What is a Compliance Review?
For the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), a Compliance Review is a formal assessment of a motor carrier's operations to ensure compliance with the FMCSA's safety regulations. This process is designed to examine the carrier's management practices and operational controls to identify any safety violations and ensure that the carrier is operating in a manner that promotes road safety and prevents commercial motor vehicle-related accidents, injuries, and fatalities. Here are key elements involved in an FMCSA Compliance Review:
Selection for Review: A motor carrier may be selected for a Compliance Review based on various criteria, such as their safety performance data, compliance history, involvement in accidents, or as part of targeted enforcement initiatives.
On-Site Investigation: Typically, an FMCSA inspector or state partner conducts the Compliance Review at the carrier's principal place of business. The review involves a thorough examination of the carrier's records, including driver qualifications, vehicle maintenance, hours of service, drug and alcohol testing programs, hazardous materials transportation (if applicable), and accident records.
Interviews and Observations: Inspectors may also conduct interviews with drivers and other employees, observe operational practices, and inspect vehicles to assess compliance with safety standards.
Safety Rating Determination: Based on the findings of the Compliance Review, the FMCSA assigns the motor carrier a safety rating. The ratings can be "Satisfactory," indicating full compliance; "Conditional," indicating that the carrier was found to have some compliance issues that need correction; or "Unsatisfactory," indicating significant compliance failures that need immediate attention.
Corrective Actions: If violations are identified, the carrier is required to take corrective actions within specified timelines to address deficiencies. Failure to comply may result in penalties, including fines or an order to cease operations.
Follow-up and Monitoring: After a Compliance Review, the FMCSA monitors the carrier's compliance efforts and may conduct follow-up reviews or inspections to ensure that corrective actions have been implemented effectively.
The FMCSA's Compliance Review process is a critical tool in its mission to reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities involving large trucks and buses. Compliance Reviews help ensure that carriers adhere to safety regulations designed to protect the public, the environment, and property.
6 Factors Scored in an Audit
During an FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) Compliance Review, several key factors are evaluated to assess a motor carrier's adherence to safety and regulatory standards. These factors are scored to determine the carrier's overall safety rating. The primary areas of focus include:
General: Examines the carrier's overall willingness and ability to comply with FMCSA regulations. This may include the adequacy of safety management controls and policies.
Driver: Assesses compliance with regulations related to driver qualifications, such as proper licensing, medical certifications, and records of violations. It also includes an evaluation of the carrier's procedures for hiring and monitoring drivers.
Operational: Evaluates the carrier's adherence to hours-of-service regulations, which are designed to prevent driver fatigue by limiting driving hours and requiring rest periods. This factor also includes the use of logbooks or electronic logging devices to record hours of service.
Vehicle: Focuses on the maintenance and condition of the carrier's vehicles. This includes regular inspections, repairs, and maintenance documentation, ensuring vehicles are safe to operate on public roads.
Hazardous Materials: For carriers that transport hazardous materials, this factor assesses compliance with regulations governing the handling, labeling, and transportation of hazardous materials, including emergency preparedness and spill response procedures.
Accidents: Reviews the carrier's history of accidents, including frequency, severity, and any patterns that indicate systemic safety issues. This factor also considers the carrier's efforts to investigate and address the causes of accidents.
How does the Compliance Review Get Scored?
The FMCSA evaluates motor carrier compliance focusing on specific violations categorized as either "acute" or "critical." These categories help determine the severity of noncompliance and guide the need for immediate or corrective action.
Acute Violations: These are regulations where noncompliance poses a severe threat to safety, necessitating immediate corrective measures by the carrier, irrespective of their overall safety performance. An example includes allowing a driver to operate a commercial motor vehicle despite having more than one Commercial Driver's License (CDL), as outlined in § 383.37(b). A violation is noted if the carrier knowingly allowed such an action. If the carrier was unaware or could not have reasonably known of the violation, it wouldn't be cited.
