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August 16, 2005
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Tips for Offering Praise
Praising employees for a job well done should be on every manager's to-do list. Praise boosts morale and pride in work and lets employees know they are valued. One study found that of 65 potential incentives in the workplace, the most effective, as judged by employees, was a manager who personally offered congratulations on a job well done. So how exactly should a manager offer congratulations? Consider these tips:
- Make it timely – Offer praise immediately after you spot the desired behavior. This creates the strongest association between behavior and reward. Waiting too long can actually have a detrimental effect. If you congratulate someone weeks later, your message is this: “Your achievement slipped my mind (i.e. it wasn't important)” or “I am out of touch with what you're doing” or “I don't really care.”
- Be sincere – Praise only works when it's sincere. If you go through the motions, your words will ring hollow. On the other hand, don't worry if you feel awkward offering praise. If you are sincere, employees will see this and appreciate your words all the more.
- Make it personal – When you take a break from your busy schedule to offer words of praise or hand write a note, you are underscoring the importance of the employee's achievement. Your effort will not be lost on the employee!
- Don't be stingy – Offer praise whenever it is merited, not just during performance reviews.
This article has been reprinted from the Roemer Report. For more information visit http://www.roemer-insurance.com/roemerins/index.html
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FMCSA Exempts Twenty-Four Drivers from Vision Requirements
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced in the August 10, 2005 Federal Register its decision to exempt 24 individuals from the vision requirement in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs).
On May 31, 2005, the FMCSA published a notice of receipt of exemption applications from 24 individuals, and requested comments from the public. The 24 individuals petitioned the FMCSA for exemptions from the vision requirement in 49 CFR 391.41(b)(10), which applies to drivers of CMVs in interstate commerce. Under 49 U.S.C. 31315 and 31136(e), the FMCSA may grant an exemption for a 2-year period if it finds “such exemption would likely achieve a level of safety that is equivalent to, or greater than, the level that would be achieved absent such exemption.” The statute also allows the agency to renew exemptions at the end of the 2-year period. Accordingly, the FMCSA has evaluated the 24 applications on their merits and made a determination to grant exemptions to all of them.
The 24 applicants are unable to meet the vision standard in one eye for various reasons and in most cases, their eye conditions were not recently developed. Although each applicant has one eye which does not meet the vision standard, each has at least 20/40 corrected vision in the other eye, and in a doctor's opinion has sufficient vision to perform all the tasks necessary to operate a CMV. The doctors' opinions are supported by the applicants' possession of valid commercial driver's licenses (CDLs) or non-CDLs to operate CMVs. For more information on driver vision exemptions, click here for a PDF
and here for an HTML of the August 10 Federal Register notice.
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FMCSA Now Requires Company Name on Trucks
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said a rule requiring interstate motor carriers to display the name of the company that owns the vehicle, in addition to a DOT number, took effect in July 2005.
FMSCA approved the marking rule in 2000, but allowed owners five years to put company names on their trucks. The rule eliminated the marking regulation of the former Interstate Commerce Commission.
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Secretary Mineta Names Jacqueline Glassman as Deputy Administrator of NHTSA
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta last week announced that Jacqueline Glassman will serve as the Deputy Administrator of the Department's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
In her new post, Glassman will help administer the agency responsible for preventing injury and death from motor vehicles on the nation's highways. She will leave her current position as NHTSA's Chief Counsel to take the new job.
“Jackie knows the auto industry, has played key roles in crafting fair but aggressive fuel efficiency policies, and has a track record of working vigilantly for improved safety. She has the talent, experience and drive to build on the impressive record that is coming to define this Administration's approach to road safety,” Secretary Mineta said.
Prior to joining NHTSA in 2002, Glassman served as Senior Regulatory Counsel to DaimlerChrysler with jurisdiction over the corporation's vehicle safety regulatory compliance and other safety policy programs. She received a B.A. from Brandeis
University and holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School .
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Hours of Service – Where Do We Go From Here?
With the recent news that the finalized Highway Bill does not include the statutory language to “codify” the current hours of service (HOS) rule into law, the questions have started as to what happens next. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) must publish in the Federal Register a revised HOS regulation as required by a federal appeals court prior to the current extension running out on September 30, 2005. That said, on July 28, the agency forwarded their re-written HOS Final Rule to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for their final approval and signoff before it is formally published in the Register .
