The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) uses the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) Safety Measurement System (SMS) to prioritize motor carriers for different interventions. To do this, every month the SMS calculates carrier Behavioral Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASIC) percentiles based on the carrier’s on-road performance data and its peers’ data. This information—and other factors such as intervention history, unresolved Acute and Critical Violations, and operational characteristics—is used to assign all motor carriers to one of five categories and, in some cases, to determine a recommended action. These 5 categories are:

1. High Risk
2. Moderate-Risk
3. Risk
4. Warning letter
5. Monitor

FMCSA defines “High Risk” as the following for passenger and non-passenger motor carriers:

High-risk motor carriers should expect to receive a “knock on the door” from a state or federal investigator within 90 days of meeting the above criteria to conduct an on-site investigation. This policy is spelled out in statute as directed by Congress in Section 4138 of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act (SAFETEA-LU).

The Trump Administration has been focusing on more enforcement and accountability in several areas, and most notably (and recently) with state driver licensing agencies on English Language Proficiency, the CDL issuance process, and non-domiciled CDLs. It stands to reason that they will do the same with their field staff by conducting more investigations of high-risk motor carriers. If you are not constantly reviewing your CSA scores and SMS data, you should be. If you are in the high-risk category, you should be proactively implementing strategies to evaluate and address your compliance issues and gaps. If not, the feds may come in and do it for you. Call STC for help before it’s too late.