Critical Violations: These regulations pertain to a carrier's management or operational controls and suggest lapses in the carrier's safety management practices. For instance, § 395.3(a)(1) deals with a driver operating a vehicle for more than 11 hours, which points to inadequate management oversight.
Click here for a full List of Acute and Critical violations scored in an audit
For each instance of noncompliance with an acute violation or each pattern of noncompliance with a critical violation during the Compliance review, one point will be assessed. A pattern is more than one violation. When a number of documents are reviewed, the number of violations required to meet a pattern is equal to at least 10 percent of those examined. However, each pattern of noncompliance with a critical regulation relative to Part 395, Hours of Service of Drivers, will be assessed two points.
Special Scoring Rules for Vehicle and Accident Factors
Vehicle Factor
When a total of three or more inspections are recorded in the Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) during the twelve months prior to the CR or performed at the time of the review, the Vehicle Factor (Parts 393 and 396) will be evaluated on the basis of the Out-of-Service (OOS) rates and noncompliance with acute regulations and/or a pattern of noncompliance with critical regulations. The results of the review of the OOS rate will affect the Vehicle Factor rating as follows:
- If a motor carrier has three or more roadside vehicle inspections in the twelve months prior to the carrier review, or three vehicles inspected at the time of the review, or a combination of the two totaling three or more, and the vehicle OOS rate is 34 percent or greater, the initial factor rating will be conditional. The requirements of Part 396, Inspection, Repair, and Maintenance, will be examined during each review. The results of the examination could lower the factor rating to unsatisfactory if noncompliance with an acute regulation or a pattern of noncompliance with a critical regulation is discovered. If the examination of the Part 396 requirements reveals no such problems with the systems the motor carrier is required to maintain for compliance, the Vehicle Factor remains conditional.
- If a carrier's vehicle OOS rate is less than 34 percent, the initial factor rating will be satisfactory. If noncompliance with an acute regulation or a pattern of noncompliance with a critical regulation is discovered during the examination of Part 396 requirements, the factor rating will be lowered to conditional. If the examination of Part 396 requirements discovers no such problems with the systems the motor carrier is required to maintain for compliance, the Vehicle Factor remains satisfactory.
Accident Factor
In addition to the five regulatory rating factors, a sixth factor is included in the process to address the accident history of the motor carrier. This factor is the recordable accident rate for the past 12 months. A recordable accident, consistent with the definition for “accident” in 49 CFR 390.5, means an occurrence involving a commercial motor vehicle on a highway in motor carrier operations in commerce or within Canada or Mexico (if the motor carrier also operates in the United States) that results in a fatality; in bodily injury to a person who, as a result of the injury, immediately receives medical treatment away from the scene of the accident; or in one or more motor vehicles incurring disabling damage that requires the motor vehicle to be transported away from the scene by a tow truck or other motor vehicle.
The recordable accident rate will be used to rate Factor 6, Accident. It will be used only when a motor carrier incurs two or more recordable accidents occurred within the 12 months prior to the CR. An urban carrier (a carrier operating entirely within a radius of 100 air miles) with a recordable accident rate greater than 1.7 will receive an unsatisfactory rating for the accident factor. All other carriers with a recordable accident rate greater than 1.5 will receive an unsatisfactory factor rating. The rates are a result of roughly doubling the national average accident rate for each type of carrier rated in Fiscal Years 1994, 1995 and 1996.
How is the Final Safety Rating Determined
At the end of the Compliance Review process the cumulative point values of all of the Acute and Critical violations are added together, and totaled for the Factor that the violation belongs to. Each individual factor is then assigned a rating based upon the total point value of the violations present in that factor.
“Satisfactory” —if the acute and/or critical = 0 points
“Conditional” —if the acute and/or critical = 1 point
“Unsatisfactory” —if the acute and/or critical = 2 or more points
From that point, the Overall Safety Rating the Motor Carrier is assigned is based on the following table.
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