No. 1 fleet concern: CSA
CSA overtook the economy, which placed third this year, at No. 1 after economic doldrums’ three-year reign atop the list.
No surprise, too, given that the ATRI organization is the research arm of the American Trucking Associations, which has in recent times made a conscious decision to go after inequities in the CSA system. “The ATA decided last spring that they were frustrated that they weren’t getting the attention of [FMCSA] and weren’t getting the response they wanted,” says Steven Bryan of Vigillo, a third-party CSA scoring service that provides fleets the ability to tabulate drivers’ inspection violation and crash performance. “They voted to go to Congress and talk about lawsuits,” adds Bryan.
Then there’s the lawsuit brought by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association alleging FMCSA violations of both the Privacy Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act and asking for removal of several classes of driver-related information from the database underpinning the CSA system. Bryan believes “that one has a pretty good chance,” he says, and many others out there are in agreement with him. One of the main issues there is the lack of an effective agency review process for disputes to information and no effective consideration given to U.S. courts that have thrown out particular violations of law — court dismissal, the suit alleges with four owner-operator plaintiffs’ examples, seems to matter not a whit to various violations’ inclusion in CSA scoring.
The suit is still in early stages, but you can find more about it here, and another pending case from a consortium of groups and motor carriers here.
Another reason for so much concern from both drivers and carriers is the reality that CSA has bled its way into many aspects of running a trucking business — in very significant ways. Shippers, brokers and other freight sources have put increasing stock in it, for one. And as Bryan notes, in the insurance area, “I’m seeing a lot more questions being asked from the insurance people.” Such as, given particular drivers’ roadside inspection records: “Will [a particular driver] remain insurable if they continue to drive for you?”
Have any of the independents and small fleets reading this seen liability insurance rates change because of CSA scores?
Stay tuned for more in-depth reporting on the program leading into and beyond the new year.
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Talk about byzantine
Built by French artist Pierre Vivant, wrote Metcalfe, the “Traffic Light Tree,” as it’s known, stems from a 1998 public-art commission “to replace a plane tree that was, incredibly, ‘choking to death as a result of pollution.'”
Furthermore, if John Trinkaus’ work is any indication, were it in fact intended for traffic control, it’d probably just be ignored, anyway.