Truck, bus coalition wants FMCSA to pull safety scores

Arlington, VA – A coalition of transportation groups is asking the Department of Transportation to direct the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to remove motor carrier safety scores from public view, saying research has shown the data is unreliable.

In a letter sent Aug. 22 to Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, the coalition also asked DOT to advise FMCSA to place a greater importance on improving the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program.

The letter cites a Feb. 3 Government Accountability Office report that identified methodology problems and concluded data was insufficient for CSA’s Safety Measurement System scores. The audit found “FMCSA lacks sufficient safety performance information to reliably compare” most active carriers with other carriers.

For example, more than 70 percent of active motor carriers were not given a score because they did not have sufficient violation data, the letter states. GAO also found that FMCSA labeled many carriers with high scores as “high risk,” yet those carriers were not involved in crashes later.

Led by the American Trucking Associations, the coalition includes nine other groups.