Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/339485
50 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | JULY 2014 C O V E R S T O R Y : C S A ' S D I S T O R T E D R A N K I N G S hammers on the difficulties some brokers and shippers have with the system, particularly given the safety rating/ SMS disconnect. Day came into the April 29-30 CSA Subcommittee meet- ing with a long list of carriers with four or more BASICs at alert status. Such carriers in many cases would fall clearly into FMCSA's "High Risk Carrier" category, prompting an automatic intervention/review. All of the carriers in his list, however, were rated Satisfactory under SafeStat. "Who's safe?" he said. "I have no idea." FMCSA's Quade explains that, minus the SFD rulemaking, the agency's stuck with the SMS/rating disconnect. Putting expiration time limits on carrier safety ratings in the old sys- tem, which also has been discussed, likely would require more time-consuming rulemaking, he says. And the current rating system is so far entrenched in the trucking business that doing such would have unintended consequences of its own – expir- ing Satisfactory ratings would be missed by those carriers. Legislation introduced in the House of Representatives in May and supported by the Transportation Intermediar- ies Association of freight middlemen aims to cut down on negligent-selection lawsuits by establishing a motor- carrier "hiring standard" that specifically excludes the CSA BASICs. The legislation stops well short of calling for removal of the SMS scores from public view, however. Quade says he'd have more confidence in the CSA SMS than in the old rating system: "I would use a Conditional [rated] carrier with good performance data [in the CSA SMS] before I would use a Satisfactory carrier with bad performance data." Such public use of the data beyond law enforcement, and FMCSA's encouragement of it, is the subject of long-ongoing litigation brought by the Alliance for Safe, Efficient and Competitive Truck Transportation, which represents motor carriers, shippers and brokers, among others. FMCSA continues to be unmoved by CSA-use reali- ties, given its investment in the program. Yet many in the industry would agree with transportation attorney Henry Seaton's assessment of CSA: "The closest thing to it is over on the military side where you spend 10 years and how- ever much money, and the plane doesn't fly." a carrier in the smallest peer group in the Hours of Service Compliance BASIC, which includes carriers getting five to 10 relevant inspections. Assume a carrier with 10 inspections and an absolute measure score of 2.39, putting it right on the 65th percentile in the BASIC, or at the level of FMCSA's intervention alert threshold. If that carrier then gets a clean inspection, what is typically ad - vised as a way to improve BASIC scores, its absolute measure score falls to 2.25 in Madsen's example. However, its percentile ranking in the Hours BASIC, its hours-performance face to the public, shoots up to 76 because it's now being compared to the next-highest carrier peer group, those with 11-20 relevant inspections. Madsen also presented on so-called "dynamic peer groups" – a concept FMCSA has considered to guard against such severe changes. The idea is that the lines separating peer groups are not set in stone, but are more fluid and narrowly defined. Consider a carrier has five inspections, he said. "In a dynamic safety event group, [that carrier is] compared to those with five, and I look to those immediately to the left and right" with four to six inspections as well. The CSA Subcommittee adopted the recommendation to implement such a peer grouping system. It also offered these suggestions for testing: t$IBOHJOHUIFQFFSHSPVQCFJOHDPNQBSFENPSFCSPBEMZ beyond current exposure measures (i.e., number of inspections/ power units/vehicle miles traveled). Other peer grouping con - siderations could include characteristics of operations, routes, number of violations, geography of where carriers received inspections, etc. t$POTJEFSTFQBSBUJOHNPUPSDPBDIPQFSBUJPOTGSPNUSVDL operations. t"DIJFWFNPSFVOJGPSNDSBTISFQPSUJOHGSPNTUBUFT t$SBTIFYQPTVSFTIPVMECFUBLFOJOUPBDDPVOUJOUIF$SBTI Indicator BASIC, and not just vehicle miles traveled. In more high- traffic areas, crash risk is higher. PODCAST: CSA'S GOLDEN TRIANGLE MORE LIKE A 'SCARLET LETTER'? Search the title above on OverdriveOnline.com to hear remarks from Panther's Irwin Shires and Transplace CEO Tom Sanderson during the public comment period following the April 29 meeting of the MCSAC's CSA Subcommittee. Who's safe? I have no idea. –Tucker Company Worldwide General Counsel Darin Day Continued from page 48