[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 59 (Tuesday, March 27, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18298-18302]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-7360]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
[Docket No. FMCSA 2012-0074]
Improvements to the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA)
Motor Carrier Safety Measurement System (SMS)
AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice; request for public comment.
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SUMMARY: FMCSA announces planned improvements to the Carrier Safety
Measurement System (SMS) which was implemented in December 2010 as part
of the Agency's broader Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA)
initiative. A preview of these improvements will be available to motor
carriers and law enforcement on March 27, 2012. The system changes are
scheduled to be available to the public in July 2012. There will be
additional opportunity for public comment on the changes after the
preview period ends in July 2012.
The improvements to SMS announced in this notice are based on
ongoing analysis and feedback from enforcement personnel, the motor
carrier industry, and other stakeholders. The changes more effectively
identify and prioritize high-risk and other unsafe motor carriers for
enforcement interventions designed to reduce commercial motor vehicle
crashes and hazardous materials incidents.
Starting on March 27, 2012, FMCSA will provide motor carriers with
the ability to preview how the improvements impact their individual
safety data in SMS. These improvements include: (1) Changes to the SMS
methodology that identify higher risk carriers while addressing
industry biases; (2) better applications of SMS results for Agency
interventions by more accurately identifying safety sensitive carriers
(i.e., carriers transporting people and carriers hauling hazardous
materials (HM)), so that such firms can be selected for CSA
interventions at more stringent levels; and, (3) more specific fact-
based displays of SMS results on the SMS Web site.
The data preview may be found at http://csa.fmcsa.dot.gov/. During
the data preview period, the Agency requests comments on the impacts of
the changes.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before May 29, 2012.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by Federal Docket
Management System Number FMCSA-2012-0074 by any of the following
methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.
Fax: 1- 202-493-2251.
Mail: Docket Management Facility, (M-30), U.S. Department
of Transportation (DOT), 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building,
Ground Floor, Room 12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
Hand Delivery: Same as mail address above, between 9 a.m.
and 5 p.m., ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The
telephone number is 202-366-9329.
To avoid duplication, please use only one of these four methods. All
submissions must include the Agency name and docket number for this
notice. See the ``Public Participation'' heading below for instructions
on submitting comments and additional information.
Note that all comments received, including any personal information
provided, will be posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov.
Please see the ``Privacy Act'' heading below.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov at any time or to
Room W12-140 on the ground floor of the DOT Headquarters Building at
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5
p.m., ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Privacy Act: Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all
comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual
submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf
of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's
Privacy Act System of Records Notice for the DOT Federal Docket
Management System published in the Federal Register on January 17, 2008
(73 FR 3316), or you may visit
[[Page 18299]]
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-785.pdf.
Public Participation: The http://www.regulations.gov Web site is
generally available 24 hours each day, 365 days each year. You can get
electronic submission and retrieval help and guidelines under the
``help'' section of the http://www.regulations.gov Web site. Comments
received after the comment closing date will be included in the docket,
and will be considered to the extent practicable.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Bryan Price, Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration, 1000 Liberty Avenue, Suite 1300, Pittsburgh, PA
15222, Telephone 412-395-4816, E-Mail: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In December 2010, FMCSA implemented SMS to
identify high-risk motor carriers for on-site investigations consistent
with Section 4138 of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient,
Transportation Equity Act, and Public Law 109-59 (Aug.10, 2005)
(SAFETEA-LU).
SMS is also used to identify and prioritize motor carriers for less
resource intensive interventions, such as automated warning letters,
and serves as a principal factor in roadside inspection software
designed to recommend motor carriers with known performance and
compliance problems for additional inspections. Furthermore, SMS now
provides motor carriers and other safety stakeholders with regularly
updated safety performance data available through the public Web site
http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SMS.
Select intervention efficiency and effectiveness concepts from the
intervention component of the CSA model were also implemented
nationally in December 2010. These concepts include:
1. Automated Warning Letters;
2. Focused Compliance Reviews;
3. Direct Notices of Violation (NOV);
4. Investigation of Red Flag Driver Violations during all
Compliance Reviews; and
5. Selection of drivers for examination during carrier
investigations based on an internal selection system (the Driver Safety
Management System).
Elements of the CSA model that remain to be implemented in future
phases include more comprehensive implementation of the full suite of
CSA interventions (e.g., off-site investigations and cooperative safety
plans (CSPs)) and the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) recommending
an improved approach to safety fitness determinations of motor
carriers.
