FMCSA proposes changes to Safety Measurement System

Posted February 17, 2023

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has announced proposed changes to the Safety Measurement System (SMS) methodology used to prioritize motor carriers for Agency intervention.

The proposed changes include:

• Reorganized “BASICs”
• Reorganized roadside violations
• Simplified severity weights
• Improved intervention thresholds
• Proportionate percentiles
• Greater focus on recent violations
• Updated utilization factor
• New segmentation
• Accounting for not preventable crashes

The Agency is asking motor carriers and other stakeholders to preview how the new methodology impacts their prioritization results by logging in to the CSA Prioritization Preview website at https://csa.fmcsa.dot.gov/prioritizationpreview. The Agency is also offering public Q&A webinars on March 7, 14, and 15, 2023. Individuals can use the CSA Prioritization Preview website to register to attend one of the informational webinars.

Stakeholders are encouraged to submit their comments at https://https://checkpoint.url-protection.com/v1/url?. The comment period is open from February 15-May 16, 2023.

This article was written by Jen Loomis of J. J. Keller & Associates, Inc.