FMCSA Testing Off-Site Safety Audits of New Motor Carriers in 5 States and Canada
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is beginning a pilot to test off-site review of new motor carriers in five states and five Canadian provinces, it said Sept. 5. Under the program, FMCSA will require remote submissions of documentation from new carriers, instead of safety audits at the carrier’s place of business. The pilot, which began in June, will cover new entrant motor carriers in California, Florida, Illinois, Montana, and New York, as well as in Canadian provinces bordering Montana and New York (British Colombia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec) that are audited by FMCSA inspectors from those states. The initiative is meant to ease the burden of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act’s shortening of the timeframe between a new motor carrier’s receipt of a USDOT number and the safety audit from 18 to 12 months.
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Under the pilot, new entrant motor carriers that qualify for off-site inspection will be contacted by letter with a request for documentation to be filed at an FMCSA website (here). Some carriers will still have to undergo on-site inspection at their facilities, such as passenger carriers; carriers with evidence of roadside inspection activity while transporting a placardable quantity of hazardous materials; motor carriers with one or more Safety Measurement System (SMS) Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category (BASIC) measurement above FMCSA’s intervention threshold; and motor carriers with evidence of an expedited action.