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FMCSA - Federal Motor Carrier Safety Adminstration

CSA - Compliance, Safety, Accountability

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SMS - Safety Measurement System SMS - Safety Measurement System

Welcome to the SMS Enhancements Public Preview!

At FMCSA, we know that strong, reliable data means smarter safety decisions—and ultimately safer roads for everyone.

This is why we recently proposed enhancements to the SMS that put our latest analysis and your input to work to more effectively prioritize and intervene with carriers that post the greatest safety risk.

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See the Six Proposed Enhancements Below

See our proposed enhancements in action. Select a proposed enhancement below to see an example carrier that shows you how that proposed change may impact SMS results. You can also select Learn More, or review the Proposed SMS Enhancements Factsheet for a summary of each proposed change.

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Proposed Enhancements to the BASIC Intervention Thresholds

FMCSA proposes an enhancement to Intervention Thresholds for the Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, and Driver Fitness Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) to improve our focus on carriers with high crash rates. This enhancement includes:

Adjusting the Intervention Threshold for the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC

We will adjust the Intervention Threshold for the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC from 80% to of 75% to reflect its higher correlation to crash risk. We will also adjust the passenger carrier and Hazardous Materials (HM) carrier thresholds for this BASIC using the same approach, adjusting the passenger carrier threshold from 65% to 60% and the HM carrier threshold from 75% to 70%.

Adjusting the Intervention Threshold for the Controlled Substances/Alcohol BASIC

We will adjust the Intervention Threshold for the Controlled Substances/Alcohol BASIC from 80% to of 90% to reflect its lower correlation to crash risk. We will also adjust the passenger carrier and HM carrier thresholds for this BASIC using the same approach, adjusting the passenger carrier threshold from 65% to 75% and the HM carrier threshold from 75% to 85%.

Adjusting the Intervention Threshold for the Driver Fitness BASIC

We will adjust the Intervention Threshold for the Driver Fitness BASIC from 80% to of 90% to reflect its lower correlation to crash risk. We will also adjust the passenger carrier and HM carrier thresholds for this BASIC using the same approach, adjusting the passenger carrier threshold from 65% to 75% and the HM carrier threshold from 75% to 85%.

To learn more about how this proposed change will make these BASICs more effective, review the Foundational Document. You can also Tour this Change to see this proposed enhancement in action.

Proposed Enhancement to the Crash Data Sufficiency Standards

FMCSA proposes an enhancement to the crash data sufficiency standards to focus our investigative resources on carriers with more crash involvement. We will increase the number of crashes required to assign carriers a percentile in the Crash Indicator Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category (BASIC) from two to three. Currently, we assign percentiles in this BASIC if carriers have had at least two reportable crashes in the past two years.

To learn more about how this proposed change will focus our investigative resources on carriers with more crash involvement, review the Foundational Document. You can also Tour this Change to see this proposed enhancement in action.

Proposed Enhancements to the Data Sufficiency Standards

FMCSA proposes an enhancement to sharpen our focus on carriers with recent violations. We will simplify our data sufficiency standards to only assign Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category (BASIC) percentiles to carriers that have had an inspection with a violation in the past year. Currently, we assign percentiles in the Hours-of-Service Compliance, Vehicle Maintenance, Hazardous Materials Compliance, and Driver Fitness BASICs to carriers that meet the above requirement or have had their most recent inspection result in a violation.

To learn more about how this proposed change will improve our focus on recent violations, review the Foundational Document. You can also Tour this Change to see this proposed enhancement in action.

Proposed Enhancements to the Utilization Factor

FMCSA proposes an enhancement to the Utilization Factor to more accurately account for carriers with increased exposure that drive on our roads the most, also known as high-utilization carriers. We will expand the range over which the Utilization Factor is applied from 200,000 to 250,000 Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT) per average Power Unit (PU). The Utilization Factor accounts for high-utilization carriers by adjusting their average PU values when calculating measures in the Unsafe Driving and Crash Indicator Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories.

To learn more about how this proposed change will more accuratly account for carriers with a high level of exposure on our roads, review the Foundational Document. You can also Tour this Change to see this proposed enhancement in action.

Proposed Enhancement to the HM Compliance BASIC

FMCSA proposes an enhancement to the Hazardous Materials (HM) Compliance Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category (BASIC) to make it more effective at identifying carriers with HM compliance problems for interventions. This enhancement includes:

Segmenting this BASIC by Cargo Tank and Non-Cargo Tank Operations

Cargo tank and non-cargo tank operations often result in different violations. Segmenting these carriers will enable the SMS to account for these differences when assigning percentiles in this BASIC.

Adjusting this BASIC’s Intervention Threshold

We will adjust the Intervention Threshold for this BASIC from 80% to 90% to reflect its lower correlation to crash risk.

To learn more about how this proposed change will make this BASIC more effective, review the Foundational Document. You can also Tour this Change to see this proposed enhancement in action.

Proposed Enhancement to the Operating While OOS Violations

FMCSA proposes an enhancement to operating while out-of-service (OOS) violations to make it easier to identify driver safety problems related to OOS. We will move operating while OOS violations that occurred in other Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) to the Unsafe Driving BASIC. This change will consolidate driver safety problems that are currently spread across multiple BASICs.

To learn more about how this proposed change will make it easier to identify driver safety problems related to OOS, review the Foundational Document. You can also Tour this Change to see this proposed enhancement in action.