The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced planned improvements to the Carrier Safety Measurement System implemented in December 2010 as part of the agency’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability initiative. A preview will be available to motor carriers and law enforcement on Tuesday, March 27, and the system changes are scheduled to be available to the public in July 2012.
FMCSA says the SMS improvements are based on ongoing analysis and feedback from enforcement personnel, the motor carrier industry and other stakeholders, and are designed to more effectively identify and prioritize high-risk and other unsafe motor carriers for enforcement interventions designed to reduce commercial motor vehicle crashes and hazardous materials incidents.
Starting Tuesday, March 27, FMCSA will provide motor carriers with the ability to preview how the improvements impact their individual safety data in SMS. These improvements include:
• Changes to the SMS methodology that identify higher-risk carriers while addressing industry biases;
• Better applications of SMS results for agency interventions by more accurately identifying safety-sensitive carriers – such as carriers transporting people and carriers hauling hazardous materials – so that such firms can be selected for CSA interventions at more stringent levels; and
• More specific fact-based displays of SMS results on the SMS Website.
The data preview may be found at http://csa.fmcsa.dot.gov/. During the data preview period, FMCSA requests comments on the impacts of the changes. To comment, go to www.regulations.gov; the docket number is FMCSA 2012-0074.
