Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/378850
50 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2014 C O V E R S T O R Y : T R A P P E D I N A C S A N I G H T M A R E al approaches to trucking have been changing, though, since the advent of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Compliance Safety Accountability program in 2010. One crumbling notion is that mini- mizing contact with law enforcement authorities is always best, particu- larly when it comes to the compliance review or, in CSA parlance, the federal safety "intervention." This is at the root of the prolonged problem that Old Time Express experienced. FMCSA is transitioning out of the old safety-rating model. However, it remains the only system in which a safety evaluation of a carrier can take place, officially. Ratings of Satisfac- tory, Conditional or Unsatisfactory are possible. Only an onsite comprehensive compliance review or intervention can result in a rating for a previously unrated carrier. Given the limitations in the number of carriers the system can reach, being unrated in the SafeStat model hasn't posed a problem for car- riers before or since CSA began. The Conditional rating is another story. It used to be that a Conditional rating was unlikely to put a carrier out of business because FMCSA made it a priority to follow up on Conditional ratings to assess changes the carrier had made in cooperation with the agency. Now the agency essentially has abandoned old policies that prioritized follow-up Conditional carrier reviews. One senior official, speaking on background, explained that even before CSA, a transition was under way. Today's emphasis is on more of a "performance-based program whereby we recognized that it is more appropri- ate to intervene first on known current performance problems rather than fol- low up on old Conditional ratings." A carrier rated Satisfactory under CSA, the source went on, may need more enforcement attention than a carrier with an "ancient" SafeStat Conditional. That's because, in FMCSA's view, the performance data delivered by the CSA Safety Measure- ment System are better markers of carrier safety than the snapshot-rating approach of the old model. Even though FMCSA is placing less importance on Conditional ratings, some in the private sector see the Conditional rating of the old model as gaining even greater import for small carriers' business prospects. Combined with CSA's seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories that measure carrier compliance, the Conditional rating has assumed greater importance in broker and shipper carrier-selection processes. That link- age largely is ignored by FMCSA's new approach to Conditional ratings. Meanwhile, the replacement for the old rating model remains years off. The agency plans to tie a new "Safety Fitness Determination" rating to performance- based data garnered from roadside inspections and crashes. Conditional carriers before and after CSA "There are carriers out there who have been Conditional for 10 to 15 years," says longtime regulatory consultant Richard Wilson, based in Delaware. If they don't have high CSA scores, they have no reason to request a review to upgrade to Satisfactory, which 385.17 of the Code of Federal Regulations allows at any time. That "why bother" approach "is the old philosophy," says Wilson. He tells of Conditional-rated carriers he's worked with that have gotten their compliance operation in shape after the rating was handed down. Six months to a year after beginning such work, Wilson typically would advise the car- rier to request a voluntary compliance review to upgrade to Satisfactory, invit- ing FMCSA to come take a look. By then, Wilson's done what amounts to "a complete compliance review myself," he says. In the past, following such reviews, "70 percent of the feedback I'd get is that, 'It hasn't bothered us, it hasn't cost us business. As long as we keep our- selves under the radar, we don't have to worry about dealing with FMCSA.' " The new world, however, is prov- ing otherwise. Old Time Express' most recent audit was its fifth since 1999, according to the CSA SMS. It was prompted after the fleet "popped a triangle," or exceeded the interven- Here's Big Brother the insurance company: … 'The carrier you're dealing with has a Conditional rating … We don't think you ought to be dealing with these people.' — Richard Wilson, TCRG Consulting Some say a Conditional safety rating is the new Unsatisfactory. — Transportation attorney Henry Seaton Scan the code for an ex- tended video interview with consultant and former owner-oper- ator Richard Wilson about current industry practices relative to the Conditional safety rating.