Withdrawal of Proposed Enhancements to the Safety Measurement System

Raymond P. Martinez
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
16 July 2018

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 136 (Monday, July 16, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 32949-32950]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-15109]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

[Docket No. FMCSA-2015-0149]


Withdrawal of Proposed Enhancements to the Safety Measurement 
System

AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: On June 29, 2015 and October 5, 2016, FMCSA proposed 
enhancements to the Agency's Safety Measurement System (SMS) and 
published a preview version of the changes. However, the Fixing 
America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) required the National 
Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to conduct a 
study of FMCSA's Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program and 
the Safety Measurement System (SMS). NAS published their report titled, 
``Improving Motor Carrier Safety Measurement'' on June 27, 2017. This 
notice announces that FMCSA will not complete the enhancements 
previously proposed and the preview is removed from the SMS website.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Barbara Baker, Compliance 
Division, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey 
Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590, Telephone (202) 366-3397 or by email 
at Barbara.Baker@dot.gov. Office hours are from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., 
ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. If you have 
questions regarding viewing or submitting material to the docket, 
contact Docket Services, telephone (202) 366-9826.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

June 2015 Notice

    On June 29, 2015 (80 FR 37037), FMCSA proposed the SMS enhancements 
and requested initial comments in advance of providing motor carriers 
with a preview of how their safety performance data would be presented 
on the SMS website. The proposed changes included:
    1. Changing some of the SMS Intervention Thresholds to better 
reflect the Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories' 
(BASICs) correlation to crash risk.
    2. Two changes to the Hazardous Materials (HM) Compliance BASIC:
    a. Segmenting the HM Compliance BASIC by Cargo Tank (CT) and non-CT 
carriers; and
    b. Releasing motor carrier percentile rankings under the HM 
Compliance BASIC to the public.
    3. Reclassifying violations for operating while Out of Service 
(OOS) under the Unsafe Driving BASIC rather than the BASIC of the 
underlying OOS violation.
    4. Increasing the maximum Vehicle Miles Traveled used in the 
Utilization Factor to more accurately reflect the operations of high-
utilization carriers.
    The Agency's analysis and explanations were provided in the June 
29, 2015, notice. Stakeholders had 30 days to submit comments. The 
comment period ended on July 29, 2015.

October 2016 Notice

    The October 5, 2016, Federal Register notice (81 FR 69185) 
announced a

[[Page 32950]]

preview of proposed enhancements to the SMS website, responded to 
comments to the June 2015 Federal Register notice, and advised of 
additional enhancements.
    As a result, the preview reflected six potential changes to the SMS 
methodology for calculating percentiles.
    1. SMS Intervention Thresholds were adjusted to better reflect 
correlation to crash risk.
    2. Changes to the HM Compliance BASIC to segment by CT and non-CT 
carriers and to post motor carrier percentile rankings under the HM 
Compliance BASIC to the public.
    3. Reclassifying violations for operating while OOS under the 
Unsafe Driving BASIC rather than the BASIC of the underlying OOS 
violation.
    4. Increasing the maximum vehicle miles traveled used in the 
Utilization Factor to more accurately reflect the operations of high-
utilization carriers.
    5. Increasing the minimum number of crashes in the Crash Indicator 
BASIC from two to three.
    6. Assigning BASIC percentiles only to carriers that have had an 
inspection with a violation in the past year.
    Only 25 comments were received on the preview from 11 individuals, 
five trucking or bus companies, nine associations and one safety 
consultant. Eight commenters posted comments regarding determining the 
preventability of crashes; therefore, these comments were outside of 
the scope of the notice. Four other commenters made broad comments 
about the Agency that were not applicable to this notice. In addition, 
the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety provided a copy of their 
report titled ``Crash Risk Factors for Interstate Large Trucks in North 
Carolina'' as support for the Agency's correlation of vehicle 
maintenance to crashes.

FAST Act Correlation Study

    Section 5221 of the FAST Act, titled ``Correlation Study,'' 
required FMCSA to commission the National Research Council of the 
National Academies to conduct a study of FMCSA's CSA program and SMS.
    On June 27, 2017, NAS published the report titled ``Improving Motor 
Carrier Safety Measurement.'' The report is available at https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24818/improving-motor-carrier-safety-measurement. 
In preparing the report, NAS collected and analyzed all the 
quantitative data available to FMCSA in its databases, which contain 
information on the safety of commercial motor carriers and drivers 
subject to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations and the HM 
Regulations. In addition, NAS held three public meetings to engage 
stakeholders from the truck and bus industry, safety advocates, 
researchers, and other government organizations. The meeting agendas 
are included in an appendix to the report. FMCSA accepted the NAS 
report's recommendations, including the recommendation to develop a new 
statistical model to support the SMS, and is working to implement the 
recommended changes. The NAS cautioned the Agency against making 
changes to the algorithm based on ad hoc analysis and instead to rely 
on the Item Response Theory model.

SMS Preview Site

    As a result of the ongoing implementation of the NAS 
recommendations, FMCSA removed the preview from the SMS website and 
will not be proceeding with the proposed changes at this time.

    Issued on: July 10, 2018.
Raymond P. Martinez,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2018-15109 Filed 7-13-18; 8:45 am]
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