Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/23755
FOR THE RECORD TRUCKING NEWS Most Carriers Unranked Under CSA AVERY VISE arely 12 percent of active motor carriers are ranked in any of the five safety categories within the new Safety Measurement System that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Admin- istration made public for the first time on Dec. 12, according to an analysis by Commercial Carrier Jour- nal, which is a sister publication of Truckers News. B The SMS, which replaced Safe- Stat, is a key component of what FMCSA now formally calls Compli- ance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) — not Comprehensive Safety Analy- sis 2010. The agency published SMS data and metrics after a federal ap- peals court turned down an emer- gency request for a stay. FYI Class 8 Truck Orders Increase November net orders of heavy-duty Class 8 com- mercial vehicles for North American markets increased 38 percent over October to 26,268 units, according to ACT Research Co. In the latest release of the State of the Industry: Classes 5-8 Vehicles, ACT noted Class 8 net orders rose to the high- est monthly total in more than four years. November Trailer Orders Surge Net orders of commercial trailers of 21,314 units in November increased 23 percent over October, which was the strongest month in 12 TRUCKERS NEWS FEBRUARY 2011 more than two years, ACT Research Co. said. Novem- ber net orders more than tripled from the same month last year. November Tonnage Slips Slightly The American Trucking Associations’ advance seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index edged 0.1 percent lower in Novem- ber after increasing a revised 0.9 percent in Octo- ber. Compared with Novem- ber 2009, adjusted tonnage climbed 3.9 percent, which was significantly lower than October’s 6-percent year- over-year increase. Year- to-date, tonnage is up 5.9 CCJ’s analysis of data published at FMCSA’s Analysis & Information website shows that only 92,184 of the 758,682 active motor carriers in the agency’s database are ranked in any of the five publicly available Be- havior Analysis and Safety Improve- ment Categories (BASICs) — Unsafe Driving, Fatigued Driving, Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances and Vehicle Maintenance. The Cargo- Related and Crash Indicator BASICs are, for now, withheld from the pub- lic due to agency concerns that the data could be misleading. Of the 92,184 carriers that are ranked in at least one BASIC, 52,967 carriers have at least one alert, mean- ing they exceeded the threshold for intervention. The greatest number of alerts, 29,207, are in the Fatigued Driving BASIC, followed by the Ve- hicle Maintenance BASIC at 21,791. The Controlled Substances BASIC had the fewest alerts at 3,605. The majority of carriers are un- ranked because FMCSA set minimum thresholds of inspections to be con- sidered within BASIC safety event groups. Those floors vary, but gener- ally carriers must have three to five inspections in the past 24 months to be ranked in a BASIC. FMCSA plans to use those rankings to target in- terventions under its new graduat- ed process, which starts with warn- ing letters and escalates potentially to full-blown compliance reviews. NEWS BRIEFS percent compared with the same period in 2009. Truckers Raise $71,000 for Troops The fourth annual Truckers for Troops campaign by the Owner-Operator Indepen- dent Drivers Association raised more than $71,000 continued on page 69