What is CSA?
There are more than 500 million trucks and bus carriers in the US and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) does its best to execute safety regulations for all of them. In 2010, the FMCSA launched the Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (CSA) initiative to improve large truck and bus safety. The measure was intended to reduce crashes and injuries and better report safety problems.
CSA is a compliance model that permits the FMCSA to gather large amounts of safety performance and equipment maintenance data. They can then contact carriers to point out areas of concern to prevent accidents.
How does CSA work?
The CSA enforcement and compliance process consists of 3 main stages: measurement, evaluation and intervention.
After 5 years, what are CSA’s performance results?
CSA has been a successful and effective program, compared to the previous, SafeStat, and led to positive changes in carriers’ and drivers’ safety performance. Thanks to warning letters, the FMCSA increased the number of annual interventions from 16,000 to 44,000. Shippers have become part of the CSA safety policy as well, many refuse new contracts with carriers with poor BASIC scores.
On the other hand, trucking companies and drivers blame CSA for being unfair and uncorrelated to real risk. Carriers with good safety records could be penalized for small issues, when companies with major problems are being ignored by CSA. FCMSA says it continues makes changes to CSA system, based on feedback.
Continue reading: PLS about FMCSA CSA’s mobile app, QC mobile, designed to provide safety information on interstate trucks.
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