The Agency also uses this notice to discuss its evaluation of crash
weighting in SMS. FMCSA is looking at various options within SMS to
identify carriers that have the greatest risk of future crashes. As
part of this effort, FMCSA has been looking at methods for determining
crash preventability and accountability, and how crashes would be
weighted in SMS. The increased weighting would identify carriers that
are causing crashes, and prioritize them for intervention. In
researching this issue, FMCSA identified several areas where additional
data and further study are needed before moving forward with a proposal
on the weighting of crashes in SMS. These areas include evaluating the
uniformity and consistency of police accident reports; determining a
process for assessing crashes in a uniform and consistent manner;
creating a process for accepting public input into the process; and
determining the actual effect on SMS's ability to identify carriers
that have a high risk of crashes. As a result, the Agency is conducting
additional research and analysis to determine the feasibility of
different weighting for crashes in SMS based on an objective set of
criteria.
Safety Measurement System
SMS quantifies the safety performance of motor carriers using data
available in FMCSA's motor carrier database, the Motor Carrier
Management Information System (MCMIS). This database includes
violations found during roadside inspections, traffic enforcement, and
the intervention process. SMS currently groups these data into seven
Behavioral Analysis Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs): Unsafe
Driving, Fatigued Driving (Hours-of-Service), Driver Fitness,
Controlled Substances and Alcohol, Vehicle Maintenance, Cargo Related,
and Crash History. For further detailed information on the current
structure of SMS, see the SMS Methodology at http://csa.fmcsa.dot.gov.
SMS currently has sufficient data to assess the safety performance
of approximately 200,000 of the 525,000 active interstate and
intrastate HM motor carriers in FMCSA's census files (approximately 38
percent). FMCSA's analysis showed that the 200,000 carriers assessed in
the March 2011 run of SMS were involved in over 90% of the crashes
reported to FMCSA from April to June 2011. Of those 200,000 carriers,
over 50,000 exceeded the intervention threshold in at least one BASIC
and were identified for Agency interventions. Additionally, these
50,000 carriers (approximately 10 percent of the total active
population) were responsible for 45% percent of the recorded crashes.
FMCSA's analysis, therefore, found very strong associations between
future crash risk and high percentiles in the Unsafe Driving, Fatigued
Driving (Hours of Service), and Crash BASICs of SMS.
Independent evaluation of SMS data by the University of Michigan
Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) determined that crash rates
were higher for motor carriers identified with safety problems in SMS's
seven BASICs. In particular, UMTRI found that motor carriers falling
above FMCSA's intervention threshold in the Unsafe Driving BASIC had
crash rates that were more than three times greater than the crash rate
for motor carriers without any BASICs above FMCSA's intervention
threshold. Similarly, UMTRI found that the crash rate for motor
carriers above FMCSA's intervention threshold in the Fatigued Driving
(Hours of Service) BASIC was nearly three times greater than the crash
rate for motor carriers without any BASICs above FMCSA's intervention
threshold. Details on the full UMTRI report can be found at http://csa.fmcsa.dot.gov/about/UMTRI.aspx.
From the start of CSA, FMCSA expected to modify SMS as new data and
additional analyses became available. To date, FMCSA has made a number
of enhancements to SMS based on feedback from State partners, industry,
and safety advocates.
Moving forward, FMCSA plans to apply a systematic approach to
making improvements to SMS, prioritizing and releasing packages of
improvements as needed, and providing an SMS preview period for law
enforcement and motor carriers prior to implementation. These
improvements are the Agency's response to findings from its ongoing
analyses of data, input from law enforcement, the motor carrier
industry, and other safety stakeholders. This package of SMS
enhancements includes:
1. Strengthening the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC by moving cargo/load
securement violations from the Cargo-Related BASIC to the Vehicle
Maintenance BASIC;
2. Simultaneously renaming the Cargo-Related BASIC the HM BASIC,
which will better identify HM-related safety problems and change how HM
carriers are classified to allow for increased intervention scrutiny;
3. Better aligning SMS with Intermodal Equipment Provider (IEP)
regulations;
4. Aligning violations that are included in SMS with the Commercial
Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) inspection levels by eliminating the
vehicle violations derived from driver-
[[Page 18300]]
only inspections and driver violations from vehicle-only inspections;
5. Improving the identification of passenger carriers; and
6. Modifying the SMS Web site display to:
a. Change current terminology, including the terms ``Insufficient
Data'' and ``Inconclusive,'' to fact-based definitions that clarify the
carrier's status in each BASIC;
b. Distinguish between crashes with injuries and crashes with
fatalities.
