FMCSA Moves To Correct SafeStat Flaws
While some trucking companies will be gratified by the steps being taken to improve SafeStat, others may not like it so much.
Oliver B.Patton
Washington Editor
In response to pressure from the industry, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is changing the online system it uses to rate trucking company safety performance.
Right now, the ratings are posted on the agency's web site and are available to anyone. The information is quite sensitive: The agency uses it to determine which companies it should investigate, and private interests use it to inform their business decisions. An insurance company, for example, might consider a carrier's safety rating when it assesses risk.
Problem is, the rating system is not reliable. In a recent investigation, the Department of Transportation's Inspector General found that the data needs to be more accurate, complete and timely if it is going to be available to the public. The investigation was ordered by Congress following complaints by trucking interests.
The safety agency, which has acknowledged that the system has shortcomings, responded late last month with a decision to take some of the data off of the public site. It also has installed a new system intended to make it easier for trucking companies to fix mistakes in the data, and a map indicating which states do a good job of reporting their data, and which do not.
An industry spokesman welcomed the agency's action. "FMCSA is clearly trying to address the biggest concerns discovered by the Inspector General," said Dave Osiecki, vice president of safety and operations at American Trucking Assns. "This is an appropriate response to the Inspector General."
The rating system is called SafeStat, short for Safety Status Measurement System. SafeStat scores each company based on four factors: its accident history, the performance of its drivers, the condition of its vehicles and the quality of its safety management program. These scores are weighted to produce an overall score. Data for this evaluation comes from reports about accidents, moving violations, roadside inspections and formal safety inspections, called compliance reviews.
Despite its flaws, SafeStat does provide value. In a validation study cited by the Inspector General, for example, carriers identified by SafeStat as being in a high-risk category had significantly higher accident rates. That study needs to be updated, but it is convincing, the Inspector General said.
But because some SafeStat data is inaccurate or incomplete, it should not be posted on the web for everyone to see, the Inspector General said last March. "The types and magnitude of data problems we found argue for immediate and effective action."
In last month's announcement, the agency said that by the end of the summer it will remove both the accident evaluation score and the overall SafeStat score from the public web site. The accident scores rely on state-provided crash reports, "which are sometimes not of the highest quality data," said agency administrator Annette Sandberg in a statement. The overall score is being removed because it is determined, in part, by the accident score.
The seal on this data is not perfect, however. These scores still will be available to someone who files a Freedom of Information Act request, although they will be accompanied by a disclaimer, said agency spokesman Dave Longo.
The disclaimer, which is now posted on the SafeStat web site, warns viewers that SafeStat should be used carefully. "Please be aware that use of SafeStat for purposes other than identifying and prioritizing carriers for FMCSA and state safety improvement and enforcement programs may produce unintended results," it says.
The scores also will be available to the carrier through a log-in process. And they will be available to agency and state enforcement personnel.
The other three scores will remain posted on the public website — because the underlying data is more timely and accurate, Sandberg said.
FMCSA will restore the accident and overall scores to public view "when we are confident that the information provided is more reliable," Sandberg said.
The agency also has instituted a new system called DataQs, which gives carriers a mechanism for fixing incorrect data. Much of the data that goes into a carrier's ranking comes from states, and carriers have found that if that data is incorrect they often have a hard time getting state officials to fix it. It is a sore point that DataQs is supposed to remedy.
Early reports are positive. Paul Tamburelli, corporate director of risk management and loss control for XTRA Corp., said he has had quick success correcting the record through DataQs.
XTRA's experience illustrates how incorrect information gets into the system. The company is in the business of leasing trailers and is not registered at the Department of Transportation as a carrier. It does, however, operate a small fleet of registered trucks to make service calls to its leasing customers. Occasionally, when one of its leased trailers is involved in an accident, the police officer on duty will enter XTRA's name, rather than the name of the operator, on the accident report. As the report is cross-referenced into the system, the accident gets charged to XTRA's service fleet.
As he was checking SafeStat recently, Tamburelli found that it was reporting 18 accidents involving his service fleet, including two fatals and 10 with injuries — when in fact the fleet had only one property-damage accident in two years.
He logged onto DataQs to correct the record — and got an immediate response. "My experience early on was good," he said.
The map on the web site reflects a rating system the agency has started applying to the states. Each state is rated — good, fair or poor — depending on the timeliness, completeness and accuracy of its inspection and crash data. The idea is to supply some perspective for the recipient of the data — and to let the states know which of them need to improve.
This message is being reinforced in the time-honored federal way: The agency is requiring them to describe their data collection and improvement plans whenever they apply for federal funds to support their enforcement efforts.
Law enforcement officials — key players in the system because they are the ones who gather the original data from accident scenes — like what the agency is doing. The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, whose members include state police, believes there is a need to improve the system, said executive director Stephen Campbell.
"These are worthwhile goals, and we certainly support them," Campbell said.
He also said he is pleased that the agency is carving out some additional federal funds to help states get their systems up to snuff. Some state police entities want to get the data in on time but face the difficult choice of either doing that or aggressively pursuing other priorities, such as, say, a murder investigation, Campbell said. The extra money will help these units meet both responsibilities, he said.
While some trucking companies will be gratified by the steps FMCSA is taking to improve SafeStat, others may not like it so much.
The safety agency contends that those fleets whose safety performance has not been up to snuff may have benefited from SafeStat's slowness.
As Campbell put it, some carriers "may be in for an ugly surprise."
Truck safety experts warn that all fleets should keep a close watch on SafeStat. To get to the SafeStat web site, go first to the FMCSA home page: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov. Scroll down to the heading, Information, and click on Analysis and Information Online. You will be directed to another web site, http://ai.volpe.dot.gov. Follow the directions and you will be taken to the first page of SafeStat.
Washington Report continued...
