Motor carrier fitness rating factors

Scope

These regulations apply to all motor carriers, drivers, and commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) that transport property or passengers in interstate commerce.

Regulatory citations

• 49 CFR 385, Appendix B, II — Converting CR Information into a Safety Rating

Key definitions

• Commercial motor vehicle (CMV): A self-propelled or towed motor vehicle used on a highway, in interstate commerce, that meets any one of the following criteria:
  • Has a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) or gross combination weight rating (GCWR), or gross vehicle weight (GVW) or gross combination weight (GCW), of 10,001 pounds or more, whichever is greater; or
  • Is designed or used to transport more than 8 passengers (including the driver) for compensation; or
  • Is designed or used to transport more than 15 passengers (including the driver), and not used to transport passengers for compensation; or
  • Is transporting hazardous materials of a type or quantity which requires placarding.
• Recordable accident: An occurrence involving a commercial motor vehicle on a highway in motor carrier operations in commerce or within Canada or Mexico (if motor carrier also operates in the United States) that results in:
  • A fatality;
  • Bodily injury to a person who, as a result of the injury, immediately receives medical treatment away from the scene of the accident; or
  • One or more motor vehicles incurring disabling damage as a result of the accident requiring the motor vehicle to be transported away from the scene by a tow truck or other motor vehicle.

Summary of requirements

Parts of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations and Hazardous Materials Regulations having similar characteristics are combined together into five regulatory factors and an accident factor. The factors, evaluated on the basis of the adequacy of the carrier’s safety management controls, are:

For each instance of non-compliance with an acute regulation or each pattern of non-compliance with a critical regulation during a compliance review, one point will be assessed.

A pattern of non-compliance is considered more than one violation. When a number of documents are reviewed, the number of violations required to meet a pattern is equal to at least ten percent of those examined.

Each pattern of non-compliance with a critical regulation relative to Part 395, Hours of Service of Drivers, will be assessed two points. Each factor is then rated as follows:

Vehicle factor. When a total of three or more inspections are recorded in the Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) during the 12 months prior to the compliance review or performed at the time of the review, the Vehicle Factor will be evaluated on the basis of the Out-of-Service (OOS) rates and non-compliance with acute regulations and/or a pattern of non-compliance with critical regulations. The results of the review of the OOS rate will affect the Vehicle Factor rating as follows:

1. If a motor carrier has three or more roadside vehicle inspections in the 12 months prior to the carrier review, or three vehicles inspected at the time of the review, or a combination of the two totaling three or more, and the vehicle OOS rate is 34 percent or greater, the initial factor rating will be conditional. The requirements of Part 396, Inspection, Repair, and Maintenance, will be examined during each review. The results of the examination could lower the factor rating to unsatisfactory if non-compliance with an acute regulation or a pattern of non-compliance with a critical regulation is discovered. If the examination of the Part 396 requirements reveals no such problems with the systems the motor carrier is required to maintain for compliance, the Vehicle Factor remains conditional.
2. If a carrier’s vehicle OOS rate is less than 34 percent, the initial factor rating will be satisfactory. If non-compliance with an acute regulation or a pattern of non-compliance with a critical regulation is discovered during the examination of Part 396 requirements, the factor rating will be lowered to conditional. If the examination of Part 396 requirements discovers no such problems with the systems the motor carrier is required to maintain for compliance, the Vehicle Factor remains satisfactory.

Accident factor. In addition to the five regulatory rating factors, a sixth factor is included in the process to address the accident history of the motor carrier. This factor is the recordable accident rate which the carrier has experienced during the past 12 months.

The recordable accident rate will be used only when a motor carrier incurs two or more recordable accidents within the 12 months prior to the compliance review.

The following formula is used to compute a carrier’s accident rate:

Recordable Accidents x 1,000,000
Total miles operated by the carrier
in the 365 days prior to the compliance review

An urban carrier (a carrier operating entirely within a radius of 100 air miles) with a recordable accident rate greater than 1.7 will receive an unsatisfactory rating for the accident factor.

All other carriers with a recordable accident rate greater than 1.5 will receive an unsatisfactory rating for the accident factor.

The FMCSA will consider preventability when a motor carrier contests a rating by presenting compelling evidence that the recordable rate is not a fair means of evaluating its accident factor. Preventability will be determined according to the following standard: “If a driver, who exercises normal judgment and foresight could have foreseen the possibility of the accident that in fact occurred, and avoided it by taking steps within his/her control which would not have risked causing another kind of mishap, the accident was preventable.”