Letter to the Editor: Audit Justice
John Page
irector of Safety
enver Intermodal Express
This hits my problem square on the head. I had a DOT audit in April and received a conditional [rating], due to the number of accidents we had listed. In turn I sent a request to FMCSA to review and remove three accidents, in which my drivers were hit on the rear or on the side and could not be responsible. I had to send the request twice, and the jury is still out.
At the end of my audit, I sat down with the [FMCSA] field rep and I was cited for some very minor items:
ne driver, out of 244 drivers, was over one hour and 15 minutes on one log.
One driver never answered the question on his application of why he left his past employer.
One driver failed to notify the company for 72 hours that he had had an accident, and did not take the drug or alcohol test that was required.
I lost the form needed to give one driver random drug and alcohol testing, but he was an alternate and not needed as part of our yearly count, which we had exceeded.
A week or so after, May 9, I reviewed the total audit with the [FMCSA] area director, and asked him if we would be fined for any of these single violations. He stated to me that we would not be fined.
On May 14, we received our letter from the area director, which was dated May 8, the day before my review with him. He had fined us for the driver not taking the drug and alcohol test after the accident. The fine was $8,740.
He also fined us for the driver who did not need to take the drug and alcohol test because we had more drivers tested than was required. The fine was $8,550.
These fines are way out of line. I lost one piece of paper, an owner-operator did not notify us of an accident and it cost us $17,000. But the FBI can lose 4,034 pieces of paper, and it’s about whether a person lives or dies, but no one gets fined. Justice in the American way.
