{"id":521,"date":"2015-03-18T16:24:36","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T16:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quicktransportsolutions.com\/blog\/?p=521"},"modified":"2017-02-07T23:14:37","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T23:14:37","slug":"what-is-the-compliance-safety-and-accountability-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quicktransportsolutions.com\/blog\/what-is-the-compliance-safety-and-accountability-program\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is The Compliance, Safety and Accountability Program?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in 2010, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) released a new truck-safety monitoring effort called the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program. This program was designed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the agency\u2019s efforts in addressing motor carrier safety issues.<\/p>\n

This FMCSA compliance program is intended to improve safety monitoring, carrier evaluation and safety intervention, but will it work? Let\u2019s take a closer look at the details.<\/p>\n

What Came Before?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The CSA program was born out of a study that\u2019s been ongoing since the 1970s. Back then the government and industry stakeholders got together in an attempt to progressively reduce the number of commercial motor vehicle accidents that resulted in injuries or fatalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Before the CSA, FMCSA was using a model called SafeStat. This model was resource heavy and didn\u2019t have the scope required to reach more than just a small fraction of the nation\u2019s 700,000 interstate motor carriers.<\/p>\n

The SafeStat system measured safety in a one-size-fits-all way that didn\u2019t place enough focus on the behavioral aspects of crashes. There also was scant attention given to the drivers of commercial motor vehicles, which in turn limited the data\u2019s effectiveness.<\/p>\n

How Does CSA Work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The CSA program was designed to effectively leverage State and Federal resources to provide more targeted solutions to potential safety concerns.\u00a0 The enforcement and compliance components are streamlined to work hand-in-hand, across multiple agencies.<\/p>\n

The CSA operational model uses the following three main components:<\/p>\n

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  1. Measurement<\/strong>: CSA will gather inspection and crash data to pinpoint carriers who are exhibiting high-risk behaviors.<\/li>\n
  2. Evaluation<\/strong>: The FMCSA will combine the CSA with the Safety Fitness Determination methodology to determine when a specific safety problem is present.<\/li>\n
  3. Intervention<\/strong>: Enforcement officials will have new tools at their disposal in addressing safety compliance problems. They expect to reach more carriers and be more effective in mitigating safety concerns.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The second arrow in the CSA quiver is the Safety Management System (SMS). The SMS uses roadside inspection data combined with crash information to provide new data sets that enforcement officials use to find targeted solutions to carrier-specific problems.<\/p>\n

    Getting Back To BASICS<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The final factor in the CSA analysis will be in addressing Behavioral Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs). The prior safety model did not address behavioral aspects of truck driver safety, which the BASICs model is intended to do.<\/p>\n

    These are the seven BASIC categories that CSA will use in creating data sets:<\/p>\n