January/February 2011
The CSA program doesn’t change the rules of the road for commercial vehicles. Instead, this new federal transportation safety system collects more and different data on motor carrier fleets—and drivers—and uses that information for a wider range of interventions.
By Lisa Merkle and Diana Mota
In an effort to reduce commercial truck crashes, injuries, and fatalities, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (Washington, D.C.) launched its “Compliance, Safety, Accountability” program—formerly known as Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 or CSA 2010—and the related Safety Measurement System nationwide in December. The SMS, which replaces SafeStat, the FMCSA’s previous safety data tracking and evaluation system, collects more and different data on several fronts, most notably tracking drivers as well as carriers. The additional data feed into new calculations of safety scores, new safety evaluations, and a wider variety of interventions that have the goal of preventing crashes. Much of the data is available to the public, and for the first time carriers will have access to driver violation and crash data, but only for pre-employment screening and with the driver’s permission.
Whether scrap companies have their own fleets or use an outside carrier to move their scrap, they need to be aware of this new safety system and how it might affect them. By taking proactive measures now, transportation managers can minimize the effect CSA has on their fleets and their overall operations.
Data Collection and Scoring
CSA changes how the FMCSA enforces its existing safety regulations. The agency intends to reach more carriers more often—before crashes occur—with interventions that range from letters to inspections or more. To tailor these interventions, it needs more and better data about drivers and carriers, which it collects from roadside inspections, carrier census records, and state crash records. Notably, CSA records all safety-based violations from a vehicle inspection, even when the violation does not result in a citation or the vehicle being placed out of service. The FMCSA made this change because it discovered inconsistencies in roadside inspection reporting.
Whereas SafeStat collected data in four areas (drivers, vehicles, safety management, and crashes), CSA’s Safety Measurement System collects data and calculates safety scores based on a wider range of characteristics the FMCSA determined were factors in commercial vehicle accidents. The behavior analysis and safety improvement categories, or BASICs, are
1. Unsafe driving, the dangerous or careless operation of a commercial motor vehicle;
2. Fatigued driving, the operation of a CMV while ill, fatigued, or not in compliance with hours-of-service regulations;
3. Driver fitness, the operation of a CMV by drivers who lack proper licenses, training, experience, or medical qualifications;
4. Controlled substances/alcohol, the operation of a CMV by drivers who are impaired by alcohol, illegal drugs, or misuse of prescription or over-the-counter medications;
5. Vehicle maintenance, failure to maintain a CMV properly; and
6. Cargo-related, failure to properly prevent shifting loads, spilled or dropped cargo, overloading, and unsafe handling of hazardous materials.
A seventh data point is a crash indicator, which the system calculates using information from state crash reports. The crash indicator will take into account the carrier’s history or pattern of crash involvement, including the frequency and severity of crashes. What it will not take into consideration is who was at fault for the crash. The agency’s rationale is that, regardless of fault, past crashes are a good indicator of the likelihood of future crashes.
Each month the SMS uses the previous two years’ worth of BASIC data and the crash indicator to calculate a safety rating for each carrier in each category. (The FMCSA has loaded past SafeStat inspection and crash data into the system to populate some of the categories at launch.) It bases the rating in each category on the number of violations, their severity, and when they occurred. Not all violations count equally toward the safety rating: Recent violations and violations associated with a greater risk of a crash weigh more. Fatigued driving and unsafe driving—the two “standalone” categories—are the most critical violations. The FMCSA has set a threshold for performance in each category. The system places each carrier in a peer group with carriers that have a similar number of vehicles, inspections, miles driven, and crashes, then it ranks the carrier within its group and assigns it a percentile: Carriers in the 100th percentile have the worst safety performance; those in the zero percentile are the best in their peer group. Those in the 75th percentile or higher will receive an intervention.
Safety Evaluations and Interventions
The CSA system allows the FMCSA to evaluate a carrier’s safety performance and then act on any deficiencies it identifies. In the past, the agency had one all-or-nothing enforcement tool—the compliance review. It used the compliance review—but not the SafeStat data—to create a safety rating that determined whether the carrier was fit or unfit to continue service. The agency is working on a rulemaking change that will allow it to replace that safety rating process with a safety fitness determination based on the SMS data and interventions, new tools the agency can use to alert carriers of safety concerns and require action from the carriers to alleviate those concerns.
The agency will use a carrier’s BASIC scores, crash indicator, ranking, and percentile to identify carriers it will target for intervention. Several factors will determine what intervention method it uses: the number of BASICs above the threshold levels, the carrier’s crash risk, the material being hauled (e.g., hazardous material), the intervention history, and how recently a carrier has had an intervention. Interventions will range from warning letters for carriers with emerging problems to on-site, comprehensive investigations for carriers with serious safety problems. Carriers must provide evidence of corrective action or successfully challenge the violation to avoid further intervention. The system has three levels of interventions:
Early contact can include warning letters and targeted roadside inspections at permanent and temporary inspection locations. A carrier that receives an intervention letter must respond to the FMCSA identifying measurable corrective actions.
Investigations can include off-site investigations, in which the agency asks to review documents related to safety performance; focused on-site investigations, which might target a specific, narrow safety problem; or comprehensive on-site investigations for carriers with broad and complex safety problems revealed via continually deficient BASICs, worsening multiple BASICs, or a fatal crash or complaint.
Follow-on can range from the development of a cooperative safety plan, which the carrier voluntarily implements to address the underlying safety problems; a notice of violation, for regulatory violations that warrant formal action but not a fine, and where the carrier can immediately correct the violation; a notice of claim, for serious violations that warrant civil penalties; to an out-of-service order, in which the carrier must cease all motor vehicle operations.
Typically, a carrier will remain in the intervention process until it no longer has deficient BASICs. Those scores improve as the carrier receives clean inspections—and as the previous poor inspections carry less weight as they age.
Just as it did with SafeStat, the public—including shippers, insurers, and competitors—will have access to certain carrier data in the Safety Measurement System. (Public access began Dec. 12, 2010, on the CSA website, csa.fmcsa.dot.gov.) Public access will not include driver names and other private information from individual inspections. It also excludes crash indicator scores because the data include crashes for which the carrier was not at fault.
Tracking Drivers, Not Just Carriers
Until now, the FMCSA did not keep tabs on individual drivers, even though driver behavior factored into a carrier’s safety rating. With recent research indicating that driver behavior is increasingly a factor in commercial vehicle crashes, the CSA system has added a Driver Safety Measurement System that collects safety data for individual drivers. The hope is that tracking driver safety data will result in greater driver and carrier accountability, but it makes driver skills, carrier hiring practices, and driver qualifications more important than ever.
All inspection violations, warnings, and crashes that drivers incur will stay on their individual records for three years and on their carrier’s record for two years—even if the carrier terminates them. (The impact of a former driver on the carrier’s record will diminish over time because the data are time-weighted.) When drivers take a job with a new employer, their past data do not go on the new carrier’s record, even though the information remains on the individual record.
Though it’s collecting safety data at the driver level, CSA does not rate the safety of individual drivers, nor does it determine their safety fitness or provide intervention thresholds for them. Only during a carrier investigation will investigators review the records of that carrier’s drivers, looking for serious violations such as driving while disqualified, driving without a valid commercial driver’s license, or driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. If the driver or carrier does not correct these and other serious, “red-flag” violations, the agency can intervene directly with drivers by issuing them a notice of violation or notice of claim. (The agency might also implement an enforcement action on the carrier if it deems the carrier is responsible as well.)
Carriers and the public will not have access to individual driver records as they do to carrier records. Carriers will be notified about driver violations only in conjunction with carrier interventions. Also, the driver data go into the FMCSA’s new pre-employment screening program. The program allows motor carriers to review five years of crash data and three years of roadside inspection data for potential hires—but only if the driver gives the carrier permission in writing.
