Opinion & Report: CSA * USA - Coach Your Drivers and Win

Every driver will have his or her own CSA score, and every company will have its composite CSA score

Washington,DC,USA -Transport Topics, by Rim Yurkus -President and CEO Strategic Programs Inc.- 7 Feb 2011: -- The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s new Compliance, Safety, Accountability program is changing transportation’s driver-retention game... Whenever scores are mentioned, sports come to mind, and just as baseball’s stars expect to be treated better and paid more than the average guy in the dugout, we can expect top-scoring truck drivers to use their CSA scores to negotiate compensation packages in much the same way baseball giants negotiate deals based on their batting averages... That’s fine for the team because a team packed with A-level players is going to win games, and winning teams can do more for their players than less successful ones... Developing a winning team doesn’t happen with a snap of your fingers, but you can develop a championship team if you or your driver managers adopt a coaching role to help drivers win — and maintain — good CSA scores... Under FMCSA’s old SafeStat system, a carrier’s performance on the road and potential crash risk were assessed using only four broad categories. CSA, SafeStat’s replacement, uses seven categories FMCSA calls them BASICs, short for “Behavioral Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories” ... They are:

• Unsafe driving.

• Fatigued driving (hours of service).

• Driver fitness.

• Controlled substances and alcohol.

• Vehicle maintenance.

• Cargo-related.

• Crash indicator.

Clearly, driver behavior is a major part of the new measurement system, hence the need for serious coaching...

* TransCore white paper reveals early CSA trends

Portland,ORE,USA -Truck News (CAN) -Feb 4, 2011: -- TransCore's CarrierWatch has compiled an early analysis of how fleets are measuring up under the new Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) safety measurement system in the US... In evaluating the scores of about 166,000 for-hire interstate carriers evaluated under the program, TransCore found: carriers may have Alerts under CSA even if their numeric scores are good or non-existent; more carriers have Alerts under CSA than had 'deficient' ratings under SafeStat; and CSA BASIC scores and Alerts vary significantly by state... A white paper published by TransCore noted that 90% of freight carriers with more than 500 trucks have at least one BASIC score while 25% of interstate freight haulers with five or fewer trucks have at least one score. This is because the nature of CSA makes it easier to evaluate carriers with more trucks on the road... Thirty-four per cent of interstate freight carriers have a numeric score for at least one BASIC but only 0.3% have a numeric score in every BASIC, TransCore found... The Midwestern states are assessing the most Alerts for Unsafe Driving, specifically: Illinois; Kansas; Nebraska; Iowa; Indiana; Michigan; Kentucky; and West Virginia... In terms of reach, CSA seems to be more effective than SafeStat. Fifty per cent of carriers had no data available under SafeStat while 23% of carriers have no data recorded under CSA. Sixteen per cent of carriers had deficient SafeStat scores while 21% have Alerts under CSA... Thirteen per cent of freight carriers have received Alerts for fatigued driving while 8.2% have garnered Alerts under the vehicle maintenance BASIC...