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02/26/2007 New FMCSA Programs to Focus on Problem CDL Drivers
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, FMCSA, has announced plans to add another level to the current Inspection Selection System, ISS. This new inspection level will screen drivers in the same manner as the current ISS screens vehicles belonging to commercial motor carriers. The new system will be integrated with the current ISS, and will be known as ISS-D or Inspection Selection System-Driver.
The current ISS system, in use since 1995, works by using a complex computer scoring system to determine whether or not a truck should be selected for inspection. When a vehicle enters an inspection station its DOT number is entered into ISS by an inspector. ISS assigns a score to the vehicle that is based on the results of previous vehicle inspections and compliance reviews of the motor carrier that operates the vehicle. ISS will specifically recommend that an inspection of the vehicle take place if the motor carrier has either a poor safety record or has had very few safety inspections relative to the number of vehicles it operates, in the past 24 months. In addition to the recommendations of ISS, inspectors are of course free to use their judgement in determining if a particular vehicle should be inspected or not.
ISS-D will utilize a similar computer scoring system to determine if a driver meets the criteria for a Level-3 inspection. The full Level-3 inspection includes a roadside examination of the driver’s license, medical certification and waiver, if applicable, hours of service logbook or electronic record, seat belt usage, vehicle inspection report, and hazardous materials requirements if applicable.
The computer scoring system being developed by the FMCSA for the ISS-D will integrate commercial driver data into the existing ISS scoring system. The driver data will include relevant safety history information including out of service orders, traffic violations, convictions, license suspensions and/or revocations, etc. Various federal and State databases will be linked in order to provide information that will be used by the ISS-D scoring system to determine which drivers should be flagged for a Level-3 inspection.
In addition to ISS-D, FMCSA has announced plans for a system similar to the SafeStat system except that it would be used to track drivers as opposed to motor carriers. The new system would be established as part of the modernization of the Commercial Drivers License Information System, CDLIS, which was mandated by the recently passed highway authorization bill. (The highway bill also calls for the integration of medical certificate data into the CDLIS database.)
As announced in the May 9 2006 Federal Register, one of the goals of the system will be to; “Improve the accuracy, speed, and completeness of driver history information exchanged among the various components of the system – including law enforcement, prosecutors, the courts, employers, and State licensing agencies – both within the States and between States.”
The new system would allow employers and law enforcement to obtain complete driver histories regardless of the number of employers a driver has worked for, or the number of States in which he/she has held a CDL.
Industry, government, and enforcement agencies have long recognized that targeting problem drivers is the key to reducing commercial motor vehicle accident rates. Drivers with documented, on going problems in their motor vehicle records or safety performance histories, are likely to continue having such problems. Focusing enforcement efforts on these drivers is likely to be effective in reducing overall industry accident rates.
In 2001 FMCSA did a study entitled “2010 Strategy – Saving Lives Through Safety, Innovation and Performance.” The study looked at trends in the transportation industry, growth in commerce, highway construction, and U.S. workforce demographics in an attempt to analyze how those trends would affect transportation safety. The following were some of the trends noted by the study:
- Trucking will continue a rapid growth due to increased trade and demand for just-in-time freight delivery.
- The number of passenger cars, vans and light trucks will also continue to grow rapidly.
- There will be little expansion in the highway and road infrastructure. Traffic volume and congestion will worsen.
- There will be continued shortages of commercial motor vehicle drivers, which will result in more new drivers with less driving experience.
The ISS-D and CDLIS modernization is an effort by FMCSA to focus on an area that virtually everyone involved in the transportation industry agrees has the largest potential for reducing cmv accident rates. The new systems will provide enforcement authorities with valuable tools that will allow them to focus their efforts on the drivers that are most likely to present safety hazards. | 
