FMCSA shuts down fifth bus company this year

. . . and the wheels on the bus go round and round ... Err.. or perhaps not, in this case?

WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Friday declared Ming An Inc., an interstate passenger carrier based in New York City, to be an imminent hazard to public safety and ordered the company to immediately shut down.

Okay, FMCSA was basically the Commercial Vehicle/Trucker cops as I knew them. The roadside inspectors and weigh station guys are following the FMCSA program and initiatives, if not directly related. Many of the state dot cops have the FMCSA patches showing their specialization and such, for instance.

I have to say though, as much as I still don't much care for them, overall, they DO have their moments of proving important. Look at just why these guys were shut down.

Investigators found that Ming An failed to conduct pre-employment drug and alcohol testing and allowed unqualified drivers to operate its vehicles in an unsafe manner with its drivers receiving numerous citations for speeding in excess of 15 miles per hour over posted speed limits.

Source

Now that's just not cool in the least. It's bad enough to imagine solo truckers in 18 wheelers running 15+ as a habit on the highways. That's bad enough. However, to imagine bus drivers doing it with a load of passengers is just unthinkably reckless.

I once had a Greyhound bus of all things...a LOADED BUS...race me into a construction zone single lane merge area. By race, I mean within the last mile to mile and a half, where the left lane was closing, he jumped into it from behind me and showed those buses really CAN get up to higher speeds sometimes.

The problem is, even with my slowing as quickly as I could without creating an accident behind me, that bus still nearly ate the concrete K- Barriers that closed off the left lane.

I wonder if the driver of that bus, from years ago, wound up working for these guys? Almost sounds like a good fit for the nut.

We have a lot of unmarked buses that run routs for illegals they even filmed them jumping out from underneath and running to a box truck and throwing their stuff in. Seems that they run routs between Mexican grocery stores in several states. we call them the burrito buses stuffed full of illegals. Finally the government will impound the bus and a week later there's another. Sometimes they use church busses

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


That's about the only good thing they do. The DOT/FMCSA is determined to try to do the impossible and get a 0 accident rate. There is a rule change coming this summer that (yet again) screws the drivers.

reply to post by Zaphod58

Wow... 0 accident target? Are they kidding? I can only imagine how that nice sounding goal translates for regulatory nightmares to the company and driver levels. it sounds like I got off the road just in time. The new points and evaluation system for violations was just starting into effect when I got out. It sounds so much worse for that now.

The bus company here sounds like they had to go, but I can't disagree about the damage I'd seen FMCSA do, used punitively and that was before all this. What a deal for the guys out there on the road now. I've never forget the 4 digit logbook tickets California in particular was known for handing down. $50-$150 anywhere else became $1,200 or higher per tick mark in that state for many.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Yeah, now they barely open weigh stations. They get you for speed though (trucks 55 the entire state). I love the EOBR, it saves so much hassle with a good program (which unfortunately my company doesn't currently have). The best I've seen is the one that Werner uses, but they've had them for like 10 or 12 years longer than everyone else.

Starting this summer, you can only get one 34 reset a week, it has to cover two 1-5 am periods, and you MUST take a 30 minute off duty break within 8 hours of the start of your shift.

reply to post by Zaphod58

Oh that's just asinine. I'd read my whole career about the ignorant 4 wheeler menatlity toward trying to make hours on the clock mean something special for the breaks. I know it makes a difference in natural performance, although that changes greatly if the true sleep cycle changes and one is just waking up at 9 or 10 or 11pm from a rest area. I drove that way as much as I could manage it for my last 5 years in Missouri to West Coast and back running as a dedicated thing.

I guess that would have screwed me on the reset for how I best drove and chose to operate. I mean, my chosen habits put my truck out of the 4 wheeler traffic in the cities as much as reasonably possible (Trucks don't like cars any more than cars like trucks, IMO, for anyone wondering).

You know what stops me cold about your post though..and you're a veteran at this from what I've gathered so you can take a moment to think back and get what I mean. Having been off the road before anyone BUT Werner and a couple others had EOBR's, it's shocking to me that you describe the tracking boxes so casually and so accepting. It didn't take long then for the industry to go from fighting it to being made to embrace it, eh?

