My newest article “Considering the Scaly Side of ‘Beyond Compliance'” has been published in the September 2016 edition of The CLM Alliance’s Claims Management magazine. The article addresses trucking-industry-related concerns arising out of a proposed eighth category, “Beyond Compliance,” to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s CSA (Compliance, Safety, and Accountability) program. The full article can be read at CLM’s website, here.

Beyond Compliance, the proposed eighth BASIC, is to be a voluntary program that would require motor carriers to apply to the FMCSA for involvement, and upon admission would credit motor carriers for deploying operators and vehicles with safety-enhancing technology or programs. Specifically, eligible motor carriers should: (1) install advanced safety equipment; (2) use enhanced driver fitness measures; (3) adopt fleet safety management tools, technologies, and programs; or (4) satisfy other standards determined appropriate by the FMCSA.

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Despite the FMCSA’s best intentions in its proposed integration of the Beyond Compliance program into the existing CSA framework, in an effort to credit motor carriers for voluntarily incorporating safer equipment and programs, the program’s most significant unintended consequence may be to adversely affect motor carriers who are unable to participate, and secondarily, to create a heightened floor for compliance that hinders insurance providers and litigators in defending motor carriers and commercial drivers.