The U.S. Department of Transportationโs Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) today took a major step toward improving commercial truck and bus safety with the launch of the Compliance Safety Accountability (CSA) program.
The centerpiece of CSA is the Safety Measurement System (SMS), which will analyze all safety-based violations from inspections and crash data to determine a commercial motor carrierโs on-road performance. The new safety program will allow FMCSA to reach more carriers earlier and deploy a range of corrective interventions to address a carrierโs specific safety problems.
โThe CSA program will help us more easily identify unsafe commercial truck and bus companies,โ said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. โBetter data and targeted enforcement will raise the safety bar for commercial carriers and empower them to take action before safety problems occur.โ
The program also advances the Obama Administrationโs open government initiative by providing the public with safety data in a more user-friendly format. This will give consumers a better picture of those carriers that pose a safety risk. CSA was also tested in nine pilot states before the program was launched.
โWe worked closely with our partners in the motor vehicle community to develop this powerful new program,โ said FMCSA Administrator Anne S. Ferro. โCSA is an important new tool that will help reduce commercial vehicle-related crashes and save lives.โ
The SMS uses seven safety improvement categories called BASICs to examine a carrierโs on-road performance and potential crash risk. The BASICs are Unsafe Driving, Fatigued Driving (Hours-of-Service), Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Vehicle Maintenance, Cargo-Related and Crash Indicator. Under FMCSAโs old measurement system, carrier performance was assessed in only four broad categories.
By looking at a carrierโs safety violations in each SMS category, FMCSA and state law enforcement will be better equipped to identify carriers with patterns of high-risk behaviors and apply interventions that provide carriers the information necessary to change unsafe practices early on.
Safety interventions include early warning letters, targeted roadside inspections and focused compliance reviews that concentrate enforcement resources on specific issues identified by the SMS.
FMCSA will continue to conduct onsite comprehensive compliance reviews for carriers with safety issues across multiple BASICs. And, where a carrier has not taken the appropriate corrective action, FMCSA will invoke strong civil penalties.