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What is CSA 2010?
by Peter Carter
 The more infractions drivers collect at roadside, the more frequently they'll be inspected. And the more inspections you get, the more likely DOT inspectors will find infractions. There are big changes coming to the roadside inspection business in the United States, and some people believe it's just a matter of time before they arrive north of the border, too. If you run compliant and stay within the law, you'll like these changes. If you're not so great at following rules, you will be stopped more than ever and your carrier is not only going to hear about your coop misadventures, they'll drop you if you don't buy in. The big change is 'CSA 2010' which stands for Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010. The American Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has been developing it for more than a decade and it's designed to upgrade the general level of fitness and safety of the trucks running America's highways. It's been a pilot project in a few states for a while now and will be rolled out in earnest come July. In short, CSA 2010 employs data collected at roadside inspections. That data is reviewed every 30 days to assess every carrier's safety performance. That information will then be used to grade the carriers and if their grades start to flag, the carriers get put on notice by the Department of Transport. If they don't shore up their operations as instructed, the DOT will conduct an audit. The audit will be 'surgical' and target those problems identified at roadside, but if things worsen instead of improve, fines, operating restrictions or worse will follow. As Jeff Davis, vice president and safety director for Dayton, Ohio,-based Jet-Express, told an audience in Toronto recently, the more infractions drivers collect at roadside, the more frequently they'll be inspected. And the more inspections you get, the more likely DOT inspectors will find infractions. Davis calls it the "vicious cycle of noncompliance." There are about 3580 possible violations, ranging from broken turn signals or misaligned trailer tape to speeding, inaccurate logs, or driving with malfunctioning brakes. Under CSA 2010, each of those has a severity weighting and will be used to determine the carrier's rating, which is called an Inspection Selection System Number (ISSD). That number will dictate how many times you'll be inspected. When the DOT punches your ISSD into the computer, if it's in the one-to-49 range you get a green light. If it's between 50 and 74, you get a yellow light and according to Davis, "If it's over 75, the inspector's already on alert because he's got a criminal coming at him." Frank Screen is a veteran safety and compliance consultant with trucking clients all across southern Ontario. He has tracked CSA 2010 from its conception. "It's going to be putting the drivers under the gun and you're going to be evaluated on a monthly basis. So maybe it's going to be a little fairer as long as the enforcement people do the things they're supposed to do." Jet-Express's Davis put it this way: "Literally the safety fitness rating of a motor carrier is held in the hands of the driver wrapped around the steering wheel." Brian Taylor runs Liberty Linehaul out of Ayr, Ont., as well as Liberty Linehaul West Inc., out of Montebello, Calif. He welcomes CSA 2010 but that's because he already prides himself on running legally. "This is awesome for us but we try to do everything we can to get it right anyway," Taylor says. "We track all our convictions and tickets and we pay attention to that and we discipline accordingly." Taylor says the third-party tracking of driver violations as planned by CSA 2010 will give all carriers a 'scorecard' that will help keep drivers in compliance. Also, he says, insurance companies will have an easier time getting information on carriers, simply by logging into the new 'Compass' website that the FMCSA is operating in conjunction with CSA 2010. "It's going to revolutionize a little how we look at drivers," Taylor says. Rick Geller is the director of safety & signature services for Markel, the trucking insurance giant. He says insurance companies are welcoming CSA 2010, but not for the reasons one might assume. The regular update of carriers' ISSDs along with the specific information about why the ISSD score was earned will give carriers very clear ideas about what parts of their organization need shoring up. Problems could lay as much on the shoulders of dispatchers or sales reps as on the drivers. "A lot of dispatch systems work with the first-in, first-out system and that effectively encourages drivers to race with each other," Geller says. "That doesn't exactly encourage safe driving, does it?" Andy Malion, the chairman and founder of Toronto's Spectra Inc., which specializes in truck safety and produces the popular Brake Safe, a visual brake stroke indicator, echoes the view that CSA 2010 is a huge change. "Not too many people are aware that the DOT started keeping scores a year and a half ago." Furthermore, Malion adds, there's a possibility that come July 1, 2010, thousands of drivers and carriers will be faced with their scores and face fines, audits or even loss of their licences. Says Frank Screen: "I feel that they're going to level the playing field... Everything's laid out for you so you know you're not going to get a phone call saying 'we're coming to visit next Wednesday.' " Screen, who at 72 has been in trucking for longer than most, agrees that CSA 2010 is a radical change for the industry. But he sums it up thusly, "It's going to be a better system."
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