Senior Reporter
ATA Calls on FMCSA to Make CSA Improvements
Criticisms of the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program at a recent U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing made by a congressional watchdog and key senator should hasten action by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to make important changes to the program, American Trucking Associations said.
In a March 5 statement, ATA said the agency was disregarding criticisms leveled by the Government Accountability Office about the quality and quantity of data used to generate CSA scores, and the need to revise the program’s Safety Measurement System methodology.
Subcommittee Chairman, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), said during the March 4 hearing that she had serious concerns about FMCSA’s “flawed approach” in a number of areas and that she plans to unveil legislation that would reform safety initiatives and ensure the agency is more inclusive of stakeholders.
“The flaws in CSA were again highlighted, and again the agency insisted it will do nothing to correct them,” ATA President Bill Graves said. “FMCSA should not just hear the concerns expressed by Sen. Fischer and the GAO, but address them with real action.”
Fischer said her legislation would aim to improve the agency’s guidance review to provide the public greater transparency of the process and ensure the agency conducts more cost-benefit analyses and real-world studies of proposed regulations.
During the hearing of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security, Fischer also chided the agency for disregarding the views of Congress, stakeholders and several independent agencies with its current “agenda-driven approach to regulating our nation’s truckers.”
During the oversight hearing, FMCSA acting Administrator Scott Darling was peppered with critical questions not only about the agency’s CSA program, but also its hours-of-service restart provision.
Darling responded by expressing confidence in the CSA program, calling it an effective intervention tool and predictor of motor carrier crash risk.
“The information that is provided in the SMS data is good information,” Darling said. “It’s the data that we use to prioritize our interventions, it’s data that is used by the public to make decisions and it’s data that I’ve heard from carriers that they use to improve their performance.”
Darling also said that the agency’s review of 500 studies supported FMCSA’s implantation of a controversial hours-service-restart provision, which was suspended by Congress until the end of September as the agency conducts a study to determine the extent of its safety value.
