enforcement

Welcome to the land of ELD confusion

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The early days of enforcing a U.S. mandate for electronic logging devices (ELDs) have been marred by confusion over the workings of individual devices and more. Kerri Wirachowsky, director of the roadside inspection program for the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), refers to the example of one fleet that had installed Automatic On Board Recording Devices (AOBRDs) last February. Wirachowsky At first glance that device should be accepted, because it was installed before the mandate took hold on Dec. 18, and would be legal until Dec. 16, 2019. The problem is that the user hadn’t been able to reach the supplier to upload the related hours of service functions, she said during the Omnitracs Outlook user conference. That meant a ticket, and more frantic calls to the supplier.

OPP week-long blitz puts officers in trucks

TORONTO, ON - The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are conducting a blitz this week on the province's highways, paying special attention to heavy-duty commercial vehicles, and they're doing it from a new angle. OPP Deputy Commissioner Brad Blair said the group is using the two OPP Class 8 tractors - normally reserved for hauling police vehicles around Ontario - during the week to give them a better view of distracted drivers in the Greater Toronto Area. "Starting with this initiative, we are enhancing our observational investigative abilities on the road. Officers will now be conducting patrols in transport trucks," said Blair. "By giving our officers an enhanced vantage point they will be better positioned to detect transport truck drivers that are distracted, or engaging in other dangerous behaviors behind the wheel." Officers across the province, along with aerial patrols, will also be participating in the blitz the OPP is calling Operation Safe Trucking. Blair said the Highway Safety Division of the OPP has responded to more than 6,200 collisions involving commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) on provincially patrolled roads since the beginning of 2017. Of those 72 were fatal, causing the deaths of 87 people. More than 1,000 others involved personal injury. More than 5,000 of the crashes involved property damage. Blair says collisions have real social and economic impacts even for those not involved in them directly, with everything from the loss of life, to medical treatment costs, loss of productivity, and the disruption in the movement of goods and people due to highway backups costing business and individuals. "The vast majority of [collisions] are attributed to poor driving behaviors, and they are completely preventable," said Blair.

OTA releases five-point safety action plan

TORONTO, ON - The Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) released a five-point action plan for improving truck safety this morning. The plan aims to work with law enforcement officials to assure the public that safety on the roads is the top priority of fleets owners, drivers, and other members of the industry, after a recent string of crashes involving commercial motor vehicles on Ontario highways had Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Commissioner Vince Hawkes calling trucks "missiles."

OPP stage Toronto area CMV blitz

MILTON, ON - Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are cracking down on unsafe truck drivers in an enforcement blitz in the Greater Toronto Area, starting today. Setting up camp at a weigh station off Ontario Highway 401 between Milton and Oakville, the OPP's Highway Safety (HSD) Division say they are looking to raise awareness about safe driving practices for commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers, while also conducting inspections to look for unsafe operators. As part of the safety awareness campaign, OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt from the HSD participated in a ride-along with the OPP transport truck to get a look at morning road conditions and point unsafe driving practices from all drivers.

Charges laid, OPP talking vehicle seizure

TORONTO, ON - Charges have been laid and changes are coming to the way police officers investigate and enforce dangerous driving behaviors involving commercial vehicle drivers in Ontario. In a morning press conference Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Commissioner Vince Hawkes announced charges against commercial vehicle drivers in three separate incidents that occurred this year on Ontario 400 series highways. A Brampton, Ontario, man is charged with two counts of dangerous driving causing death in the Aug. 3 crash that took the lives of Todd Gardiner, 26, and Michael Glazier, 35, cousins who were driving in a pickup truck on Highway 401 near Port Hope, Ontario. A second Brampton driver is charged with two counts of dangerous driving causing death, two counts of dangerous driving causing injury, and one count of dangerous driving following a July 30 collision that took the lives of a 45-year-old woman and her 14-year-old son, while injuring her husband and 10-year-old son, as they returned from a camping trip. A third collision on July 27 on Highway 48 in the town of Georgina resulted in similar charges after the deaths of two and injuries to three more people, including a 10-year-old boy who was a passenger in an SUV.

Clear the Way: Bypass programs perfect carrot to offset enforcement stick

I was introduced to the concept of a hospital triage by watching episodes of MASH in the 1970s and early '80s. Centered around the happenings of a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War, the show's TV doctors were regularly seen moving through the latest batch of wounded soldiers, deciding who could wait and who needed immediate attention. (They also looked for new ways to torment Frank Burns, but I digress.)

Ticket Rates Spike During Operation Safe Driver

GREENBELT, MD - Commercial vehicle safety enforcement officers in Canada and the U.S. made far less contacts with drivers along with conducting fewer inspections during a week-long blitz late last year compared to 2014, according to newly released figures, but the percentage of citations and warnings handed out increased in three key areas. That's according to the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) and just released numbers it published regarding Operation Safe Driver, a seven-day enforcement and awareness campaign conducted on Oct. 18-24, 2015 aimed at truck and bus drivers along with four-wheelers. Law enforcement officers pulled over 21,012 commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers and passenger vehicle drivers while 19,480 North American standard roadside inspections were conducted by CVSA-certified authorities on commercial drivers and vehicles.

Operation Safe Driver Running Now Through Saturday

GREENBELT, MD --- A period of heightened truck safety enforcement and education is going on now through Oct 24. The annual Operation Safe Driver is going on throughout North America as law enforcement is cracking down on both commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers and car drivers in this event organized by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) in conjunction with provincial, state, and local law enforcement, along with trucking industry partners. During Operation Safe Driver Week, activities will be held across Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, with the goal of increasing commercial vehicle and non-commercial vehicle traffic enforcement, safety belt enforcement, driver roadside inspections and driver regulatory compliance.

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