The core of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's strategic plan for the next five years is to press ahead with rules and reforms it already has under way.


The agency's 2012-2016 strategic plan is built around its three-pronged approach to truck and bus safety: raise the barrier to entry to the industry, enforce high safety standards and chase out high-risk carriers and drivers.

The aim is to build a safety-first culture, the agency says. The steps it outlines to achieve this include initiatives that are under way now, such as new credentialing standards, reducing CDL fraud, and finishing the safety fitness rule to implement its CSA enforcement program. Also high on the list: undertake a new rule for driver safety fitness.

One of the agency's more ambitious plans is to create a comprehensive system of ranking safety priorities that includes shippers, brokers, drivers and cargo tank manufacturers, among others.

The agency anticipates that the data it gathers through CSA will help build a comprehensive transportation safety data system that will be open to all stakeholders.

The 19-page plan is available on the agency's web site,www.fmcsa.dot.gov.