FMCSA pursues driver screening tool

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Friday, Nov. 14, requested proposals for the dissemination of commercial drivers’ safety performance data to motor carriers for use in hiring. As ordered by Congress in 2005, the program would help motor carriers assess individual drivers’ crash and serious safety violation inspection history. The organization selected would be granted the right to charge third parties for use of the data, which would be released to a carrier only with the driver-applicant’s consent.

The new system would be based on the Driver Information Resource (DIR), which FMCSA released in 2006 strictly for its own use and use by state partner enforcement personnel. The DIR creates a “driver profile” using the crash and inspection data in the Motor Carrier Management Information System. The DIR is comprised of crash data from the past five years and inspection data from the past three years. Under FMCSA’s Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 initiative, the agency eventually plans to use this type of information to target drivers for enforcement and intervention.

For more information, view the statement of work.