FMCSA to consider altering CSA 2010 guidelines to include accountability

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is working to decrease the number of highway crashes each year by monitoring the performance and safety ratings of drivers and trucking companies.

Created as an initiative to improve safety in the commercial motor carrier industries, the CSA 2010 program focuses on high-risk carrier and driver behaviors and how using newer, more effective methods can help eradicate this behavior.

The FMCSA keeps track of trucking accidents under the Compliance Safety Accountability program. By analyzing the data, FMCSA is able to give each carrier a safety rating score that serves as a reliable predictor of future safety performance. However, the rating is solely based on the number of crashes, and places no emphasis on which driver was at fault.

Members of the trucking industry are challenging the FMCSA to change the policy and add accountability as a factor in CSA rating scores. If the driver at fault is penalized more than the driver not at fault, CSA safety rating scores could change significantly for certain carriers.

FMCSA has considered this idea and run a study to see if it would be possible to determine fault in truck accidents by using police reports, but has not yet released the data to anxious industry executives.

FMCSA to consider altering CSA 2010 guidelines to include accountability

Wednesday, August 15th, 2012