With the new way CSA data is being presented online by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Transportation data mining and analysis provider Vigillo has added a new  BASIC Measure Analyzer as a new feature of Carrier Select, which gives more context to CSA data.

The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, the highway passed late last year, prohibited the display of property carriers' relative percentiles to one another, so FMCSA pulled that information from public display on December 4, 2015. Also that day, the agency removed the raw CSA data to allow time to revise its SMS website.

However, the FAST Act requires that property carriers’ absolute measures be available to the public -- essentially the “raw data” produced by the agency’s Carrier, Safety, Accountability program. That information, called BASIC Measures, was made available in early March.

“These Measures introduce new complexity to the brokers, shippers, and insurers who depend on that information to make informed decisions on carrier selection and risk management," said Vigillo CEO Steve Bryan.

Bryan says the information can be difficult to use in a meaningful way. Vigillo’s BASIC Measure Analyzer looks at the data to provide an easier-to-understand picture of CSA information.

“Measures cannot be used to compare carriers across BASICs, nor can measures be used to compare carriers within a BASIC unless you have a deep understanding of the CSA methodology and the construction of Safety Event Groups,” Bryan said. “We all know CSA percentile scores had their issues, but Measures alone are little understood and fraught with the peril of misuse."

The Measure Analyzer can be used by fleets to apply their own custom BASIC thresholds and see which fleets meet their requirements. The feature shows fleets with a green light or red light to indicate compatibility with thresholds and is automatically updated each month on the carriers they work with.

“Bottom line, the FMCSA complied with the language of the Fast Act, but using BASIC Measures as the new way to use CSA is a very risky proposition for all parties concerned,” said Bryan. “The new Carrier Select Measure Analyzer feature will make sense of this and provide the insight necessary to make informed, decisions on carrier selection.”