CVE Training Guide

Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Training Guide

Mission Statement To ensure that all commercial vehicles on San Andreas roadways are operated safely and legally, and well maintained, to protect the citizens of San Andreas and the company assets for our commercial motor operators.

CVE Recruitment To become part of CVE, you have to be LEO Trained, and in good standing with your LEO Department as well as Chaos Gaming Network. Recruits can’t have any points from any of these areas to apply.

CVE Procedure: The ability to perform our job in a procedural manner gives us the edge when it comes to the enforcement of our commercial motor carriers that operate along our roadways of San Andreas. CVE Officers are allowed to pull over commercial vehicles (CV’s) without probable cause to do roadside inspections.

• Information on physical equipment please refer to (8)31 Vehicle Equipment in the penal code

When inspecting a commercial vehicle, an officer needs to be aware of what they are looking for, and how to go about looking for it, you are going above just standard vehicle equipment checks, as commercial vehicles and commercial operators are held to a higher standard than a typical driver. CV Operators must possess a CDL License and valid DOT Medical Certification card.

• Additional certifications can be found in the penal code Title 10 Article 2 (10)02

CVE is primarily responsible for Commercial Vehicles but can conduct traffic stops on non-commercial vehicles if they see a violation. CVE primarily focuses on Title 10 in the penal code, but also focuses on other sections such as Title 8.

As a CVE officer, you will have access to various tools specific to our jobs, it is our responsibility as a division to understand the use of these tools and when to use these tools, as well as to understand the operation of tools on commercial vehicles. Below you will learn about different tools that a Commercial Operator will have access to, as well as what us as CVE will have access to.

Electronic Logging Devices (E-Logs):

Electronic Logging Devices or E-logs, are an acceptable form to log driving hours for civilian operators in control of a commercial vehicle. They are a more adequate way to track drive time hours, and rest periods. Remember a commercial driver can only be on duty 14 hours a day with no more than 11 of those hours being actual drive time, and 3 of those hours being idle on duty time, and must take at minimum a 30 minute break for every 8 hours driven.

In order to verify an e-log you can have the motor carrier email you their drive hours to your department email and access it on your MDT.

Company side hours logging - Most public transportation agencies log their employees hours at the operators’ home division/office, and may not have an elog or paper log for you to look over. You may request this information by doing /me or /ooc in proper rp form.

Commercial motor carriers may also utilize a paper driving hours log, this is typically a log that will have a grid with hours of driving/resting/on duty that an operator has to draw a line to record their hours in each section.

Air Brakes: Commercial vehicles especially tractor-trailer combinations as well as public transit buses often have air brakes on their vehicle, this braking system is designed to provide superior stopping power for heavy vehicles such as the vehicles mentioned above. These systems operate on air pressure, rather than hydraulics.

Air brake systems have safeguards to help prevent rollaway accidents should air pressure drop below acceptable levels typically once an air brake system drops to 75 lbs or less of air pressure a audible and visible alarm will sound in the operators area, this may be a light on the dashboard accompanied by a buzzer, or a lever that drops down into the operators view accompanied by a buzzer.

Should an air system drop below 60 lbs of air pressure a spring break will engage and stop the vehicle in an emergency situation. Commercial vehicles also rely on air pressure to apply their parking brakes, should the air pressure in the tanks be below 60 lbs of pressure the spring brake will also engage if the park brakes are engaged to keep the vehicle held in place.

Law Enforcement Tools/Equipment

As a CVE officer, you will have access to an arsenal of equipment you can use for your job as a CVE Officer.

CVE uses the 2018 Chevrolet Silverado pickup, as this allows us to carry all the equipment we will need in the day by day operation of our job.

Some of the tools we have in our arsenal, these tools are listed below:

• Standard police equipment (your radar, MDT, traffic cones, LIDAR, measuring tool, etc…)

• Portable Scales to run portable weight stations

• Basic automotive tools (jumper cables, first aid kit, etc…)

Even though commercial drivers are professional drivers, accidents do still happen involving commercial vehicles. Part of our job as CVE is to investigate accidents involving commercial vehicles. As CVE you are allowed to self attach to accident scenes involving commercial vehicles, even if a dispatcher is on duty. As CVE you are allowed to self attach to accident scenes involving commercial vehicles, even if a dispatcher is on duty. As CVE we have a few specialized things we need to look into when a commercial vehicle is involved in an accident.

Keep in mind that a CDL holder is governed at only being allowed up to 0.05 BAC, if they are operating above 0.05% BAC and below 0.08% BAC they are DUI and will lose their CDL license.

Stopping Distance is greatly affected when you add weight to a vehicle, obviously the heavier a vehicle is, the longer distance it needs to stop. Also air brakes as they take about a half a second longer to apply brakes than hydraulic brakes which are immediate as the air has to enter the braking system increase stopping distance slightly.

It is also our job to consider whether or not a CV was allowing proper following distance for their vehicle and for the conditions at the time of collision. Typically a fully loaded vehicle at 40 mph or higher in speed should be allowing up to a 6 second following distance on dry roads, obviously things such as rain and snow will require greater distances. Typically 39 MPH or less a 4 second following distance is acceptable, but it is encouraged to maintain 6 seconds.

Brake fade can also lead to accidents, brake fade happens if you apply the brakes for extensive periods of time without releasing them, they begin to get hot, and will start to fade and your stopping ability is affected due to that.

Breach of Operating Hours, this can come into play if a commercial operator has exceeded their allowed on duty and drive times, and haven’t taken proper breaks every 8 hours.

It is our job to determine whether or not there was anything on the CDL holders’ side that affected these situations. We never assume the professional driver is at fault, we investigate.

Before you receive your certification as CVE you will be required to complete the following:

You will be required to inspect a commercial vehicle, it is your job as the CVE Recruit to initiate the traffic stop on a commercial vehicle, it could be a bus or tractor-trailer You will need to correctly cite the penal code if violations are found. There are a grand total of 16 points between vehicle equipment and paperwork checks, you need to pass with at least 10 points to be certified.

It is encouraged that you use the penal code and the cheat sheet provided during your first part of the test.

You will need to be certified in the investigation of an accident with a commercial vehicle involved, the second portion of your certification test is you will be required to investigate an accident scene involving a commercial vehicle.

Completion Upon completion of your certification training, you will have the ability to run as a CVE officer in the state of San Andreas. Congratulations and welcome to Commercial Vehicle Enforcement.