Bill would halt FMSCA publication of carrier safety scores

Washington – The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration should change the way it calculates safety scores for motor carriers, according to a Pennsylvania lawmaker.

Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA) on Sept. 18 introduced the Safer Trucks and Buses Act (H.R. 5532) before Congress left for its fall recess. The bill calls for FMCSA to stop publication of its current safety scores on the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program website; revamp the scoring system; and prohibit current scores from being used as evidence in liability cases.

Under the bill, FMCSA would need to submit recommendations to Congress within a year on how to improve the CSA program. The bill also requests that when determining safety scores, FMCSA use only crash data from incidents in which a motor carrier was found to be at fault.

“Unfortunately, companies across the country and in Pennsylvania are being unfairly misrepresented by their safety scores, causing economically devastating impacts to these bus and truck companies, many of which are small businesses,” Barletta said in a press release.