The Safety Management Cycle (SMC) is a useful tool for identifying and addressing safety and compliance issues. In the spotlight this week is the SMC for the Controlled Substances/Alcohol Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category (BASIC). This resource suggests actions in each of the six operational areas that carriers can take to work towards reducing or eliminating violations by creating or improving their safety management controls.
The SMC for the Controlled Substances/Alcohol BASIC includes recommendations such as establishing written policies and procedures that promote, verify, and enforce adherence to all controlled substance and alcohol rules and regulations. Another action a carrier may want to take is conveying expectations to all applicable staff for adhering to controlled substance and alcohol regulations and to company policies and procedures.
Today, a three judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral arguments in ATA’s (and Public Citizen’s) challenge to the hours of service rules. As you know, ATA challenged the rulemaking as arbitrary and capricious because the agency’s decisions contradicted the evidence it relied on. However, the judges were fairly restrained in their questioning of both ATA and the government’s counsel about details of FMCSA’s justifications for the rule. The limited number of questions posed by the judges mainly focused on whether Public Citizen had standing to bring their challenge and whether Public Citizen had waived some of its arguments. 
Do you drive team? Do you ride along with your spouse or vice-versa? According to a recent study done by the University of Kentucky’s College of Public Health, passengers riding in the sleeper-berth are at significant risk of injury and death when they don’t use their safety restraints. In fact, non-use of occupant restraints is the primary reason that sleeper-berth occupants are injured or killed in a severe crash.
Truckers and highway patrol officers usually aren’t the best of friends. In a move orchestrated by the Washington State Patrol however, they’re starting to see eye to eye on a few issues. Members of the WSP have been riding along with truckers in an effort to crack down of aggressive drivers. The enforcement program, Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks (TACT), has been raising awareness about the dangers of driving aggressively around commercial motor vehicles.