The FMCSA published in the January 24, 2005 Register the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the current HOS rule, which proposed no changes. While just about everyone in the industry filed strong comments in support of the current rule, word has it that there will be some changes to the rule from the one that everyone has been operating under since January 1, 2004. Given their aforementioned deadline of September 30, the agency will likely publish this new rule as soon as it is “cleared” at OMB – possibly within the next few weeks. It has also been heard that when the rule is published, the compliance/enforcement date may not be the same. What that means, is that while the rules will likely become effective on October 1 st , the FMCSA may provide another “soft enforcement” period for a few months as they did in early 2004 when the current rule was first implemented. The FMCSA has scheduled a 2-day training seminar -- on August 31-September 1 -- in Washington , DC on it's “new” HOS rule (whatever it may be) for its key field enforcement personnel. Some state enforcement personnel have also been invited to this meeting.
TCA will keep you posted on this key issue as further developments warrant.
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NHTSA Issues Final Rule on Tighter CDL Checks
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a Final Rule in the July 29, 2005 Federal Register which revises the procedures in 23 CFR Part 1327 which relate to participating in and receiving data from the National Driver Register (NDR) Problem Driver Pointer System. This rule amends the NHTSA NDR regulations and implements new reporting requirements mandated by the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999 (MCSIA). MCSIA amended the NDR Act to require that a state must verify an individual's eligibility to receive a license through informational checks of both the NDR and the Commercial Driver's License Information System (CDLIS) before issuing or renewing a motor vehicle operator's license. The NDR is a central file of information on individuals whose license to operate a motor vehicle has been denied, revoked, or cancelled, for cause, or who have been convicted of certain serious traffic violations. The NDR was designed to prevent a driver whose license was suspended, revoked, or withdrawn in one State from obtaining a driver's license in another State. Up until this point, the States were required to check only the NDR before issuing a license, which meant that when a driver with a CDL from State A applies for a motor vehicle license from State B, for example, State B may issue the license, unaware that the applicant already has a license – a CDL—from another State.
The July 29 rule provides an updated listing of the NDR codes for states to record and report driver license denials, withdrawals, and convictions of motor vehicle related offenses. Furthermore, it clarifies that pointer records reported to the NDR must only pertain to drivers who have been convicted or whose license has been denied, canceled, revoked or suspended for one of the offenses. The rule also adds a definition for the term “employers or prospective employers of motor vehicle operators.”
The effective date of this Final Rule is September 27, 2005. The July 29 Federal Register notice: HTML,
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PHMSA Issues Final Rule on Applicability of the HM Regs to “Persons Who Offer” HM for Transportation in Commerce
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) -- formally the Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA) -- issued a Final Rule in the July 28, 2005 Federal Register that amends the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR) to add a definition for “person who offers or offeror.” The agency points out that the definition adopted in this Final Rule codifies long-standing interpretations and determinations on the applicability of those regulations.
In the Final Rule, the agency is making the following revisions to the HMR:
- They are now defining “person who offers or offeror” to mean any person who performs or is responsible for performing any pre-transportation function required by the HMR or who tenders or makes the HM available to a carrier for transportation in commerce. A carrier is not an offeror when it performs a function as a condition of accepting a HM for transportation in commerce or when it transfers a HM to another carrier for continued transportation without performing a pre-transportation function;
- PHMSA is clarifying that there may be more than one offeror of a HM and that each offeror is responsible only for the specific pre-transportation functions that it performs or is required to perform; and
- They are clarifying that each offeror or carrier may rely on information provided by a previous offeror or carrier unless the offeror or carrier knows or, a reasonable person acting in the circumstances and exercising reasonable care, would have knowledge that the information provided is incorrect.
The effected sections of the HMR are §171.2 and §171.8. The effective date of this Final Rule is October 1, 2005, and a copy of the July 28 Federal Register notice is available – HTML, PDF Top
10 Ways to Reduce Driver Turnover
Driver turnover is a problem plaguing carriers of all sizes and with the current driver shortage keeping good drivers is harder than ever. Reducing driver turnover requires a serious commitment from carriers to examine their company, staff, and hiring practices. Heavy Duty Trucking Senior Editor Patricia Smith tackled the problem; click here for her 10 Ways to Reduce Driver Turnover.
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