Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/101364
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced Dec. 3 that the long-awaited update to the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program���s categories and violation severity weights, among other changes, went into effect during the weekend of Dec. 1. Changes addressing drivers��� and carriers��� long-held concerns about inequities and problems in the system include a new distinction in a violation in the Driver Fitness Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category (BASIC) system now will be able to account for whether the suspension was due to a safety- or non-safetyrelated reason. Nonsafety-related suspensions, such as the oftenremarked-upon situation of a driver behind on child-support payments, will receive a lower severity weight in the BASIC. Various changes to speeding violation weights also will occur and will be retroactive over the two years of carrier inspection histories included in public Safety Measurement System rankings. There will be no more speeding violations in the 1-5 mph range over SHORT HAULS PRESIDENT OBAMA recognized Detroit Diesel Corp. and its local UAW unit for working together to invest in facilities needed to build the Detroit DT12 automated manual transmission and DD15 14 | Overdrive | January 2013 per-hour over the limit is listed, the violation will be given the lowest (1 point) severity weighting covering speeding warnings often utilized in probable-cause states as reasons to pull over and inspect a truck. Improper securement violations now will appear as part of carriers��� Vehicle Maintenance BASIC measures. In place of the former Cargo-Related BASIC, FMCSA is leaving only hazmat-related violations and calling the category the Hazmat BASIC. The severity weights of many securement violations, in turn, have been reduced. FMCSA has been vocal about scores in the new hazmat category not exhibiting a strong correlation the change by noting the bias the former Cargo-Related BASIC had on open-deck carriers, who were overrepresented there. The violations that remain as contributors to carriers��� scores in the Hazmat BASIC are largely related to placarding errors. It is possible, too, for a carrier not subject to the lower BASIC asymmetric turbocharger at the company���s plant in Redford, Mich. CRASH-RELATED FATALITIES among occupants of large trucks rose 20 percent in 2011 from 2010, which has spurred action from FMCSA. Liz Roll/FEMA LOGBOOK CSA makes long-awaited changes CSA now accounts for whether a driving-whiledisqualified ding stems from a safety- or nonsafety-related reason and scores accordingly. for hazmat carriers to register a percentile ranking in the Hazmat BASIC. FMCSA has agreed to keep the Hazmat BASIC numbers hidden from public view, just as the Cargorelated BASIC has been, for a year as these and other potential anomalies are addressed. ��� Todd Dills The overall number of highway deaths in 2011 fell to levels not seen since the 1940s, the U.S. Department of Transportation said in December. THE INVESTIGATIVE ARM of Congress, the Government Accountability Of���ce, said in a Nov. 30 report that new medical regulations by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration should help keep impaired drivers and those deemed medically un���t ��� because of epilepsy or substance abuse issues ��� from operating commercial vehicles.