The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced Aug. 25 that the changes made final in June have gone into effect. The changes account for due process and any legal processes that come after roadside citations are issued.
The changes will allow the agency’s Motor Carrier Management Information System to remove violations from its system if the violation was dismissed or resulted in a “not guilty” ruling.
The MCMIS data well feeds the agency’s Safety Measurement System, the key element of the CSA program. MCMIS data also feeds drivers’ PSP reports.
However, drivers and carriers will not have their data changed for citations issued prior to Aug. 23: Only citations issued after that date and overturned will be changed in the MCMIS.
Violations that are dismissed with no fine or punitive court costs and those that get a “not guilty” verdict will be removed from the MCMIS. Those dismissed with a fine or punitive court costs will remain. Violations that result in convictions of a lesser charge will be noted as such, and the severity weight will be changed.
Challenges to the agency’s MCMIS (like those made after a court dismisses a citation) will continue to be made through the DataQ’s system, via Roadside Data Review requests.
FMCSA will direct the state in which a citation occurs to change the results in its system after successful RDR submissions, the agency says.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has brought several lawsuits against the agency over its use of roadside citations in its data in which due process was not accounted for. The lawsuits are still ongoing. Click here to read the latest news from them, from April.
