FMCSA’s Self-Assessment of CSA Fails to Measure Up to Independent Reviews
Sean McNally - American Trucking Associations

American Trucking Associations criticized the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for issuing an overly rosy self-assessment of its Compliance, Safety Accountability program just days after an independent review found serious flaws with the agency’s safety monitoring and measurement system.

“While we support the aims and objectives of CSA, it is important to accurately assess the program and its shortcomings in a balanced and honest fashion,” ATA President and CEO Bill Graves said. “Just because CSA is an improvement over previous programs does not make it a ‘good’ program for assessing the safety performance of individual carriers as the Government Accountability Office demonstrated earlier this week.”

FMCSA’s self-assessment concluded that CSA was an improvement upon the agency’s previous carrier assessment tool SafeStat, while downplaying several findings that would call CSA’s effectiveness into question.

For instance, the FMCSA assessment mirrored GAO’s findings with respect to the limited amount of data available on smaller carriers, and despite the fact that fleets with 5 or fewer trucks represented 75% of the carriers in the study, the authors acknowledged that there is very little available safety information on these carriers to “make a meaningful safety assessment.”

Perhaps most importantly, the report acknowledged that while the aggregated CSA data may be helpful for enforcement purposes, it can be misleading with respect to assessing the performance of individual carriers. In fact, 93 percent of the carriers monitored in the study had no crashes.

“The report demonstrated that if you compare the performance of the relatively few fleets that have scores in the system against other carriers, including those with minimal data in the system or no scores, you can paint a positive picture of the program,” said Graves.

ATA’s call was echoed by researchers FMCSA had contracted with to peer review the study who raised concerns about CSA and the agency’s assessment of it.

One characterized the nature of the analysis as “limited” and said it “does not necessarily serve the purpose of determining the effectiveness of the [system]”. Though the report boldly claims that the analyses provide solid evidence that the system is “improving safety and compliance,” a second reviewer pointed out there is no evidence to support this conclusion and urged the authors of the study “to revise the conclusions to reflect the realistic inference that can be made from their various analyses.”

“ATA continues to support FMCSA’s efforts to rid our nation’s highways of unsafe carriers, but the concerns independent researchers, the GAO and ATA have raised show that while CSA may be a modestly better tool for enforcement prioritization, it can and must be improved,” Graves said.

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ATA Reacts to CSA Report - ATAMedia

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Mesilla Valley Transportation began in 1981 by hauling refrigerated/perishable goods as a small independent fleet. MVT's strategic location in the Southwest Borderland of El Paso, TX and Las Cruces, NM helped to expedite its growth through the 1980's. By the early 1990's, MVT was recognized as a leader in quality service throughout North America.

In the early 1990's, MVT greatly expanded its capabilities by purchasing a large quantity of 53-foot dry van trailers.

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Women in Trucking
Canadian Forum

Finalists Named in Women In Trucking Recruiting Ad Contest

The Women In Trucking Association launched its first “Recruiting Ad Contest” sponsored by Arrow Truck Sales last June. The contest highlights carriers whose advertisements focus on attracting women to drive for their companies. “Women look for different information in a recruiting ad than men,” said Ellen Voie, WIT’s President and CEO.  This contest honors carriers that recognize these differences and will attract more women to the industry as well as their companies.

All transportation companies or ad agencies on behalf of the company were invited to submit their print ad. We were pleased with the submissions for the contest. A task force from Women In Trucking and Arrow Truck Sales selected the top three recruitment ads. They said it was very difficult to narrow the selection to just three. However, they selected very different ads that represented professionalism, family, and fun.

Prime, Republic Services, and Walmart were named as the three finalists in the contest. Voters indicated that they were pleased with these finalists. The woman were well represented in the ads. The “real women” type make them relevant and relatable. Professional drivers who are members of Women In Trucking Association will chose their favorite recruiting ad via an on line survey.  The winner will be announced at the “Salute To Women Behind The Wheel” event in Louisville, Kentucky at the Mid-America Trucking Show. The winner will receive bragging rights, a plaque, and exposure in the Women In Trucking magazine Redefining the Road.

“Arrow Truck Sales has enjoyed sponsoring this year’s Women In Trucking recruitment ad contest, as well as being involved in the finalist selection process. After reviewing a number of very creative ads, narrowing the list down to just three was not easy. However, we felt the ads our committee selected celebrated the career ambitions of women in trucking in a very positive and personal way. We look forward to the announcement of our contest winner at The Mid-America Trucking Show this March!” said Lane Bartram, Marketing Manager at Arrow Truck Sales. 

This contest raises awareness of the under representation of women in the industry. Members of Women In Trucking Association stated that they felt this contest promotes women in the transportation industry. This could not have happened without the support of Arrow Truck Sales as a sponsor. Arrow Truck Sales, Inc. is the best source of pre-owned medium and heavy duty trucks in North America. Arrow Truck Sales, Inc. is a member of the Volvo Group of Companies.

Women In Trucking was established to encourage the employment of women in the trucking industry, promote their accomplishments and minimize obstacles faced by women working in the trucking industry. Membership is not limited to women, as sixteen percent of its members are men who support the mission. Women In Trucking is supported by its members and the generosity of Gold Level Partners: Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, Daimler Truck NA, Frito-Lay North America , Great Dane Trailers, Hyundai Translead, and Walmart. Silver Level Partner is C.H. Robinson. Inc. For more information visit http://www.WomenInTrucking.org.

It was Beatlemania all over again this past week and the results of the TruckDriver.com John, Paul, George and Ringo Survey are in. Even though it was fifty years ago, a little over fifty percent of you reported watching The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

Did you watch The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show?

Yes - 51%
No - 11%
Too young at the time - 15%
Not born yet - 20%
What’s a Beatle? - 3%

Looks like three percent of you must be Rolling Stones fans!

Next up, the TruckDriver.com Valentines Day Survey. It was yesterday in case you forgot!

Until next time, keep on truckin’ and please drive safely.

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