CSA Scores Will Soon Determine Safety Ratings
CSA Scores Will Soon Determine Safety Ratings and if you are a motor carrier you are probably familiar with what your Safety Fitness Rating is and how important it is to your company. If not, then you need to get familiar with it and see where your company stands.
The new Safety Rating Determination Rule is expected to go to public comment June 17, 2015.
So, what is the future of the safety rating?
The new safety rating determination rule is in the front office and being reviewed by the FMCSA agency leadership.
So, what is new about this? Mr. Van Steenburg says that, “The new rating system will feature an “absolute” carrier score derived from CSA, and will not use relative comparisons or grouping.” This means you will be rated on your own actual CSA scores.
The current safety rating system depends on having an on-site compliance review. Many carriers have had reviews and been downgraded many years ago. Even though a lot of these conditional rated companies have taken measures to correct the issues that resulted in the downgrade, due to not having another review or a failed upgrade request, they remain conditional.
However, when you look at the carrier in the FMCSA system you can see that the carrier is not having safety and compliance issues. All the BASIC (Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories) are below the thresholds, so they are operating according to the regulations and yet remain conditional. These two pieces of information don’t agree. This is why the move to basing your safety rating to your actual CSA is what the FMCSA is looking at to determine the rating.
What can this mean to the carrier?
Well, it is unsure how this program will be rolled out, will it be something they systematically determine carrier by carrier or will it be determined as they have reason to look at a particular carrier which is what is being determined right now by the higher ups at the FMCSA.
- What we can determine is that many carriers that are currently Satisfactory, but the CSA shows multiple Golden Triangles (Basics that are over the set threshold for the particular Basic show on the main page with Golden Triangles), may face a downgrade from the satisfactory rating to a conditional rating or worse.
- Conversely, the carriers that are currently having no problems and still have old Conditional ratings can be upgraded to Unrated most likely. This gets them out of Conditional, but they will need a compliance review to get that upgrade to Satisfactory.
For more information on current Safety Rating Click here
Are you ready to base your carrier’s safety ratings on your CSA scores?
What can a carrier do to avoid a possible downgrade?
Based on the proposed date, carriers have about 9 to 12 months to start changing the driver behaviors that trigger bad inspections. You have almost a year to change the complexion of your company. You need to start today to change behaviors. Many companies struggle with finding the time and the correct approach and training to do this themselves. Get some professional help to make these changes and don’t delay another day.
What can Craig Safety Technologies do to help you now?
Craig Safety Technologies has a unique solution to help carriers take command of their CSA scores and eventually their safety rating. We have a unique proactive solution called, Safety Rating Protection Plan, that addresses the issues that can hurt your rating. We work closely with you for 12 months to bring change to behaviors and protect your rating.
There are two very strong parts to this solution, the first is:
First step is plug into Compliance Safety Manager (CSM) for your compliance program:
- Lay a strong foundation with CSM, our cloud-based (SaaS) software that tracks compliance. This system is flexible enough for big and small companies to use. Never miss expirations again with your employees, licenses, medical certifications, and training. And this is all secured by a level 3 security program which is what banks use to protect financial data
And the second step of the solution is:
- Safety Management Plan
- Policies and procedures for drivers and management
- Targeted training drivers and dispatch/management
- Understand and use the CSA system.
- Logs are audited monthly for 6 months
- We become a part of your team and do much of the work, so you can run your business while building a safer, stronger company.
Training will be done via webinars, one-on-one training and on-line training to reach out to everyone. This is an intense program of training and communicating that when followed will change behaviors while enlightening drivers and management. The program is intense but when embraced will bring excellent results.
Every day you delay is a day is a day closer to the change in the safety rating determination. Take action now and protect your rating and company.
