The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) published two key dockets in the Federal Register this week: one indicating its intention to improve SafeStat and the other to modernize its commercial driver’s license information system (CDLIS).

The SafeStat system was designed to rank a carrier’s safety performance based on federal and state data on crashes and roadside inspections, on-site compliance reviews and enforcement history, but has been riddled with inaccuracies because of incomplete and untimely information submitted by the states. The agency had since taken steps to improve data collection by adopting a policy that would deny under-performing states grant money.

Today the agency requested comments on its proposal aimed to simplify SafeStat’s accident safety evaluation area (SEA), increase relevance to moving violations, include vehicle out-of-service violations marked as driver-only in SEA and pare down the length of time data is considered for SafeStat to 24 months from 30 months.

Ultimately, an accurate SafeStat system would be used by FMCSA to focus its resources on improving the performance of high-risk operators, the agency noted.

Comments may be received by July 3. To view this Federal Register entry, go to http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/E6-6647.htm.

Separately, FMCSA is updating CDLIS—the CDL information system— to merge medical certificate data with the commercial driver license as mandated by the highway bill enacted in August. Under the plan, CDLIS will:

  • comply with federal information technology security standards,
  • provide for the electronic exchange off all information, including posting of convictions,
  • contain self-auditing features to ensure data is being posted correctly and consistently by states.

    The highway bill has earmarked $28 million over fiscal years 2006 to 2009 for this project. The agency will distribute the money to the American Assn. of Motor Vehicle Administrators. All states will implement the modernized CDLIS software by December 2010.

    To view this Federal Register entry, go to http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/E6-6598.htm.