48
RISKMANAGEMENT
ACT
NOVEMBER 2014
Bill Smith
discusses
how to review the
updated CSA Safety
Measurement System.
equipment are
classified asmotor
carriers and, as
such, are subject to the same standards as
a commercial trucking company.
TheSMS assesses carrier safetybased
on24months of inspection and crash
data and considers items such as the
number of safetyviolations; the severity
of those violations or crashes; andwhen
those safetyviolations occurred,with
recent eventsweightedmoreheavily.
When amotor carrier/crane company
logs intoSMS, they canquicklyview
their compliance status in regards to a
specificBehavioralAnalysis andSafety
ImprovementCategory (BASIC). This
also includes the ability toviewyour
Crash Indicator andHazardousMaterials
Compliance scores, bothofwhich arenot
available to thepublic.UnsafeDriving,
Hours of Service and theother remaining
BASIC’s are available for public view.
Organizations can alsoviewdetailed
informationon roadside inspections and
crashes.Of course, privatedetails such as
drivernames andother carrier-specific
information arenotmade
public.
Logging in toSMS to
seewhere you stand is
somethingyou’re going to
want todoon a regular basis.
FMCSAupdates the SMS
once amonthwith roadside
inspection and crashdata
from thepast 24months.And
now that crane companies are
subject toDOT audits
basedon theirCSA
scores in the same
way that trucking
companies are, there
aremany crane
shops that have yet
toview thedata that’s
available. Thenew
SMSwebsite should
make that process a
little easier.
Getting the BASICs
You canget to the sitebynavigatingover
to theCSA sectionof theFMCSAwebsite.
Public access is found at
.
dot.gov and carrier access is found at
.
aspx?ReturnURL=/SMS/.
Once you’re there, you’ll see a search
boxwhere you can enter yourUSDOT
number.Once you’ve enteredyourDOT
number into the searchbar on the site,
you’ll get to themainoverviewpage.
Here’showyou candivedeeper into
specificBASICs.
As you select aBASIC icon, itwill
appeardarker than the rest. Theboxon
the left called “On-RoadPerformance”
summarizesmotor carrier performance in
this particularBASIC, includingon-road
performance status, performancemeasure
andpercentile, percentileperformance as
it relates to the InterventionThreshold,
safety event group information and
investigation results. You can also select
Accessing
your CSA
information
THEAUTHOR:
Bill Smith
is
executive vice president
of claims and risk
management for NBIS.
B
ack inSeptember,
in an article titled,
“
TheTruthAbout
CraneCompanies andCSA
Performance
,” Iwrote about
five things crane companies
couldbedoing right now to
make sure they remain in
compliancewithFMCSA
regulations. Thismonth,we’re
goingback to that topic, but
this time aroundwe’re going
to focus inon theFMCSA’s
newly redesignedSMS (Safety
Measurement System)website.
Theupdatedwebsite,with a
freshnew look and smoother
feel, is enhanced in away that
aspires to let organizations
“quickly and efficiently
improve safetybehaviors.”
FMCSA realized that being able to see
relevant informationquickly, and in
away that illustrates that information
as simply as possible, is thebestway
forward.
TheSMS assessesmotor carrier safety
compliance and identifies carriers for
interventions using all roadside violation,
inspection, and crashdata available.
According toFMCSA, thismeans that
eachyear data from at least 3.5million
roadside inspections and crash reports
feed intoSMS to identifynoncompliant
and at-risk carriers.However, it’s
important also to remember that
mobile cranes andothermobileheavy
