As we approach the end of the 2012 calendar year, naturally, our attention turns to the normal December activities. Holiday planning, ho-ho-ho’ing, family and friend get-together’ing, ugly sweatering, caroling, egg nogging, Fiscal Cliff’ing and, of course, CSA’ing. Who among us doesn’t enjoy tracking a few “end of the year” changes to our two-year old safety program?
The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) revealed CSA as the #1 critical issue facing the North American trucking industry in its annual survey of more than 4,000 trucking industry executives. Obviously, CSA has our industry’s attention…as do the most recent changes announced last week by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). From a big-picture standpoint, collectively, we agree it’s a good thing CSA continues to evolve. As our industry continues to openly share thoughts, experiences and recommendations about the safety program, the evolution of CSA slowly moves toward becoming more equitable and fair product and measurement system for the majority of the nation’s carrier participants. We hope it gets better and better over time.
Last week’s news is the FMCSA has implemented a number of changes to the CSA Safety Management System under which carriers are evaluated and prioritized for regulatory enforcement. The SMS changes are intended to provide the FMCSA more precise information to assess a company’s on-the-road safety performance. The revisions, which go into effect immediately, include:
- Changing the Cargo-Related BASIC (Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category) to the Hazardous Materials (HM) Compliance BASIC to better identify HM-related safety and compliance problems. Motor carriers and law enforcement can view this new BASIC score effective immediately, but the scores will not be made public for the foreseeable future.
- Revising the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC by including cargo and load securement violations that were previously in the Cargo-Related BASIC.
- Counting intermodal equipment violations found during drivers’ pre-trip inspections.
- Aligning speeding violations to be consistent with current speedometer regulations that require speedometers to be accurate within 5 mph. The change applies to the prior 24 months of data used by the SMS and all SMS data moving forward.
- Changing the name of the Fatigued Driving BASIC to the Hours-of-Service (HOS) Compliance BASIC to more accurately reflect violations contained within the BASIC.
- Aligning the severity weight of paper and electronic logbook violations equally on the SMS for consistency purposes.
Motor carriers are encouraged to check their safety data at http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/sms/ to see how the SMS changes may have affected their SMS results. The FMCSA has also published a factsheet on the SMS revisions at the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) web site at http://csa.fmcsa.dot.gov/
Happy holidays…happy egg noggin…happy fiscal cliff results…and a sincere Happy New Year!!
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Driving Ambition is a premier CDL truck driver staffing company serving Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, and Tennessee. Since 2001, we have specialized in matching safe, experienced CDL drivers for our customers and great job opportunities for our professional truck drivers.
Our commitment to safety and building solid working relationships with both customers and CDL drivers has allowed us to earn an unparalleled reputation with our Proven Drivers and Exceptional Service.
The FMCSA recently announced enhancements to the CSA methodology, specifically the Carrier Safety Measurement System (SMS).
This release is the first in a series of improvements to SMS that will take place up to twice a year. The process includes making a public announcement of planned changes, allowing carriers to privately view the impact the changes will have on their BASIC scores, soliciting feedback on the planned changes, modifying the planned changes (if appropriate), and making the new scores based on the methodology changes publicly available several months later.
The announced enhancements include:
- Moving Load Securement Violations to the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC – All load/cargo securement violations will be moved from the Cargo-related BASIC to the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC. This change helps to mitigate the inappropriate bias against flatbed carriers with their Cargo-related BASIC scores.
- Creation of a Hazardous Materials (HM) BASIC – A separate basic will be created to measure compliance with HM regulations. The Cargo-related BASIC will be renamed the HM BASIC and will measure only those carriers that transport placarded quantities of HM. This change helps to mitigate the inappropriate bias against HM carriers with their Cargo-related BASIC scores since their compliance with HM regulations was being compared against carriers that don’t transport HM.
- Applicability of Lower HM Thresholds – FMCSA will be changing the criteria for determining which carriers transporting HM will be subject to the lower thresholds in each BASIC. Under the new methodology, a motor carrier will be labeled as an “HM Carrier” and subject to the lower thresholds if the carrier:
- Has had at least two roadside inspections involving placarded quantities of HM in the prior 24 months, with one inspection occurring within the past 12 months
- Has 5% or more roadside inspections involving placarded quantities of HM
Motor carriers can now access the SMS Preview through two websites:
- Visit the CSA Website and log in with an FMCSA-issued U.S. DOT number and a personal identification number (PIN)
- Log in to the FMCSA Portal and select the “CSA Outreach” link.
