Grading on a Curve is Not Acceptable for Safety Fitness Determinations

For over 75 years, safety fitness determinations have been based upon objective safety proficiency standards and compliance reviews of regulated carriers which afford due process prior to terminating a carrier’s operating authority. The Agency has successfully overseen the motor carrier industry, reducing crashes year after year by managing the industry on a risk assessment basis, auditing only those carriers which it determines in need of attention.

Guest Commentary: Key CSA Scores May Be Poor Indicators of Carrier Safety

Guest Commentary: Key CSA Scores May Be Poor Indicators of Carrier Safety

by Tom Sanderson
July 12th, 2011

Wells Fargo Senior Analyst Anthony Gallo published an excellent document on March 28 highlighting critical problems with CSA 2010. You can contact me or contact Anthony directly at anthony.gallo@wellsfargo.com for the full document, but I want to highlight a couple of key points.

New FMCSA Rule Making Schedule

New FMCSA Rule Making Schedule:

SMS-Safety Fitness Determination Rule Making

Three Notable Articles

Please note the following three articles:

1. Agency Announces “5 Year Strategic Plan” – Comments due July 29
2. Agency Asks Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee to Address Problems with SMS Methodology without Reinventing the Wheel
3. Possible $100,000 Broker Bond

Articles by Mark J. Andrews and William B. Bierman

Please read the excellent article by Mark J. Andrews which appeared in the ATLP Journal this month. "CSA and Motor Carriers: the 'Intervention' Really Needed is a Stiff Dose of Administrative Due Process," 78 J. Transp. L. Logist. & Pol'y 129[2] (2011). It is a well researched and thorough legal explanation of the legal basis for our Administrative Procedure Act objections to CSA 2010.

I am also including a recent article by William B. Bierman, Esq. which appeared in the Spring 2011 In Transit Magazine.