FMCSA Proposes New Safety Monitoring Criteria for Higher Risk Fleets
The agency says the changes could reduce crashes and target 3% more carriers.
The FMCSA has proposed changes to an assessment system for how it identifies higher-risk fleets. They are looking to modernize, streamline and add criteria to its Safety Measurement System that’s been in place since 2010. The Federal Register notice, published Wednesday, starting a 90-day comment period.
What Does the Proposal Entail?
The proposal would:
- Add 14 new violations relating to unsafe driving
- Replace a 1–10 severity scale (“criticized as overly subjective,” according to a Federal Register notice) with a two-number scale
- Change the threshold for when interventions are triggered to deemphasize certain issues such as driver fitness.
The agency also proposed tightening the focus on carrier violations from two years to one according to the notice. That would mean 1,081 carriers would no longer fall under the spotlight.
Company Rankings
Rankings for companies help the agency prioritize interventions, which can include warning letters, roadside inspections and investigations. Penalties can even include ceasing a carrier’s operations.
The FMCSA said the changes would help target issues and lower crash rates, flagging more risks during a two-year period from October 2018 to September 2020. As part of its assessment, the agency said its current standards flagged 50,002 carriers during a snapshot period, whereas proposed standards would have raised that to 51,311.
ATA Reviewing Proposal
The ATA’s vice president of safety policy, Dan Horvath said in a statement that the organization is reviewing the proposed changes but supports efforts to refine the program, stating: “so it can be a more effective tool for prioritizing carriers for intervention.”
Sessions on the proposed changes will take place on March 7th, 14th and 15th.
Related Articles: