The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) addressed two key issues in the Federal Register last month: one indicating its intention to improve SafeStat and the other to modernize its commercial driver's license information system.
The SafeStat system was designed to rank a carrier's safety performance based on federal and state data on crashes and roadside inspections, on-site compliance reviews and enforcement history. It has been riddled with inaccuracies, however, because of incomplete and untimely information submitted by the states.
In the May 3 Federal Register (Docket No. FMCSA-2005-23239), the agency requested comments on its proposal to simplify Safe-Stat's Accident Safety Evaluation Area (SEA), increase the relevance of moving violations in the Driver SEA, include vehicle out-of-service violations marked as driver-only in the Driver SEA and pare down the length of time data is considered to 24 months from 30 months.
Details can be found at www.ai.volpe.dot.gov. Comments are due by July 3.
In the May 2 Federal Register, FMCSA announced plans to modernize the Commercial Driver's License Information System (CDLIS). The revamped system must accomplish the following:
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Comply with federal IT security standards;
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Provide electronic exchange of information, including convictions;
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Contain self-auditing features to ensure data is being posted correctly and consistently by states;
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Integrate the CDL and medical certificate.
States have until December 2010 to implement the new software.
