U.S. Truck Drivers Still Confused by CSA
ARLINGTON, VA — Many truck drivers in the U.S. are still confused over the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Compliance Safety and Accountability (CSA) program, according to a white paper by the American Transportation Research Institute.
ATRI is the non-profit research arm of the American Trucking Associations (ATA). Most recently, they surveyed 7,800 drivers and analyzed their responses over a three-year period to look at their perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of CSA, truckinginfo reports.
CSA was rolled out just over three years ago after it was a pilot program in several American states.
On average, drivers responded to the CSA knowledge test with 42.4 percent accuracy, suggesting that after three years of implementation drivers do not have a clear understanding of CSA, according to ATRI.
On the bright side, carrier-provided CSA training has increased steadily since 2011, while driver job security concerns due to CSA have decreased by almost 10 percent over the three-year period, ATRI states.
“ATRI is expanding on this study’s findings by investigating driver CSA training content and frequency and the relationship these variables have to CSA knowledge,” the group states.
ATRI also partnered with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance to get a guideline of enforcement personnel knowledge of CSA. They found that among enforcement personnel, respondents performed with 66.5 percent accuracy on the CSA knowledge test.
“The enforcement personnel results provide a platform for further evaluation of enforcement personnel CSA knowledge and the potential impacts this may have on enforcement activities,” ATRI states.
A copy of this report is available from the ATRI website.