The following is a brief reduction of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Compliance, Safety, and Accountability Program.  

CSA 2010 Diagram

CSA 2010 Just the Facts

  • The short name is CSA 2010;
  • It will become effective on 30 November;
  • FMCSA will assign motor carriers a grade in seven different categories, or BASICS: (i) driver fitness, (ii) unsafe driving, (iii) fatigued driving, (iv) controlled substances & alcohol, (v) crash indicator, (vi) vehicle maintenance, (vii) improper loading & cargo securement.
  • FMCSA has processed, and will continue to process, BASICS data from DOT roadside stops, state licensing departments, law enforcement reports and other sources gathered during the past year, and will accord carriers one of three safety fitness classifications: (i) continue to operate, (ii) marginal, or (iii) unfit.
  • Each motor carrier or driver for which there is sufficient data will receive a safety fitness determination which will be updated every 30 days.
  • Classifications are not yet available to the public. Current plans are to grant public access beginning 05 December. 
  • The process for accessing classifications has not yet been fully described, but indications are that it will be made available online, in a relatively uncomplicated format.
CSA 2010 will almost certainly have an impact on oilfield motor carriers.
  • Oilfield carrier fleets are composed almost exclusively of leased, rather than owned equipment, which is operated by drivers who are not carrier employees.
  • Carriers are, and will remain, obdurately resistant to employer – employee fleet staffing arrangements because of cost, responsibilities, and liabilities;
  • The “independence” of independent owner-operators is not debatable: It is a necessary procedure for employee dispatchers to ask non-employee owner-operators whether they will accept a load. There are no penalties for rejection. 
  • It is open to question whether carrier control of owner-operators is sufficient to ensure that BASICS are not offended;
  • Carriers, in order to protect or improve their classifications, will be forced to quickly terminate the contracts of owner-operators who cannot achieve or maintain program standards;
  • We believe there will be a reduction in oilfield hauler fleets following program start-up on 30 November;
  • This decrease will be experienced across the entire range of oilfield haulers;
  • Prices for oilfield hauling will necessarily increase. 
A Brief Review of Carrier Automobile Liability Insurance
  • Interstate motor carriers are required to carry $1M automobile liability, $5M for hazardous materials, among other insurance requirements. Shippers or Clients may require additional coverage such as general liability, high value umbrella, and cargo;
  • Brokers are federally required to post a $10K Surety Bond, and a $10K Trust Fund Agreement. Brokers do not assume responsibility for cargo. Shippers or Clients may require additional coverage but should understand that such coverage will apply secondarily to that provided by carriers to whom loads are brokered (brokered carriers);
  • Most oilfield carriers possess subsidiary broker authority, and act as brokers (brokering carriers) when sub-contracting loads they accept but elect to not handle with their leased equipment (owner-operators).  Such brokerage is common to oilfield operations;
  • Since a brokering carrier’s insurance does not provide liability coverage for a brokered carrier’s operations, the brokered carrier becomes the carrier whose liability insurance provides coverage;
  • Freight Forwarders are required to carry a minimum of $1M automobile liability, with $5M for hazardous cargo, among other insurance requirements.  Shippers or Clients may require additional coverage such as general liability, high value umbrella, and cargo;
Court decisions beginning in the 1980s have leaned toward assigning liability, for failure to perform due diligence, to selectors of motor carriers.
  • In Stone v. Pinkerton Farms, Inc., 741 F.2d 941 (7th Cir. 1984), the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that a shipper has a duty to exercise ordinary care in selecting a competent trucking company, and that a failure to do so could constitute negligence.  More recent decisions also hold to the premise that selection of motor carriers requires the performance of ordinary care by utilizing carriers whose operations are not likely to be hazardous.
  • Given the courts’ direction, and with simplified and specific motor carrier classification data soon to be available, it would not be unreasonable to assume that selectors of motor carriers whose classifications are marginal or unfit may find themselves targets of accident related litigation.
By selecting federally certificated freight forwarder Industry Express, Inc. as logistics partner, a client places IEX between their firm and liability for carrier selection. IEX assumes those responsibilities and liabilities. To protection from liability, add twenty-five years of 24-7-365 service experience, a peerless ability to select safe motor carriers and mobilize them at efficient prices, plus automobile and general liability insurances from $1M up to a $5M umbrella and cargo insurance of $1M … and Industry Express totals unmatched value.