The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Nov. 18 announced it made improvements to its system for assessing the safety of commercial motor vehicle carriers and drivers.
FMCSA revised the new Compliance Safety Accountability (formerly known as Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010) Safety Measurement System after receiving feedback during a data preview period of roadside inspection data. Revisions include:
- The term “deficient” changes to “alert” when a motor carrier’s score in one or more Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories is above the FMCSA threshold for intervention.
- Clarification that BASIC results signify the carrier is prioritized for an FMCSA intervention.
- Recalibrating the cargo-related BASIC with subject matter experts providing input on the cargo securement severity weights. Some carriers voiced concern that the BASIC was overrepresenting certain industry segments and potentially creating a misleading safety alert warning.
- Modify the public display to show SMS cargo-related BASIC violations only. Percentiles and intervention status will not be on public display.