Meeting the Demands of CSA
The CSA system makes it more important than ever for scrapyard managers to pay attention to their vehicle fleet and its operations on a daily basis. Every scrap recycling company that has a private fleet—or hires motor carriers—should have someone familiar with FMCSA regulations and CSA, even if fleet management is not that person’s full-time job. Interventions could be time-consuming, costly, and affect the timely movement of scrap, so it’s best to focus on compliance to avoid violations and crashes in the first place. The FMCSA document “A Carrier’s Guide to Improving Highway Safety,” available online at www.fmcsa.dot.gov, is designed to help carriers understand and comply with FMCSA regulations.
Fleet managers should take the following steps to stay on top of the new CSA system and keep their vehicles and drivers safe and in compliance:
Monitor your records for errors, and correct them. Calculations based on SMS and state crash data are what trigger interventions, so accurate information is essential. Carriers have had access to their SMS records since August, and the FMCSA has created a system called DataQs (dataqs.fmcsa.dot.gov) they can use to dispute errors. Maintain copies of inspection reports and evidence related to observed violations. At the same time, carriers must review—and, if necessary, correct—state data regarding tickets, citations, written warnings, and convictions. You cannot use the DataQs system to correct state-level data. Note that the SMS system will not remove tickets or warnings from a carrier’s or a driver’s record, even if a court system later dismisses them. Further, carriers should regularly review and update their motor carrier census form.
Know your BASIC scores and look for areas for improvement. Review inspection and violation data for the past two years for patterns, trends, and areas to improve, then begin addressing them. Adjust organizational procedures that could negatively affect compliance. Work with your drivers to impress on them the importance of inspections and any violations they reveal, not just out-of-service violations. Make them aware that their performance directly affects their individual driving record as well as their carrier’s record. Review copies of their roadside inspections: Compare them with the FMCSA website for accuracy, correct errors via DataQs, and look for recurring issues the driver can address. Most driver violations the FMCSA identifies could have been prevented before or after a trip, so reinforce the importance to drivers of pretrip and post-trip inspections.
Review your hiring criteria. Because CSA keeps a driver’s inspection and crash data on the carrier’s record even after driver termination, it’s more important than ever to hire drivers carefully. Ask potential hires for the right to review their data in the FMCSA’s pre-employment screening program, www.psp.fmcsa.dot.gov.
Get involved. Ask questions of the FMCSA, and share your concerns. The agency continuously monitors and reviews feedback about CSA. As a result, it has made changes to the system as recently as this past December, and most of the changes have favored carriers. That’s just one more reason to have someone on staff who follows the changes and stays up to date with the program. To get the latest updates, visit the CSA website (csa.fmcsa.dot.gov) and sign up for an e-mail subscription or RSS feed.
Lisa Merkle is DOT compliance manager for OmniSource Corp. (Fort Wayne, Ind.). Diana Mota is associate editor of Scrap.
Services Analyze Safety Data
Determining how to use the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program—the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s new safety data tracking and evaluation system—to improve driver performance could seem like a daunting task. Carriers don’t have to figure it out on their own, however. New commercial products and services can help them monitor and understand the information and, as a result, make better and safer decisions about their fleets.
At least one provider, Vigillo (Portland, Ore.), has been marketing its service to the scrap industry. Vigillo offers more than 100 CSA “scorecards,” interactive reports that help carriers analyze their information in meaningful ways so they can improve their safety ratings. The company updates the scorecards daily using CSA and other U.S. Department of Transportation data and presents the information in user-friendly graphics. Carriers can break down the information by driver or by customized groups, such as divisions, and compare their fleet with similar fleets. They also can generate reports by violation type to identify training and remediation needs.
Vigillo is offering ReMA members a free, 30-day, no-obligation trial of its service and a 10-percent discount on monthly subscriptions, which normally are 50 cents per driver per month with a $50 minimum monthly fee. For more information, call 503/688-5100 or visit www.vigillo.com.