FMCSA encourages motor carriers to view the SMS Preview to see how methodology changes will affect their SMS results.
On the CSA Website’s Resources page, motor carriers and other stakeholders can access a foundational document that provides additional information about the first set of SMS changes.
A Federal Register notice outlining the changes is also available for review. Written comments regarding the changes can be filed to the Federal Docket Management System at http://www.regulations.gov, Docket ID Number FMCSA-2012-0074.
Driving Ambition is a premier CDL truck driver staffing company serving Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Since 2001, we have specialized in matching safe, experienced CDL drivers for our customers and great job opportunities for our professional truck drivers.
Our commitment to safety and building solid working relationships with both customers and CDL drivers has allowed us to earn an unparalleled reputation with our Proven Drivers and Exceptional Service.
**Article Courtesy of Marvin Johnson & Associates (www.mjai.com), specializing in truck insurance since 1971.
One common question that we have been receiving about CSA 2010 is "At what score level will FMCSA take some kind of intervention against a carrier?" Unfortunately the answer is not an easy one because it could depend on what type of violations you are experiencing and your history with FMCSA. However, FMCSA has released some threshold numbers that will be the target levels to trigger some type of intervention with the motor carrier. These levels are listed below. As for exactly what intervention will be taken, that depends on the factors discussed above.
One thing that you should notice in the details below is that hazardous materials carriers are held to a higher standard - just one more reason not to hassle with maintaining your hazmat authority if it isn't an important segment of your business.
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BASIC
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General
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Hazmat
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Unsafe Driving
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72%
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67%
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Fatigued Driving
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72%
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67%
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Driver Fitness
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77%
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72%
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Controlled Substance & Alcohol
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77%
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72%
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|
Vehicle Maintenance
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77%
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72%
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|
Improper Loading/Cargo Securement
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77%
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72%
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|
Crash Indicator
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72%
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67%
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Keep in mind that your CSA 2010 scores will not directly compare to your current Safestat scores. It will be much easier to run your scores up under the new system because of the expanded list of items that will count into your scores. In general it is probably safe to assume that your CSA 2010 scores are going to be higher than your current Safestat scores in some of the BASICS. One area that many people will probably have problems in will be the Unsafe Driving BASIC. Currently you can mask a high moving violation score if you have a low driver out of service score, but with CSA 2010 all of those moving violations will be separated out into the Unsafe Driving BASIC.
Driving Ambition is a premier CDL truck driver staffing company serving Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Since 2001, we have specialized in matching safe, experienced CDL drivers for our customers and great job opportunities for our professional truck drivers.
Our commitment to safety and building solid working relationships with both customers and CDL drivers has allowed us to earn an unparalleled reputation with our Proven Drivers and Exceptional Service.
Effective August 17, 2009, the Hazmat applications and fingerprinting for the state of Indiana are being coordinated by L1 Enrollment Services, an agent of TSA.
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Starting
August 10, 2009, Indiana drivers can either apply online at
http://www.hazprints.com/ or by calling the L1 driver call center at 1-877-429-7746. Drivers must complete the application either online or by calling the Driver Call Center before appearing for fingerprinting.
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Drivers cannot get fingerprinted at an L1 site until August 17, 2009
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Once a driver has completed the application, they can visit any of the nine L1 Enrollment Services locations here in Indiana in addition to the numerous other locations, located in the 38 other states that participate. Indiana will have locations in Indianapolis, Evansville, Ft. Wayne, Logansport, Merrillville, Terre Haute, Richmond, and Seymour. For a complete listing visit
http://www.hazprints.com/.
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Appointments are highly recommended. Walk-ins will not be turned away; however, a driver may have to wait until there is an opening.
Once a driver has been approved for the HME endorsement, he or she may visit any Indiana license branch to complete the license process. Please note that beginning 1/1/09, anyone applying for a license in Indiana will be issued an interim license at the branch (if their current license is expired or set to expire in less than 14 days) and will be mailed the actual credential in 10 days or less.
Drivers seeking to add the Hazmat endorsement will still be required to take the Hazmat test at a local Indiana BMV branch. The driver may take the test prior to or after the TSA Threat Assessment (fingerprinting/background checks), but the written test results are only valid for 180 days.
Driving Ambition is a premier CDL truck driver staffing company serving Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Since 2001, we have specialized in matching safe, experienced CDL drivers for our customers and great job opportunities for our professional truck drivers.
Our commitment to safety and building solid working relationships with both customers and CDL drivers has allowed us to earn an unparalleled reputation with our Proven Drivers and Exceptional Service.