Page 24 - ATR 1 2016 web

of the impacts of the provisions contin-
as a way to address driver reteNtioN, ues to generate concern.
arkaNsas survey respoNdeNts raNked as their Parking Panic
top strategy to study the effectiveNess of The number five issue, truck park-
carrier reteNtioN programs that fiNaNcially ing, continues to receive increased
iNceNtivize drivers for performaNce iN attention as the growing scarcity of
the areas of safety, fuel ecoNomy aNd trip available parking creates a dangerous
situation for truck drivers who are
productivity. often forced to drive beyond allowable
HOS rules or park in undesignated and,
in many cases, unsafe locations. As
into law last December, allows the U.S. underlying issues with the Safety such, the top strategy ranked by survey
Department of Transportation to create Measurement System (SMS) are cor- respondents is to support and encourage
a pilot program for 18-20 year olds to rected and additional research done to investment in new truck parking facili-
drive interstate if they have a military identify if the BASICs are accurate pre- ties, while also encouraging states to
background that included truck driving dictors of crash risk. reopen shuttered facilities.
experience. The top strategy identified in this
As a way to address driver year’s survey for addressing CSA is to and other worries
retention, Arkansas survey respondents push for a crash accountability determi- Among Arkansas respondents,
ranked as their top strategy to study nation process that removes non-pre- concern over the state of the nation’s
the effectiveness of carrier retention ventable crashes from carrier scores. In economy ranked sixth overall; on the
programs that financially incentivize November of last year, ATRI published national survey it came in as the eighth
drivers for performance in the areas a new study which investigated the ranking issue. Other than the com-
of safety, fuel economy and trip impact that excluding non-preventable mercial driver HOS rules, the economy
productivity. crashes would have on motor carrier is the only issue to rank first on the list
CSA Crash Indicator BASIC measures. for three consecutive years (2009-2011),
regulation Frustration Among the fifteen carriers in ATRI’s which it did during the Great Recession.
Coming behind driver issues, analysis, the Crash Indicator BASIC In the 2014 survey, the economy
Arkansas respondents ranked decreased nearly 15 percent once a sub- dropped to ninth place but started
the Federal Motor Carrier Safety set of five non-preventable crash types to climb up as an issue in 2015. This
Administration’s Compliance, Safety, were removed. may be driven, in part, by more recent
Accountability (CSA) program as their The number one issue identified in concerns over softer freight demand
third top concern. A myriad of chal- the national survey and ranking fourth and what that may mean for 2016, as
lenges with CSA likely resulted in its top among Arkansas respondents was con- well as concerns over the economies in
five ranking both nationally and among cern over the Hours-of-Service (HOS) Europe and Asia, and export impacts
Arkansas respondents. rules. The HOS rules have topped the from a strong U.S. dollar.
A number of studies, including industry’s list of concerns for three Among Arkansas respondents, the
research by ATRI, have documented consecutive years (2013-2015) and Electronic Logging Device (ELD) man-
that CSA’s safety measures, the have been in the top five nationally date ranked seventh overall, one posi-
seven Behavioral Analysis and Safety since the survey was first conducted in tion lower than it did in the national
Improvement Categories (BASICs) 2005, driven primarily by the continued results. In March 2104, FMCSA issued
under which carriers and drivers are changes to and uncertainty surround- a Supplemental Notice of Proposed
scored, are not a good predictor of carri- ing the future of the rules; 2015 was no Rulemaking (SNPR) to address a num-
er crash risk. Additionally, there are dis- different. ber of concerns identified by industry
parities in how states collect and report While the industry experienced stakeholders in the initial ELD proposed
safety performance data, and shippers some relief in December of 2014 with rule. At the time the survey was con-
are potentially misusing the data in the the suspension of the Hours-of-Service ducted, the industry was still awaiting
selection of carriers to haul freight. (HOS) restart provisions which were issuance of the final rule, likely keeping
This is another issue that was originally put in to effect in July of this issue in the top 10. The final rule
subsequently addressed in the five- 2013, the potential for reimplementa- has now been published by FMCSA and
year FAST Act. In it, Congress directed tion of the rules following the Federal for the most part, the strategies identi-
FMCSA to remove from public view Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s fied by survey respondents for dealing
motor carrier BASIC scores until the (FMCSA) congressionally required study with the issue have been addressed in

24 arkansas trucking rePort | issue 1 2016