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“better conveys what’s going on in this
BASIC and doesn’t give the public the
idea there are fatigued drivers on the
road.”
The change reflects the reality that
not all HOS violators are fatigued. “This “they begaN workiNg oN csa 2010 iN 2004, with
was a very welcome change at my com- the eNd goal of assigNiNg a safety ratiNg.
pany,” Wing said. “Probably 90 percent i caNNot imagiNe this goiNg forward, as is,
of the violations are for technicalities, a year from Now.”
such as form and manner and log not
current, not tired drivers.”
Following the June 29 decision by —JasoN wiNg,
Congress to require electronic on-board maNager of safety comPliaNce aNd traiNiNg,
recorders (EOBRs) in all trucks, CSA abf freight system, iNc.
scores will now treat paper driver logs
and e-logs equally, “leveling the playing
field” for all carriers, Wing said.

cargo aNd coNTaINErS light or similar violations from your ferent possible violations before the load
Those heavily involved in intermod- score calculations. So check your CSA even hits the road.
al were happy to find CSA will now only data and make sure you’re not going “And then you have to secure five
score those violations found on equip- scored on a level 3 for vehicle-type vio- different shipments and their placards
ment offered or provided by the inter- lations.” on that one trailer. You’re really not get-
modal equipment provider (IEP) that ting credit for your exposure.”
should have reasonably been detected HazMaT – THE bIg ISSUE SMS will now score only viola-
by the driver will be attributed to the “We could talk for an hour on this tions cited involving placarded loads of
motor carrier. BASIC and still have a lot to discuss,” hazmat considered.
But the biggest change is the move- Wing said of the substantive changes “I know why they did this…I don’t
ment of all cargo securement-related to the hazardous materials (hazmat) agree with it,” Wing said. “About 30
violations from the Cargo BASIC to the BASIC. percent of our hazmat inspections were
Vehicle Maintenance BASIC. Carriers “Probably the most important on trailers that did not have placards
complained that flatbed trailers had change to come of all the comments displayed. That doesn’t mean we’re
higher cargo-related ratings, due to submitted last summer was to keep exempt from the regulation—still have
the visibility of securement issues. The this score from public view. Without to have shipping papers; the driver has
FMCSA acted to correct what was con- additional changes, I think it will stay to be hazmat trained, have emergency
sidered an unfair comparison to closed- private for at least another year.” response information—the whole gambit.
container trailers in the coming CSA Formerly the Cargo Securement And 90 percent of those hazmat inspec-
changes. BASIC, the goal of the Hazardous tions where we didn’t have a placard dis-
“For me,” Wing said, “this change Materials Compliance BASIC, according played were violation free. A lot of times
had no impact, but the flatbed guys to a report by the FMCSA, is to “predict the violation you had on a placarded load
will feel a lot differently about this one. future crash risk. It is to be an indicator is the placard.”
What this did for me is it made my of a motor carrier’s ability to properly But, the SMS will now display what
general cargo related violations pretty package, transport and accurately iden- percentage of a carrier’s inspections
much irrelevant.” tify and communicate hazardous cargo were for placardable loads with other
Additionally, vehicle maintenance in the event of a crash or spill.” inspection data.
violations cited on a level 3, or other “The issue with the hazmat BASIC— “So I lost a huge number of clean
non-equipment-type inspection, will which probably won’t affect some of the inspections because of this BASIC. The
not be considered in the SMS calcu- smaller guys—is the FMCSA’s failure to reason this hasn’t been fixed yet is
lation for the Vehicle Maintenance recognize there are vast levels of expo- because the data collected at the time
BASIC. sure in that one BASIC.” of inspection to indicate whether or not
“They’ll stop you because you have For instance, a larger carrier might hazmat is present isn’t reliable because
a marker light out, but they don’t do a have five different hazmat shipments the forms aren’t the same in every state.”
level 1 inspection for whatever reason,” on one trailer and five different sets of
Wing said. “This change will strip those shippers’ papers thus there are five dif- 

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