The Impact of Vehicle Maintenance on Safety
Project Goal:
To further analyze the impact of vehicle maintenance issues on safety.
Background:
Vehicle maintenance (e.g., brakes, lights, other mechanical defects, and load securement) is one of the seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) for Carrier Safety Measurement. In January 2014, FMCSA published the Carrier Safety Measurement System (CSMS) Effectiveness Test by BASICs Study. This published study showed that motor carriers targeted for interventions due to vehicle maintenance have a 65 percent greater future crash rate than the national average.
Summary:
The proposed study will further analyze the impact of vehicle maintenance issues on safety, to include not only violations that are serious enough to be listed as out-of-service (OOS) criteria, but also other vehicle maintenance issues which have been found to cause or contribute to crashes. This proposed study will consider whether new or revised OOS criteria are needed. New or revised OOS criteria may include combinations of vehicle maintenance issues.
Outcomes:
Milestones: |
Completed: |
| October 2016: Kick-off meeting | ☑ |
| November 2016: Draft work plan to be peer-reviewed | ☑ |
| February 2017: Final work plan (peer-reviewed) | ☑ |
| April 2017: Literature review completed | ☑ |
| September 2017: Preliminary analysis of data from CSMS & Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS) data | ☑ |
| Submit Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) | ☐ |
| Implement Survey | ☐ |
| Conduct Analysis | ☐ |
| August 2020: Submit final report; brief FMCSA senior management on findings | ☐ |