FMCSA seeks feedback on carrier safety ratings

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration wants to develop a new process for determining when a motor carrier isn’t safe and is asking the public to weigh in.

FMCSA published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on Aug. 29 that asks for feedback on the need for a rulemaking to revise the regulations prescribing the safety fitness determination process.

The public has through Oct. 30 to comment on the agency’s current safety fitness determination regulations and the available data and costs for regulatory alternatives.

“This advance notice of proposed rulemaking seeks input regarding new methodologies that would determine when a motor carrier is not fit to operate commercial motor vehicles in or affecting interstate commerce,” the agency wrote in the notice. “The intended effect of this action is to more effectively use FMCSA data and resources to identify unfit motor carriers and to remove them from the nation’s roadways. A successful safety fitness determination methodology may target metrics that are most directly connected to safety outcomes; provide for accurate identification of unsafe motor carriers; and incentivize the adoption of safety-improving practices.”

The current safety fitness determination process is based on analyzing existing motor carrier data and data collected during a compliance review. The process uses six factors – general, driver, operational, vehicle, hazardous materials and accidents – to assign a motor carrier’s safety fitness rating.

“The agency’s current safety fitness determination process is resource-intensive and reaches only a small percentage of motor carriers,” FMCSA wrote in the notice.

In fiscal year 2019, FMCSA and states conducted 11,671 compliance reviews out of the 567,000 possible interstate carriers.

FMCSA’s CSA Safety Measurement System currently isn’t used to generate safety fitness determinations. In 2016, FMCSA published a notice of proposed rulemaking that would have used a carrier’s absolute measure in SMS to generate unfit safety fitness determinations. The proposal received more than 150 comments, including opposition from the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and other trade groups. In 2017, FMCSA withdrew the notice of proposed rulemaking.

The current system provides carriers an overall safety rating of satisfactory, conditional or unsatisfactory.

FMCSA wants feedback on several aspects of the regulation, including whether the agency should retain the current three-tiered system. It also asks if the methodology should be similar to its 2016 proposal.

To file comments, go to the regulations.gov website and enter Docket No. FMCSA-2022-0003. LL