Freight Management Services
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900 Dudley Avenue
Cherry Hill, NJ 08002
Phone: (856) 317-9600
team@tuckerco.com
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May 19, 2005
Desperately Seeking FMCSA Help. Remove SafeStat From Public View
FMCSA’s motor carrier rating system, SafeStat, along with its subset of four SEA scores and the related ISS scores must be removed from public access immediately and permanently. On May 10, Transport Topics reported that the FMCSA intends to change the formula it uses to run its SafeStat carrier rating system. Well alleluia. Considering that the DOT found about 90% of the carriers “at risk” under SafeStat were in fact not high risk. Can we transport users please get back to reliance on traditional DOT safety ratings?
Currently SafeStat, per se is disabled, due to one of the four SafeStat’s subset of SEA scores being down temporarily. The other three SEA scores are active and visible to the public on FMCSA’s website. Quoting FMCSA’s website, “SafeStat uses available federal motor carrier safety data to measure the relative safety status of motor carriers in four Safety Evaluation Areas (SEAs): Accident, Driver, Vehicle and Safety Management.” The scores reflect internal algorithms FMCSA developed which they and law enforcement officials use to suggest which motor carrier may need inspection or further review. Believe it or not, many thousands of carriers can have a “Satisfactory” DOT safety rating, and “fail” FMCSA’s litmus test.
FMCSA’s website has a whole page warning viewers how to use the data, suggesting that any use other than by FMCSA or law enforcement officials “may produce unintended results and not be suitable for certain uses.” That’s an understatement! On the other hand, FMCSA insists that it should report this data to the public. They argue that some information is better than nothing.
With all due respect, they’re dead wrong!
SafeStat and its underlying data are flawed and often out of date. This data is designed to be understood by law enforcement only. Unfortunately despite FMCSA’s “best effort” one page warning to the public not to read too much into the data, FMCSA has been negatively affecting commerce, they have wrongfully penalized a huge segment of carriers, and believe it or not, they are now impact shippers’, brokers’ and probably carriers’ ability to purchase basic insurance coverage by having this data available to the public!
The very existence of SafeStat and its SEA scores has contributed to at least one successful multi-million dollar bodily injury/death lawsuit against a large freight broker based on one state’s “negligent hiring” laws. The broker contracted with a carrier to haul a shipment for a shipper. The carrier had a “Satisfactory” DOT safety rating, had a SafeStat score just within FMCSA’s suggested norm, and the broker had an existing positive business relationship with the carrier. Despite all of this, the plaintiff’s attorney focused on SafeStat data, successfully arguing that while the carrier passed all the checks, since the carrier was so close to the high range of SafeStat acceptability, the broker should have done more research on the carrier!
One expert presented on SafeStat and its underlying SEA scores at a recent trade association meeting. He revealed a couple interesting things. SafeStat scores tend to be higher for truckload carriers than for less than truckload, as the algorithms seem to favor the LTL carrier operations. About 60% of the approximate 10,000 challenges by carriers to FMCSA for wrong data were successful. The carriers in the room were rightfully upset about how flawed the data is, and how harshly shippers and brokers are making uneducated and punitive use of the data. When you put all these things together, the numbers don’t add up, nor does there appear to be any reason for FMCSA to continue to make this information public.
Thanks to the FMCSA, a clever plaintiff’s attorney and an unenlightened judicial process, this successful and unprecedented lawsuit used SafeStat data in exactly the manner FMCSA warns the public it should not be used. Shippers, Brokers and Carriers and plenty of attorneys on all sides are struggling to understand what, if anything we have learned to develop new best practices in carrier sourcing. Taking it to the extreme, might we conclude that the 25% of the nation’s motor carriers with “Satisfactory” DOT safety ratings who have at least one high SEA score should be avoided? That’s absolute nonsense, but some firms are actually considering this to protect them. FMCSA, we need your help here, and fast.
The situation is crippling commerce. This court decision ricocheted through the insurance industry like a pin ball, to the point that many insurance underwriters will no longer provide auto liability for “non-owned” autos and “hired autos” to anyone in the transportation industry, for fear of a similar lawsuit and exposure. We heard first hand stories of insurance companies who were seeking to cancel non-owned endorsements half way through a policy year. A negligent hiring lawsuit involving bodily injury and/or death could easily and wrongfully bankrupt a shipper, broker or carrier especially if the insurance industry won’t cover the exposure.
Plaintiff attorneys are salivating. Insurance underwriters are balking. FMCSA, clearly, your something (SafeStat) is not better than nothing. Public visibility into FMCSA’s internal and flawed safety scores is an abomination to the public, to commerce and to the professionals in the transportation industry. It is suffocating commerce and those of us who are trying to do right by the public.
The preeminent users of the transportation infrastructure, the educated, highly trained shippers, freight brokers, 3PLs and carriers can neither trust these scores, nor interpret these scores. Quite the contrary, these users are actually being held hostage by, and are being harmed by the visibility of these scores. Isn’t it appropriate to ask ourselves what the heck is the point of having them visible in the first place?
Until SafeStat, SEA and ISS scores are removed from public sight, plaintiff attorneys and judges will wrongfully hold industry accountable for negligence in death and bodily injury suits based on the data and upwards of 25-30% of the nation’s carriers will be needlessly brought to their knees.
Considering the challenges to our nation’s infrastructure and the numerous assaults on highway productivity, there are many issues where shippers, brokers and carriers can find unity. I believe removal of SafeStat, SEA and ISS scores from sight is among the most urgent and noble goals for the industry to rally around. FMCSA, please help.
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