Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/25194
CSA Challenges As the compliance program rolls out, complaints about inspections and law enforcement actions emerge, with questions of due process looming large TODD DILLS AND MAX KVIDERA I n early December, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Admin- istration flipped the switch. The Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program’s new Safety Measurement System, in which carriers are now ranked in five public and two agency-view-only “BASIC” categories of measurement, replaced SafeStat as the primary statistical window into carrier safety. Combined with changes to the Inspection Selection System scores assigned to carriers and used by roadside inspectors to prioritize inspections, the change wasn’t exactly an immediate Are you getting inspected more or less since CSA’s new Safety Measurement System went live? Most drivers report inspection levels in equilib- rium since SMS results went live and Inspection Selection System changes under CSA significantly increased the number of carriers prioritized for inspections. See “Emerging Inspection Technolo- gies” on p. 24 for the new CSA safety rating system’s potential to gain virtually complete coverage with new technology. 20 TRUCKERS NEWS MARCH 2011 More 28% Less 8% About the same 64% SOURCE: ETRUCKER.COM POLL, 122 RESPONSES revolution in safety enforcement. Rob Abbott, vice president of safety policy at the American Trucking Asso- ciations, says he’s heard far fewer com- plaints about the system than six to 12 months ago because FMCSA “was very responsive and made many of the changes we called for.” Schneider National Vice President of Safety Don Osterberg says presen- tation of the information shows “who the problematic drivers are and where the problematic issues are. Motor car- riers and drivers who have been doing the right things right will find CSA to have a negligible impact on their operations.” “It hasn’t been the great crisis folks were prognosticating,” says Joe Rajko- vacz, regulatory affairs specialist at the Owner-Operator Independent Driv- ers Association, “certainly not 200,000