The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is making significant changes to its Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (CSA) system. This update aims to simplify the way safety violations are categorized and assessed. The FMCSA is currently in the second phase of this process and is inviting public comments. Motor carriers can log into the CSA Prioritization Preview site using their DOT number to see how their safety ratings might change under the new rules.
One of the main goals of these changes is to lessen the impact of a single bad inspection on a motor carrier’s overall performance. By standardizing how violations are weighted and categorized, the FMCSA hopes to create a fairer environment for all carriers.
The revised system will reorganize the Basic Safety Indicators (BASICs), which are now referred to as compliance categories. These categories will focus more on carriers that show higher crash rates and unsafe behaviors, such as dangerous driving and maintenance issues. Notably, any out-of-service violations will now always be treated as unsafe driving violations.
In another key change, the FMCSA is reducing the number of violation codes from around 2,000 to just 100 groups. This grouping will help eliminate inconsistencies and allow similar violations to be treated as one, making it easier for carriers to address underlying safety issues rather than getting bogged down by multiple citations.
The severity weights assigned to violations are also being simplified. Violations will now fall into two weights: a weight of 2 for serious violations, like out-of-service violations (except for unsafe driving), and a weight of 1 for others. This change is designed to prioritize carriers with higher crash rates and address concerns that some violations, like seatbelt infractions, were previously given too much weight.
The FMCSA is also improving intervention thresholds to focus on the carriers with the highest crash risks. Different thresholds will apply depending on the type of carrier, with general carriers having a threshold of 80% to 90%, while passenger carriers will have a lower threshold of 65% to 75%.
Another important update is the focus on recent violations. Only violations within the last 12 months will count toward a carrier’s performance score. This change aims to ensure that the FMCSA is addressing current safety issues rather than outdated data.
The FMCSA is also expanding the Utilization Factor to include motor carriers with up to 250,000 vehicle miles traveled per average power unit. This adjustment will help identify carriers at higher risk due to increased road exposure.
Finally, the FMCSA is excluding non-preventable crashes from its calculations. This means that crashes deemed not preventable will not negatively affect a carrier’s safety score, aligning the methodology more closely with the FMCSA’s safety mission.
These changes are still under review, and the FMCSA is eager to hear feedback from the public as they work to implement a system that better reflects the safety performance of motor carriers.