Sen. Deb Fischer Urges FMCSA to Remove ‘Inaccurate’ CSA Scores from App, Provide Disclaimers
In a letter to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, Sen. Deb Fischer expressed hope that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration would remove from the agency’s QCMobile smartphone application Compliance, Safety, Accountability information that is deemed inaccurate.
The chairwoman of the Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security panel, which has jurisdiction over trucking policy, said that removing such information would ensure the public is not misinformed about carriers. Fischer also asked that the agency provide disclaimers that interpret the CSA safety management system, or SMS, scores.
“Inaccurate SMS scores cost businesses contracts, encourage litigation and have the potential to negatively impact safety on our nation’s roads,” Fischer wrote April 9.
An FMCSA spokesman said Foxx would respond directly to Fischer.
The senator noted a Government Accountability Office review which concluded that inaccuracies in SMS methodology led the agency to incorrectly identify carriers as being “at-risk” when they were not subsequently involved in accidents.
FMCSA launched the QCMobile app — QC stands for “query central” — on March 17. Law enforcement personnel and people in the insurance and third-party logistics industries are the app’s primary audience. It also is available to the public, according to FMCSA.
