..."Our company has had to go so far as to implement a new rule that if a citation is issued for not wearing a seat belt we are in jeopardy of losing our lease. Why in the world would this rule need to be implemented? Because too many drivers choose not to wear a seat belt"...
Linda, i am strongly disagree with that remark.
YOUR company had to implement this rule because of the UNFAIR way CSA scores are calculated.
and it WILL be the ATA AND your carrier that will unfairly demand same treet for smaller-sefer carriers.
lets me please explain.
a large carrier have less safety competitors. this is simply because there are not many carriers that run same # of units, & same # of millions mil. per year.
there for to keep it's CSA score, a large carrier not only needs to act in an compliance manners, it also needs to do a better job then it's competitors for safety, because it's CSA score is calculated in compare to other carriers in it's group. many of which are much smaller.
this is unfair toward YOUR carrier.
smaller carriers have WAY more competition, so if a small carrier needs to improve it's score, a few fixers normally do the trick.
the result is that LARGE carriers are running out of ways to do a better safety job then other large carriers.
this is why large carriers keep implementing new safety gigs.
then they WRONGLY try to MANDATE same gadgets to smaller carriers, knowing very well that this is not about safety but about regulating it's freight competition.
some large carriers now have 12{!!!} "immediate terminations" tickets.
much of the new safety regulation start from ATA for the simple rezone mention above.
IF you are interested on doing the right thing- you call them on that.
simply tell FedEx that your perfect safety record is not a problem for them.
then call your lawmakers, & FMCSA and tell them how unfair CSA is, and what effects it have on your safety, ability to stay in business, and your button line.
IF the DoT wanted to take drivers off the road after one seat-belt violation, they would have pot it in the books. clearly your carrier is taking advantage off of his drivers.
