Looking Both Ways

Driver PSP Reports

   

This volume of Look Both Ways will cover what many drivers refer to as CSA “points”.

CSA is a FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) program originally slated to be effected in 2010. The acronym stands for “Compliance, Safety and Accountability”. This program is NOT a set of new rules and regulations, but simply a new means of measuring Carrier and Driver safety related data derived from roadside inspections and crashes. For some time FMCSA used only the SaferSys website to evaluate safety performance of Motor Carriers. SaferSys displays only data on Out of Service violations discovered during roadside inspections. These OOS violations are grouped by driver, vehicle and hazmat. The Carrier’s Out of Service violation percentages are compared to the National Average percentages. See www.SaferSys.org

The SMS (Safety Measurement System) system within CSA looks at ALL violations - not just Out of Service violations- discovered during roadside inspections and crashes. CSA also includes Controlled Substance testing data. Again, the regulations have not changed – just the way violation data is viewed. This is another “tool” for viewing Carrier data.

Around the same time CSA began the FMCSA released the “Pre-employment Screening Program” or PSP. PSP records the roadside inspection violation history of every driver, grouped by the Carriers the driver has driven for the most recent three year period. The violations are “weighted” by time.

What does this mean to you as a driver?

· That every violation that is discovered on you or your vehicle is recorded. Every violation you receive “counts” against you. These violations are displayed on your PSP report. Every violation you receive “counts” against the company you drive for. These same violations are recorded in one of the 7 Basics in the company’s CSA scores.

· Each violation is weighted by the date discovered. Newer violations have a 3X multiplier, while older violations have 2X and as time progresses the oldest violations have only 1X weighting. Because of this weighting system, you will need to receive fewer violations over time.

· It means that most companies that you apply to work for will obtain your PSP report. The Carrier will review your PSP report using it as a hiring determination tool. Their decision to hire you, or not hire you will be based data from three main tools. The PSP report, your MVR (driving record) and the PEV’s (Previous Employment Verifications) they received back from the companies you have driven for in the past three years.

· You should obtain your PSP report and review it for accuracy. If there are discrepancies you have the right to apply for a correction(s) through the “Data Q’s” program. We’ll discuss this program later.

· It might be beneficial to view a prospective Carriers CSA Basics scores to determine if that Carrier is one you might be interested in leasing onto. Carriers with higher scores in the CSA Basics are subjected to more roadside inspections and scrutiny than those with lower scores. We’ll discuss ISS scores in a later blog.

Click here to see an example PSP Report. Note that PSP reports do not show “points” assessed for each violation. You must look up the point values for the violations on your PSP report if you want to know “how many points” you’ve accumulated. Prospective Carriers will review the summary of your violations in making a hiring decision, without taking the time to assign the points. The summary shows “patterns” of (repeated) violations – violations you are likely to continue to repeat.

Information on points assigned to specific violations can be found on the PTL LLC website. Click on the tab for Owner Operators in the upper right, then click on Recruiting Info, then click on the Hyperlink for “CSA PSP Violation Severity Points”.  www.PTLLLC.com

Disclaimer: This blog is NOT intended to give legal advice, nor be a substitute for any training required by the Regulations.

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Till the next blog, thank you drivers for all you do. Please be safe!

John Mueller, CDS