Please review below pertaining to changes to the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration (FMCSA) safety rating system called Compliance Safety Accountability (also known as CSA) and proposed changes to how drug testing can be conducted. These two changes are part of the new Highway Bill. Please call me at 701-516-3850 with any questions.
The final version of a long-term highway bill produced this week by a joint congressional committee includes the removal from public view major components of the DOT’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability carrier scoring and ranking program.
The bill, titled the “FAST Act”, also requires FMCSA to fix the program prior to making the scores public again, just as the original drafts passed by each chamber of Congress earlier this year dictated. CSA reform is one of the bill’s major highlights for the trucking industry.
Here’s a look at two of the changes in the updated version of the bill. The bill includes about 1,300 pages:
CSA reform: As noted above, the bill removes from public view the bulk of the Compliance, Safety, Accountability system’s Safety Measurement System, the heart of the CSA program. The legislation removes carriers’ percentile rankings in the seven SMS BASICs and requires FMCSA and the Government Accountability Office to identify the program’s faults, develop a plan to fix them and then implement those fixes before the system can go live again.
Congress in the bill directs FMCSA to study issues like carriers’ crash risk and its correlation to CSA scores, CSA’s rankings methodology, accuracy of the CSA data, incorporating crash fault accountability and how the public uses CSA scores in making business decisions or overall safety determinations of carriers. The bill requires the report to be produced within 18 months of the bill becoming law.
Lawmakers also in the bill included language to bar FMCSA from continuing to use the system and its data to make safety determinations about carriers. Until FMCSA can implement a so-called “corrective action plan,” the CSA program will remain dormant.
FMCSA Removes Property Carrier Compliance and Safety Performance Data from Public Display
As of December 4, 2015, pursuant to the FAST Act of 2015, the information previously available on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) website related to property carrier’s compliance and safety performance will no longer be displayed publicly. While the agency is not prohibited from displaying all of the data, no information will be available for property carriers while appropriate changes are made. This also applies to information provided to the public through the QCMobile app. FMCSA is working to return the website and app to operation as quickly as possible. All information on passenger carriers remains available, and enforcement users and motor carriers can view safety data by using their login information
Driver drug testing reform: The bill allows carriers to drug test drivers via hair test in lieu of a urine test, but not until the federal Department of Health and Human Services establishes guidelines for hair testing. The bill requires DHHS to produce the guidelines within a year of the bill’s enactment. Disadvantage to hair testing is it doesn’t show impairment it does however give you a 90 day history window as each ½ inch of hair represents a 30 day history and the presently required length by the hair testing laboratory is an inch and a half.
Update 12/14/2015
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