Under MCSAP, the federal government funds up to 80 percent of the costs of each state’s motor carrier safety program. During a compliance review, OMC and/or state investigators perform an on-site review of a motor carrier’s compliance with federal safety regulations by assessing its policies, management controls, and operations. From 1983 through 1995, the rate of fatal accidents involving large trucks dropped by 42 percent—from 4.3 to 2.5 fatal accidents per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. MCSAP and Other Initiatives Have Contributed to Improved Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety

OMC and state officials and industry representatives told us that the most important factors in reducing the rate of fatal accidents involving commercial vehicles were federal and state initiatives to improve safety for commercial vehicles and actions that trucking firms have taken to improve the safety of their trucks and drivers. The new plan is intended to give each state more flexibility in choosing the combination of programs that would best achieve the goal of reducing motor carrier accidents in the state while retaining minimum levels of effort for roadside inspections. In fiscal year 1996, OMC identified motor carriers for compliance reviews primarily through its Selective Compliance and Enforcement (SCE) list, which prioritized motor carriers on such factors as the commodity being transported and the carrier’s out-of-service rate for vehicles, prior compliance reviews, and the written complaints that it had received. In April 1997, consistent with the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, OMC began using SafeStat, a computer program that uses performance-based data on accidents, roadside inspections, and compliance reviews to identify problem carriers. Many States Have Improved the Completeness and Timeliness of Their Safetynet Data

A key element in implementing performance-based criteria for selecting motor carriers is ensuring that the Safetynet database contains complete, accurate, and timely data about each motor carrier’s safety performance. The program assigns the vehicle a score on the basis of the number and the results of the motor carrier’s previous inspections and compliance reviews. While OMC will continue to perform compliance reviews, especially to upgrade the safety management of problem carriers, OMC plans to publish an advance notice of proposed rule making later this year to solicit public comments on alternatives for rating a carrier’s safety fitness, including the possible use of performance-based criteria. The investigators also examine the carrier’s recordable accidents. Recommendations

To better ensure that the safety fitness ratings of commercial motor carriers accurately reflect their on-the-road performance, we recommend that the Secretary of Transportation (1) identify the barriers that prevent the states from providing complete and timely data and work with the states to develop a strategy for addressing each barrier and (2) develop alternative approaches to SafeStat, such as consulting with state and local law enforcement officials to identify problem motor carriers, in the states that have inadequate data. Recordable, preventable accident rate from compliance reviews. 1. Out-of-service violations for hazardous materials from roadside inspections. 3.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the efficiency and effectiveness of the Federal Highway Administration's Office of Motor Carriers' commercial motor vehicle safety programs, focusing on the efforts by the Office and the states to: (1) reduce serious accidents by conducting roadside inspections and compliance reviews; (2) better target motor carriers for compliance reviews; and (3) improve the compliance review criteria for assessing and rating a carrier's safety fitness.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) federal, state, and industry officials told GAO that federal and state initiatives to improve the safety of commercial vehicles and actions taken by trucking firms to improve the safety of their trucks and drivers were the most important factors behind the 42-percent reduction in the fatal accident rate for large trucks from 1983 to 1995; (2) effective in fiscal year (FY) 1998, the Office revised the criteria for awarding funding from the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program to provide each state with more flexibility in choosing the combination of programs--including roadside inspections and compliance reviews--that would best reduce accidents involving commercial vehicles; (3) in April 1997, consistent with the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, the Office began using performance-based data through its Safety Status Measurement System to identify carriers with the worst highway safety records; (4) while many states have improved the completeness and timeliness of their data submissions in recent years, the Office found that: (a) the states, overall, reported only about 74 percent of the recordable accidents in 1995; and (b) during FY 1997, five states submitted accident data more than 6 months, on average, after the accidents occurred; (5) without these data, the Office and the states cannot effectively target their limited compliance review resources on the motor carriers with safety problems; (6) the Office is in the early stages of revising its criteria for assessing and rating a commercial motor carrier's safety fitness; (7) the Office rates carriers on the basis of compliance reviews that examine a carrier's: (a) compliance with federal motor carrier safety regulations (primarily those related to financial responsibility, drivers' qualifications and operations, including hours-of-service, vehicle inspection and maintenance, and any hazardous materials handling); and (b) recordable, preventable accident rate; (8) while compliance reviews will continue to be an important element of the federal motor carrier safety program, the Office plans to publish an advance notice of proposed rulemaking to solicit public comments on alternatives for rating motor carriers' safety fitness; and (9) one option under consideration is to rely on accident date, roadside inspections, and other performance-based data for safety fitness ratings.