What is CSA

Driver Concerns and Myths

I have read the CSA manual and investigated many carrier scores in the CSA. I have found that the carriers have more to worry about than the drivers.

454 violations are applicable to the driver’s CSA while 670 violations are applicable to carriers.

I believe the CSA was created to force carriers to monitor their drivers more closely. Most of the violations are the driver not doing proper pre-trips and on- route inspections or not keeping their logbooks up to date. 

I also believe this is due to carriers not training their drivers or practicing forced distpatching of which both are federal violations in the CSA and FMCSA regulations.

Learning the CSA model should encourage drivers to become more educated with the FMCSA and use the regulations to stand up to their employers to be more compliant.

Being a more compliant driver will increase your confidence, create more job options and hopefully give your company a greater profit margin to move ahead with better pay and benefits.

Without drivers a company is nothing. Companies should wake up and treat their drivers like their existance depends on it. 

Will I lose my license with CSA?.
NO. You can only lose your license by obtaining too many demerit points on your license like it has always been.

Will I lose my job?.
You will only lose your job if the company or insurance company finds you to be a high risk driver.

Existing drivers cannot be terminated based on their scores. The company must follow their disciplinary policy to terminate existing drivers.

Can anyone see my CSA scores?
No. Only CSA approved officials can freely view your scores. You must give a signed consent form to allow others to view your scores. Trucking and insurance companies may create a policy that requires you to provide a consent form prior to hiring you. See What is Pre-Employment Screening.

Will I receive a warning letter?
No. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) does not, at this time, directly contact drivers with high DSMS percentile ranks; only motor carriers receive warning letters. DSMS is used only in conjunction with carrier investigations.

A driver could receive a Notice of Violation (NOV) or Notice of Claim (NOC) if the driver is found to have egregious violations during a carrier investigation. If a driver receives an NOV or NOC, FMCSA will contact the driver directly.

Do tickets or warnings received by drivers while operating personal vehicles impact their motor carrier’s Safety Measurement System (SMS) data or their Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP) record?
No. Tickets or warnings that drivers receive while operating their personal vehicles are State citations and do not count in SMS or PSP. SMS and PSP use only violations of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs), and those regulations apply only to people driving commercial motor vehicles. In measuring on-road safety performance, SMS and PSP use all safety-based violations documented at roadside inspections, as well as State-reported crashes.

What are the Intervention Thresholds for drivers?
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration does not address drivers the same way that it addresses motor carriers. While motor carriers are prioritized for intervention based on the Safety Measurement System, drivers are only investigated during a carrier investigation. Therefore, no Intervention Thresholds are in place for drivers.

What is the Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP), who can access it, and how?
PSP is a new FMCSA program mandated by Congress that is designed to assist the motor carrier industry in assessing individual operators’ crash and serious safety violation history as a pre-employment condition. The program is voluntary and is not part of CSA.

Through NIC Technologies, motor carriers may request driver information for the purpose of pre-employment screening. The driver must provide written consent. Individual drivers may request their own driver information record at any time. The information will be retrieved from the Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS). MCMIS electronic profiles contain five years of crash data and three years of inspection data including co-driver safety and post-crash violations; however, MCMIS does not include conviction data. There is a fee for this service.

For carrier to enroll in PSP, visit http://www.psp.fmcsa.dot.gov/Pages/Enroll.aspx. For additional questions about PSP, visit the PSP Website’s FAQs page (http://www.psp.fmcsa.dot.gov/Pages/FAQ.aspx) or the PSP “Contact Us” page

Why is there no driver rating? Why aren’t drivers more accountable?
While the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) does not use the Safety Measurement System (SMS) or any other system to assign formal safety ratings to individual drivers, the agency recognizes that holding drivers accountable for safe driving behavior is an important part of the safety compliance and enforcement process. Safety Investigators (SIs) always systematically investigate drivers with egregious violations when investigating a motor carrier. Additionally, SIs use the Driver Safety Measurement System, an internal safety assessment tool, to review drivers with strong patterns of noncompliance. Any violations that are not corrected may result in a Notice of Violation or Notice of Claim for the driver.

What triggers an intervention?

Interventions are selected based on the following factors: Number of Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) percentiles above the threshold (Note: a high BASIC percentile indicates high noncompliance), BASICs alerted due to serious violations, commodity hauled (e.g., passengers, hazardous material), intervention history, and time since last intervention. A complaint or fatal crash could also trigger an investigation.

The Intervention Thresholds for carriers are organized by BASIC and are set based on the BASIC’s relationship to crash risk. Analysis conducted by FMCSA has shown that the strongest relationship to crash risk is found with high percentiles in the Unsafe Driving, Fatigued Driving, and Crash Indicator BASICs. Therefore, these higher risk BASICs have a lower percentile threshold for interventions than the other BASICs. Currently, the Intervention Thresholds are as follows:

Unsafe Driving, Fatigued Driving (Hours-of-Service ), Crash Indicator     65%
Driver Fitness, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Vehicle Maintenance, Cargo-Related     80%

What is pre-inspection screening?

A pre-inspection screening, which takes less time than an actual safety inspection, may take many forms. It may include, but not necessarily be limited to, a cursory check of the vehicle. These cursory checks of a vehicle are commonly confused with a complete safety inspection. If a law enforcement officer conducts only a pre-inspection screening, then a safety inspection report will not be generated. It is also important to note that different enforcement jurisdictions may use different methods to select or screen a vehicle for a safety inspection.
There are strict criteria regarding what needs to be done for a roadside inspection report to be generated. If the pre-screening doesn’t meet those criteria, no report will be generated.
Keep in mind that an inspection usually takes a lot longer than a pre-screening and involves a much more intense scrutiny of the driver and/or the vehicle. A driver can request an inspection, but it is up to the roadside inspector to determine if he or she will give one or not.

 

Any comments are welcome. This information is directly from the CSA Manual and CSA website.

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