FMCSA Safety Management Cycle

Hi folks, this is Sam Tucker from Carrier Risk Solutions. Thanks for joining us for this month's webinar. We're going to talk about the safety management cycle that the FMCSA put out years ago, and realistically, this is actually something that's not very much paid attention to by most folks, at least not explicitly, but something that I do recommend you pay close attention to because this is how the FMCSA really When it comes down to it, monitors and measures each motor carrier, and we'll go through everything, and I'll show you why that is. If you take a look at the safety management cycle that they developed, you can see the six different characteristics and six different parts of the framework. If you look at the first part. It starts off with policies and procedures. Policies are guidelines for how motor carriers and employees behave in any situation. It's essentially how, from the top down, management decides how the carrier is going to operate and how the employees who work for the carrier are going to operate in the environments that they are faced with. Procedures obviously are just explaining how to accomplish the policies. It could be fleet safety policies, it could be vehicle maintenance policies, driver qualification policies, hiring policies, firing policies, really anything that has to do with how the carrier operates. And it's really the foundation for a solid and effective safety compliance program. So at that point, it's really important to pay attention to the policies and procedures that you establish. And how those really play an integral role in how the carrier operates. And the FMCSA definitely notices, and you can see why that's number one on their safety management cycle continuum. The second part is roles and responsibilities, and these essentially define, you know, what each employee or manager should do and how to implement those policies and procedures that they've developed and put into place. For qualification and hiring, the 3rd portion of the framework discusses how a motor carrier recruits and screens applicants, essentially, and how they fulfill the roles and responsibilities for each position. Now, what that really boils down to is, are they hiring the right people and putting the right people in the right positions in order to operate safely and effectively? So with that, it's easy to understand how the management can either negatively or positively impact the organization based on the drivers they hire and dispatchers they hire, the vehicle maintenance staff that they hire, and how they operate within the framework of the company. The next is training and communication. The FMCSA really wants to have a good understanding of how the carrier communicates its policies, procedures, roles, and responsibilities to each of the employees and managers in the company. And they want to make sure that everybody understands what's expected of them. And they want to ensure also that the individual employees have the adequate skills and knowledge to actually do the job and fulfill the role and responsibility they have. So again, it goes back to Old saying, you know, have the right people in the right seat. You know, if you do have the right people in the right seat, then everything goes okay. If not, then obviously there could be some issues. And the FMCSA uses that safety management cycle framework to determine how effective the training communication is within the motor carrier. Now monitoring and tracking, the next part of the framework discusses How the carrier has to have a system in place to monitor and track employee performance, and how they actually go about accomplishing the policies and procedures that were put in place. And how well does the how well do the drivers actually execute on their roles and responsibilities? Do they have the knowledge and training available to them to actually fulfill their responsibilities? And essentially, by monitoring and tracking employees' adherence to the policies and procedures, you can figure out. Pretty quickly whether or not their safety policies and procedures that were developed are effective. With this, tracking also involves the carrier routinely looking at the performance metrics of the operation, especially those found on the FMCSA website. And the CSA basic scores are essentially what we're talking about here. And tracking the performance of your basic scores throughout history, or realistically the last 6 months, are what's most important. So if you can go and take a look at the data you collected over the last 6 months and really see how your scores have been impacted by the changes that you've made, you have a better opportunity to understand things that are working and things that aren't working. And that leads us to meaningful action. And with meaningful action, this is where you use the performance data that you gather and you track In order to develop tools to help you impact the organization, whether that's you figure out you need refresher training for different drivers or dispatchers or maintenance personnel and determining whether or not you should implement a bonus structure or safety rewards and bonuses and things like that. And again, here, I mean, the overarching goal simply of the FMCSA and how they impact with carriers is to improve the overall safety performance of the carrier and the operation. And obviously, if you're doing a good job at doing that, you're going to have fewer crashes and better roadside inspection data, and that's going to be evidenced in your basic scores, obviously maintaining low levels. And then the FMCSA and state DOTs really, you know, don't pay quite as much attention to you, and that's a lot better. Again, this is Sam Tucker with Carrier Risk Solutions. Our Mileage Safety Manager program is available to anybody who wants to join. For free, you can do so by going to mysafetymanager.com and signing up. We'd love to have you as a member of the program. If you have any questions, you can contact us there or by calling 855-211-5550. Thanks for your time and have a great day.