Motor carriers who haul relatively small quantities of hazardous materials have cited concerns that a proposed newly-created hazardous materials safety measurement category would unfairly worsen their hazmat scores.
The written comments were made in response to proposed changes in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability, or CSA, program.
The changes included the creation of a new Hazardous Materials BASIC — Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category — and rolling cargo-related violations into the existing Vehicle Maintenance BASIC.
“As currently structured, the BASIC assigns high scores to many reputable, safe motor carriers with laudable crash rates and low scores in all other categories,” American Trucking Associations wrote.
Less-than-truckload carrier ABF Freight System told FMCSA that the hazmat BASIC scores were not a true indicator of safety performance and crash risk, but will lead the public to believe the score to be a reflection of safety.
“This erroneous perception by shippers, insurers, the news media, and the motoring public is damaging,” ABF said.
The public comment period on the CSA changes ended July 30.