I rather liked my paper book(s). It allowed flexibility at least. I've seen Werner's unit and Covenant Transport had the structure for it years before that within Qualcomm and the vehicle movement tracking. Just not quite there yet at that point. Either way though, it's big brother knowing when everything happens that I recall a good % of drivers almost violently against. It's so common so fast eh?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


I like it just because of the fact that you don't have drivers with 3 logbooks driving high on meth anymore (I know it wasn't that common in the past, but it happened). I know exactly when I have to stop, and can figure out exactly where I can make, so it makes trip planning that much easier.

I don't like the fact that they know every tiny little thing that the truck does (coasting out of gear, overspeed, excessive speed, etc). Some things they don't need to know. But some of the newest technology bothers me. This truck has a camera that sounds an alert if I cross into another lane or onto the shoulder without my blinker being on (and sends an alert to the company), it sends an alert if I brake harder than is set by software (which happens every time I bobtail), it monitors (and sends an alert) if you have a potential roll condition... So if it happens too often you get both a Qualcomm message from Safety, and a potential road evaluation which can lead to being fired. Some companies are even installing a system on the front bumper where if you get too close to a vehicle in front, it will apply the brakes automatically.

reply to post by Zaphod58

WOW..... The world of trucking and transportation was always miles beyond the general public in nanny stating and big brothering everyone but that's just out there where it shouldn't be at all. The level of pure micromanagement from companies is also just obscene. Basically, they don't want Truck Drivers anymore, they want wheel holders that know how not to piss off the computer that is actually setting the control.

Some companies are even installing a system on the front bumper where if you get too close to a vehicle in front, it will apply the brakes automatically.

Oh I love that one. What a brainstorm that is. I'm sure Cargo thieves from coast to coast are waiting far more anxiously for that than any safety advocate. It's sale day on the highways if that can be turned to actually bring a truck to a stop, deliberately.

Some loads I hauled for Bayer and other medical as well as baby food were so touchy on security because of ongoing hijack and cargo theft issues that the standing order was not to stop for any reason within 200 miles of pickup....and then under set conditions of securing and watching the truck.

The idea that any outside force could make a truck stop is just insane and terribly short sighted, IMO. Scary stuff there!

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Yeah, we had a load for a company that ships both Levi's and Victoria's Secret and we couldn't stop for 250 miles, had to leave one person with the truck etc.

These companies are becoming more and more a joke. If it wasn't for the nice paycheck, and how much I love being on the road, I would have given it up already. We had a situation where we needed a swap, and kept getting excuses and eventually no swap. The next load we had, we got 5 swap requests. Our home time was supposed to start tomorrow in Vegas, we're in Texas and can't get a load to Vegas, so we're going to end up sitting in Texas. It's a joke.

And the new drivers are horrible too. It used to be that you could get help if you needed it, people stopped when you were backing into a parking spot etc. Now you can't even walk across a parking lot without almost getting run down. A number of drivers have started wearing safety vests just to get inside.

I know a number of drivers that have taken steps to keep their camera thinking that everything is fine because they can't stand the micromanagement.

reply to post by Zaphod58

And the new drivers are horrible too. It used to be that you could get help if you needed it, people stopped when you were backing into a parking spot etc. Now you can't even walk across a parking lot without almost getting run down. A number of drivers have started wearing safety vests just to get inside.

Forgive me for admitting my first reaction was to laugh out loud. As much in horror as humor. It's gotten MUCH worse then. When I got out in 2010 the truck stop lots weren't a place to have 'head up butt' syndrome, to be sure. Drivers did occasionally get squashed that way and I'll never forget the woman that got loaded into someone else's trailer of lettuce. Not found until it got to Iowa, literally. I'd been in Yuma a day before that happened too. (crossing dock doors without watching....and lettuce loads two pallets at once sometimes, literally taking the whole door with a front blind spot to the FL driver).

Now safety vests are literally off the docks and into the truck stop parking lots?? Oh brother... This may literally be a moment where I'm glad I have the memories of trucking just before it sounds like it hit a tipping point for bad than to have seen it now from the working side. I didn't choose to lose the career...but in hindsight, maybe not the worst thing either.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


I had a guy back into my mirror, push it against the side of the truck hard enough to dent the door, while we were fast asleep (really long day, so we were down hard), realize he did it, and take off. Not the first time that's happened to a driver now. Most drivers won't even turn their CB on unless they're at a customer and have to use it, because of the radio rambos now. In fact I'm sitting here watching a truck go through the parking lot about 15 mph right now. How's that for timing? Heh.

The mentality out here now is money money money. They all want money, and want it now, and don't care what they have to do to get it.