Substantial change is on the horizon for the Transportation Community and it looks as though news of the effect might be falling upon deaf ears. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has stated a limited percentage of the 500,000 current freight carriers have logged onto the CSA 2010 web page to check out their information. The FMCSA has strongly urged helping truck drivers and firms realize the consequences of the new legislation as well as the importance of observing their performance. FMCSA officials have been amazed that just over 2% of all motor carriers have actually logged in to ascertain their own scores and also make certain they are in compliance with the rapidly nearing regulations.

Countless people in the market from Owner Operators, Consultants, and Carriers, to Freight Brokers, 3PL's and Shippers have regarded CSA 2010 Regulation as a "GAME CHANGER" for the trucking industry. The coverage of the new regulation continues to be widespread and has been the issue of several heated discussions. Generally there has been many charged discussions the industry and the FMCSA and Congress. Inspite of the pleas of many in the industry, Federal Officials have come to the conclusion that the large number of carriers whom have not logged on is a direct consequence of many carrier's concentration on everyday operations which in turn do not allow them to focus upon the quickly nearing regulation.

The new Safety initiative will begin in December and also can continue to be implemented throughout most of 2011. Federal, State, as well as Local Officials will continue to train and improve the new system. December is going to be a very chaotic month for the employees of the FMCSA. The Agency's goal for December 2010 is to help make the CSA information accessible to truck drivers and open to the public. In addition to making information available, the FMCSA will certainly begin sending letters to freight carriers whose information does not match current compliance requirements and identifying freight carriers which will receive field examinations.

Maybe the most significant issue of the project is that the FMCSA however does not have published requirements regarding exactly how the agency will certainly determine safety fitness. The FMCSA will issue a suggestion for exactly how it decides to figure out safety strength during the first half of the year. The Physical fitness criteria is a vital component of the CSA Regulation which in turn serves to separate the Compliance Review from a carrier's safety rating and affix the requirements to the monthly performance data from the new Safety Management System.

The FMCSA recognizes that much concern exists in the driver and carrier communities. The FMCSA is not thinking of a public driver scorecard or rating/ranking of any kind. The Agency went on to further clarify it is not aiming to issue large driver suspensions and the Business will not be looking at policies to prohibit or constrain truck driver's ability to drive based upon on physical characteristics such as weight, body mass index or neck size.

Though the FMCSA is not restricting drivers based on physical fitness, there are significant reasons why carriers should pay attention to their own status in the latest method. Presently there tend to be numerous risks carriers face when and if their own fleets drop outside of federal government guidelines, even while the FMCSA is being rolled out:

In addition to Federal Regulations, the dangers of having poor CSA scores in respect to their rankings.

Risk # 1) Shipper's Carrier selection. If a Carrier's scores tend to be jeopardized a Shipper, Manufacturer, Freight Broker or 3PL may re-assign their business to a different carrier with better compliance scores. It is crucial to understand the significance of properly serving their Customers with excellent service and compliance with federal regulation.

Risk #2) Availability of Reasonable Insurance Premiums. Insurance companies regularly review safety and compliance ratings as a foundation for determining carrier insurance premiums. Soon after December's availability of the new CSA reporting, it appears insurance companies will use these scores as the benchmark for selecting rates. Non-compliance with these standards may inevitably result in increased premiums or lack of available premiums all together.

Risk #3) Claims payouts. Carriers with poor compliance scores typically pay higher Claims settlement values largely because the added care and safety taken with much more effective operations produces reduced claims rates.

Risk # 4) Inadequate Driver Environment. Good truckers will continue to seek out companies with increased CSA Scores since those companies with higher emphasis paid on far better ratings will certainly be more looked for by Shippers.

Risk #5) Possible FMCSA Intervention. Skirting the line of conformity will constantly place your company at risk of intervention or shut down by the FMCSA. This may cause employees and clients a like to feel much less confident about your ability to produce remedies regarding their needs as well as in your company's service overall.

Preliminary data indicate that virtually 20% of all service providers on the road are in danger of a FMCSA Intervention into their operations. The new formula for evaluating safety compliance under the new regulation has discovered that more than 1/5 of the carriers analyzed will be very likely to get 'unsatisfactory' results; specifically in the Fatigued Driver Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories. The actual sample of 60,000 carriers suggested that the smallest fleets with less than five trucks saw risk of intervention grow from 10 to 15 percent, while the largest fleets with greater than 500 power units saw their risks decrease to 42 percent.

Driver exhaustion continued to be the biggest cause for concern, while vehicle maintenance, as well as unsafe Driving had been also seriously challenging categories. The crash indicator and dangerous driving BASICS dropped across the board specially amongst large fleets. Looking at of preliminary Safety Improvement Categories started August 16, 2010. The CSA 2010 Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICS) are:

1. Driving Unsafely.

2. Driving Outside of Driving

3. Driver Health & Fitness

4. Driver Chemical Abuse

5. Maintenance of Vehicle

6. Cargo Regulation Violations

7. Crash Statistics

Carriers deadline to preview their safety performance data and deal with any inappropriate conduct that could lead to accidents and fatalities on our roadways is on Dec 5, the national roll out of CSA2010.

View Full Article Here: http://blog.freightaccess.com/2010/11/carriers-slow-to-respond-to-csa-2010-requirements-as-deadline-rapidly-approaches-says-brad-hollister-of-freight-access-inc/