Safety Compliance Safety Measurement System SMS is split between the two major areas that FMCSA has highlighted as being the cause of most accidents: the carriers themselves and occurred. In addition, the equations all take into account the size of the motor carrier or the level of exposure to FMCSA enforcement that the carrier or driver has had. Essentially, the Interventions necessarily mean fines and compliance reviews. CSA2010 introduces various levels of interventions. their drivers. To look for problem areas in these two categories, FMCSA has created two measurement systems: The Carrier Safety Measurement System (CSMS) and the Driver Safety Measurement System (DSMS). These systems work similarly; they collect the SMS information and process it into categories used to calculate performance rankings. The SMS information is separated into seven sections, known as Behavioral Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs). A score is calculated for each of these seven groups using equations that rank violations by their severity and the time since they occurred. Recent violations and violations that FMCSA believes will be most likely to cause an accident will be weighted more heavily than other violations. The BASICs are the same topics for carriers and drivers but are calculated differently. SMS will take the seven BASIC scores and will rank the motor carrier or driver within an appropriate peer group. By doing this, SMS will determine which motor carriers have safety problems that need to be corrected. The process repeats every 30 days, adding in new information from roadside inspections, compliance review, and local enforcement, and taking out old, resolved compliance issues. An almost identical system monitors the compliance of individual drivers. These BASICs are actually each a series of equations to weigh the severity of a violation and the time since it BASICs are calculated to create a percentile. This is a score, based on a specific equation for each BASIC, which ranks a driver or motor carrier with its peers. As a rule of thumb, the lower the percentile, the better a carrier or driver does. Once a percentile crosses a certain threshold, FMCSA is alerted that there are compliance problems. FMCSA will take action based on the percentile. This action can include everything from letters of intervention to temporary or even permanent out-of-service orders. The different levels of CSA2010 enforcement are known as Interventions are much more flexible than the current system, allowing FMCSA to step in more easily and prevent catastrophic compliance failures. The level and type of intervention will vary from carrier to carrier depending on the performance. Enforcement is directly triggered by a carrier having: One or more failed BASICs A high crash indicator A fatal crash A specific complaint against them Interventions necessarily mean fines and compliance reviews. CSA2010 introduces various levels of interventions. For low-level infractions (i.e., those deemed less likely to cause an accident), interventions may include warning letters and carriers being given access to safety data and measurement information. Having this information will help carriers improve as they will see their safety rating change as they work on compliance. For more serious infractions, interventions may include off-site (roadside) investigations, on-site focused investigations (to look at a specific area of compliance), and on-site comprehensive classic compliance review. CSA2010 introduces interventions. These have been created to ensure that compliance is achieved after a violation has been highlighted and that it is maintained. These follow-on interventions also have various levels: A Cooperative Safety Plan is voluntarily implemented by the carrier. The carrier and FMCSA collaborate to build a plan (from a standard FMCSA template) to address compliance problems. Intervention Methods CSA2010 gives FMCSA and its state partners a much wider range of intervention methods than the current compliance system does. These interventions will range from comprehensive compliance reviews to warning letters. SMS will allow FMCSA to monitor safety compliance at an area by area level. This means FMCSA can target a motor carrier for areas that need improvement rather than undertaking a much more labor and time intensive general compliance audit. The surgically precise nature of this means two key changes: Carriers are more likely to hear from FMCSA regarding minor safety compliance issues. Carriers will have more of a chance to improve before FMCSA has to resort to costly fines and shut down orders. Mobile Self-Storage Magazine Second Quarter 2010