Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/324702
June 2014 | Overdrive | 27 In the brokerage realm, ambu- lance-chasing attorneys are promoting ways to get courts to rule a broker as neg- ligent if the broker contracts with a carri- er with a bad CSA score and the carrier later gets in an accident. Using the CSA SMS has thus become due diligence for some, but Tucker Company Worldwide General Counsel Darin Day hammers on the difficulties some brokers and shippers have with the system, particularly given the safety rating/SMS disconnect. Day came into the April 29-30 CSA Subcommittee meeting with a long list of carriers with four or more BASICs at alert status. Such carriers in many cases would fall clearly into FMCSA's "High Risk Carrier" category, prompt- ing an automatic intervention/review. All of the carriers in his list, however, were rated Satisfactory under Safestat. "Who's safe?" he said. "I have no idea." FMCSA's Quade explains that, mi- nus the SFD rulemaking, the agency's stuck with the SMS/rating disconnect. Putting expiration time limits on car- rier safety ratings in the old system, which also has been discussed, likely would require more time-consuming rulemaking, he says. And the current rating system is so far entrenched in the trucking business that doing such would have unintended consequenc- es of its own – expiring Satisfactory ratings would be missed by those carriers. Legislation introduced in the House of Representatives in May and supported by the Transportation Intermediaries Association of freight middlemen aims to cut down on negligent-selection lawsuits by establishing a motor-carrier "hiring stan- dard" that specifically excludes the CSA BASICs. The legislation stops well short of calling for removal of the SMS scores from public view, however. Quade says he'd have more confi- dence in the CSA SMS than in the old rating system: "I would use a Condi- tional [rated] carrier with good perfor- mance data [in the CSA SMS] before I would use a Satisfactory carrier with bad performance data." Such public use of the data beyond law enforcement, and FMCSA's encourage- ment of it, is the subject of long-ongoing litigation brought by the Alliance for Safe, Efficient and Competitive Truck Trans- portation, which represents motor carri- ers, shippers and brokers, among others. FMCSA continues to be unmoved by CSA-use realities, given its invest- ment in the program. Yet many in the industry would agree with transporta- tion attorney Henry Seaton's assessment of CSA: "The closest thing to it is over on the military side where you spend 10 years and however much money, and the plane doesn't fly." AITA_OVD0614_PG.indd 1 5/20/14 4:12 PM Text INFO to 205-289-3555 or visit www.ovdinfo.com CSA_0614.indd 27 6/3/14 10:28 AM