U. S. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx received a letter from coalition of transportation trade groups asking that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) remove motor carriers’ Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) scores from the public view of its Safety Measurement System (SMS) website.
As a basis for the request, the letter cites research by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that found the CSA methodology to be unreliable. By removing the CSA BASIC (Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category) scores from public view in the SMS, carriers will not experience harm from skewed data, the coalition asserts. The correspondence also suggested, due to the erroneous scores, some risky carriers may appear to be safe, drawing customers away from reliable carriers who have been painted as unsafe.
The letter was signed by representatives of the American Trucking Associations, American Bus Association, American Moving and Storage Association, the National Private Truck Council, National School Transportation Association, the National Tank Truck Carriers, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, Specialized Carriers and Rigging Association, Truckload Carriers Association, and United Motorcoach Association.
