Caution Ahead: Fledgling CSA program suffers growing pains

The most ambitious truck safety program in a generation is leaving the industry bewildered over the exact nature of the initiative—which, according to analysts, seems to be changing continuously.

 

By John D. Schulz, 

Contributing Editor Logistics Management
April 01, 2012 

 

CSA, which stands for “Compliance, Safety, Accountability,” was rolled out in phases starting in 2011. The program is designed to weed out as many as 5 percent, or 150,000 of the nation’s more than 3 million long-haul truck drivers—those “bad apples” that the government is convinced are disproportionately responsible for too many truck-related accidents and deaths.

It uses a complex system to rate the nation’s nearly 525,000 DOT-registered interstate trucking entities on seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories, now known as BASICs. The seven BASICs are: unsafe driving; fatigued driving; driver fitness; alcohol and drugs; vehicle maintenance; cargo security; and crash history.

Carriers are given “scores” in each category; the higher the score, the worse the performance. Carriers are then issued warning letters if their scores range above 65, meaning that only 35 percent of the carriers in their class have worse scores. For hazmat carriers the cutoff score is 60.

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