Strike another note for the attorneys. We have now seen how sensitive our industry really is. Because of endless amounts of money just stored up from dues and subscriptions paid to be members of organizations a few carriers got together and once again got the FMCSA to soften the blow to those carriers that have a less than gleaming score in one or more of the BASICS. We have now gone from DEFICIENT to ALERT to now just "!". This is the same reason we reset the score to 0–0 in the second half of my 7-year-old son's basketball game because one team was beating another by a large score. Oh, by the way lets not forget the fact that they all get a trophy as well.

In CSA there is not a trophy for everyone there is only reward for those that are looking at their data and trying to do something about it. Carriers that engage in a proactive approach to this process will reap reward, carriers that continue to live by the "!" will start to get the calls from the large shippers and brokers that they cannot use them anymore until their scores get back below the thresholds the FMCSA has set. All the legal language in the world will not save the big shipper, carrier, and or broker getting into the lawsuit when a carrier that they have selected kills someone and it is found out that they had that little tiny "!" in one or more catogories.  Particularly Unsafe Driving, Fatigue, and Vehicle Maintainance, this will all point to the carrier for not following directions in a program that is quickly becoming 6 months old.  It will also point to that shipper, or broker that hired that carrier without being the good citizen and seeing what their scores are.

Just how do you manage your scores, you could just continue to do what a large percentage of carriers have done and just not look, continue to ride the wave of "were going to hold out for as long as we can". Ain't no government going to tell us what to do. Or you could do what multiple carriers have done and hire someone to manage your scores for you, there is several 3rd party companies that have terrific products that help you measure you drivers, and your company scores. Of course these all come at a price, a great investment is you have plenty to spare. Or you could just use what is available to you for the low, low cost of 0, that's right zero. My hat is off to the FMCSA for making one of the eaisest to use web sites o manage this program. You don't have to be a rocket scientest to take care of your company.

One thing I do hear from everybody out there is you have to go and look your data, yes go look at all your data, this is what brings me back to the title of this Blog. I would like to refer to your data as the "COW" and no you don't have to eat the whole cow to manage to CSA success.

There is  a link that is available to all that go to the CSA web page called CSA News and Information, look for the Feb. 28th Highlights edition and you will find this article. New CSA Warning Letter Tipsheet Posted on the Website I would encourage everyone to look at it and pay close attention what it says about managing your most frequent and most severe violations. By using the headers , and clicking on the header column twice you can quickly see where your top 3 of the top ten are your biggest areas of opportunity. As you can see in the example below speeding seat belts and obeying traffic control devices (stop lights) and other signs are nearly 80% of the problem. Speeding is over half. The example below shows 227 inspections that were had just because of a speeding ticket.

My point in all of this is there really is no excuse to not look at your scores. Now that the intervention letters have started look at your scores and manage to the top 3-4 violations and put actions plans in place of how to fix them. It might be additional training, it might be turning the trucks down, which by the way is exactly what I would do in the example above and then reap the MPG savings at the same time.  But most importantly you do not have to eat the whole cow, just pick one piece at a time.

In closing this rant today I will apologize to any reader that feels like I have taken a shot at them or their organization, that is not what this is about. 80% of the nation's carriers are 100 trucks and less companies, the true backbone of the industry. The scary part is that their setting themselves up for failure if they think this is going away. Follow the simple things we talked about today and take the proper action.

• Look at your scores every month
• Focus on top 3 in each BASIC
• Put action plan in place for each of the top 3
• If top violation is over 50% of your problem focus on that "1" first
• Continue to monitor and measure every month

Here is the tip sheet if you need it: WarningLetterTipsheet [PDF].

Good Luck everyone, this CSA stuff really is better for everyone's business.

I'm Out