Idealease Safety Bulletin - How Drivers Can Impact Tire Cost and Tire Safety

This October 23, 2020 edition of the weekly Idealease safety bulletin has important safety tips and information for you and your team.

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1. How Drivers Can Impact Tire Cost and Tire Safety

• Next to fuel, tires have been and will continue to be the #1 maintenance issue facing fleets today
• Drivers can have an enormous impact on tire expenses and safety during pre and post trip inspections, AND on the road! 
• It is important for drivers to visually inspect tires for any sign of irregular wear, cuts, snags, and punctures and then report that information to the maintenance department either directly or through a DVIR.
• Educate drivers on tire maintenance and safety! 
  1. During new driver orientation and safety meetings, drivers need to hear about tires and how they can influence:
     • Safety of operating the CMV
     • Tire removal mileage
     • Fuel economy
     • Retread ability
     • Tire related roadside service calls
       
       
• Measuring Tire Tread Depth:
  • Tread depths need to be checked and recorded!
  • DOT has a legal limit -4/32” for steer tires and 2/32” of rubber for drive and trailer tires.
  • Therefore, if any spot in the major grooves of a steer tire are found to be 4/32” or less, that tire must be removed from service. 
  • Drive tires would be required to be removed from service or retreaded when any major groove reaches 2/32” of rubber to be safe. 
  • Never measure in the decoupling groove which is found in many steer tire designs to reduce irregular wear. This outside decoupling groove is sometimes known as a Pressure Distribution Groove (PDG) and they may be very deep or may be very shallow – but it is not the same depth as the major tire grooves.
    
    

2. November 1st-8th is Drowsy Driving Prevention Week

• The National Sleep Foundation has launched Drowsy Driving Prevention week the first week of November
• Educational campaign designed to save lives by increasing awareness of the dangers of driving while sleepy. 
• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that drowsy driving causes at least 100,000 police-reported crashes and kills more than 1,550 Americans each year. 
• All states have laws in place to enforce drunken driving but few have laws to cite a driver who has fallen asleep causing an accident. Only the state of New Jersey explicitly defines drowsy driving as recklessness under a vehicular homicide statute. Known as "Maggie's Law," New Jersey's drowsy driving law has served to raise awareness of the consequences of fatigue behind the wheel and has spurred significant action in other states. 
• There are now at least 8 states with 12 pending bills that address fatigued driving in various ways.

Visit www.drowsydriving.org for more information on Drowsy Driving Prevention Week

3. CSA Violation List Updated in Time for September Snapshot

• The list of severity-weighted violations appearing in the Safety Measurement System (SMS) Methodology was updated in late September to better align with the roadside inspection program. 
• The violations are a key part of the algorithms used to score motor carriers and drivers under the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) enforcement program.
  
  The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's (FMCSA) updated methodology:
  • Added 63 violations,
  • Removed 4 violations, and
  • Updated the descriptions of 34 violations.
    
    What changed?
    
    High-level citations were replaced with more descriptive violations. For instance, "Operating a CMV without a CDL" now has multiple violations beneath it identifying specific violations for failing to have the proper endorsement for the vehicle being operated.
    
    One of the more notable additions relates to information provided to roadside inspectors from the CDL Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse. Inspectors can see whether a CDL driver is prohibited from performing a safety-sensitive function, and consequently, place the driver out of service. The roadside inspection report would cite " 390.3E -Prohibited from performing safety sensitive functions per 382.501(a) in the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse." The violation is now scored under CSA, using a severity value of 10, the highest possible.

ELEVATE YOUR DRIVER'S PERFORMANCE

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• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Safety
• Scorecarding
• Driver performance
• Motivation
• Incentives

*The Idealease Safety Bulletin is provided for Idealease locations and their customers and is not to be construed as a complete or exhaustive source of compliance or safety information. The Idealease Safety Bulletin is advisory in nature and does not warrant, guarantee, or otherwise certify compliance with laws, regulations, requirements, or guidelines of any local, state, or Federal agency and/or governing body, or industry standards.