Proposed Federal Rule Gets Tough on Truck Safety

01.21.2016
HR & Safety

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has announced a rulemaking proposal that will make it easier for the agency to identify and take action against non-compliant motor carriers.
The Safety Fitness Determination (SFD) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) would update FMCSA’s safety fitness rating methodology by integrating on-road safety data from inspections, along with the results of carrier investigations and crash reports, to determine a motor carrier’s overall truck safety fitness on a monthly basis.
“This update to our methodology will help the agency focus on carriers with a higher crash risk,” says FMCSA acting administrator Scott Darling.
“Carriers that we identify as unfit to operate will be removed from our roadways until they improve.”
The proposed SFD rule would replace the current three-tier federal rating system of “satisfactory–conditional–unsatisfactory” for federally regulated commercial motor carriers (in place since 1982) with a single determination of “unfit,” which would require the carrier to either improve its operations or cease operations.
Once in place, the SFD rule will permit FMCSA to assess the safety fitness of approximately 75,000 companies a month.
By comparison, the agency is only able to investigate 15,000 motor carriers annually—with less than half of those companies receiving a safety rating.
How the Rule Works
The proposed methodology would determine when a carrier is not fit to operate commercial motor vehicles in or affecting interstate commerce based on:

  1. The carrier’s performance in relation to a fixed failure threshold established in the rule for five of the agency’s Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs)
  2. Investigation results
  3. A combination of on-road safety data and investigation information

The proposed rule further incorporates rigorous data sufficiency standards and would require that a significant pattern of non-compliance be documented in order for a carrier to fail a BASIC.
When assessing roadside inspection data results, the proposal uses a minimum of 11 inspections with violations in a single BASIC within a 24-month period before a motor carrier could be eligible to be identified as “unfit.”
If a carrier’s individual performance meets or exceeds the failure standards in the rule, it would then fail that BASIC. The failure standard will be fixed by the rule. A carrier’s status in relation to that fixed measure would not be affected by other carriers’ performance.
Failure of a BASIC based on either crash data or compliance with drug and alcohol requirements would only occur following a comprehensive investigation.
FMCSA estimates that under this proposal, less than 300 motor carriers each year would be proposed as “unfit” solely as a result of on-road safety violations.
Further, the agency’s analysis has shown that the carriers identified through this on-road safety data have crash rates of almost four times the national average.
Comments Requested
FMCSA encourages the public to review the proposed new rule and submit comments and evidentiary materials.
The public comment period will be open for 60 days as of Jan. 21, 2016.
FMCSA will also be providing a reply comment period allowing for an additional 30 days for commenters to respond to the initial comments.

Tags:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Stay Connected with CBIA News Digests

The latest news and information delivered directly to your inbox.

CBIA IS FIGHTING TO MAKE CONNECTICUT A TOP STATE FOR BUSINESS, JOBS, AND ECONOMIC GROWTH. A BETTER BUSINESS CLIMATE MEANS A BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR EVERYONE.