Private school bus and motorcoach companies engaged in interstate travel are ramping up for new federal regulations aimed at curtailing crashes and violations attributed to unsafe driver behavior and vehicle maintenance.
“Until they get this thing actually built, I definitely think they
should leave public schools out of it,” Kings explains, at least through 2012, when the first phase of CSA 2012 is expected to end. “Tey’re not going to have a program for public school bus- es and a program for everyone else. So to require everything that FMCSA is saying for school buses, that’s tough, that really is.” FMCSA launched a field test of the CSA 2010 program in 2008
for companies located in Colorado, Georgia, Missouri, all of which implemented the rules in July. In 2009. FMCSA then added to the list New Jersey, Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota and Montana. Beginning this past spring, motor carriers were able to preview their own data by reviewing roadside inspections data and violations and crashes organized by BASIC, the Behavior Analysis Safety Improvement Category. Tose previews close on Nov. 30, after which time the new Carrier Safety Measurement System will replace SafeStat. First Student, the largest school bus contractor in North Amer-
ica, completed a review of its history over the summer. Company spokesperson Maureen Richmond said, overall, CSA 2010 is an improvement as both the timeframe and weighting of violations allow motor carriers to continuously improve operations. She add- ed that close monitoring of the reports generated from the system will allow First Student to tailor its ongoing safety training for the field to ensure any issues or trends are rectified immediately. But the new system is not without its issues. “We are challenged by the school bus categories listed in the
system,” Richmond explained. “Te largest category is 500-plus buses. We operate 60,000. Tis means we are weighted and com- pared with much smaller operations, which does not provide an accurate comparison.” Early next year, FMCSA is expected to release a Notice of
Proposed Rulemaking on its new safety fitness determination. Meanwhile, the rest of the states will begin fully implementing CSA 2010.
More information on CSA 2010 is available at http://csa2010.
fmcsa.dot.gov.
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