WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced on Friday changes to the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program.

The changes, FMCSA said, came from public input and will provide more accurate data when assessing a company’s over-the-road safety performance.

The changes go into effect December 2012.

They are:

Changing the Cargo-Related BASIC (Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category) to the Hazardous Materials (HM) Compliance BASIC to better identify HM safety and compliance problems. FMCSA said its analysis showed that this change will identify more carriers with HM concerns (33.8 percent versus 29.1 percent). Carriers and law enforcement can view this new BASIC in December. FMCSA said it will conduct further monitoring before it is made public.

Changing the Fatigued Driving BASIC to the more specific Hours-of-Service (HOS) Compliance BASIC:

to more accurately reflect violations in this area;

and weighting HOS paper and electronic logbook violations equally.

Strengthening the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC by including cargo/load securement violations from today’s Cargo-Related BASIC.

Including intermodal equipment violations that should be found during drivers’ pre-trip inspections.

Removing 1 to 5 mph speeding violations to ensure citations are consistent with current speedometer regulations.

Ensuring all recorded violations accurately reflect the inspection type (i.e., only driver violations will be recorded under driver inspections).

FMCSA provided a four-month preview period to ensure the public had multiple opportunities to review and comment on the proposed changes to CSA’s online Safety Measurement System. Overall, 14,000 carriers and 1,700 law enforcement personnel participated in the public preview.

Additionally, FMCSA’s Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee (MCSAC) said that it will “consider establishing a CSA subcommittee at its next meeting” on August 27-29, 2012.

Full details are available here.