Improving Your Vehicle Maintenance CSA BASIC

With Brake Safety Week occurring August 20-26, 2023, it’s a good time to review the CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability) Vehicle Maintenance BASIC (Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category).

FMCSA’s CSA program sets thresholds for each BASIC. The formulas are complicated, but the math used in the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC uses the following to develop a BASIC Measure:

• The number of violations,
• The violations’ relationship to crash risk,
• The number of inspections, and
• How long ago the violations and vehicle inspections occurred.

This BASIC Measure is then compared to similar carriers to create the carrier’s percentile ranking (BASIC Score). Similar carriers are carriers that had roughly the same number of vehicle inspections in the previous two years.

The carrier’s score is then compared to an intervention threshold. If a carrier is over the intervention threshold, as well as seeing an increase in the number of roadside inspections, there are three possible outcomes:

1. A warning letter notifying the carrier that their score is high and they are on the FMCSA’s radar,
2. Being selected for an off-site or on-site investigation focused on the areas in which the carrier is underperforming (commonly called a focused investigation), or
3. Being selected for a full compliance review (also known as an audit).

The most “basic” explanation of the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC is the failure to properly maintain a CMV and prevent shifting loads, spilled or dropped cargo, and overloading of a CMV.

There are over 405 vehicle violations in the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC. Many of the inspections in the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC are triggered by an obvious vehicle violation, such as a light out or a tire that is obviously flat. The most common vehicle violations stay nearly the same year-over-year, with the only changes being where each violation lands in the top 10 lineup.

The FMCSA tracks safety-related vehicle violations found during investigations, crashes, and roadside inspections using the CSA program. The officers are pleased when finding no violations, but perfection is not expected. However, the data is trended, and when the carrier is flagged for intervention, the agency expects improvement; if none is noted, interventions will escalate.

In the Vehicle Maintenance Basic, not improving behaviors could mean a greater likelihood of breakdowns, accidents, expensive litigation, lost productivity due to out-of-service orders, fines, and driver frustration, which leads to driver turnover.

To assist carriers, the FMCSA created the Safety Management Cycle (SMC) as their recommended approach. This process involves:

• Having and using policies and procedures,
• Assigning roles and responsibilities,
• Using qualification and hiring standards,
• Training and ongoing communications,
• Monitoring and tracking, and
• Taking meaningful action when necessary.

While the safety management cycle has six process steps, the most often overlooked is taking meaningful action. Sometimes, meaningful action requires examining where one of the previous five steps was missed. Possibly, you don’t have a policy that is well defined, or that has enforcement teeth, or you may not have the right associate with the needed skills assigned to be responsible for the task. Often though, meaningful action can be taken by immediately providing training.

Additionally, ensure you and your team have a proactive mindset to not only address violations, but prevent them. You will forever “chase your safety tail” if vehicle violations are only addressed after the data indicates a problem or when you receive violations. A proactive approach requires:

• A clear vision of what success looks like
• Succinct communication of that vision to the entire organization
• Monitoring for deviations from the expectation and correction
• Monitoring for compliance with the expectation and reward for the desired performance

The surest way to run safer and mitigate risk is to use a comprehensive fleet management system (FMS), like J. J. Keller® Encompass® Fleet Management, and take corrective action when needed. The most effective fleet management systems are designed to get your key metrics into a single source, parse the data automatically, and create alerts for the assigned responsible associate to take action. Encompass has the capability to:

• Structure your maintenance schedules and checklists (each unique group of vehicles will need its own schedule and checklists)
• Capture all inspection, repair, and maintenance activities
• Provide reports that can be used to spot trends involving specific vehicles, vehicle groups, and employees
• Corollate inspection, maintenance, and repair data to provide insight into defects (most frequent, most expensive, how the defect was reported, etc.)
• Track the movement of parts and components through the shop
• Track the warranty status of parts and components
• Receive and store reports and receipts submitted by drivers (and others, such as outside repair shops)
• Provide reports on the cost of maintenance, as a whole and when looking at specific vehicles or vehicle groups

Talk with a compliance specialist today at 855.693.5338 to learn more about the Encompass® Fleet Management System.