The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is requesting public input on its Beyond Compliance carrier safety-recognition program. The agency was mandated to create the program no later than June of next year by the FAST Act highway bill that became law in December.

To inform the program’s development, FMCSA has to date held three public listening sessions and received input from its Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee..

In a news release, FMCSA stated, as it has before, that the proposed Beyond Compliance program will recognize carriers for their safety efforts but will “not allow relief from regulatory requirements.”

The agency explained in its notice seeking input, to be published in the Federal Register for April 20, that Congress has directed that the FMCSA Administrator must allow recognition, either through credit recognized by a new Beyond Compliance Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Category (BASIC), or an improved Safety Measurement System (SMS) percentile, for a motor carrier that does at least one of the following:

• Installs advanced safety equipment

• Uses enhanced driver fitness measures

• Adopts fleet safety management tools, technologies, and programs

• Satisfies other standards determined appropriate by the FMCSA Administrator

FMCSA noted that the FAST Act also requires that the agency “provide the opportunity for notice and comment on a process for identifying and reviewing advanced safety equipment, enhanced driver fitness measures, fleet safety management tools, technologies, and programs, and other standards for use by motor carriers to receive recognition.”

Click here to read the Federal Register notice and to provide comments to the agency on the proposed Beyond Compliance program.

Related: FMCSA May Reward Carriers for Going Beyond Safety Regs