Driver Training and Requirements
Braking
Commercial motor vehicle safety control systems
Communication
Emergency maneuvers
Extreme driving conditions
Hazard perceptions
Night operation
Relationship of cargo to vehicle control
Safe operations regulations
Safe vehicle control
Shifting
Space management
Speed management
Skid control and recovery
Vehicle inspections Visual search
Driver Obligation
Drivers are faced with many obligations both on the road and off the road. There are procedures to be followed in each circumstance. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations govern drivers to help ensure safety on the roads. Their regulations include warning devices and gauges, safe loading, braking systems, weight regulations, lighting devices and reflectors, surety bonds and insurance, fuel tanks, seat belts and more.
A. Maintenance and Inspection of Vehicles
As stated above, the driver is responsible for the inspection and maintenance of their vehicles. If the driver discovers any malfunction, he is to report it immediately and have the problem corrected in a timely manner. Every motor carrier or its agent is required to repair any malfunction reported by the driver before permitting a driver the vehicle back on the road.
B. Safe Loading
Each driver has the responsibility to make sure his load is safe when he begins a trip but also to inspect the load within 50 miles, re-inspecting again within 150 miles. The driver must not only inspect the cargo, he or she must also inspect the devices that secure the cargo and make necessary adjustments.
C. Driver Fatigue
A tired driver is not a safe driver. Individual drivers cannot be trusted to use their own judgment to know when to quit, and both federal and state regulations impose maximum hours an individual can be drive between mandatory resting periods.
The first requirement regulates the maximum number of hours that can be legally driven within a certain time frame. The second requirement requires that all drivers must record hours driven in a detailed log. The third requirement implements a plan to audit the logs to assure that they are accurate.
The following information must be included in the drivers' log:
Date
Total miles driving today
Truck or tractor and trailer number
Name of carrier
Driver's signature
24 hour period starting time
Main office address
Remarks
Name of co-driver, if applicable
Total hours
Shipping document number(s) or name of shipper and commodity
Failure to complete the record of duty activities, failure to preserve a record of such duty activities or making false reports in connection with such duty activities shall make the driver and/or carrier liable to prosecution. It is a detailed analysis of these logs as well as an audit of these logs against other records which may be obtained by a careful and conscientious attorney, which may provide the key to establishing liability in a catastrophic wreck.
Drugs and Alcohol
The rules while driving a semi against the use of alcohol and other drugs are considerably more strict than the laws which govern those when driving passenger vehicles. With respect to alcohol where the passenger vehicle is a 0.8% blood alcohol content, under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations a driver cannot consume any alcohol within 4 hours of going on duty, and their blood alcohol limit is zero.
All street drugs do violate general motor vehicle laws, and the prohibitions also apply to any prescribed or over the counter medication which may affect an individual's ability to drive. Those under a doctor's prescription are included unless the doctor has advised that the substance will not affect the driver's ability to safely operate a motor vehicle. Many prescription drugs contain warnings about use while driving. Any driver using a medication and is in an accident would need to prove that his doctor had approved the use of the medication while driving.
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