began, she said, forcing the company to turn away business for lack of drivers.

“We can’t do anything,” she said. “Our hands are tied.”

Others stressed different aspects of the issue.

Sherry Hertel, sales manager for Southern Counties Express, based in Rancho Dominguez, Calif., said “with the availability of the new information, it is difficult for us to take on drivers with less than stellar safety records.”

“I’m always wanting to get more business,” she said. “We can’t take on that new business because we don’t have the drivers.”

She spotlighted another terminal-related problem. Drivers often aren’t allowed to get out and do inspections of chassis or containers at ports, she said, raising the risk of violations.

Gerry Coyle, vice president at Evans Network of Companies in Schuylkill Haven, Pa., said drivers must weigh the risk of taking possibly defective equipment.

“There are real pressures on the drivers,” he said. “If you don’t want to take a chassis, you may have to get back in line for three hours” to get a replacement.

Coyle also said violation risk is diminishing the attractiveness for drivers who may have chosen the drayage segment so they can be home every night.

Curtis Whalen, executive director of IMCC, said problems are widespread but anecdotal since the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration doesn’t have data on chassis violation frequency.

FMCSA, which administers CSA, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Whalen said the situation can be so bad that when they are stopped, drivers will say they didn’t do a required pre-trip chassis inspection because that incurs fewer violation points than they expect to get from an inspection.

Whalen also said leasing companies’ and chassis pool operators’ equipment is in good condition because they have an economic incentive to do maintenance.

Since the 2009 equipment rule, ocean carriers that still control much of the chassis fleet have taken different approaches. Some stopped providing chassis everywhere, others didn’t change at all and still others put more chassis in pools.

Tom Adamski, an agent in Newark, N.J., for First Coast Logistics, said “some of the drivers are getting discouraged” by CSA and the long waits they endure to have their federal port identity cards renewed.

“If their CSA scores are high and they have marginal credentials, there is no chance in hell they will be taken on by a fleet,” Adamski said.

Marcia Faschingbauer, president of Excargo Services in Houston, said drivers now pick work to minimize their CSA exposure, such as avoiding overweight loads or road hauls.

They can do that, she said, be-cause Texas offers so many other driving jobs to support energy exploration.

“Everything has turned into a zero-tolerance situation,” said Jeff Lang, CEO of Eagle Group, in East Wenatchee, Wash. “Everyone is struggling to keep their scores reasonably good.”

Unlike others, he said violations assigned to truckers instead of the equipment provider have declined.

“Each month that gets better and better,” he said.

David Manning, president of TCW in Nashville, Tenn., said the CSA score “is definitely on the driver’s radar.”

Manning, however, shared the others’ broad frustration with chassis conditions, which prompted them to create their own chassis pool to insure quality equipment.

All carriers stressed a commitment to safety.

“Seeing a driver’s whole record is a good thing,” said Greg Stefflre, CEO of Fontana, Calif.-based Rail Delivery Services. “We do a fairly comprehensive background check on owner-operators.”

He said his company checks drivers’ performance several times a year as well as reviewing historical data.

Roebuck’s trucks are inspected every Friday by qualified personnel to insure compliance.

Hertel said Southern Counties shows each driver their safety scores to illustrate their impact on both parties.

Manning said he isn’t losing drivers because his company pushes the importance of pre- and post-trip inspections.

Faschingbauer believes greater attention to safety is helping

the industry, as shippers view truck shipments in terms of safety and service, and not simply as a commodity.