Page 21 - ATR 1 2014 web

Sacrificing Safety for Scores?

Inspection deficit prevents CSA scoring, deters new business

by steve brawner

Contributing Writer

It’s surprising to find some truck-
ing companies asking to be inspected,
but for more than 80 percent of the
nation’s motor carriers, they’re doing
just that. They have not been inspected
enough times to receive a percentile
ranking comparing them to other car-
riers through CSA, the Federal Motor
Carriers Safety Administration’s
(FMCSA) enforcement mechanism and
that lack of a percentile ranking may be
hurting them in the marketplace.
“‘You don’t even have a percentile
score. I can’t use you,’ is an increasingly
common shippers’ response,” said Tom
Sanderson, CEO of Transplace, a third
party logistics firm that brokers freight.
He added, “It is absolutely costing carri-
ers business, and in particular it’s cost- hours of service compliance; driver 92,000 have a percentile score that
ing the smaller carriers business.” fitness; controlled substance/alcohol; compares them to other carriers in their
But the FMCSA says the percentile vehicle maintenance; hazardous materi- peer group.
ranking isn’t meant for shippers als compliance and crash indicator. The The rest are left out because they
to make those kinds of decisions. Safety Measurement System displays haven’t been inspected enough times
Meanwhile, from November through information about a carrier’s scores in or because they haven’t committed
January, the agency tested for public those BASICs. enough violations. In the hours of ser-
comment on an updated Safety FMCSA uses that information to vice BASIC, for example, a carrier must
Measurement System, which displays determine if a carrier is in need of an have been inspected three times in the
CSA scores online. The proposed onsite compliance review, resulting in past two years in order to receive a raw
system would provide a carrier’s raw a safety fitness determination of satis- score measurement. To receive a percen-
measurement score alongside its factory, unsatisfactory or conditional. tile score, it must have been tagged with
percentile ranking. It also would feature Carriers can use it to improve their own violations on three separate inspections.
a better explanation of the carrier’s safety practices. Scores in all but the The percentile score comparing a
performance, including a breakdown hazardous materials and crash indicator carrier to its peers has been prominent-
of its inspections with and without BASICs are available for public view. ly displayed, while the carrier’s actual
violations. Responses are still being According to an FMCSA pre- performance has been hard to find. And
evaluated. sentation at the American Trucking that, along with the scarcity of carriers
CSA measures carriers’ perfor- Associations Management Conference with a percentile score, is a problem,
mance in seven BASICs, or Behavior and Exhibition in October, of the said Dr. Terrence Pohlen, associate
Analysis and Safety Improvement 523,000 active carriers on its record,
Categories. Those are unsafe driving; 201,000 have been assessed, but only 

arKansas trucKing report | issue 1 2014 21