Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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JOURNAL FMCSA makes changes to CSA Modifications meant to identify high-risk carriers quicker F ollowing a four-month preview of pro- posed changes to the Compliance Safety Accountability enforcement program, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in late August announced which ones will go into effect in December. The agency said the changes are intended to enable it to more quickly identify and address high-risk truck and bus companies with compliance concerns. FMCSA said the changes, which will provide more precise information when assessing a com- pany's over-the-road safety performance, include: • Changing the Cargo-Related BASIC (Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category) to the Hazardous Materials (HM) Compliance BASIC to better identify HM safety and com- pliance problems. The agency's analysis shows that this change will identify more carriers with HM concerns (33.8 percent versus 29.1 percent). Carriers and law enforcement can view this new BASIC in December. FMCSA will conduct further monitoring before it is made public; • Changing the Fatigued Driving BASIC to the Hours-of-Service (HOS) Compliance BASIC to reflect violations in this area more accurately; and weighting HOS paper and elec- tronic logbook violations equally; • Clarifying definition of passenger carrier com- panies by adding carriers that operate for-hire 9-15 passenger vehicles and 16-plus passenger vehicles, and removing carriers operating only 1-8 passenger vehicles and private carriers operating 1-15 passenger vehicles such as lim- ousines, vans and taxis; • Strengthening the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC by including cargo/load securement violations from the current Cargo-Related BASIC; • Including intermodal equipment violations that should be found during drivers' pretrip inspections; • Removing 1 to 5 mph speeding violations to ensure citations are consistent with current speedometer regulations. This change will be retroactive to January 2011; • Modifying the Safety Management System (SMS) to more accurately display crash infor- mation that is available to the public. The agency will begin using more descriptive terms for the data it has collected on motor carrier violations for each BASIC. The Website no longer will use terms like "inconclusive" but rather "less than 5 violations," or "zero viola- tions," etc. The Crash BASIC will be visible to motor carriers and law enforcement only; and • Ensuring all recorded violations accurately reflect the inspection type; only driver viola- tions will be recorded under driver inspections. Since the program's inception in late 2010, total violations have gone down by 8 percent and driver violations are down 10 percent, the most dramatic decreases in a decade, said FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro. "CSA is raising the bar for truck and bus safety," Ferro said. "Our preliminary data shows that fatalities involving commercial vehicles dropped 4.7 percent last year compared to 2010. Still, on average, nearly 4,000 people die in large truck and bus crashes each year. That is why we are imple- menting these important changes to make CSA even more effective." Overall, 14,000 carriers and 1,700 law enforce- ment personnel participated in the four-month public preview. The Federal Register notice responds to the comments received as of July 30 regarding the update preview. Continued on page 16 LEADING NEWS, TRUCKING MARKET CONDITIONS AND INDUSTRY ANALYSIS T EPA ALLOWS NAVISTAR TO PAY FINES he U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in late August announced a final rule that would allow Navistar to continue selling diesel engines that do not comply with 2010 diesel exhaust emissions regulations, assess- ing a fine of up to $3,775 per engine to do so. Navistar president and chief operating officer Troy Clarke said the rule provided a clear path for Navistar, its employees, union workers, dealers and customers. "We can now provide our dealers and customers with clarity and certainty as we transition to our clean engine technology and look forward to utilizing the final rule as needed," Clarke said. EPA said a 1985 rulemaking established the three basic criteria for determining the eligibility of emissions standards for noncom- pliance penalties in any given model year: The emissions stan- dard must have become more difficult to meet; substantial work must have been required in order to meet the emissions standard; and a "technological laggard" must exist or be likely to develop. "These penalties, which are assessed on a per-engine basis, allow a manufacturer to produce and sell nonconforming engines upon payment of penalties," EPA said. "The actual penalties reflect how close the engines are to Continued on page 12 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2012 11