FMCSA to Hold Public Meeting on CSA Corrective Plan
WASHINGTON — A meeting to gather public input on ways to improve a safety performance scoring program for carriers will be scheduled this year, the top trucking regulator told House lawmakers on July 18.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has nearly four months to prepare a corrective plan for the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program, which was the focus of a National Academy of Sciences study.
The study proposed various reforms to the agency, such as proceeding with an “item response theory” methodology approach. At a hearing before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, FMCSA Acting Administrator Daphne Jefferson said the agency would engage stakeholders throughout the process to compile a corrective plan based on the recommendations from the recent study.
Jefferson pledged to provide Congress with the corrective “strategy that will get us to a better result.” She did not say when the public meeting would be held.
FMCSA’s corrective plan for the CSA program based on the report’s recommendations is required by 2015’s FAST Act highway law. The plan also would need to be reviewed by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Inspector General. The CSA program is meant to improve safety along freight corridors.
At the hearing, Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), chairman of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee, reminded regulators of the overarching “goal of reducing the number of fatalities and serious injuries on the nation’s roads.”
“Over the years,” Graves said, “federal transportation safety programs, along with other factors, have played an important role in reducing these numbers.”