Individual motor carriers will have an opportunity to preview their
performance data so that they can determine the impact of SMS
improvements on their company's information in advance of the public
release. The Agency also seeks comments on the impacts of these
changes. To view their company's data, motor carriers will have to
enter their Personal Identification Number (PIN). Motor carriers that
do not have a PIN, or those that have forgotten their PIN, can go to
the following web address for assistance: https://li-public.fmcsa.dot.gov/LIVIEW/PKG_PIN_START.PRC_INTRO.
Following the preview period, FMCSA may further refine the new
methodology before implementation and release of the revised SMS
results to the public. The Agency addresses each of these improvements
in turn below.
Incorporate Cargo/Load Securement Violations Into the Vehicle
Maintenance BASIC
Motor carrier industry and enforcement stakeholders have noted that
motor carriers predominantly operating open deck trailers (e.g.,
flatbeds) have significantly higher Cargo-Related BASIC percentiles
than those for other groups of operators, because load securement
issues for these types of carriers are more readily apparent during
roadside inspections. Based on this potential bias, FMCSA has not made
the Cargo-Related BASIC performance data available to the public.
While cargo/load securement violations comprise 82% of violations
recorded in the Cargo-Related BASIC, they comprise just 4% of
violations when included in the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC. FMCSA
compared the flatbed bias of the current Cargo-Related BASIC with a
modified Vehicle Maintenance BASIC. The analysis determined that while
the Cargo-Related BASIC identified 66% of flatbed carriers (as
identified by industry and FMCSA field staff) as above the intervention
threshold in that BASIC, the modified Vehicle Maintenance BASIC
identified only 21% of these carriers as above the intervention
threshold. FMCSA also examined the carriers identified above the
intervention threshold (i.e., those in the 80th percentile) in the
current Cargo-Related and Vehicle Maintenance BASICs and compared them
to carriers identified under the proposed new Vehicle Maintenance
BASIC. Carriers identified under the new Vehicle Maintenance BASIC had
over a 20% higher crash rate. The analysis showed that this approach
(1) identifies carriers with a higher crash risk for Agency
interventions and (2) effectively addresses the bias associated with
carriers that haul open trailers while still holding all carriers
accountable for all cargo securement violations.
Change the Cargo-Related BASIC to the HM BASIC and Change How HM
Carriers Are Identified
The presence of HM can greatly exacerbate the consequences of
crashes and cargo spills. Because the current Cargo-Related BASIC
includes both HM violations and load securement violations, some motor
carriers with HM compliance issues do not rise above the FMCSA's
intervention threshold due to the relative weight of general cargo
securement violations.
FMCSA consulted with enforcement subject matter experts to identify
and apply severity weightings to the 239 HM violations contained in the
Cargo-Related BASIC and 112 additional HM safety-based violations
attributable to the motor carrier. The Agency then conducted
effectiveness testing to compare the Cargo-Related BASIC with a new
BASIC for carriers transporting HM requiring placards to determine
which configuration better identified carriers with a high risk of
future HM safety violations. The analysis found that the new HM BASIC
better identified carriers that would commit future HM violations than
the current Cargo-Related BASIC.
In addition, FMCSA plans to change how carriers are classified as
HM carriers to allow increased intervention scrutiny. In August 2011,
the criteria for identifying carriers subject to the more stringent HM
intervention thresholds were changed to any carrier with HM activity
(i.e., a placarded HM inspection, review, or permit) in the past two
years rather than identifying carriers based on the HM commodities
noted on the MCS-150 registration form. Under these criteria, it was
determined that some carriers inadvertently transport placarded HM
loads or that an extremely small percentage of their loads involved
placarded HM. FMCSA conducted an analysis to establish new criteria for
excluding carriers that transport HM as a minimal part of their
business. These criteria took two forms: (1) requiring HM activity
within the last 24 months, excluding carriers that have not transported
HM in over a year, and (2) requiring that placardable HM inspections
constitute a sizable proportion of the carrier's total inspections.
