Harvest Newsletter
May 6, 2008 Vol 11, No 4
Oops – Bad Information
Two different answers have been received concerning registering your harvesting operation under the new Unified Commercial Registration program. The official response to my first inquiry concerning ag use trailers was, "Don’t count—ag use" Recent visit with Kansas Corporation Commission has produced a new answer—if they carry 10,001 pounds or more and leave the state, they must be counted no matter how they are used. If you did not count your combine trailers or header trailers based on my old information, you do not need to change your report. As long as you registered, you will not be in violation, even if your count is wrong. You can update it next year. If you still have not done the UCR enrollment, do it now and count your combine and header trailers as well as your grain trailers.
Comment Period Extended
The comment period has been extended through May 23 for public input regarding the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s rule change that would require completion of truck driving school before your employee is allowed to test for CDL. This requirement, which would be placed in force in two years, will destroy the mid-level operators in harvesting—the one-employee operations will handle it and the 20 and larger employee operations will find a way. The $8000 increase in employee costs will make it impossible for most harvesters to find and train a crew. If you have not voiced your objection to this monstrous rule, go to http://www.regulations.gov and in the Comment or Submission blank, enter FMCSA-2007-27748. Please ask everyone with whom you have any influence—clients, dealers, friends—to submit a statement expressing the economic hardship and threat to national security this rule will cause.
DOT Number, Seat Belts
A gentle reminder from the Texas Highway Patrol—you must have your DOT number displayed on both sides of your trucks. This number must be legible from a distance of at least 50 feet. If you do not have a DOT number displayed, the Texas Highway Patrol will probably stop you. Then they may decide to search all your vehicles for drugs—interdicting drugs has become a major focus for the Texas patro
And from the Kansas Highway Patrol—please be aware that Kansas law now gives law enforcement the right to stop and ticket any commercial vehicle in which the driver is not wearing a seat belt. There does not have to be any contributing cause for the stop to be made—simply noticing that the seat belt is not in place is sufficient cause.
Safety Training
If you were unable to attend one of the Safety Schools held this month, please contact our office and we will send you the Safety Training CD which we gave to everyone at the meetings. The CD has 15 training modules that take 10 to 15 minutes to complete. They are good for individual study and for group safety meetings. We want everyone to have a copy, so call and we will send yours immediately.
Cell Phone Policy
This area of employee conduct is a tough one. Primary point—if you are going to enforce a cell phone policy, you must put it in writing and present it to each employee so that when penalties are enforced, you will be in the clear. Most policies are of this nature: no calls and certainly, no text messages, can be made while driving. If a call is received while driving, the employee must inform the caller that he will call back when he has stopped driving. If infraction of this simple rule is observed, the cell phone will be impounded for the remainder of that day. Recently concern has also been expressed about I-Pod use—hearing is definitely restricted if the tiny earplugs are used, and hearing is needed to detect changes in sounds made by equipment and trucks, and hearing is needed for radio communication. At this time there is no consensus about policy—only concern that safety is compromised when I-Pod use is allowed.
Combine Insurance
As more of you are taking advantage of our new combine rates, don’t forget that there are other great add-ons to our program. Best coverage for the money—damaged equipment rental reimbursement. If you add this low-cost endorsement, you will have $50 per hour for 100 separator hours, to rent a replacement combine if your combine is damaged by an insurable cause of loss. Best deal that we offer, except the free coverage provided by the policy for newly acquired equipment.
Right Hand Turns and Idiots
Hot topic from Safety School—those idiots that pass you on the right hand side when you are trying to turn right. Typical scene—truck slows down, puts on right turn blinker, swings out left so that he can make a right turn without dropping trailer wheels in ditch, and idiot following impatiently passes on the right thinking that truck is turning left.
Suggested solutions:
Mount a convex mirror on the nose of your tractor. You will see the idiot sooner when you start to turn back to the right and may be able to stop turning and let the idiot live.
Cross the center line of the road on to which you are turning and then move back on to your side of the road as quickly as you can.
Go past the right hand turn and turn around, come back and make a left hand turn
Be aware of the traffic behind you. If there is an idiot following closely, slow down, even stop, until the idiot passes you on the left hand side, then make the right hand turn.
Get two orange stickers—on left side of trailer, "Passing side" on right side of trailer "Suicide." (If I get requests for 50 or more of these, I will print them)
Excess Liability
Have you given serious thought to adding additional liability protection to your harvest insurance program. In many cases you can add another $1,000,000 of liability protection for your business and your business vehicles for $1,500. Claims costs keep going up. We think the new liability minimum is $2,000,000.
Losses
The following losses have occurred since the middle of February. Our loss picture does not look so good this year—partially because claims payments for field fires that occurred in 2006 and 2007 are still coming in. Losses reported here do not necessarily mean that payment has been made, only that the incident has been reported.
IV, pickup, rolled on slick road IV struck CV leaving grove IV struck CV, pushed CV into second CV Hail damage Insured backed tractor into his own truck Wind blew header off header trailer Floor/frame cracked in camper trailer Grain cart struck owner’s truck while unloading Goat collided with CV Truck left pavement, driver over-corrected and truck rolled
Final Thought
The weeks from May 1 to May 25 are the busiest weeks in our agency. Many of you met with us in March or April to renew your policy. If you add, delete or change something after the early meeting with you, we will probably catch it—but there is a slight percentage chance that it could slip through the process. Please help us keep everything correct by checking vehicle and equipment lists when you receive your renewal policy.
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