In The News
Bloom off the ‘Beyond Compliance’ rose for many stakeholders
CHICAGO — The premise seemed simple enough: Carriers deploy safety technology and are given credit for it by federal regulators.
But some trucking representatives who attended a hearing on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's "Beyond Compliance" program Monday in Chicago expressed the fear that carriers without the finances to invest in state-of-the-art safety technology may be passed up by brokers and shippers, thus thwarting the bonus or "credit" aspect of the program.
Indeed, some carrier groups and alliances which were pleased when FMCSA announced the program early on have decided program restrictions are destroying any good the "credit" could have achieved.
"Many of the comments surrounded the fact that the BASIC scores involve the CSA system, which is full of bad data," Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association's Scott Grenerth told The Trucker in summing up the hearing, part of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance's Spring Workshop.
"So it was pointed out repeatedly that a carrier must have good enough scores to qualify for Beyond Compliance status, but those scores are based on a flawed system," added Grenerth, OOIDA director of regulatory affairs.
"With a Beyond Compliance BASIC, it would become a new 'gold standard' and carriers without it would suffer by having a harder time getting loads.
"In order to get the Beyond Compliance recognition they would have to pay for it, even if they are already an incredibly safe carrier without crashes. That is wrong."
"Get rumble strips on 100 percent of the interstate system and make driver turnover rates a safety issue and give our companies credit for that," said David Owen, president of the National Association of Small Trucking Companies. "It's far more valuable safety-wise than any gadgets that may be approved under this program."
"ATA generally supports incentives for the adoption of voluntary safety tools, technologies and programs," said Sean McNally, vice president of public affairs & press secretary for the American Trucking Associations. "Moreover, ATA would support a mechanism to recognize fleets that make such investments. However, ATA has some concerns about how the program would be administered and specifically objects to the use of CSA scores as a criteria for participation."
Beyond Compliance is a requirement of the most recent transportation bill, Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act and FMCSA is seeking public comments during the next 60 days on the initiative.
Recognition would be given to motor carriers that install "advanced safety equipment," use "enhanced driver fitness measures," adopt fleet safety management tools, technologies and programs or "satisfy other standards determined appropriate by the FMCSA administrator," according to FMCSA's news release on the program.
In addition to the hearing at Chicago, FMCSA has held three other public listening sessions on its proposal.
The regulatory agency says as part of the program it proposes to create a new BASIC in the SMS. Essentially, the Beyond Compliance BASIC "would appear when a motor carrier is approved and participating in the Beyond Compliance program" as a means of "acknowledging those programs that exceed regulatory requirements voluntarily," FMCSA stated in its Federal Register notice.
First of all, it said, this would "provide value" to carriers and those with this BASIC "would distinguish themselves from other companies when the public display of SMS is reinstated in the future," the Federal Register notice stated.
Second, it said, developing and maintaining a separate BASIC in SMS could be completed in the 18-month time frame prescribed by the FAST Act, whereas making modifications to the SMS methodology would be more complicated and time consuming ... ."
However, to be eligible, a carrier could not have a Conditional or Unsatisfactory safety rating, the Federal Register notice stated.
In other words, carriers are only eligible to participate in this new BASIC if they don't show a CSA score in any BASIC category that is above the intervention threshold in that BASIC.
So, a carrier that already has an alert in a BASIC can't participate, taking away the incentive to participate for most small carriers, one attendee stated.
Others said carriers rated "Conditional" should be allowed to participate if they had invested in safety improvements.
Still other hearing attendees said FMCSA had jumped the gun in releasing the "Beyond Compliance" program at this stage of the game when they're still seeking public input, turning the hearings into "listening and then ignoring" sessions, according to published news reports.
Go to https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2016-09118.pdf to read the Federal Register notice and provide comments.
The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at [email protected].