The American Trucking Associations (ATA) said the decision by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMSCA) to withdraw its proposed safety fitness determination rule was a positive step for the agency to improving its Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) system.
“ATA has long supported using data to target enforcement activities against bad actors in our industry,” said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear. “However, numerous reviews have shown flaws in the data and in the CSA system, so it makes sense to withdraw this rule [that] would have used CSA data to create publicly available fitness ratings.”
ATA pressed for CSA reforms in the most recent highway bill—Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act—which called for a full study by the National Academies of Science and for FMCSA to make changes based on that study.
“We look forward to FMCSA enacting necessary reforms to the CSA program based on this ongoing thorough review,” Spear said. “Safety is our industry’s most important calling and having good data and using that data to make intelligent enforcement decisions is a critical to improving safety on our highways.”
