House Small Business Hearing on FMCSA's CSA Program | Team ...

June 17, 2102 ? Rick Gobbell shared a summary of the House Small Business Hearing on FMCSA?s Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) Program that was held in Washington last week on July 11th. He said, "I?ll let you draw your own conclusions as to how well the FMCSA convinced this committee that CSA is a viable program. It isn?t difficult to assess.? While the hearing focused on trucks primarily, we wanted to share this with Trailways."

MEMORANDUM

TO: ASECTT Members
FROM: Jim Edwards
DATE: July 11, 2012
SUBJECT:House Small Business Hearing on FMCSA?s CSA Program

On July 11, 2012, the House Committee on Small Business held a hearing entitled ?Is FMCSA?s CSA Program Driving Small Businesses Off the Road??.?

The hearing?s purpose, according to a July 3 memo from Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO), was to ?examine the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)?s Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program and its effects on small business.? Graves released a statement, listing FMCSA?s reasons for implementing the CSA program, as well as reasons why many industry stakeholders have raised concerns over the program. In particular, Graves noted the Safety Measurement System (SMS) as a major concern.

The following witnesses testified at the hearing: Bill Bronrott, the Deputy Administrator of FMCSA (Washington, D.C.); Daniel A. Miranda, CEO of Hit Em Hard Transportation (Elverta, CA), who was testifying on behalf of Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association; Jeff Tucker, CEO of Tucker Company Worldwide (Cherry Hill, NJ); Michael Belzer, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Wayne State University (Detroit, MI); and Anthony Gallo, Senior Analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, LLC (Baltimore, MD).

According to a statement from ranking Democratic Rep. Nydia M. Vel?zquez (D-NY), the majority of trucking businesses (around 90 percent) are small businesses. CSA is meant to ?remove unfit drivers.? By expanding oversight, the FMCSA can be more helpful in keeping people safe. She said CSA will provide smaller carriers with ?a level playing field.?

Bronrott stated SMS ?[prioritizes] carriers for review by the [FMCSA].? Also, he stated that ?[CSA will] allow the [FMCSA] to reach more carriers with its limited resources.? Miranda voiced his concern that ?CSA is flawed because its scoring system ? is prejudicial [and] arbitrary ? and disproportionately punish[es] small businesses.? Gallo testified that ?[Wells Fargo continues] to find the FMCSA?s ? CSA safety program problematic. Based on our research, we do not believe stakeholders should rely on CSA ? scores as an indicator of carrier safety performance or future crash risk.? Tucker said, ?TIA supports FMCSA and its mission to improve motor carrier safety on the nation?s roadways. TIA appreciates the economic strength our nation gains from small business motor carriers, brokers, and manufacturers. ? We ask Congress to develop a legislative fix similar to the Graves Amendment ?. This ? would create a uniform standard against liability ?.? Finally, Belzer included three potential solutions: ?Get government regulators out of their silos [i.e., have Labor Department and FMCSA collaborate]. ? Implement Chain of Responsibility and Safe Pay rules like those enacted by the Australian Parliament to create a level playing field in a deregulated environment. ? Tighten regulations on subcontracting that balances the power between contractors and trucking companies, as Australians have done.?

Bronrott repeatedly stated under questioning that ?safety is FMCSA?s number one priority.? He said CSA holds drivers accountable, citing data from 2011 showing an 8 percent reduction in truck and bus violations as well as a 12 percent drop in driver violations.

?The agency now utilizes a range of safety and intervention tools to get to the root of [the problem],? said Bronrott.

Velazquez brought up the recent Wells Fargo report that stated there was no meaningful statistical relationship between CSA ratings and unsafe driving. When asked for a response, Bronrott disagreed, saying ?[the FMCSA] did not agree with the conclusions of that report,? and that there is a ?strong correlation between SMS BASICs and crash risk.?

After Velazquez asked Bronrott whether or not CSA would diminish small businesses, Rep. Allen West (R-FL) added that Wells Fargo did another study that included small businesses. The study, West noted, reported the same results as Wells Fargo?s first CSA studies.

Later, Bronrott explained that the ?crash weighting? statistic was concerned with a driver?s involvement in a crash, regardless of whether or not it was his fault. This prompted Rep. Jeff Landry (R-LA) to ask, ?How can you hold someone accountable for something that?s not [his] fault? ? Why can?t we hold [the FMCSA] accountable?? Bronrott later told Graves that it will not be until summer 2013 that the FMCSA releases its findings on CSA, three years after the initial implementation in 2010. This concluded the first panel?s testimony.

The second panel testified next. Miranda stated that CSA is ?oppressive and punitive,? and that ?though well intentioned, [the FMCSA?s CSA program] is a program full of flaws.? Gallo said that multiple studies conducted by Wells Fargo evidenced there is ?no meaningful relationship? between CSA data and reality.

Tucker said ?[the FMCSA] has created a heavy burden? on small businesses, adding that he has had to hire a lawyer as a result of the CSA program and has had to ?turn away a number of carriers who?d like to do business with me.? Tucker then responded to Bronrott?s repeated statements that the FMCSA?s main goal is safety, saying, ?We want safety. ? [Safety] is not the issue. ? This isn?t safety; this is waste.? He added, ?Many shippers will not use motor carriers because they have an alert in one or more of these arbitrary [CSA] categories.?

West asked the panel if the federal government had met with them. Miranda replied, ?[The government] didn?t talk to any of the people affected by this. ? They?re changing the way I feed my family. ? They?re not caring about anything we say.?

Source: http://www.teamtrailways.com/house-small-business-hearing-on-fmcsas-csa-program/

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