Here’s some help (key points: it does not give the FMCSA authority to remove drivers from their jobs or revoke their CDLs):
FMCSA is clearing up driver misunderstandings about CSA 2010
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) recently posted outreach information “separating fact from fiction” so that commercial drivers and their employers have a better understanding about how the Comprehensive Safety Analysis (CSA) 2010 enforcement program affects drivers.
The following are common misunderstandings about CSA that the FMCSA has encountered.
What is the DSMS?
The Safety Measurement System (SMS) assesses a carrier’s safety performance based on its roadside violations and crashes. The DSMS is a tool within the SMS used by enforcement staff only. Its primary purpose is to help enforcement staff assess driver safety as part of motor carrier investigations. The DSMS does this by identifying which of a motor carrier’s drivers to examine during that carrier’s compliance review. This enforcement tool uses a subset of violations to evaluate an individual driver’s safety performance across employers. Appendix A in the SMS Methodology Report shows the violations used in the DSMS.
Who can see the DSMS?
Only enforcement staff will have access to the DSMS for use during motor carrier safety investigations. Neither drivers nor employing motor carriers will have access to the DSMS. While some third-party vendors are developing and marketing CSA 2010 driver scorecards, these companies do not have access to full driver violation histories in FMCSA databases. FMCSA has not and will not validate any vendors’ scorecards or data.
What is the Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP) and how does it impact CSA 2010?
PSP is a new, voluntary FMCSA program mandated by Congress that is designed to assist the motor carrier industry in assessing individual drivers’ safety performance as part of the hiring process. PSP is a completely separate program from CSA 2010. Additionally, PSP does not provide a rating, score or formal assessment of any kind Drivers are encouraged to obtain and review their PSP report before applying for new jobs, and request a review of any potentially inaccurate data through FMCSA’s DataQs program. While the PSP is not part of CSA 2010, the safety data accessible through PSP is the same data that the DSMS and enforcement staff use during motor carrier investigations. For more information about PSP, visit FMCSA’s PSP Website at http://www.psp.fmcsa.dot.gov. For more information about DataQs, visit http://dataqs.fmcsa.dot.gov.
Will FMCSA use CSA 2010 to remove CMV drivers from their jobs?
NO. CSA 2010 does not give FMCSA new authority to remove drivers from their jobs and cannot be used to publicly rate or assess drivers’ safety performance in the way carriers are rated or assessed today. Other important facts related to driver employment are outlined below.
· Carriers will not inherit any of a newly hired driver’s past violations. Only those inspections and crashes that a driver is involved in while operating under a carrier’s authority can be applied to a carrier’s SMS.
· Similar to today’s SafeStat, tickets or warnings that drivers receive while operating their personal vehicles do not count in the new SMS.
· Neither FMCSA nor CSA 2010 restricts drivers based on body mass BMI, weight or neck size.
· Drivers should ask current and potential motor carrier employers about their safety performance as measured under CSA 2010. Drivers and carriers with strong safety performance histories stand to benefit from the new compliance and enforcement program.
Can FMCSA use CSA 2010 to revoke a driver’s CDL?
NO. CSA 2010 does not give FMCSA the authority to revoke a CDL. Only state agencies responsible for issuing CDL’s, have the authority to suspend or revoke them.
· The CDL Program is completely separate from CSA 2010. FMCSA has developed and issued standards for the testing and licensing of CDL holders. These standards require states to issue CDL’s only after the driver has passed knowledge and skills tests related to the type of vehicle the driver expects to operate.
· The data kept by a state (i.e. tickets, citations, written warnings, convictions) and the data that are kept by the Federal government and used in the DSMS (i.e. violations from roadside inspections and crash reports) are separate. Drivers may review the data kept by the Federal Government through the PSP program referenced above and may request a review of the Federal data through FMCSA’s DataQs system (https://dataqs.fmcsa.dot.gov/login.asp).
How does CSA 2010 affect a motor carriers’ employment of CMV drivers?
Under CSA 2010, FMCSA continues to hold motor carriers responsible for the safety performance of the drivers they employ. This is a longstanding FMCSA position and is not unique to CSA 2010. All inspections and crashes that a driver receives while under the authority of a carrier will remain part of the carrier’s SMS data for two years unless overturned through the DataQs system, even if the carrier terminates the driver.
FMCSA’s CSA 2010 website is the official resource for information about this new safety program.
We encourage drivers and all stakeholders to visit the CSA 2010 website at http://csa2010.fmcsa.dot.gov and sign up to receive regular updates by email at http://csa2010.fmcsa.dot.gov/stay_connected.aspx.
(www.thetowblog.com)
Posted by Cyndi Kight, Associate Editor of Towing and Recovery Footnotes
