Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
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18 | Overdrive | February 2016 Logbook The rate of truck-involved fatalities is declining over both the short and long term, announced the American Trucking Associations. The truck-involved fatality rate fell in 2014 to 1.4 per 100 million miles traveled, according to ATA's analysis of miles traveled data from the Federal Highway Administration and highway fatality data from the National High- way Traffic Safety Administration. The rate also declined in 2013. NHTSA's data indicates there were 3,903 truck-involved fatalities in 2014, which is 61 fewer than 2013. At the same time, the number of miles traveled by large trucks rose to more than 279 billion, according to FHWA's data. ATA found the fatality rate for truck-involved crashes dropped by 2.78 percent from 2013 and has fallen 4.76 percent over the last two years. It also has fallen 40.6 percent in the past decade. "Studies have found that trucks are responsible for initiating less than a third of all fatal car-truck crashes," ATA said. – Matt Cole The Federal Motor Car- rier Safety Administration unveiled a rulemaking proposal designed to up- date its safety fitness rating methodology. It would integrate on-road safety data from inspections, along with the results of carrier investiga- tions and crash reports, to determine a motor carrier's overall safety fitness on a monthly basis. The Safety Fitness Determination rule would replace the current three-ti- er federal rating system of Satisfactory, Condition- al and Unsatisfactory with a single determination of Unfit. Carriers deemed Unfit would be required ei- ther to improve operations or shut down. The agency believes the rule would extend its rating reach to about 75,000 companies a month, well above the 15,000 motor carriers it's able to inves- tigate annually under the current system. FMCSA estimates that fewer than 300 motor carriers each year would be proposed as Unfit solely as a result of on-road violations. The proposal's Jan. 21 publication began a 60-day public comment period at Regulations.gov. FMCSA will be providing a reply comment period, allowing for an additional 30 days. The proposed SFD rule's methodology establishes fixed failure thresholds for five of the CSA Safety Measurement System Be- havior Analysis and Safety Improvement categories: Hours of Service, Driver Fitness, Unsafe Driving, Vehicle Maintenance and Hazardous Materials. Carriers' roadside inspection performance in those BASICs will be taken into consideration for safety rating purposes, provid- ed the carrier has had a minimum of 11 inspections with violations in the BA- SIC. A carrier's status in re- lation to the fixed threshold will not be affected by other carriers' performance, and scoring above the threshold results in a carrier failing that BASIC. Failure of any two BASICs will result in an Unfit rating. According to the proposal, the SFD also will draw on traditional compliance review-type investigations for failure determinations in each BASIC. Failure of a BA- SIC based on either crash data (Crash Indicator) or compliance with drug and alcohol requirements (Controlled Substances/ Alcohol) would occur only after a comprehensive follow-up investigation. FMCSA's expected use of elements of its SMS within this rule brought allegations of FAST Act violations from a coalition of motor carrier groups. The FAST Act's language relative to safety fitness determinations, the coali- tion argues, requires that FMCSA review and recom- mend changes to the CSA SMS before releasing any SFD rule. FMCSA spokesman Duane DeBruyne declined to comment on the coali- tion's charges. For more information on the SFD rule, including a full copy of the proposal, an instructional webinar and an SFD Calculator, go to www.fmcsa.dot.gov/sfd. – Todd Dills Truck-involved fatality rate down 40 percent in decade, ATA finds FMCSA designed a Safety Fitness Determination Calculator for fleets to use their own data to test how the proposed rule would affect them. FMCSA proposes to tie safety rating to CSA SMS The number of miles traveled by large trucks rose to more than 279 billion in 2014, according to FHWA data.