CSA 2010: The Game Changer
Hopefully, nearly everyone reading this has been exposed in some degree to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010. Since April 2009, I have been writing about it here, in the Mercertown newsletter, and on the Mercertown Blog. It is critically important that all Mercer drivers, employees, agents and customers understand it, and the importance of complying with it.
In a nutshell, it completely scraps the current SafeStat system and the current motor carrier safety ratings. Under the new system, motor carriers are given a month to month safety rating based completely upon the roadside performance of their drivers. Drivers, for the first time, now have “skin in the game” as they will also be rated, and that rating will follow them from carrier to carrier.
Under CSA 210, everything has a point value and affects both the safety rating of the carrier and the driver. It is no longer just about tickets, preventable accidents and out of service violations. While these still count, and are of serious concern, ANY write-up or warning also counts. Drivers and carriers lose points for such things as illegal window tint, no seat belt, lights burned out, straight pipes, logs not current, as well as for speeding, improper load securement and false logs. Things like a fire extinguisher not being charged or not being mounted cost points. Empty windshield washer tanks cost points. A non-functioning trailer ABS light costs points. Units which come with self-adjusting slack adjusters but have been re-fitted with manual ones lose points at the roadside.
Carriers and drivers are heavily penalized for unsafe driving, hours of service violations and improper cargo securement. Warnings count the same as tickets. Even if a driver beats a ticket in court, it will not come off his or the motor carrier’s CSA 2010 rating. For an understanding of all of the points, the DOT website csa2010.fmcsa.gov/about/ should be carefully reviewed.
It is important that all drivers, Mercer and everyone else, adjust their driving habits to comply with the realities of CSA 2010. It is important that all carrier personnel and agents, Mercer and everyone else, not ask or allow a driver to do anything beyond his or her hours of service capability. CSA 2010 requires all drivers to run at or below the posted speed limits at all times and to log legal. Drivers who don’t, or won’t, adversely affect a carrier’s safety rating. No motor carrier, Mercer or anyone else, will be able to keep these kind of drivers.
CSA 2010 is with us. It is the new reality and it is serious business. To maintain our position in the industry, it is absolutely imperative that everyone at Mercer understands it, embraces it and masters it. It is a game changer and it is taking being the best to a whole new level.