NTSB Criticizes FMCSA Oversight, HOS Changes Cost $1.6 Billion

FMCSA’s Pre–employment Screening Program (PSP) began in May of 2010. It currently has 35,000 enrolled users and handles 70,000 requests each month. FMCSA recently released a study that compared the safety records of companies that regularly used PSP versus a control group that did not take advantage of the program.

The study examined the participating carriers over a 24 month period — twelve months prior to starting the program and 12 more months of data after the carrier starting pre–screening. The performance of these carriers was then compared to the control group over the same time frame. It’s interesting to note that the control group experienced a decrease in crashes and out–of–service during the study period but the participating carriers still outperformed the control group.

The study divided the carriers into four groups based on the number of drivers. The chart below breaks out the results by carrier size for PSP participating carriers and the control group.

As part of the study FMCSA queried the participating carriers concerning their feelings about PSP. Overall the carriers thought that the program is a valuable tool to assure that potential drivers are accurately reporting information on their application. Carriers can also use the details in a driver’s report to assess what types of problems they may have had and how that might affect future safety performance. One carrier stated that they could not imagine hiring a driver without viewing his/her PSP report.

FMCSA did not collect information about other factors or programs initiated by the carriers that may have also affected the outcome. It may be that the participating carriers have a more robust safety culture and have found one more tool to use to manage safety.

Use this link to view the entire study.

Recently the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a report in which they examined four serious commercial motor vehicle crashes. In the report NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman said “Our investigators found, that in many cases, the poor performing company was on FMCSA’s radar for violations, but was allowed to continue operating and was not scrutinized closely until they had deadly crashes.”

One of the crashes occurred in Elizabethtown, KY, when a tractor trailer failed to respond to traffic which had slowed ahead. The resulting crash killed six people. After the crash a second log book was discovered in the tractor which showed the driver running for 10 consecutive days. The “official” logs sent to the company showed much of that time as off duty.

Five days prior to the crash FMCSA had performed a Compliance Review (CR) on the trucking company which focused solely on the Unsafe Driving BASIC due to that category being in alert status. NTSB asserts that if FMCSA investigators had looked further they would have discovered hours–of–service violations just as they had during previous Compliance Reviews.

NTSB investigators compared the logs of eight of the company’s drivers with pay records, fuel receipts and inspection reports and discovered falsified records for all eight drivers and found that the carrier routinely scheduled its drivers to make delivery trips that required them to violate HOS regulations.

NTSB is asking why inspectors are not identifying all violations of safety regulations by motor carriers undergoing review, and why the FMCSA’s quality assurance efforts are not fully effective in assessing the accuracy and completeness of compliance reviews. The NTSB does not have the power to regulate or compel anyone to act. They do, however, have the ear of many in Congress. It will be interesting to see how this plays out but it does seem likely that FMCSA will take a tougher stand in future compliance reviews.

Last month the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) released their latest study which examines the impact of the hours of service changes that went into effect in July. Those changes were:

During the rulemaking process the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) conducted a regulatory impact analysis and estimated that the changes would result in a net benefit to the motor carrier industry of $133 million. This calculation took into account FMCSA’s estimate of the industry’s cost to comply offset by savings generated from safety improvements and accident reduction.

Based on information it received from drivers and carriers, ATRI determined that the changes have cost drivers at least $1.6 billion in lost wages due to decreased productivity. Also, many drivers reported that they felt the changes left them more fatigued and has lowered their quality of life. The report contains details about how carriers and drivers have been affected.

The net cost/benefit numbers generated by FMCSA and ATRI cannot be directly compared since the methodology used to generate them is different. However, the ATRI survey results seem to indicate that the cost to the industry is much higher than FMCSA estimated. What remains to be determined is whether or not their are any corresponding gains in safety that will offset the increased costs.

Use this link to view the full report.