Written by: Sandy Baigent
As most operators are aware, the Commercial Vehicle Operator’s Registration (CVOR) system is an automated monitoring system that tracks the on-road safety performance of a commercial vehicle operator. The CVOR system monitor’s a carrier’s CVOR record over a two-year period. This automated computer system contains information on the carrier’s fleet size, violation rate, safety ratings, convictions, reportable accidents, vehicle mechanical safety inspections as well as any Ministry interventions (letters, interviews, audits and sanctions).
What is important to remember is that even though a ticket may be written to a driver personally and not the company, if convicted, the driver will have to pay the fine, but the corresponding CVOR points will be applied to the operator’s CVOR. What this means then is if an enforcement officer writes a ticket to your driver for driving in excess of 15 hours, and then another ticket to your company for permitting a driver to drive not in accordance with the regulations, the company is facing 12 CVOR if both the driver and company are convicted.
Many drivers charged as a result of a road side inspection erroneously think that if they simply pay the ticket, the company won’t find out about it. What these drivers fail to realize is that if an operator reviews the CVIR (Commercial Vehicle Inspection Report), it indicates that charges were laid. That would be the first instance that a company would find out about a driver charged.
Next, if the operator pulls a Level II Abstract on a regular basis, the inspection for that date will indicate that charges were laid. If the company wasn’t charged at the same time, the operator should be able to determine that a driver was charged.
Later on, approximately 3 – 4 months from the date that the driver simply paid the ticket, a conviction for that same date will appear on the operator’s CVOR Abstract. The conviction very clearly sets out who the driver was at the time.
Even if an operator doesn’t pull it’s Level II on a regular basis, they will discover the conviction when conducting an Annual Violation Review and pull the Driver’s personal CVOR Abstract. Although the driver isn’t assigned any CVOR points, the conviction will show up on their Abstract.
The other concern of course with driver charges is that if a driver is convicted, and doesn’t pay the fine, the driver’s licence will ultimately be suspended for unpaid fines. The ramifications for the operator are huge in that there are 10 CVOR points associated with this type of charge. There have been many drivers who have been charged with this offence as a result of an audit or roadside inspection. Of course, it is the operator’s CVOR that bears these points. In order to protect themselves from this type of charge, it is necessary for an operator to have a policy in place which mandates that drivers must hand in all tickets. The operator can ensure that drivers are following this policy by reviewing all Inspection Reports, pulling their Level II carrier Abstract on a regular basis as well as by reviewing driver abstracts.
While drivers pay the monetary price for convictions, it is the operator that ultimately pays the “point” price for all convictions.