Omnitracs 5.9 Point Release Notes

Short Haul

Drivers operating on Short Haul will now be allowed to be On Duty for up to 14 hours instead of 12, and will be able to remain on Short Haul within a 150 air-mile radius instead of 100 air miles.

Drivers will automatically switch to Federal rules when they cross 150 air miles or exceed 14 hours  of On Duty time.

The following rules will be affected by this change:

• US 7/60 Short Haul hrs. (Dec 2014)
• US 8/70 Short Haul hrs. (Dec 2014)

Adverse Driving Conditions

Drivers who select an adverse driving condition will be allowed two more hours added to the 14-hour driving window as well as the two additional hours of Drive time they currently receive.

When a driver selects an adverse driving condition, the clocks on the mobile dashboard will reflect the two hours added to the time remaining under the 14-hour driving window as well as the additional two  hours of Drive time. Confirmation messages will indicate the amount of time by which a driver’s available Drive time and the 14-hour driving window have been extended based on the rule the driver is using.

A violation will be triggered if the driver exceeds 13 hours of Drive time or drives after the 16-hour driving window expires.

A driver may not declare Adverse Driving Conditions if added hours exceed the US 7/60 or US 8/70 limitations.

Note: The adverse driving option is only available to drivers if it has been enabled for them on the host. Host users will still be able to remove this option after the FMCSA rule changes take effect.

The following rules will be affected by this change:

Rest Break

Drivers operating on a U.S. Federal rule that requires a consecutive 30-minute rest break if more than eight consecutive hours have passed since the last qualifying break, off-duty period, or sleeper berth period of at least half an hour will be able to take the rest break in any non-Driving duty status. In addition, they will be required to take the consecutive 30-minute rest break after they accumulate eight hours of Drive time during the available 14-hour driving window.

The changes will affect the way the rest break is calculated; there will be no changes to the user interface.

Drivers will not see a clock while they are on their rest break if any portion of the 30-minute rest break is taken in an On Duty status (consecutive time off will continue to accumulate only when they are Off Duty or in Sleeper Berth). Therefore, drivers will need to watch the Rest Break clock to make sure it resets to reflect the remaining Drive time available (it may be something less than eight hours), which is limited by the time available under the 11-hour Drive time and 14-hour driving window limitations. (This is existing Omitracs behavior.)

Drivers will not receive a rest break warning if they come out of the rest break early (for example, if they go from On Duty to Driving). The Rest Break violation will only be triggered if the driver drives beyond the allowed eight hours of driving, whether cumulatively or within a single period of driving.

The following rules will be affected by this change:

Sleeper Berth

Drivers operating under the U.S. rules listed below will be able to take one rest period of at least seven consecutive hours in the Sleeper Berth and pair it with an Off Duty period (or Sleeper Berth) of at least two consecutive hours to fulfill the 10-hour reset requirement (the two periods, when added together, must total at least 10 hours). Previously, a driver’s only option was eight hours in Sleeper Berth and two hours in SB or Off Duty.

HOS Mobile will recognize the split pairings and will reset the driver’s clocks automatically when a pairing is found. Omnitracs will assume that the driver will be pairing any qualifying period of Sleeper Berth/Off Duty time and will therefore exclude the time from the driver’s 14-hour duty time.

When the SB or OFF period reaches a minimum of two hours, it will be excluded from the 14-hour clock. Any OFF or SB time of less than two hours will count down the 14-hour clock.

Co-drivers will be able to take 2-3 hours of Off Duty time in the passenger seat of a moving vehicle as long as that time is paired with and is taken immediately before or after the 7-8 hours in the Sleeper Berth.

The following rules will be affected by this change:

Note: Passenger Carrier rules will not be affected by this change.

Vehicle and License Plate Numbers Included in Log Header

In compliance with Canadian provincial regulations, the Header tab in the HOS Log now includes the vehicle and trailer license plate numbers when applicable. For each log day, when one or more vehicles or trailers is listed in the Header tab, the plate number is included in parentheses after the vehicle or trailer ID.

North of 60th Parallel Canadian Rules

In compliance with Canadian HOS regulations, Omnitracs now supports two new north of 60^th parallel Canadian rules: CAN 7/80 North hrs. and CAN 14/120 North hrs. These rules must be paired with one of the pre-existing south of 60^th parallel Canadian rules, the Canadian fertilizer exemption rule (CAN 14/180 Fertilizer hrs.), or a U.S. federal rule. The new rules can be assigned at the organization or driver level.

Drivers using the CAN 7/80 North hrs. or CAN 14/120 North hrs. rule will be switched to that rule when they cross north of the 60th parallel line; they will be switched back to their previous rule when they cross south of the line.

When this happens, a rule change event is inserted into the driver log and the log header displays the correct rule.

For detailed information about the new rule sets, see the Canadian Justice Laws website:

https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-2005-313/page-3.html#h-719612

Reminding the Driver to Complete a CTPAT Inspection

When the driver is performing a DVIR in Drive, one of the checks you might want the driver to perform is a Customs - Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) inspection for the cargo on the load. If you want the driver to be reminded of the CTPAT inspection, you need to configure the option for the workflow in Command. 

1. Click Workflows, the select the workflow you want to configure. 
2. When the workflow opens, click Task Library. In the list of tasks, scroll to DVIR; click on DVIR. The DVIR options appear. 
   
3. Check Enable CTPAT Confirmation. 
4. Click [Save Changes]. 

Once the driver finishes reviewing the inspection points for the DVIR and confirms that there are no defects or that the vehicle is safe to operate, the CTPAT confirmation box displays. The driver taps the box to add a check and to indicate that the CTPAT inspection has been completed. Drive automatically detects the location of the inspection and adds the city and state or province to the Inspection Location field.