Those CSA changes that we have been monitoring are becoming the law of the land, and this month the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has just implemented eleven new regulations in its Safety Measurement System (SMS), each targeting the safety of commercial buses and trucks.
It’s all part of the federal government overseeing trucks and buses on the American roads and highways to try and keep crashes between semis, big rigs, tractor trailer trucks, delivery vans, commercial buses, and other commercial vehicles and those who are walking, driving smaller vehicles (sedans, motorcycles,etc.) at a minimum.
Through the Safety Measurement System, the FMCSA monitors commercial trucking companies and bus lines and decides who may be operating at a risk or danger of serious accidents. Safety issues are found and then the companies are expected to fix the problems, with the FMCSA checking back on their performance.
According to the Department of Transportation, these new regulations will allow FMCSA to access much more accurately a company’s on-the-road safety performance and then hopefully find trucking companies and commercial bus lines that are not operating in a safe manner. What has gone into effect this month includes:
- Changing the Cargo-Related BASIC (Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category) to the Hazardous Materials (HM) Compliance BASIC to better identify HM-related safety and compliance problems. Motor carriers and law enforcement can view this new BASIC in December; however FMCSA will conduct further monitoring before the BASIC is made public.
- Strengthening the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC by including cargo and load securement violations that were previously in the Cargo-Related BASIC.
- Counting intermodal equipment violations found during drivers’ pre-trip inspections.
- Aligning speeding violations to be consistent with current speedometer regulations that require speedometers to be accurate within 5 mph. The change applies to the prior 24 months of data used by the SMS and all SMS data moving forward.
- Changing the name of the Fatigued Driving BASIC to the Hours-of-Service (HOS) Compliance BASIC to more accurately reflect violations contained within the BASIC.
- Aligning the severity weight of paper and electronic logbook violations equally on the SMS for consistency purposes.
