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FMCSA further tweaks its CSA overhaul

Dec. 4, 2024
More than a year since its proposal to overhaul the Safety Measurement System, FMCSA took some industry opinions to heart. The agency's latest proposed changes would tweak violation groups and scoring categories' names.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced new changes to its impending Compliance, Safety, Accountability program overhaul.

This time, FMCSA followed trucking industry feedback to help improve its CSA scoring methodology. Its latest notice, “Enhanced Carrier Safety Measurement System (SMS),” outlined its responses to various industry comments.

The trucking industry often criticizes CSA scores for misrepresenting carriers’ safety. Several industry groups have called for the scores to be removed from public view.

“We all realized that we were living with an imperfect (SMS) for a long time,” Kevin Grove, director of safety and technology policy at the American Trucking Associations, said in April.

FMCSA is continually working to improve its CSA scoring methodology. The agency proposed major changes to CSA scores in February 2023. Those changes included reorganizing the safety categories, simplifying violations, changing intervention thresholds, and more.

The agency’s latest notice responded to industry concerns raised by the February 2023 proposal’s 176 public comments, which included opinions from trucking associations such as ATA, the National Tank Truck Carriers, and the Owner-Operators Independent Drivers Association.

The agency followed two suggestions from commenters about changing its scoring category names and its violation groupings.

An important, but imperfect, tool

CSA scoring is a major industry issue.

The American Transportation Research Institute named CSA scoring one of carriers’ top 10 issues of 2024, noting that carriers still have concerns about how FMCSA evaluates their safety performance.

CSA scoring has been a top 10 industry concern for ATRI’s carrier respondents for eight of the last nine years. For 2024, ATRI’s respondents considered CSA scores a bigger issue than truck parking, battery-electric vehicles, driver distraction, and the diesel technician shortage.

About the Author

Jeremy Wolfe | Editor

Editor Jeremy Wolfe joined the FleetOwner team in February 2024. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point with majors in English and Philosophy. He previously served as Editor for Endeavor Business Media's Water Group publications.

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