What is CSA?
Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) is a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) initiative to improve large truck and bus safety and ultimately reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities that are related to commercial motor vehicles. It introduces a new enforcement and compliance model that allows FMCSA and its State Partners to contact a larger number of carriers earlier in order to address safety problems before crashes occur. Rolled out in December 2010, the program establishes a new nationwide system for making the roads safer for motor carriers and the public alike!
In the development of the CSA program, FMCSA sought to incorporate several key attributes.
FLEXIBILITY – Adapt to a Changing Environment. The goal is to accommodate changes to the transportation environment, including evolutions in technology and changes in program responsibilities.
EFFICIENCY – Maximize Use of Resources. Primarily improves Federal and State enforcement staff productivity, as well as the safety performance of members of the motor carrier community.
EFFECTIVENESS – Improve Safety Performance. Identifies behaviors associated with safety risk; focuses compliance, enforcement, and remediation efforts on those unsafe behaviors.
INNOVATION – Leverage Data and Technology. Improves safety through the innovative use of technology to track and update safety performance data.
EQUITABILITY – Be Fair and Unbiased. Assesses and evaluates motor carrier safety and enforces Federal laws and safety regulations to ensure consistent treatment of similarly situated members of the motor carrier community.
It is in the motor carriers, as well as the drivers best interest to be familiar with this program and make every effort to maintain compliance and do their equal share to benefit all parties in achieving and maintaining a CSA friendly atmosphere. It is the total effort of the individual drivers and the motor carrier that drive continuous compliance and this effort leads to increased efficiency in the most cost effective manner possible. It is critical that everyone is on the same page concerning this initiative, because long term it will have implications, the goal is to make those implications positive!