How are carriers selected for an audit?

In-house inspections are an established fact of life for motor carriers. A visit from a Department of Transportation official to conduct a compliance review may be triggered by any number of factors. For example:

• New carriers (or carriers who have never been audited)
• Follow-up to a conditional or unsatisfactory review
• An investigation of a safety-related complaint(s) which are deemed valid and serious enough to warrant a compliance review
• A high-profile or fatal accident
• A request by a motor carrier to audit its operation

The majority of carriers audited are selected from based on a High Risk carrier definition under the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) enforcement model.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) adopted a High Risk motor carrier definition. Under the definition, passenger carriers are “High Risk” if they have two or more of the following Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs), most closely correlated with crash risk, at or above the 90th percentile for one month and they have not received onsite investigation (audit) in the previous 12 months:

• Unsafe Driving
• Crash Indicator
• HOS Compliance
• Vehicle Maintenance

Non-passenger carriers are considered “High Risk’’ if they have two or more of these BASICs at or above the 90th percentile for two consecutive months and they have not received an onsite investigation in the previous 18 months.

This defined High Risk list will be the Agency’s investigative priority. It will allow the Agency to more promptly conduct investigations of carriers that pose the greatest risk to public safety, rather than placing carriers at high crash risk in a longer queue of investigations.