On July 31, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration held its final online listening session regarding possible changes to the Safety Fitness Determination process. The Safety Fitness Determination process is intended to identify unfit motor carriers and remove them from operation. Currently, the SFD process has three tiers of safety ratings: Satisfactory, Conditional or Unsatisfactory.
FMCSA requested listener comments on four topics:
- Whether the current three-tier safety rating system should be retained;
- Whether a single “Unfit” rating should be used, leaving all other carriers as unrated;
- Whether on-road inspection data, as found in FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System (SMS), should have a greater impact on safety ratings; and
- What weight should be given to driver behavior, especially speeding and texting while driving.
A major challenge for FMCSA is that the process presently requires the conduct of a carrier investigation – called a Compliance Review or CR — before a safety rating can be assigned. The upshot: approximately 92% of the nation’s 567,000 active interstate motor carriers have no rating at all. As one participant on the listening session put it, the SFD process actually has four tiers, with No Rating being the dominant result.
In robust discussion, the listening session participants primarily focused on that fourth tier – the 92% of carriers with no rating at all. They rejected FMCSA’s concept of a single “Unfit” rating as only exacerbating today’s situation where brokers and shippers are seeking any information at all on a carrier’s true safety. A single “Unfit” rating, with the preponderance of carriers as unrated, would also, listeners said, fuel rising commercial insurance rates.
While comments generally favored retention of today’s three-tier safety rating system, listeners suggested several improvements:
- Utilize SMS data to reflect actual on-road safety;
- Give motor carriers who participate in a weigh station bypass program, like PrePass, a clean inspection “half-credit” for each successful bypass to visibly reflect their safety status in the FMCSA Safety and Fitness Electronic Records (SAFER) System;
- Identify New Entrant carriers as such during their first 18 months so brokers and shippers will understand why a formal safety rating from FMCSA may not yet exist;
- Do not require the conduct of a CR before giving a safety rating, but indicate whether a CR was in fact conducted;
- Recognize the required annual equipment inspections in SAFER; and
- Improve the DataQs process so challenges to violations and crashes are posted in a timely manner.
On the topic of driver behavior, FMCSA said that unsafe driving could impact the rating of a driver’s current employer, but that driver history would not follow the driver to a new employer. FMCSA assumes that carriers will utilize FMCSA’s Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP) and access a driver’s motor vehicle records before making a hiring decision.
The Docket on changes to the Safety Fitness Determination process (Docket No. FMCSA-2022-0003) is open for comments through August 7 at Regulations.gov or via email to SafetyFitnessDetermination@dot.gov.