The International Motor Carrier Audit Commission sounds like a new government agency about to hassle carriers, but it isn’t — at least it isn’t a government agency. But that doesn’t mean it won't be hassling carriers; it’s still too early to tell.

IMCAC, as its employees call it, is actually a private company based in Fairfax, VA, that rates carriers on safety and places those ratings on the Internet for the world to see.
While anyone can access them, ratings and information such as headquarters location, amount of equipment and commodities handled are aimed at buyers of motor transportation. IMCAC hopes shippers will use the web site to help choose carriers.
Anticipated revenue will come from carriers who pay to be audited so their information listing will be marked “verified” in the IMCAC data base. Otherwise, the information, most of which comes from public sources, will be marked “unverified.”
Dianne Matten, IMCAC’s vice president of communications, says much public information is outdated and of little practical use. IMCAC's fresh information, provided by carrier safety auditing consultants (and thus “verified”), will be much more useful, she explained.
So if enough shippers begin consulting IMCAC, carriers will want to provide fresh, audited information every three years — at least the safe carriers will.
IMCAC was spawned by and shares an address with Consolidated Safety Services Inc., a safety consulting company. According to Matten, the idea came from work Consolidated did for the military to help identify safe bus companies.
You will find an explanation of IMCAC’s five-level safety rating system, as well as the ratings themselves, at http://www.imcac.com.