FMCSA Quick to Remove CSA Scores From Public View
Snapshot of FMCSA website late on Dec. 4Only minutes after President Obama signed the highway transportation bill Dec. 4, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration pulled from public view much of the agency’s information on property motor carriers’ Compliance, Safety, Accountability scores.
A provision of the highway legislation, Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, or FAST, required that the agency review the CSA program and, during that review period, remove scores from public view.
The transportation legislation called on FMCSA to ensure its CSA scoring program provides “the most reliable” analysis possible.
“While the agency is not prohibited from displaying all of the data, no information will be available for property carriers while appropriate changes are made,” an FMCSA statement said. “This also applies to information provided to the public through the QCMobile app.”
“FMCSA is working to return the website and app to operation as quickly as possible. All information on passenger carriers remains available, and enforcement users and motor carriers can view safety data by using their login information,” the statement said.
FMCSA spokesman Duane DeBruyne would not elaborate.
Trucking leaders consistently have argued CSA data paint an erroneous picture of most carriers’ safety records, and a Government Accountability Office report criticized the agency CSA methodology.
Proponents, however, argue that CSA scores offer reliable crash-preventing information.
"By ordering an evaluation and improvement of CSA, as well as removing the flawed scores the system produces from public view in the meantime, this bill is an important victory for data and accuracy in regulatory oversight," said Dave Osiecki, American Trucking Associations executive vice president and chief of national advocacy.
