FAST Act language is driving changes for CSA

Upon the signing of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act into law late last week, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced changes it made to its Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (CSA) program, as per the FAST Act that called for changes to improve transparency in the FMCSA’s oversight activity.

“As of December 4, 2015, pursuant to the FAST Act of 2015, much of the information previously available on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s website related to property carrier’s compliance and safety performance will no longer be displayed publicly,” FMCSA said in a statement. “While the agency is not prohibited from displaying all of the data, no information will be available for property carriers while appropriate changes are made.”

This development stems from language in the FAST Act calling for a study of data accuracy and reliability, according a summary from the American Trucking Associations (ATA). The summary said FMCSA must commission a Transportation Research Board study of the accuracy of the CSA Safety Measurement System (SMS) in identifying high-risk carriers and predicting future crash risk and severity. The study must then by submitted by FMCSA to Congress within 18 months, along with a corrective action plan a corrective action plan would be required to address deficiencies identified in the study, which would then be followed by the Inspector General within four months determining if the plan properly addresses the study’s recommendations.

And, as per its announcement last week, “there will no information regarding carrier alerts or percentile ranks, or scores, made publicly available until FMCSA completes its corrective action plan…and determined by FMCSA to not have been the truck driver or motor carrier’s fault must also be removed. Finally, percentile ranks and alerts (rates and absolute measures) shall remain publicly available. Carriers will be able to access their respective data, including percentile ranks and alerts. Also, law enforcement officials will continue to be able to access scores and use them for enforcement prioritization,” according to the ATA summary.

Other CSA-related mandates per the FAST Act include:
-FMCSA establishing a means to provide motor carriers with recognition, including credit or improved SMS percentiles, for the adoption of safety technology, enhanced driver fitness measures and/or fleet safety management tools. The agency may incorporate this credit into the existing CSA methodology or create a separate “Safety BASIC”; and
-within 1 year, FMCSA must task the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee (MCSAC) with reviewing the treatment of preventable crashes in the SMS. No more than 6 months later, the MCSAC must make recommendations on a process for motor carriers and drivers to request an FMCSA crash preventability determination. DOT must then review these recommendations and report to Congress on how the agency intends to address the treatment of preventable crashes

The ATA was pleased to see these CSA changes included in the FAST Act.

“By ordering an evaluation and improvement of CSA, as well as removing the flawed scores the system produces from public view in the meantime, this bill is an important victory for data and accuracy in regulatory oversight,” ATA Executive Vice President and Chief of National Advocacy Dave Osiecki said in a statement. 

But longtime CSA critic Jeff Tucker, CEO & Founder at QualifiedCarriers.com & CEO Tucker Company Worldwide Inc., explained that CSA continues to be problematic in its methodology and implementation.

“The sorry saga of FMCSA’s CSA program has been a thorn in the side of real safety advocates interested in quality data, [including] academia, industry, shippers, carriers, the USDOT’s own Inspector General, and Congress’ Government Accountability Office (GAO), FMCSA’s Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee, and its CSA Subcommittee,” he said. “After five years of obstinate, foolishly irresponsible behavior by FMCSA, it quite literally took an act of Congress to force FMCSA to pull these scores down. Relative scores, alert symbols and anything not factual, are removed until such time that the ‘fixes’ are ready for public view. Don’t hold your breath.”