As a motor carrier, you are prohibited from permitting a driver to operate a CMV on your behalf if you know or should have known (this is important!) that the driver has been disqualified from driving or has otherwise lost their driving privileges. This knowledge requirement relies in part on notification from your drivers. Yes, really.
Since regulated drivers have a duty to self-report disqualifying convictions to their employer within 30 days of the conviction date, the motor carrier has a duty to know whether a driver is disqualified and must be removed from driving responsibilities within the same timeframe.
The regs also require that the employee notify his/her current employer of any “suspension, revocation, cancellation, lost privilege, or disqualification” no later than the day after the employee receives notification of such action being taken by the state licensing agency. This creates a second notice requirement for disqualified drivers to essentially self-report the fact that they can no longer remain employed.
As you can imagine, even with multiple notification requirements in place, reliance on self-reporting has its flaws. In fact, according to a report from the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, fewer than 80 percent of drivers let their employers know when they lose their qualification to drive. This means that over 20 percent of your drivers may be putting you at risk of noncompliance, especially because a motor carrier who does not receive such notification from its employee, and keeps that disqualified driver on the road, faces fines of nearly $6,000 per violation. And in the event of an accident, the consequences are far greater.
As too many unfortunate and sometimes preventable accidents demonstrate, motor carrier-employers are also liable in court for what they didn’t actually know, but had constructive notice of and should have known—that their employee was driving for them on a suspended, revoked, or disqualified license— and as a result, the employer is liable for any accident resulting from the disqualified driver’s actions while driving for the motor carrier. And in the case of regulated drivers, since the employer has a duty to know that the driver was disqualified and should not have been operating a commercial motor vehicle when the incident occurred, the motor carrier will face willful violations and an award of punitive damages.
If all of this seems scary, it certainly is. The following recent cases are a few concrete examples:
The way we interpret the regulatory requirements and related litigation that has ensued after these tragedies, a motor carrier is at risk of violating the FMCSRs (and paying the associated fines and penalties, not to mention defending against negligent entrustment lawsuits) if the motor carrier does not continuously monitor its drivers’ motor vehicle records for new disqualifying activity, or at a minimum, re-run its drivers’ MVRs at 30-day intervals. Foley has developed highly specialized MVR monitoring products and re-screening solutions to eliminate this risk.
Keep in mind that while there is no express requirement in the regs to monitor your CDL employees’ driving records during the 364 days per year when you are relying on them to notify you of the violations that disqualify them from earning a paycheck, you should basically write that requirement in, because failing to do so could mean hefty fines in the event of an audit and will cause irreparable harm to your company when an accident occurs.
Indeed, hindsight is 20/20. But with MVR monitoring, you receive a 100% fail-safe solution to protect your employees, your company, and your brand. To learn more about Foley’s solution, click here or call (860) 815-0764.