The American
Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) today released a report examining the
relationship between motor carrier CSA scores and actual crash
involvement. The research expands upon previous investigations by
introducing a sophisticated statistical analysis that provides more accurate
and direct results.
ATRI assessed all five
public BASICs, finding a strong safety relationship for the Unsafe Driving,
Fatigued Driving and Vehicle Maintenance BASICs; partial support for the
Controlled Substances and Alcohol BASIC; and no statistical support for the
Driver Fitness BASIC. In fact, the data show that, as a carrier's Driver
Fitness record improves, that carrier’s crash rate goes up. “ATRI’s research identifies a key
weakness in FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System,” said Scott Mugno, Vice
President of Safety, FedEx Ground who testified on behalf of the ATA at a
Congressional Subcommittee on CSA last month. “The conclusions in ATRI’s study
support what many motor carriers have found to be true in their operations –
namely, that scores in the CSA Driver Fitness BASIC do not bear a statistical
correlation to crash risk. However, the industry has always supported CSA
where it does reduce crash risk and ATRI’s study validates that there are
portions of CSA that are working as intended.”
Recognizing
the flaws in current CSA profiles, ATRI proposes an alternative method for
communicating fleet safety information to the public in a way that more
accurately reflects carrier safety performance.
A copy of
this report is available from ATRI at www.atri-online.org.
No comments:
Post a Comment