A DOT audit has determined that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration must be more careful about its collection, management and analysis of data, or the federal trucking regulator “will be hindered in its ability to effectively implement CSA nationwide and address the key concerns of industry stakeholders.”
In a report issued Friday, the DOT’s Office of the Inspector General gave the agency some credit for strengthened quality controls for state-reported data, but “more action is needed in key areas.”
Among those key areas, the OIG determined that FMCSA has not fully implemented planned improvements to its processes for reviewing data correction requests and has taken “limited action” to address inaccurate and incomplete data reported by carriers – despite similar recommendations dating back to 2006.
Additionally, so far only 10 states have fully implemented Compliance, Safety, Accountability enforcement interventions, and FMCSA provided auditors no date when it expects to complete implementation in all states. The agency did say it expects a nation-wide release of software critical to state intervention efforts by May 2015.
The reported noted that the OIG “coordinated” with the Government Accountability Office – whose own CSA report was released in February – “to avoid duplicating work.” In the earlier analysis, GAO determined that the FMCSA system to score and compare motor carrier safety records is flawed and particularly unfair to small carriers.
Throughout last year, CSA’s Data Trail series by CCJ pointed out similar flaws in the data, scoring and relationship to crash risk.
“The Inspector General’s report confirms what industry stakeholders, independent researchers and other government watchdogs have found: There continue to be significant flaws in the data FMCSA is using to evaluate and score carriers under CSA,” American Trucking Associations Executive Vice President Dave Osiecki says. “ATA continues to support the oversight mission and safety goals of CSA, but FMCSA must acknowledge the program’s many problems – and commit to addressing them.”
