Incorporating crash accountability into the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) carrier ranking program would not improve the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) ability to target for intervention those carriers most at risk for crashes, nor would it be easy to implement or cost-effective, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) concluded in a study released Jan. 21.
Crash accountability in CSA, or the lack of it, has been one of the more frustrating issues for carriers since the late 2011 onset of CSA. Industry stakeholders say the agency does motor carriers and the motoring public a disservice by removing crash fault from CSA’s Safety Measurement System rankings. Carriers could also lose business and see increased insurance premiums for crashes that were in no way their fault.
The crash accountability study has been in the works for some time and was commissioned to evaluate both the impact on the CSA program of implementing crash fault weighting and the agency’s ability to implement such weighting while relying on state and local resources for information when crashes occur.In short, the agency concludes from its study that by modifying the Crash Indicator BASIC in CSA’s Safety Measurement System to weight crashes based on fault or circumstances, little benefit would be had.
For more details, see Commercial Carrier Journal’s coverage.
What the American Trucking Associations says on the topic