This change resulted in exclusion of approximately 11,500 of the 24,000
carriers currently subject to HM thresholds, while still encompassing
94% of the placardable HM inspections recorded in the past 24 months.
FMCSA is applying the new criteria to focus intervention resources
on carriers involved in the transportation of HM requiring placards.
For a carrier to be subject to the HM threshold, that carrier must have
at least two inspections on a vehicle transporting HM requiring
placards, within the past 24 months, with one inspection occurring
within the past 12 months, and making up at least five percent of the
motor carrier's total inspections. In addition, any motor carrier that
has an FMCSA HM safety permit or that has been identified as a carrier
of placarded quantities of HM from an investigation in the last 24
months will be subject to the increased intervention scrutiny.
The methodology applies a more stringent intervention threshold for
these carriers transporting HM. The Agency created a new HM BASIC that
includes only HM-related violations and inspections on carriers
involved in the transportation of HM requiring placards. This change
allows the Agency to better identify HM-related safety issues for CSA
interventions.
Apply Carrier-Based Violations on Intermodal Equipment Provider (IEP)
Trailers to the Vehicle BASIC
Currently, SMS does not include any roadside violations on an
intermodal chassis when there is an associated IEP. FMCSA chose not to
include these violations in the first versions of SMS because FMCSA was
still in the process of identifying those violations attributable to
the motor carrier and those attributable to the IEP. Section 390.44 of
title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, states that an IEP will not be
held responsible for such violations because a motor carrier indicated
pursuant to 49 CFR 392.7(b) that the chassis components, parts, or
accessories had no safety defects at the time of the pre-trip
inspection. Because of this, some of the violations found during a
roadside inspection will be the
[[Page 18301]]
responsibility of the motor carrier. For example, when an IEP
interchanges a chassis with a motor carrier, the driver is required
under 49 CFR 392.7(b) to conduct a pre-trip inspection to determine if
that chassis is in good working order. If defects are found during the
pre-trip inspection, the driver has the opportunity to alert the IEP of
such defects. The IEP, in turn, is required to either repair the defect
or replace the equipment prior to the driver's departure. Violations
that should have been detected during a pre-trip inspection but are
later found during a roadside inspection become the responsibility of
the motor carrier and thus should be applied in SMS.
FMCSA worked collaboratively with law enforcement officials and
industry personnel, both on the motor carrier and IEP sides, to
identify the violations that could reasonably be found during a pre-
trip inspection of an IEP chassis. A copy of the violation attribution
decision process and associated violations can be found on our web site
at www.fmcsa.dot.gov/documents/rulesregs/IEP/Visio-Violation-Attribution-07182011_508.pdf.
In cases where (1) the driver conducted a pre-trip inspection, and
(2) the violation is considered pre-trip detectable, the violation is
attributed to the motor carrier. FMCSA applied this rule to the past 24
months of roadside inspections, resulting in approximately 22,000
violations included in the SMS Vehicle Maintenance BASIC.
Eliminate Vehicle Violations From ``Driver-Only'' Inspections and
Driver Violations From ``Vehicle-Only'' Inspections
Currently, SMS includes Level 3 (Driver-Only) inspections in the
Vehicle Maintenance BASIC only when vehicle violations are noted on the
inspection report. Industry and enforcement personnel expressed concern
that many vehicle violations fall outside the scope of the inspection
and could bias the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC data. This bias is created
by the fact that driver-only inspections count against the Vehicle
BASIC assessments when vehicle violations are documented but do not
count as a clean inspection toward the Vehicle BASIC when vehicle
violations are not noted. Moreover, CVSA policy is that items not
indicated in the inspection procedure for a particular level
inspection, for example, a Level 3 (Driver-Only) inspection, should not
be included on the inspection report.
FMCSA is therefore removing vehicle violations found during driver-
only inspections and driver violations found during vehicle-only
inspections to bring SMS into alignment with existing CVSA policies
regarding protocol for different inspection levels.
FMCSA evaluated the extent to which inspectors are citing vehicle
violations during driver-only inspections to confirm that this problem
merits the attention that stakeholders have suggested. Approximately
139,000 violations, or 2.6 percent of all vehicle violations used in
SMS, are vehicle violations cited during a driver-only inspection.
While very few driver violations are ever documented in vehicle-only
inspections, this change will also be made to ensure that only
violations within the scope of a particular type of inspection are
included in SMS.
