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Am I Being Targeted for an Inspection?

Originally published in Big Rig Owner, May 2011
Written by Bob Rose, J. J. Keller Editor – Transport Management

 

Many owner-operators and motor carriers have been checking their CSA BASIC scores, hoping to learn their rank among other carriers similar to themselves and to get an indication of whether or not they are targeted for inspection. Instead, they are often seeing "Insufficient Data", "Inconclusive", "No Violations", and "Not Available" appearing next to one or more of the seven BASICs (Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories). While the immediate inclination might be to favor the "no news is good news" proverb, it is more important to understand why there are no scores in these categories and what this data is telling them. Here is the breakdown:

  • Insufficient Data — not enough driver or vehicle inspections to be assessed a score.
  • Inconclusive — meaning that there is data available, but the sufficiency standards were not met. In other words, each BASIC has its own "sufficient" amount of driver or vehicle inspections (3 to 5 or more), or a period of time to elapse, before an assessment and a score can be determined. Until this criteria is met, "Inconclusive" will appear in the performance scoring column.
  • No Violations — a literal understanding meaning that even though a sufficient number of inspections had been performed, no violations were cited in the BASIC.
  • Not Available — meaning that the data will not be displayed for public view, such as the Cargo-Related and the Crash BASICs.

With over 500,000 carriers in the FMCSA's (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) database, it is fair to assume that gathering enough data may take a little more time. Larger fleets may not be experiencing this situation. Due to their higher number of vehicles on the road, which increases the chances of a roadside inspection, a safety related violation, or a crash, the entering of data into the SMS (Safety Management System) by FMCSA inspectors is a more recurrent event.

However, it is also fair to assume that a motor carrier or owner-operator lacking sufficient data in the database may be targeted for multiple inspections in an attempt to get this carrier measured and assigned to a safety event group. A safety event group is a collection of carriers who are similar. Once a month, carriers are measured and then compared to others in the same safety event or peer group to arrive at a score. If the carrier’s BASIC score is over the threshold in any BASIC, the carrier will likely be targeted by the ISS (Inspection Selection System) as one to be inspected.

What is the ISS?

The ISS is a guide that law enforcement officials use to help select vehicles and drivers for roadside inspections. The ISS uses data from another system called the Safety Management System (SMS), which is operated by the FMCSA. The SMS rates carriers based on their safety performance. This data is then reworked for the ISS in order to give roadside enforcement officials an inspection recommendation of Inspect, Optional, or Pass. Carriers with a recommendation of Inspect or Optional will see a lot more roadside inspections than carriers with the Pass recommendation.

How does the ISS work?

The recommendations are based on the number of alerts a carrier generates in the seven BASICs of the CSA program. Each carrier is then assigned an inspection value between 1 and 100.

An inspection value of 75 or over will inform the law enforcement officer that an inspection is recommended. A carrier with a high inspection value will largely be due to the fact that the carrier has four or more BASIC scores over the intervention threshold and is considered “high risk.” Additional carriers falling into this category will either have scores over the threshold in the Fatigued Driving BASIC, or any two other BASICs over the threshold, or show a serious pattern of violations discovered in roadside inspections in the last 12 months.

The opposite end of this spectrum is also on the hit list. There are other factors which don't involve "high risk" reasons that are also used to determine whether a carrier should be inspected. For example, carriers that are a single inspection away from having enough inspections to generate a BASIC score will likely make this recommendation. The same holds true for carriers with no roadside inspections on file and carriers that are infrequently inspected and have a rating of "Insufficient Data". As stated earlier, it may take some time for the FMCSA to gather data on the more than 500,000 carriers in their database, but gather they will!

An inspection value between 50 and 74 will produce an Optional recommendation. At the top of this group will be carriers with a score over the threshold in the Unsafe Diving or Crash Indicator BASICs. Lower in the group are carriers that have a score over the threshold in the Cargo-Related, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Driver Fitness, or Vehicle Maintenance BASICs.

Carriers with "Insufficient Data" in the BASICs and have some roadside inspections on file but are “not one inspection away from a score” may also fall into this category. These carriers are likely to have a high inspection rate when their number of inspections is compared to the number of power units they operate and the number of drivers they have.

An inspection value under 50 will have a recommendation of Pass. These carriers have no score in a BASIC over the intervention threshold and the FMCSA is satisfied that there is sufficient data on them to allow them to pass.

How can I tell if I am targeted for an inspection?

So, how can owner-operator carriers predict their selection for a roadside inspection? The ISS data on a motor carrier is available to carriers through the "Portal". To use the Portal, owner-operators need to sign up for a Portal account at https://portal.fmcsa.dot.gov. They can then calculate their chances for being selected for a roadside inspection.

Given what the selection process is, it would not be advisable for owner-operators with insufficient or inconclusive data to wait and see how they stack up against similar carriers. Instead, the savvy owner-operator should take the proper steps now to increase the odds of a "clean" roadside inspection so that when a sufficient amount of data is collected, the owner-operator will find itself placed in a favorable position within the group, rather than one targeted for an inspection!

 

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