FMCSA has added to the SMS site graphs to show both a carrier’s percentile ranking over time — their “score,” essentially — and their absolute measure, which plots carriers’ violation history.The Compliance, Safety, Accountability program’s carrier rankings site — the Safety Measurement System — is getting a makeover in August, as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has finalized the redesign of the site first announced last November.
One of the key goals of the redesign is to better highlight elements of the SMS that actually correlate with crash risk, FMCSA says. The site should also be easier for motor carriers to understand how they can improve their scores and easier for third-parties or members of the public who work with trucking companies to interpret the scores, the agency says.
FMCSA says the changes also “clarify the SMS’s role as a prioritization tool” for carrier interventions, rather than a carrier scoring system.
The changes will take place Aug. 2, FMCSA says in its Federal Register notice, and include, among others:
*Moving carriers’ rankings in the Behavioral Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASIC) from the front summary page to within the carriers’ drilldown pages. Carrier summary pages will not only note whether a carrier’s ranking has put it over the intervention threshold.
*Reordering BASIC listings based on crash risk association, so that BASICS in which higher rankings actually correlate with higher crash risk are listed at the top.
*Highlight carriers’ individual performance trends in each BASIC rather than percentile rankings, which measures carriers against one another.
*Making available carriers’ enforcement case history, which includes the date of closure, any violations and associated fines.
*Showing a carriers’ total number of inspections and the number of inspections with violations
*Clarifying some terminology in the SMS (the Federal Register entry was not specific here)
*Showing carriers’ current insurance and operating authority status
*Having a “take a tour” feature that shows the changes to the website
FMCSA has planned three webinars to help carriers and drivers learn more about the changes and to discuss how the site changes tie into with changes to the agency’s Motor Carrier Management Information System — the well of data the agency draws upon to produce the SMS rankings.
The webinars will take place Aug. 20 10-11:30 a.m. (EST), Aug. 20, 2-3 p.m. (EST) and Aug. 21, 2-3 p.m.
