Despite support for improved safety, specifics of CSA causing anxiety

As the trucking industry prepares for another year, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration continues to push steadily forward with its new CSA, or Compliance Safety and Accountability, program. But DC Velocity reports that as more of the industry comes under the auspices of the program, many have begun to voice their opposition, both among carriers and shippers.

Designed to bring a more standardized quantitative approach to driver compliance and trucking safety, the CSA program focuses largely on the development of the Safety Measurement System, or SMS. This measure comprises the seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories, or BASICs, that include the wide variety of possible DOT compliance infractions.

The hope is to make the BASICs into a comprehensive measure of the performance of any given carrier, with detailed data available on the specific infractions committed and the frequency of their occurrence. This would give companies clear issues to target as well as provide a more responsive measure of improvement, incorporating data from regular roadside inspections.

The Truck News Services reports that the FMCSA has steadily made information on these measure more readily available, beginning to put up factsheets on the BASICs in January.

However, these categories have drawn some criticism on their own.

While the data provided under the BASICs is all highly objective, documenting specific infractions, FMCSA has also set a level above which carriers are placed on "alert" status. This means the agency is considering the possibility of taking action if driver compliance does not improve. But these alert levels are more subjective, and in particular some have questioned the fact that roughly half of all the carriers currently rated under all seven BASICs have at least one alert.

"You mean to tell me that half of the carriers under DOT authority that have been graded under CSA are unsafe to operate?" Tom Sanderson, president and chief executive officer of Dallas-based third-party logistics company Transplace, told DC Velocity.

Notably, the FMCSA has completed its evaluations for only a small fraction of the carriers - 12 percent - and has at least begun assessments on a somewhat larger minority - around 40 percent. Yet, one spokeswoman told DC Velocity that comparatively small group "have been for 93 percent of the crashes reported nationwide."

Nevertheless, other issues have been pointed out, particularly from the shipping industry. While CSA primarily targets driver compliance in the interest of reducing the incidence of unsafe driving practices, many have noted that the ratings will undoubtedly prove to have substantial legal ramifications.

As more companies receive ratings from the program, there are likely to be court cases where plaintiffs argue that shippers failed to take a carrier's SMS numbers into account, particularly in cases where a company earned one or more alert. But the ratings, and even the alerts are not necessarily an indication that a company is unfit for service, and some worry that giving credence to the ratings only increases their liability.

However, the FMCSA argues that the liability concerns of shippers are not its concern, though it has suggested that companies could find a more complete analysis by incorporating multiple resources, such as the agency's Safety and Fitness Electronics Records System.

Kevin Snobel writes for Truck News Blog that the program is also likely to exacerbate the upcoming driver shortage. While issues of driver compliance have largely been resolved, with most of the drivers likely to fall short of standards already being weeded out, the increased standards could lead to bidding wars for top employees.

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