FMCSA Improves CSA Safety Measurement System for Haz Mat Carriers


Carriers that haul any quantity of hazardous materials are likely to see a change in their CSA scores. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration recently revised its Compliance, Safety, Accountability program. In August, FMCSA refined the criteria that determine which motor carriers are subject to the more stringent Hazardous Ma- terials intervention threshold. This allows FMCSA to more accurately identify those motor carriers that transport placardable quantities of HM, ensuring that enforcement resources are deployed as effectively and efficiently as possible.


CSA’s Safety Measurement System assesses 24 months of motor carriers’ safety performance information (inspec- tions and investigations) by seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories. The seven BASICs are Unsafe Driving, Fatigued Driving (Hours-of-Service), Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Vehicle Mainte- nance, Cargo-Related and Crash Indicator.


Every month, FMCSA updates motor carriers’ percentiles in each BASIC. Motor carriers with BASIC percentiles above the FMCSA threshold are prioritized for an FMCSA intervention. Motor carriers that transport placardable quantities of HM are subject to more stringent BASIC thresholds because of the higher safety risk placardable HMs pose to the public in the event of a crash or a spill. Prior to the change, the HM intervention threshold was


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applied to motor carriers based solely on their registration information. If a carrier reported transportation of any quantity of HM, they were often subject to the lower HM threshold when, in fact, they did not carry placardable quantities of HM. The HM intervention threshold now applies to motor carriers that transport placardable quantities of HM based on operational evidence. These are motor carriers that meet one of the following criteria: • Inspection in the last 24 months during which the motor carrier was identified as carrying placardable quantity of HM


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• Review or safety audit in the last 24 months during which the motor carrier was identified as carrying placardable quantity of HM


n • Motor carrier has a HM permit


For more information, visit FMCSA’s CSA website - http://csa.fmcsa.dot.gov/default.aspx. To stay up-to-date, subscribe to the CSA RSS feed or email list at http://csa.fmcsa.dot.gov/stay_connected.aspx.


Stay Informed With E-Updates


Motor carriers have a lot of information to monitor. Wouldn’t it be nice if news about the highways you use could come to you, instead?


It can. MoDOT’s e-update system sends an email to sub- scribers anytime there’s news about a topic of interest to them. It’s free and flexible. Subscribers can change their preferences as often as they wish.


To get started, visit www.modot.org and click the E-Up- date tab on the left side.


Click in the New Subscriber box – but notice that returning subscribers need to know their ID and password. You get to choose both.


Fill out the account information section with the UserID and Password of your choice and answers to at least those fields marked with an asterisk.


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Scroll down the page. You’ll see that subscriptions are available on a statewide, county, project and highway route basis. Toward the end of the page are topics of in- terest to motor carriers.


Once you’ve chosen the topics for which you would like to receive e-mail, click the submit button at the bottom of the page to enroll.


Revisit anytime with your userID and password to add, change or delete topics from your subscription list.


The “major highway incident” subscription is a hit with dispatchers and with owner-operators’ home teams. They receive an email about an interstate or highway closure and can call to tell their drivers to reroute. Folks with regular routes like to follow all the news associated with those highways.


Check out e-updates for yourself!


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