The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is planning a webinar series to inform trucking industry stakeholders about upcoming changes to its Safety Measurement System.
FMCSA has scheduled an online meeting for 3 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, Jan. 16. SMS is used by the agency to prioritize motor carriers that require intervention. The public can register to attend the meeting by clicking here.
The agency is working on a redesign of its system to display the results of the new SMS methodology. The upcoming meeting plans to focus on three changes to the SMS. Those changes include reorganizing the Vehicle Maintenance and Unsafe Driving BASICS (now called compliance categories), violation groups and simplified severity weights.
In November 2024, FMCSA unveiled proposed updates to its Safety Measurement System.
“With input from all stakeholders – including government at all levels, industry, nonprofit/advocacy, researchers and the public – FMCSA has identified a set of changes that build on the sound design of SMS and improve its fairness, accuracy and clarity,” the agency wrote.
Despite supporting some of the changes, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association said that FMCSA still hasn’t done enough to make the program beneficial.
“The agency’s modifications fall short of the comprehensive overhauls needed to accurately identify at-risk carriers and reduce truck crashes,” said Jay Grimes, OOIDA director of federal affairs. “These programs will not achieve these objectives until they incentivize actual safety performance instead of compliance. The majority of data that FMCSA collects and analyzes has no connection to crashes. As such, further relying on this data is a misguided approach that does not fix the inherent problems with CSA/SMS.”
Longtime problems
The program dates back to 2006, when FMCSA’s then-administrator unveiled the CSA 2010 concept. The name was shorthand for Compliance Safety and Accountability with a 2010 launch date tacked on. The CSA name has changed, but the core premise of the program remains.
OOIDA has been critical of the data, methodology and overall attitudes regarding enforcement practices.
“In reality, no theory, mathematical equation or model can overcome poor data quality. CSA/SMS is a prime example of ‘garbage in, garbage out’ (GIGO), which refers to the fact that the quality of output is determined by the quality of input,” OOIDA’s comments stated. “Moving forward, we believe a major overhaul of CSA/SMS is still required.”
FMCSA is expected to make a follow-up announcement early this year with the anticipated launch date for the updated SMS. In addition, trucking industry stakeholders can find more information about the SMS changes here. LL
Land Line Managing Editor Jami Jones contributed to this article.
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