On December 12, 2010, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) launched its new Safety Measurement System (SMS) and industry interest has been strong.  FMCSA solicited safety stakeholders’ input during CSA’s design, development, test, and implementation phases, and it paid off with an unprecedented number of visits to the SMS Website following its launch.  In the first six weeks after SMS replaced SafeStat:

• The A&I Online Website, which is the system that houses SMS, experienced more than 5 million “hits.”
• Nearly 11,000 unique carriers logged in (four times the volume from the previous six weeks) on almost 40,000 occasions (six times the number from the prior six-week period) to view their safety data.
• The CSA “Question and Answer” function, where anyone can directly ask questions by phone or through an online form, experienced a sustained, significant increase in the volume of questions and FMCSA Division Offices across the country reported a similar increase.

Answers to some of the most frequently asked questions over the past few months are provided below.

Q. Why is SMS updated monthly?

A. The monthly SMS update timeframe allows FMCSA to prioritize motor carriers for safety interventions and to schedule FMCSA resources to conduct those interventions.  FMCSA uses this timeframe to carefully validate information and review SMS results before using them and posting them to the A&I Online Website.

Q. Are there plans to update SMS more frequently?

A. At this time, FMCSA does not plan to update the SMS results more often than monthly.

Q. Some third-party vendors provide more frequent “CSA scores.”  Does FMCSA use or validate any analyses provided by third-party vendors?

A. FMCSA does not use, validate, or vouch for any third-party vendor’s information related to SMS results. The monthly results displayed on A&I Online are the only SMS results that FMCSA uses.

To learn more about SMS or to get answers to other FAQs, visit the CSA outreach website at http://csa.fmcsa.dot.gov.