FMCSA Releases Further SMS Website Enhancements

1/14/2015 10 Considerations in Choosing a Freight Audit and Payment Provider


On Tuesday, January 13, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced the release of a new wave of enhancements to the Safety Measurement System (SMS) website. The Agency states that the changes will improve the SMS user experience by making important safety information easier to access and understand for motor carriers that want to improve their safety performance and compliance as well as other stakeholders.

The latest SMS Website enhancements improve functionality for users, incorporating feedback received since the SMS display changes were released in August 2014. The updates include:

  • Improvements to the mobile version of the website
  • Upgraded search and data download functionalities, such as:
    • Potential matches or “hints” that appear as users begin typing a carrier’s U.S. DOT
      number, Motor Carrier (MC) number, or name
    • The addition of “Service Center” and “County” fields to search results and filter options
    • The limit on the number of carriers returned in the search results has been removed
      (Note: Downloads for public users are limited to 2,500 results.)
    • Download files now indicate whether or not the inspection was a Hazardous Materials
      (HM) inspection
  • Revised history view that now includes additional information, such as carrier status
    (active/inactive), carrier operation, number of Power Units, number of drivers, number of
    inspections, and number of crashes

TIA continues to be disappointed with the FMCSA releasing statements associated with these enhancements, specifically:

The Agency states that the changes will improve the SMS user experience by making
important safety information easier to access and understand for motor carriers that
want to improve their safety performance and compliance as well as other stakeholders.

By making these types of statements, the Agency continues to put the burden of selecting “safe
carriers” in the hands of the public. It is the FMCSA’s job to ensure which carriers are safe to
operate and those that are not. This misleading information helps lawyers further manipulate
the intent of the CSA SMS scores, thus increasing liability concerns for brokers. TIA has worked
with FMCSA on this issue, but unfortunately it has fallen on deaf ears.