FMCSA Analysis on Safety Measurement Bolsters its Methodology

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) today released a Congressionally directed report confirming that the amount of data used in the agency’s Safety Measurement System (SMS) is clearly sufficient to allow FMCSA to identify high-risk truck and bus companies.    

The report further found that SMS effectively identifies the truck and bus companies involved in 90 percent of the more than 100,000 crashes that occur each year, and those that are identified as high-risk carriers continue to have crash rates that are twice the national average.

In examining commercial motor vehicle crash rates, FMCSA looked at carriers of various sizes in accordance with the Congressional directive. The analysis revealed no significant difference in actual crash rates between small carriers and those with 20 or more roadside inspections.

FMCSA’s examinations further determined that the category of carriers with 11-20 inspections and patterns of non-compliance has the highest crash rates, presenting a clear and immediate intervention opportunity for the agency to proactively bring these carriers into compliance with important safety regulations, including: hours-of-service limitations designed to prevent fatigued driving; vehicle maintenance, and; commercial driver’s license (CDL) requirements.

FMCSA’s current SMS data sufficiency standards allow the agency to effectively identify and proactively intervene with high-risk carriers before a crash involving a large truck or bus occurs.

In March, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended that the agency increase the minimum number of required roadside safety inspections needed before prioritizing truck and bus companies for interventions. FMCSA disagreed, pointing out that a delay in responding to known non-compliant carriers would needlessly jeopardize the safety of the motoring public.

Under current Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs), a carrier’s safety fitness can only be assigned following an on-site investigation; SMS is a tool to prioritize high-risk truck and bus companies for enforcement interventions.

Category: Featured, Safety