The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has submitted comments on behalf of Association members addressing crucial points about the fairness and purpose of the government’s Safety Status Measurement System. OOIDA also has submitted comments in response to a proposed rulemaking that would allow a 400-pound weight exemption for idle-reduction technologies.
In May, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration solicited comments about proposed revisions to SafeStat, an automated data-analysis system used to determine the safety status of motor carriers. FMCSA has proposed improvements that, among other things, focus on driver-only violations, propose to shorten the reporting time period and establish group reporting.
In its comments, OOIDA officials express support for FMCSA’s proposed reduction in the reporting period for data from 30 months to 24 months, stressing their belief that a “focus on more recent data better reflects a carrier’s safety performance at the time it is being evaluated.” Association officials believe quality of the data reported is better than quantity.
OOIDA officials objected, however, to a proposed replacement of the Moving Violations Indicator with a Traffic Violations Indicator. “Citations for moving violations are often successfully challenged,” Association officials wrote in the comments. The Association takes further issue with SafeStat’s focus on violations instead of convictions in regards to driver-only inspections and out-of-service violations. “To eliminate this problem, only admitted violations and convictions following challenges should be included in the new
