FMCSA proposed rule aims to ID non-compliant truckers

The proposed Safety Fitness Determination rule would update FMCSA’s safety fitness rating methodology by integrating on-road safety data from inspections, along with the results of carrier investigations and crash reports.    The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Monday announced a proposed rulemaking to enhance its ability to identify non-compliant motor carriers.  
   The proposed Safety Fitness Determination (SFD) rule would update FMCSA’s safety fitness rating methodology by integrating on-road safety data from inspections, along with the results of carrier investigations and crash reports, to determine a motor carrier’s overall safety on a monthly basis, the agency explained.
   “This update to our methodology will help the agency focus on carriers with a higher crash risk,” FMCSA Acting Administrator Scott Darling said in a statement. “Carriers that we identify as unfit to operate will be removed from our roadways until they improve.”
   Specifically, the proposed SFD rule would replace the current three-tier federal rating system of “satisfactory–conditional–unsatisfactory” for federally regulated commercial motor carriers (in place since 1982) with a single determination of “unfit,” which would require the carrier to either improve or cease operations.  
   The SFD rule, once activated, will give FMCSA to assess the safety fitness of about 75,000 companies a month. By comparison, the agency is currently only able to investigate around 15,000 motor carriers annually – with less than half of those companies receiving a safety rating.
   According to FMCSA’s estimates, less than 300 motor carriers a year would be proposed as “unfit” solely as a result of on-road safety violations. Further, the agency’s analysis has shown that the carriers identified through this on-road safety data have crash rates of almost four-times the national average. 
   Once the notice of proposed rulemaking is published in the Federal Register, the public will then have 60 days to comment.