The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced changes to its policy on calculating and publicizing driver, vehicle, and hazardous materials out-of-service (OOS) rates and crash rates. The changes were supported by the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA), though ARA said last week that it “has not yet fully reviewed this proposal to determine its full impact on the industry.”
Under current law, in order for FMCSA to issue a hazardous materials safety permit (HMSP), a motor carrier must not have a crash rate or driver, vehicle, or hazardous materials OOS rate in the top 30 percent of the national average. The current method for determining the qualifying crash and OOS rates under this rule, in effect since the inception of the HMSP program in January 2005, utilizes two years of inspection data from FMCSA’s Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) to calculate the OOS rates representing the top or worst-performing 30 percent of the national average. FMCSA has been recalculating the threshold crash and OOS rates every two years, using MCMIS data from the preceding two years.
FMCSA’s new methodology uses eight years of MCMIS data to determine the national average for eligible crash and OOS thresholds that qualify for an HMSP. As a result, FMCSA said rates will remain static rather than change every two years. Under the previous system, according to FMCSA, OOS thresholds fluctuated, causing uncertainty in the industry. The revised rates are effective immediately until further notice from FMCSA.
“The Agency decided that crash and OOS rates, which remain static over a longer period of time, will improve safety by providing a clearly identifiable standard for industry compliance and minimize the burden on motor carriers and the (hazardous materials) industry by allowing more appropriate measures that ensure eligibility for the HMSP.”
ARA said it advocates a fixed rather than floating rate, and offered testimony to that effect at a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing in April. “Every two years, carriers must renew their hazardous material safety permit, and the eligibility criteria for that renewal cycle is on a floating scale,” said Paul Derig, environmental health and safety manager for J.R. Simplot Company, in testimony on ARA’s behalf. “So the bottom 30 percent in each category is disqualified for permit renewal. This results in greater than 50 percent of the applicants being deemed ineligible for the hazardous material safety permit.”
Derig recounted that Simplot was denied a hazardous material safety permit renewal in January 2010 because of out-of-service inspection determinations made by the Minnesota Department of Transportation on ammonia nurse wagons that were not currently in use. Even though all of the Minnesota inspections were eventually overturned, Derig said the denial of the permit “resulted in losing the ability to deliver two products that amount to $12.5 million in annual revenues for our company.”
Derig said the safety level “should not float from permitting cycle to permitting cycle. A level of safety should be defined and not fluctuate two years later. This disqualifying category data should be aggregated so that a company’s entire record is taken into account.”
Derig also stressed in his testimony the importance of the Department of Transportation federally preempting state and local hazardous materials registration and permitting programs. “The safe and secure transportation of hazardous material is best achieved through the uniform regulatory requirements,” he said. “States are free to institute their own hazardous material registration programs, resulting in varying registration requirements from state to state.”
The new FMCSA policy on calculating