The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is pleased to announce that motor carriers can now preview the first package of changes to the Safety Measurement System (SMS). FMCSA designed SMS to be improved over time as better technology, new data, and additional analysis become available. This release is the first in a series of improvements to SMS that will take place up to twice a year. FMCSA is providing a preview period for motor carriers and enforcement personnel before it uses the SMS changes to prioritize motor carriers for safety interventions and before it makes those changes available to the public. The SMS Preview begins on March 27, 2012 and runs through late June 2012.

These first enhancements are the agency’s response to findings from its ongoing analyses of data and input from enforcement, industry, and other safety stakeholders. During the SMS Preview, FMCSA is collecting, assessing, and addressing feedback from preview participants, and may further refine the SMS enhancements prior to public implementation in summer 2012.

As of March 27, 2012, carriers can access the SMS Preview through two websites:

1.       Visit the CSA Website (https://csa.fmcsa.dot.gov/login.aspx) and log in with an FMCSA-issued U.S. DOT number and a personal identification number (PIN), or

2.       Log in to the FMCSA Portal (https://portal.fmcsa.dot.gov/login) and select the “CSA Outreach” link.

FMCSA encourages motor carriers to view the SMS Preview to see how methodology changes will affect their SMS results.

On the CSA Website’s Resources page, motor carriers and other stakeholders can access a foundational document that provides additional information about the first set of SMS changes. A Federal Register notice outlining the changes is also available for review.  Written comments regarding the changes can be filed to the Federal Docket Management System at http://www.regulations.gov, Docket ID Number FMCSA-2012-0074.