Interventions

Scope

Interventions are meant to provide carriers with the information necessary to understand their safety problems and to change unsafe behavior early on.

Regulatory citations

• 49 CFR Part 385 — Safety fitness procedures

Key definitions

• Accident:
  (1) Except as provided in paragraph (2) of this definition, an occurrence involving a commercial motor vehicle operating on a highway in interstate or intrastate commerce which results in:
  (i) A fatality;
  (ii) Bodily injury to a person who, as a result of the injury, immediately receives medical treatment away from the scene of the accident; or
  (iii) One or more motor vehicles incurring disabling damage as a result of the accident, requiring the motor vehicle(s) to be transported away from the scene by a tow truck or other motor vehicle.
  (2) The term accident does not include:
  (i) An occurrence involving only boarding and alighting from a stationary motor vehicle; or
  (ii) An occurrence involving only the loading or unloading of cargo.
• Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs): Categories that incorporate violations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) and the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMRs), and are organized to focus on behaviors that may cause or increase the severity of crashes.
• Commercial motor vehicle (CMV): Any self-propelled or towed motor vehicle used on a highway in interstate commerce to transport passengers or property when the vehicle:
  • Has a gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating, or gross vehicle weight or gross combination weight, of 4,536 kg (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 is not used to transport passengers for compensation; or
  • Is used in transporting material found by the Secretary of Transportation to be hazardous under 49 U.S.C. 5103 and transported in a quantity requiring placarding.
• Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA): The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s safety compliance and enforcement program, which holds motor carriers and drivers accountable for their safety on the nation’s roadways.
• Driver: Any person who operates any commercial motor vehicle.
• Motor carrier: A for-hire motor carrier or a private motor carrier. The term includes a motor carrier's agents, officers and representatives as well as employees responsible for hiring, supervising, training, assigning, or dispatching of drivers and employees concerned with the installation, inspection, and maintenance of motor vehicle equipment and/or accessories. This definition includes the terms employer and exempt motor carrier.
• Roadside inspections: Examinations that a certified Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP) inspector (usually state or local law enforcement personnel) conducts on individual CMVs and drivers to determine if they are in compliance with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations and/or Hazardous Materials Regulations.
• Safety Measurement System (SMS): Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s workload prioritization tool. The SMS uses this safety data to assess carriers in the seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories.

Summary of requirements

The interventions, such as warning letters and off-site investigations, are used to improve safety performance and prevent crashes.

In the past, the FMCSA had to rely upon on-site audits for enforcement, but these audits generally last several days, only affect a small percentage of motor carriers, and often only take place after crashes have already occurred. The CSA interventions added an array of other enforcement tools that can be used surgically to improve safety before an accident occurs.

Interventions under CSA can be divided into three categories, which are described in detail below: early contact, investigation, and follow-on. Note that interventions do not have to start at the warning-letter stage. For example, a motor carrier with serious safety problems may undergo a comprehensive investigation without ever receiving a warning letter or targeted inspection.

Early contact

• Warning letter. Correspondence sent to a carrier's place of business that specifically identifies a deficient Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category (BASIC) and outlines possible consequences of continued safety problems. The warning letter provides instructions for accessing carrier safety data and measurement as well as a point of contact.
• Carrier access to safety data and measurement. Carriers have access to their measurement results (BASICs percentile ranks), as well as the inspection reports and violations that went into those results. With this information, carriers can chart a course of self-improvement. Carriers can also monitor this data for accuracy and challenge it as necessary through FMCSA’s DataQs system.
• Targeted roadside inspection. CSA provides roadside inspectors with data that identifies a carrier’s specific safety problems, by BASIC, based on the measurement system. Targeted roadside inspections occur at permanent and temporary roadside inspection locations where connectivity to the Safety Measurement System (SMS) information is available.

Investigation

• Offsite investigation. A carrier is required to submit documents to FMCSA or a state partner. These documents are used to evaluate the safety problems identified through the SMS and to determine their root causes. Types of documents requested may include third party documents such as toll receipts, border crossing records, or drug testing records. The goal is to identify issues responsible for poor safety performance. If the carrier does not submit requested documents they may be subject to an onsite investigation or to subpoena records (see below).
• Onsite focused investigation. The purpose of this intervention is to evaluate the safety problems identified through the SMS and their root causes. An onsite focused investigation may be selected when exceeding the threshold in two or fewer BASICs. Onsite focused investigations target specific problem areas (for example, maintenance records), while onsite comprehensive investigations address all aspects of the carrier’s operation.
• Onsite comprehensive investigation. This intervention is similar to a compliance review and takes place at the carrier’s place of business. It is used when the carrier exhibits broad and complex safety problems through BASICs continually exceeding the threshold, worsening BASICs (three or more), or a fatal crash or complaint.

Follow-on

• Cooperative safety plan. Implemented by the carrier, this safety improvement plan is voluntary. The carrier and FMCSA collaboratively create a plan, based on a standard template, to address the underlying problems resulting from the carrier’s substandard safety performance.
• Notice of violation (NOV). The NOV is a formal notice of safety problems that requires a response from the carrier. It is used when the regulatory violations discovered are severe enough to warrant formal action but not a civil penalty (fine). It is also used in cases where the violation is immediately correctable and the level of, or desire for, cooperation is high. To avoid further intervention, including fines, the carrier must provide evidence of corrective action or initiate a successful challenge to the violation.
• Notice of claim (NOC). An NOC is issued in cases where the regulatory violations are severe enough to warrant assessment and issuance of civil penalties.
• Operations out-of-service order. An order requiring the carrier to cease all motor vehicle operations.

Particular interventions to be used against a motor carrier are selected based on the following factors:

• Number of BASIC percentiles above the “Alert” threshold (a high BASIC percentile indicates high non-compliance);
• An “Alert” on one or more BASICs due to serious violations;
• Commodity hauled (e.g., passengers, hazardous materials);
• Intervention history;
• Time since last intervention; and
• Whether there was a complaint or fatal crash.

The intervention thresholds for carriers are organized by BASIC and are set based on a given BASIC’s relationship to crash risk. Currently, the intervention thresholds are as follows: