BASIC’s:  Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories

If you’ll look at the list on the right you’ll see that there are six BASIC’s regarding the CSA 2010 implementation and one last measure called “Crash Indicator”. The CSA 2010 team developed the BASICs under the premise that commercial motor vehicle crashes can be traced to the behavior of motor carriers and/or drivers.

The drivers will receive a score based upon their performance all of these categories combined and their score will be compared with all other drivers to basically determine how “safe” a driver is. The companies will also be rated on each of these categories and will be compared with other companies in their peer group. The peer groups for trucking companies are based on the average number of trucks a company has had over the previous three years:

• • 0-15
• • 15-50
• • 50-100
• • 100-500
• • 500+

Defining The Six BASIC’s and Crash Indicator

Here are each of the six basics along with the last measure – Crash Indicator – and what they mean:

• Unsafe Driving: Operation of commercial motor vehicles in a dangerous or careless manner. Example violations: speeding, reckless driving, improper lane change, and inattention. This is pretty straight forward. It will cover most moving violations and anything deemed to be the unsafe operation of a vehicle.
• Fatigued Driving: Operation of commercial motor vehicles by drivers who are ill, fatigued, or in non-compliance with the hours-of-service (HOS) regulations. Example violations: HOS, logbook, and operating a commercial motor vehicle while ill or fatigued. Yap, this is the logbook one! But keep in mind that this can also include drivers who are deemed unfit to drive by the judgement of the enforcement officer – which applies if you appear obviously impaired by illness or fatigue even if your logbook shows you have time available to drive.
• Driver Fitness: Operation of commercial motor vehicles by drivers who are unfit to operate a commercial motor vehicle due to lack of training, experience, or medical qualifications. Example violations: failure to have a valid and appropriate commercial driver’s license and being medically unqualified to operate a commercial motor vehicle. Now there has been a lot of talk recently regarding the application of driver health qualifications – like BMI (body mass index) calculations to disqualify drivers that are extremely overweight. This is not part of the Driver Fitness BASIC. At this point, any rules regarding BMI calculations are created and enforced by individual companies. There are no rules regarding BMI in trucking at the Federal Level as of this writing.
• Controlled Substances and Alcohol: Operation of commercial motor vehicles by drivers who are impaired due to alcohol, illegal drugs, and misuse of prescription or over-the-counter medications. Example violations: use or possession of controlled substances or alcohol.
• Vehicle Maintenance: A commercial motor vehicle failure due to improper or inadequate maintenance. Example violations: brakes, lights, and other mechanical defects, and failure to make required repairs. Now keep in mind that although your company is financially responsible for the maintenance of the truck for company drivers, the driver is ultimately responsible for making sure the truck is safe for operation on the highway. So if you get a ticket for improper vehicle maintenance, the driver will indeed have this on his/her record as well as the trucking company.
• Improper Loading/Cargo Securement: commercial motor vehicle incident resulting from shifting loads, spilled or dropped cargo, and unsafe handling of hazardous materials. Example violations: improper load securement, cargo retention, and hazardous material handling.
• Crash Indicator: Histories or patterns of high crash involvement, including frequency and severity. It is based on information from state-reported crash reports.

Protecting Your CDL

As you can see, the FMCSA has clearly defined the items that will be taken into consideration when evaluating the safety of a driver or a trucking company. And as you would expect, pretty much everything other than how you grip your fork while eating mashed potatoes will be taken into consideration – as it should be.

Safety over the long run is the ability for drivers and companies to pay attention to all safety-related details at all times, not just some of them some of the time. As a driver, if you want to keep a clean safety record you must make safety your number one priority at all times. Things can go wrong in trucking in a big hurry. If you slip up, even just one time, the consequences could be severe and permanent. Please don’t ever forget this – not even for a moment.