Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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JOURNAL CVSA touts improved Operation Safe Driver results Annual campaign targets both commercial, passenger drivers T he Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance said the results from its 2011 Operation Safe Driver campaign show that targeting enforcement and education efforts at both pas- senger as well as commercial vehicle drivers is starting to pay off. Drivers are slowing down and taking heed of safety groups' messages that driving fast and cutting it close around commercial vehicles is a deadly combination. Operation Safe Driver was launched in 2007 by CVSA in partnership with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to address the problem of improving the behavior of all drivers operating in an unsafe manner – either by, in or around commercial vehicles – and to initiate educa- tional and enforcement strate- gies to address those exhibiting high-risk behaviors. "Campaigns that target and remove unsafe drivers from the road, like CVSA's Operation Safe Driver, are yielding positive results," said Stephen Keppler, CVSA's executive director. "Until we move closer to achieving zero deaths, CVSA will continue to educate the driving public – and especially teens – about the risks they take when speeding and cutting off Operation Safe Driver was launched to im- prove the behavior of all drivers operating in an unsafe manner by, in or around commer- cial vehicles. vehicles." CVSA initiated two new focus areas under the Operation Safe Driver cam- paign: The Teens & Trucks Program and the Defeating Distracted Driving campaign. During this year's Operation Safe Driver campaign, law enforcement officers who pulled over nearly 44,000 com- mercial and passenger vehicle drivers found that the top three reasons warnings and citations were issued included speeding, failure to obey traffic control devices and failing to use a safety belt. Of the warnings issued to CMV drivers, 16.8 percent were for speeding, versus 40.5 percent for passenger car driv- ers, both significant reduc- tions from 2010; 5.9 percent were for failure to obey traffic control devices, compared to 3.2 percent for passenger car drivers, minor reductions from 2010; and 3 percent were issued for failing to use a seat- belt while operating their vehi- cle, compared to 1.9 percent for passenger car counterparts. These numbers represent a slight rise for CMV drivers and a slight decrease for passenger car drivers. Of the citations issued to CMV drivers, 12.8 percent were for speeding, versus 40.6 percent – a significant drop for passenger car drivers; 2.9 percent were for failure to obey traffic control devices, a slight drop, compared to 1.9 percent for passenger car driv- Continued on page 12 LEADING NEWS, TRUCKING MARKET CONDITIONS AND INDUSTRY ANALYSIS NPTC BACKS UNIFIED REGISTRATION SYSTEM W hile generally supporting the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's efforts to make the Unified Registration System more efficient, the National Private Truck Council said the agency's proposal to require private fleets to dem- onstrate hazardous materials insurance coverage is redun- dant and unnecessary. NPTC's comments were filed last month in response to FMCSA's Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the Unified Registration System. The FMCSA proposal is intended to streamline the existing registration process so that the agency can better track motor carriers, freight forwarders, brokers, intermo- dal equipment providers and cargo tank facilities. NPTC said it frequently has advised FMCSA officials that the agency's primary registra- tion system, the Motor Carrier Management Information System, is out of date and contains far too many entities that have long since ceased operating. "The URS is a new opportunity to ensure that the FMCSA captures all of the existing carriers and interme- diaries in a useable database and also purges those entries Continued on page 12 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | FEBRUARY 2012 11