When a vehicle violation is discovered during a Level 3 inspection,
FMCSA strongly encourages the roadside inspector to convert the
inspection to a Level 2 inspection where documentation of vehicle
violations is appropriate. If the roadside inspector is not certified
to conduct Level 2 inspections, the roadside inspector can still
address the unsafe condition through State citations or warnings.
Identify Motor Carriers Transporting Passengers and Apply a More
Stringent Passenger Carrier Intervention Threshold
Motor carriers subject to the passenger carrier intervention
threshold in SMS are held to a significantly higher standard than non-
passenger carriers. Enforcement stakeholders support updating the
definition of passenger carrier within SMS to better focus FMCSA
resources on carriers involved in passenger transportation.
FMCSA is revising the definition of carriers subject to the lower
passenger carrier intervention thresholds within SMS. The new criteria
add all for-hire carriers that operate 9-15 passenger capacity vehicles
and private carriers that operate 16-plus passenger capacity vehicles,
as these carriers are under FMCSA's authority. The new criteria exclude
carriers that operate only 1-8 passenger capacity vehicles and private
carriers that operate only 1-15 passenger capacity vehicles
(effectively removing many carriers operating limousines, vans, taxis,
etc.), as operation of these vehicles is generally outside most of
FMCSA's regulations. The new criteria also remove carriers where less
than 2% of their respective fleets are passenger vehicles, in order to
exclude carriers that do not haul passengers as a significant part of
their business. FMCSA determined how many carriers would be subject to
the passenger carrier intervention threshold under these new criteria.
This change would remove 4,200 carriers, while adding 5,700 carriers.
Eliminate the Use of the Terms ``Inconclusive'' and ``Insufficient
Data'' and Distinguish Crash Data
Since April 2010, the BASIC summary on SMS online (http://
ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/sms) has used the term ``inconclusive,'' to describe
carriers that have enough inspections to be assessed but too few
violations to warrant being considered for FMCSA interventions, and the
term ``insufficient data'' to describe carriers that do not have enough
inspections to produce a robust measure to even be assessed.
Stakeholders have asked FMCSA to offer more specific fact-based
descriptions, as the terms ``inconclusive'' and ``insufficient data''
are perceived to be difficult to understand.
FMCSA is providing a preview of the new terminology and the
approach to presenting the crash data. The Agency encourages carriers
to give feedback on the new terms before they are implemented publicly.
For example, rather than displaying ``insufficient data,'' the site
will display a fact-based description such as ``< than 5 inspections,''
and rather than displaying ``inconclusive,'' the site will contain a
description such as ``no violations within 1 year.''
Also, in the ``Summary of Activities'' section of a motor carrier's
information on SMS Online, FMCSA displays a count of recordable crashes
broken into ``fatality/injury'' and ``tow- away.'' In response to
stakeholder requests, FMCSA is separating the combined fatality/injury
category into distinct categories: Fatality, injury, and tow-away
crashes.
Implementation
As of the publication of this notice, motor carriers will be able
to preview how these changes will affect their data and SMS results.
During the SMS preview, motor carriers will have the opportunity to
review the accuracy of SMS data, provide feedback, and if necessary,
take action to improve their safety performance. During the March 2012
SMS Preview, motor carriers should:
View their operational information to determine if they
are now subject to placardable HM or passenger carrier intervention
thresholds.
View the new HM BASIC to review applicable violations.
View the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC to determine how cargo/
load securement violations previously
[[Page 18302]]
recorded in the Cargo-Related BASIC impact their Vehicle Maintenance
percentiles, and to see which IEP-related violations have been
recorded.
Verify that vehicle violations found during driver-only
inspections and driver violations found during vehicle-only inspections
have been removed from their Vehicle Maintenance BASIC data.
Review alternative terminology for ``insufficient data''
and ``inconclusive'' in the BASIC summary.
View the ``Summary of Activities'' section of SMS Online
to see the new breakout between injury crashes and fatal crashes.
FMCSA will collect, assess, and address feedback during the SMS
Preview, and may further refine the enhancements prior to public
implementation in July 2012.
Request for Comments
FMCSA requests comments on the above improvements to SMS.
Commenters are requested to provide supporting data wherever
appropriate.
Issued on: March 22, 2012.
William Bronrott,
Deputy Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2012-7360 Filed 3-26-12; 8:45 am]
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