WASHINGTON – A small group of small truckers has settled its suit with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration over carrier information made public under CSA.

In exchange for dropping the suit — brought on by the National Association of Small Trucking Companies, the Expedite Alliance of North America and the Air & Expedited Motor Carriers Association, which represent about 2,700 small carriers – FMCSA agreed to change how it publishes carrier scores.

Starting March 25, FMCSA will replace the orange "ALERT" symbol on its website with an exclamation mark inside a yellow triangle. As well, there will be an explanation that the symbol does not imply a specific safety rating.

"Readers should not draw conclusions about a carrier’s overall safety condition simply based on the data displayed in this system," the statement will say.

The carrier groups were concerned that the language and presentation on the website could imply that carriers with ‘alerts’ as unsafe, which could be used by opportunistic plaintiffs’ attorneys to brand a company negatively.

The carriers had attempted to block the FMCSA from releasing carrier safety data before CSA was launched in December, but that challenge was quashed by a federal court, giving the agency the green light to proceed.

CSA is now underway and the FMCSA has already begun sending out intervention letters to carriers who exceed at least one safety category threshold.

"Through this settlement agreement, we addressed the concerns raised by petitioners without compromising the CSA program and its safety benefits," said FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro in a statement.

The carriers, meanwhile, appear satisfied with the decision.

"We applaud the agency for affirmatively restating its sole duty to credential carriers as safe for operation over the nation’s roadways," they said in a joint statement. "We believe these changes will disabuse shippers and brokers of the misconception that SMS methodology, percentile rankings of carriers, and monitoring thresholds are intended for their use in determining carrier fitness. This important settlement confirms for a confused industry that it is still the job of the FMCSA to certify carriers."