For the past decade, DOT-regulated fleets have operated under SafeStat, but no longer. SafeStat has been replaced by Comprehensive Safety Analysis (CSA) 2010, which applies to all truck fleets that operate interstate and require a US DOT number. All vehicles that operate interstate with a 10,001-lb. combined GVWR or greater are covered by CSA 2010. This regulatory enforcement change will create a monumental sea change in how truck fleets manage drivers, their fleet operations, and remain DOT compliant.
To understand CSA 2010, it's important to understand what it's not. First, CSA 2010 isn't limited to CDL drivers. Second, CSA 2010 does not create any new driver regulations, vehicle regulations, or record-keeping regulations. CSA 2010 is an enforcement system, which tracks, measures, evaluates, and intervenes with motor carriers. It's a replacement for SafeStat.
Designed to more effectively target problem truck fleets, CSA 2010 is a proactive system, while SafeStat was a reactive process. Its purpose is to provide the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and states more tools to identify and intervene with potentially unsafe carriers. Under SafeStat, only out-of-service violations impacted the safety evaluation area. Under CSA 2010, all safety-related data from roadside inspections will be used to identify problem fleets, which will result in more enforcement. Already, fleets with long-standing satisfactory ratings have received warning and intervention letters.
"All indications are that CSA, instead of standing for Comprehensive Safety Analysis, will change to Compliance, Safety, and Accountability, which is certainly an accurate description of what this program intends to do," said Mark Catlin, national account executive, service sales, for J.J. Keller & Associates, in a recent industry Webinar on CSA 2010.
History Leading Up to CSA 2010
More than 20 years ago, the FMCSA instituted its compliance review and safety ratings: satisfactory, conditional, and unsatisfactory. This process triggered an audit based on a complaint or one or more fatal accidents. In the late 1990s, FMCSA developed SafeStat - a data-driven, performance-based algorithm that identified potentially high-risk motor carriers for compliance reviews. However, FMCSA has finite resources. Today, it can only audit about 2 percent of truck fleets, which, by default, means only high-risk fleets get real attention. Yet, the number of carriers has continued to increase over the years. In addition, FMCSA is experiencing additional demands on its limited resources related to homeland security issues.
In response to these resource constraints, FMCSA developed CSA 2010 to implement more effective and efficient ways to reduce commercial motor vehicle (CMV) accidents. CSA 2010 was designed to help FMCSA and its state partners contact more fleets and drivers, use improved data to better identify high-risk fleets and drivers, and apply a wider range of interventions to correct high-risk behavior. The system measures safety performance and compliance, determines safety fitness, recommends and applies interventions, and tracks and evaluates safety improvements for FMCSA-regulated fleets. A company's safety performance will be measured through data uploaded from fleet compliance activities and accident reports.
