Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations

According to 49 CFR 390.15, as noted in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations Handbook, motor carriers should keep all records of information pertaining to all accidents.These records must be maintained for a period of one year after an accident occurs and must be made readily available to any authorized representative or any special agent of the Federal Highway Administration.  

The following is taken directly from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations Handbook  

Title 49 — Transportation Part 390.15 — Investigations and special studies 

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Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, U. S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, Washington, DC, 1992. 

The number of regulations motor carriers and their employees must follow can be mind-boggling. Compliance with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) alone ranges from employee drug and alcohol testing to vehicle inspection and maintenance. 

Excepted Interstate — He/she must certify that he/she drives or expects to drive in interstate commerce, but is only involved in transportation or operations excepted under 390.3(f), 391.2, 391.68, or 398.3 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs), and is not required to get a medical examiner s certificate. 

At least once every 12 months, the motor carrier must review the motor vehicle record of each driver, including compliance with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations and the Hazardous Materials Regulations. 

Certifies that the driver is fuUy qualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle under the rules of Part 391 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations ... 

A roadability review is an on-site examination of an intermodal equipment provider s (lEP) compliance with the applicable Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs). This includes compliance with Parts 390, 393, and 396. 

CFR 390 — Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations General 49 CFR 393 — Parts and Accessories Necessaiy for Safe Operation 49 CFR 396 — Inspection, Repair, and Maintenance... 

After the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) grants a motor carrier provisional operating authority, a Mexico-domiciled motor carrier operating in the United States will be subject to an oversight program to monitor its compliance with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs), Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSSs), and Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMRs). 

Operating a vehicle placed out of service for violations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations or compatible state laws and regulations without taking necessary corrective action. 

Parts of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations and Hazardous Materials Regulations having similar characteristics are combined together into live regulatory factors and an accident factor. The factors, evaluated on the basis of the adequacy of the carrier s safety management controls, are ... 

Written Notice — Within 30 days of the compliance review, the carrier will receive written notification of the safety rating resulting from the compliance review. This written notice will be issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration s (FMCSA) headquarters office. The notification will include a list of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulation and Hazardous Materials Regulation compliance deficiencies which the motor carrier must correct. 

A pilot program is defined as a study in which temporary regulatory relief from one or more of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) is given to a person or class of persons subject to the regulations. 

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) Federal regulations that estabhsh safe operating requirements for commercial vehicle drivers, carriers, vehicles, and vehicle equipment. 

Hours of service The number of hours commercial motor vehicle drivers may drive and be on duty after meeting off-duty requirements, according to Part 395 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. 

The terms motor carrier and/or commercial motor vehicle bring to mind the 18-wheelers we frequently see barreling down the highway. Though these types of vehicles are subject to regulation, many other types of vehicles also fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and are subject to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs). 

Safety Program Management — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) were not written to take the place of, or become, your safety effort. Compliance, in and of itself, does not ensure safety. The second major tab is really the core of this manual. Here you will learn how to use the FMCSRs as a framework for developing a comprehensive and integrated safety program — a safety system that overlaps all departments, and impacts all employees. 

Driver discipline — Carriers feel that disciplining drivers is more important or equally important as rewards in encouraging and reinforcing safe driving behavior. Carriers discipline drivers for poor safety performance when drivers violate Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, violate company safety policies, or demonstrate generally unsafe driving performance. 

Federal interpretation means a federally developed and issued guidance regarding a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulation. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has published inter-... 

Our goai is to achieve hours-of-service exceiience, and the company has estabiished a high standard for hours-of-service compiiance and iog vioiations. The company wiii audit all daily logs to ensure compliance with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, Part 395. 

Ensming and maintaining compliance with all applicable Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) is the next major topic we will cover. And this is a big one ... 

Before we delve into the Parts and specific regulations contained in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, let s take a step back. Provided below is a brief history of the FMCSRs, followed by a quick refresher on how to navigate through them. 

The end result of this development is what we today call the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs). Even after deregidation in the early 1980s, the FMCSRs remain the sole safety standard that drivers and motor carriers must comply with when operating commercial motor vehicles on the nation s roadways. 

If the movement crosses a state or country border, interstate commerce, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations must be observed. The individual states will provide regulations for intrastate movements and may or may not reflect the federal requirements. ... 

Pre-trip inspection policy Before operating any company vehicle, our drivers will be expected to perform a complete pre-trip inspection. This inspection will last a minimum of seven minutes, and must be clearly Indicated on the driver s record-of-duty status. The pre-trip must include, but is not limited to, a thorough inspection of the parts and accessories listed in 392.7 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, and a detailed review of the last DVIR done on the vehicle. 

The following tables of fines and penalties list the violations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs), which are revised periodically to reflect adjustments for inflation in accordance with the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended by the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996. The present flne and penalty amounts can be found in Appenix A and B to 386. 

This section will focus on showing how motor carriers can develop and implement a self-audit program. This self-audit will focus on what DOT considers the acute and critical regulations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) that DOT examines compliance against during a compliance review. 

By now, you should have a firm handle on the relevant Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs). In the Safety Compliance Management section of this manual, we provided a variety of suggestions, plans, and strategies to not only get your operation in compliance, but to keep it there for the long-haul. 

A commercial driver needs to begin each shift with a thorough pre-trip and end each shift with a thorough post-trip. Doing a pre-trip and post-trip vehicle inspection is not only the right thing to do from a safety standpoint they are required by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs), and they are an important part of your job as a professional driver. 

Originally created over 60 years ago, the hours-of-service regulations were designed to keep tired drivers off the road. These regulations, located in Part 395 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs), hmit the number of hours you can drive, as well as the number of hours you can be on duty. They also require you to maintain a record of duty status. 

Note that the above definition of preventable accident is focused on the actions of the driver. It is the commonly used definition in evaluating driver performance. A broader definition, wrhich can be used to evaluate the driver s and the motor carrier s actions, is given by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations as follows Preventable accident on the part of a motor carrier means an accident (1) that involved a commercial motor vehicle, and (2) that could have been averted but for an act, or failure to act, by the motor carrier, or the driver. 

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