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FMCSA's Compliance, Safety, Accountability Program
Compliance, Safety, Accountability (formerly Comprehensive Safety Analysis or CSA 2010) is a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration initiative to improve large truck and bus safety and ultimately reduce commercial motor vehicle-related crashes, injuries and fatalities. It introduced a new enforcement and compliance model that allows FMCSA and its State partners to contact a larger number of carriers earlier in order to address safety problems before crashes occur.
The program was launched in summer 2010, replacing the SafeStat system with a more comprehensive Safety Measurement System (SMS) that measures the previous two years of roadside violations and crash data. With SMS, every inspection counts, not just out-of-service violations, and both driver and carrier safety performance are monitored.
CSA focuses on seven safety-related factors, including unsafe driving, fatigued driving, driver fitness, substance abuse, vehicle maintenance, cargo-related issues and crash indicators.
IANA Files CSA Program Comments to Ensure Accurate IEP, Motor Carrier Data (7/30/12)
The Intermodal Association of North America on July 30 submitted comments to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration citing concerns with the Agency’s changes to the Safety Measurement System component of its Compliance, Safety, Accountability program.
IANA’s comments focused on ensuring the proper allocation of motor carrier and Intermodal Equipment Provider violations by using identified attribution processes that were collaboratively developed last fall by law enforcement, motor carriers and IEPs. With respect to FMCSA’s Intermodal Chassis Violation List that drives the enforcement roadside system algorithms and violation attribution determination, IANA suggested that standard processes should be developed to guide and manage IEP and motor carrier accountabilities for specific violations.
Another key concern was the assignment of a percentile ranking to each BASIC and crash indicator instead of using an absolute measurement. IANA observed that assigning a set deficiency threshold to a carrier’s relative performance within a safety event group assumes that a certain percentage of carriers in the group exhibit unacceptable safety behavior, regardless of actual performance. The Association also took issue with the weighting of crash data that implicates a motor carrier, even though the trucker is reported to have no contributing factors to the incident.
Update 1/19/12:FMCSA added a new Resources page to augment the CSA website, featuring "Factsheets" addressing the seven specific safety-related factors noted above. The "show all" option allows users to filter by stakeholder group, such as Carrier, Driver, Shipper, 3PL, Broker, Insurance, etc. Additional features include accessing information by topic or type of presentation method, available in English, Spanish and French.
Click here for the CSA Resources page
Click here for the CSA Web site
Click here for information specific to motor carriers and drivers
Click here to view the FMCSA Motor Carrier Safety Measurement System
Safety Management Cycle
The Safety Management Cycle is the signature tool behind the FMCSA’s investigative process. FMCSA designed the SMC to help Safety Investigators and motor carriers improve safety by identifying and correcting safety performance and compliance issues. The SMC provides SIs and motor carriers with a step-by-step process that goes beyond just identifying “what” the violation is to get at “why” the safety performance issue is occurring.
Click here for more information on the Safety Management Cycle
STB Review of Competition in the Railroad Industry
The Surface Transportation Board announced in January 2011 that it would accept comments and hold a public hearing to explore the then-current state of competition in the railroad industry, and possible policy alternatives to facilitate more competition, where appropriate. Notice of intent to participate in the hearing and written comments were due to STB on June 10, with June 22 set as the hearing date. IANA provided written comments and Chairman Steve Rubin spoke on behalf of IANA at the hearing.
STB Review of Commodity, Boxcar and TOFC/COFC Exemptions
The Surface Transportation Board sought comments as to the effectiveness of the commodity, boxcar and TOFC/COFC exemptions from railroad transportation regulations. Further, they wished to examine whether the rationale behind any of the exemptions should be revisited and whether the exemptions should be subject to periodic review. In addition to soliciting written comments, the Board held a public hearing on Feb. 24, 2011 at which IANA presented comments.
