Enhancements to the Motor Carrier Safety Measurement System (SMS) Web Site

SUMMARY: FMCSA announces enhancements to the display of information on the public Safety Measurement System (SMS) Web site and responds to comments received in response to FMCSA's Federal Register Notice, "Proposed Enhancements to the Motor Carrier Safety Measurement System (SMS) Public Web site" published on November 5, 2013 The changes to the design of the SMS public Web site do not alter the SMS methodology or affect a carrier's safety rating, which is subject to 49 CFR part 385, Safety Fitness Procedures. The enhancements are a continuation of the Agency's efforts, first announced in April 2010, to provide the motor carrier industry and other safety stakeholders with more comprehensive, informative, and regularly updated safety performance data. This notice explains the Agency's modifications to the public SMS display, including four additional changes not originally proposed that resulted from comments received. The enhancements will be implemented when SMS data is updated in August 2014. The SMS display preview Web site will remain available until the SMS display changes described in this notice become operational.

DATES: These enhancements are scheduled to be operational on August 2, 2014.

ADDRESSES:

Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov at any time or to Room W12-140 on the ground floor of the DOT Headquarters Building at 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The on-line Federal document management system is available 24 hours each day, 365 days each year.

Privacy Act: Anyone may search the electronic form of all comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's Privacy Act System of Records Notice for the DOT Federal Docket Management System published in the Federal Register on January 17, 2008 (73 FR 3316), or you may visit http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-785.pdf.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Courtney Stevenson, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Compliance Division, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590, Telephone 202-366-5241, Email: [email protected]. If you have questions on viewing or submitting material to the docket, contact Docket Operations, Telephone (202) 366-9826.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Public Participation

Viewing Comments and Documents

To view comments, as well as documents mentioned in this preamble as being available in the docket, go to http://www.regulations.gov and insert the docket number, "FMCSA-2013-0392" in the "Keyword" box and click "Search." Next, click "Open Docket Folder" button and choose the document listed to review. If you do not have access to the Internet, you may view the docket online by visiting the Docket Management Facility in Room W12-140 on the ground floor of the DOT West Building, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.

II. Background

The SMS uses data collected from roadside inspections, State-reported crashes, and investigations to quantify the relative safety performance of motor carriers. The Agency uses SMS data to proactively identify and prioritize high-risk motor carriers. This prioritization is used to allocate investigative resources, as well as identify motor carriers for other actions such as a warning letters. FMCSA first announced the implementation of the SMS in the Federal Register on April 9, 2010 (75 FR 18256, Docket No. FMCSA-2004-18898). As FMCSA discussed in that notice, the SMS provides the motor carrier industry and other safety stakeholders with more comprehensive, informative, and regularly updated safety performance data. FMCSA announced further improvements to the SMS in March 2012 (77 FR 18298, Docket No. FMCSA-2012-0074) and August 2012 (77 FR 52110, Docket No. FMCSA-2004-18898). As stated in the March 2012 notice, FMCSA plans to apply a systematic approach to making improvements to SMS, prioritizing and releasing packages of improvements as needed.

Consistent with its prior announcements, on November 5, 2013, FMCSA announced proposed enhancements to the SMS Web site display and began a 60-day public comment period. The proposed enhancements were based on feedback received from enforcement, industry, and other safety stakeholders, including the Agency's Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee (MCSAC), which was asked in February 2013 to provide input to the Agency regarding potential improvement to the Agency's CSA program, including the SMS Web site.

Throughout the comment period, stakeholders were able to view the proposed changes on the SMS display preview Web site. In addition, the Agency conducted three webinars to educate and inform the public about the proposed enhancements. For the full background about the SMS, see Federal Register Notice, 78 FR 66420 (Nov. 5, 2013). The Hazardous Materials (HM) Compliance Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category (BASIC) and Crash Indicator BASICS will continue to be hidden from public view.

FMCSA proposed these enhancements to advance the Agency's safety mission by making important information more understandable for motor carriers seeking to improve their safety performance and other public users interested in FMCSA data. These enhancements are an extension of the Agency's effort to provide more comprehensive, informative, and regularly updated safety and compliance performance data through a systematic approach, as announced in the April 9, 2010 and March 27, 2012Federal Register notices.

The proposed Web site enhancements were developed to accomplish the following three key objectives:

(1) Provide easier, more intuitive navigation, and user-friendly features and descriptions to clarify the SMS's role as FMCSA's prioritization tool for interventions;

(2) Consolidate FMCSA safety information, so users do not have to go to multiple sites; and

(3) Provide improved access to detailed information and new performance monitoring tools.

It should be noted that the first objective, which includes clarifying SMS's role as a prioritization tool, is in alignment with recommendations from the MCSAC report submitted to FMCSA on June 9, 2014. One of several recommendations related to the SMS public display states that FMCSA should explain that the primary purpose of SMS is for enforcement.

The Web site enhancements that will take place on August 2, 2014, are summarized below:

(1) Displaying a summary BASIC status to better clarify if a motor carrier's performance in the individual BASICs causes it to be prioritized for an intervention. Detailed data, such as the motor carrier's percentile ranking in each BASIC, has been moved to the individual drill down pages for each BASIC.

(2) Offering a new "Take a Tour" feature to highlight enhancements to the SMS display and show visitors how to locate and use the site.

(3) Allowing the Web site user to download the data for all of the carriers in the same safety event group used to rank a motor carrier's BASIC percentile. The SMS determines a BASIC percentile for each motor carrier within a BASIC based on how the individual carrier's BASIC "measure" ranks relative to other carriers with a similar number of safety events (i.e., inspections, violations, or crashes).

(4) Highlighting a motor carrier's individual performance measure in each BASIC to more clearly identify its performance trends over time. The measure is based on the results of the carrier's roadside inspections or crashes, and is not relative to other motor carriers in its safety event group.

(5) Reordering the display of the BASICs based on their association to crash rates, with the BASICs with the strongest associations at the left.

(6) Displaying any motor carrier safety rating from a compliance review (CR) issued in accordance with 49 CFR Part 385. Previously, users had to go to FMCSA's Safety and Fitness Electronic Records (SAFER) System Web site.

(7) Displaying current insurance and operating authority status. Previously, users had to access FMCSA's Licensing and Insurance (L&I) Online Web site.

(8) Providing a motor carrier's enforcement case history, including the date the case was closed, the applicable violations, and the associated fines.

(9) Enhancing the presentation of safety performance over time through a variety of displays and graphs users can customize.

(10) Displaying the total number of inspections as well as a breakdown of the number of inspections with violations used in the SMS in each carrier's detailed information.

(11) Clarifying terminology in the SMS, such as the definitions of the terms "0%" and "< 3 inspections with violations," in a new glossary called "SMS Display Key Terms."

FMCSA reviewed and considered all of the comments received related to the preview.

II. Summary of Public Comments and Response

The Agency received 43 unique comments. Fifteen of the comments received did not address the proposed display enhancements and were outside of the scope of the notice. The Agency has considered only the comments addressing the proposed enhancements to the design of the SMS public Web site that were listed in the November 5, 2013, Federal Register notice. Comments addressing other topics, such as the SMS methodology and the general effectiveness of the SMS, were outside the scope of the notice and were not considered for the purposes of considering SMS display issues--the Agency accepts these comments as general feedback on CSA and will handle them accordingly. As a result, they are not discussed in this notice.

--This is a summary of a Federal Register article originally published on the page number listed below--

Notice.

Citation: "79 FR 43117"

Document Number: "Docket No. FMCSA-2013-0392"

Federal Register Page Number: "43117"

"Notices"